Another one from me: CF-104 104845 - Esci 1/72

[Giorgio N]

I've decided to try and build not one but 2 models for this STGB !

Ok, let's say 1.9 as this second one is a kit that I had started before. The only work done was to cut some bits from the cockpit tub and glueing the nose gear well to the fuselage, so definitely less than 25%.

The subject of this build is an all green CF-104, in particular 104845 as she looked like when serving with 421 Sqn. in 1975. A picture of this aircraft can be seen here (taken at Coltishall during a visit to 6 Sqn. RAF)

http://www.i-f-s.nl/rot/104845.jpg

The kit I'll use is the old but still good Esci 1/72 one. To add some detail I'll use the Eduard zoom set dedicated to the revell F-104G. This means that the instrument panel will not be 100% accurate (there are some differences between the 2 types) but I'll live with it.

Decals will come from Belcher Bits sheet BD7, covering a good number of Canadian Starfighters.

I'll likely add the same load shown in the picture, rocket launchers and practice bombs dispenser.

I chose this aircraft for a number of reasons, not last the fact that it's not been retrofitted yet with the ECM bulges. This will allow me to keep the ones from the Hasegawa kit for another build (probably a Norwegian CF-104) while still completing an aircraft in a scheme that is simple yet good looking.

Pictures of the box and parts to follow...

Edited September 7, 2012 by Giorgio N

[Giorgio N]

And here are the pictures, starting from the box:

This is the original Esci box that I bought a couple of years ago at a swap meet. I already had the Belcher Bits sheet then and the plan was to buy a kit for these decals. So I preferred an old box as this is likely to suffer less from mould wear and even in case the decals were not useable it would not have been a problem.

The plastic inside is well known, here it can be seen that the kit has already been started.. less than 25% though !

A comparison between decal sheets: the Belcher Bits sheet and the one from the kit:

There are some interesting options in the kit, although interestingly the Dutch one is not shown in the instructions. Weird...

While the kit is sold as a G/S, and there's an option for an Italian S, it can really be only used for a G. Moreover, as it lacks the bulged wheel well doors it can only be used for some Gs and not others. For example, the Italian and Marineflieger aircrafts would need the builged doors. As I'll build a Canadian CF-104 this is not a problem. In case the wheels are not right, I'll use those left over from a previous hasegawa kit build.

Last picture for today, the Eduard set I'll be using:

As I said it's meant for the G so part of the instrument panel will not be 100% correct... and I'll live with it ! The Esci kit had decals only for the instrument panel and consoles, so the etched parts will be a great addition regardless of total accuracy.

[Paul J]

Looking forward to this one! Especially as its a CAF one.

My TF is ready for a photo shoot to be posted in the finished gallery over the weekend.

[Giorgio N]

Very small update on this one: as the Esci kit was designed to allow both the C and the G to be made, the tail is separate. Whenever I deal with this kind of parts I prefer to glue all the parts on each side together. In this way I find it easier to have a good fit with no steps between parts. So, here are the 2 semi-fuselages complete:

[Giorgio N]

Another small update, this time to signal a problem: even if this is supposed to be quite an early box, the kit is not immune from problems and some parts have sinkmarks. Particularly annoying are 2 large shallow marks above the wings. Here they are filled with typewriter correction fluid that hopefully should sort the problem

[Paul J]

How is the progress coming along?

[Giorgio N]

Been working on the cockpit, I have yet to upload pictures though. Most important, both Starfighters are progressing and this time I should be able to complete both before the end of the GB !

I have to say that the Esci kit has less fit troubles than the Hasegawa one, would be great for a quick build of the various schemes. If ony it had a bit more detail....

I'm now thinking of making a mould of the hasegawa pit and instrument panel so that I can use copies of these on the various Esci kits I'll build in the future...

Edited September 28, 2012 by Giorgio N

[Giorgio N]

No picture yet for this one, but some good news: the Esci kit now has a proper ejection seat, courtesy of a large model fair held over the weekend. Among the various goodies, I bought a couple of Pavla C2 seats. These are not really as nice as the products of other manufacturers (say Aires, CMK or Neomega) but offer IMHO a good value for money.

Here's the seat compared with the hasegawa one with eduard bits (painted):

The seat in the Esci kit is really bad and this will look much better !

[Giorgio N]

The cockpit is progressing, but today I almost arrived at the point of throwing all the PE parts in the bin and use the hasegawa decals ! Not that the PE parts are bad, they are nice, but I'm struggling to glue them: the usual CA glue sticks perfectly to the fingers but not to the metal, the wite glue I used in the past with success loses adhesion after a few hours.... all in all very frustrating ! To make things worse, all this handling of the various parts has resulted in some scratches in the paint on the PE parts, scratches that I tried to touch up with little success.

I also realised that the cockpit of the Esci kit is a bit shallow, so some work had to be done to "compress" the instrument panel to fit. I should have modified the tub, but at this point I'll live with the modified panel.

Here's a pic of the latest progress: tub modified with PE parts, PE panel built up and resin seat that received the first few coats of paint.

As a result of these problems, I've decided that in the future I'll use the PE parts on hasegawa kits while using the hase parts to improve the cockpit of the esci/italeri kits

[Giorgio N]

As I said before, the PE parts gave me several problems... and these continued over the last few days: some of the side panels detached for no reason, looks like none of the glue I'm using is working well these days. Strange as they worked perfectly before !

Anyway I managed to complete the cockpit and do a few other bits that can be seen in this picture:

I couldn't remember if the previous Esci kits needed weight to avoid tailsitting or what, so I added some just in case. A plastic bulkhead was added to prevent the lead weights to move into the cockpit in the unlikely event of the silicone sealant failing.

Anothe small job that can be seen in the picture is in the main gear well: the truss structure at the bottom of the well has been opened, with the result of a more realistic effect.. even if little of this structure is actually visible once the fuselage is closed.

Here's another shot of the cockpit... the fuselage is now ready to be closed !

Before closing the fuselage I decided to do something about the exhaust: the Esci kit has the last stage of the turbine really too close to the tail and the afterburner duct needs lengthening. To do this I made a tube out of corrugated paper. This is a product used for architectural models and is aimed at reproducing the ondulated sheet roof covers. As it's paper, it needs priming before painting and can't really be worked in the same way as plastic, but I like the effect of the corrugated sheet.

Here's the unpainted tube with the exhaust on top to give the right shape:

The metal stuff on the outside is simply aluminium tape, that I used to keep the tube together as initially I considered using superglue to attach this to the plastic part... and superglue does not stick well to plastic but sticks to aluminum. However in the end I used another approach: I built a "fence" with plastic around the turbine last stage (after this had been cut from the original aferburner duct) and then glue the tube inside this fence using white glue. The exhaust cone proper is glued to the fuselage anyway and the tube will fit into this because of the pressure. The last stage will be glued to the fuselage too.

Here's the last stage of the turbine with the fence and the tube, now painted:

It's now time to close the fuselage ! After this, I'll need to scratchbuild something above the instrument panel, as the lid included in the Esci kit does not fit anymore.. and it was all wrong anyway !

Edited October 8, 2012 by Giorgio N

[Giorgio N]

There's been quite a lot going on with this one but for some reason I don't seem to find some of the pictures anymore....

Anyway, hopefully these few will show how the work has proceeded.

First of all, I had to do something to the instrument panel coaming that in the Esci kit is quite poor. The addition of the Eduard bits also meant it could not fit anymore.

Here's how I started to build up the coaming:

As the model is now masked for painting any picture of the area will have to wait...

But as the model is masked, better spray some paint on ! Unfortunately I ran out of primer, so I decided to prime using tamiya acrylics thinned with alcohol, that are quite robust. As the aircraft is to be painted green, I choose XF61 dark green as a base:

The result was quite a dark green, actually not too far from the real colour ! However in 1/72 I find the effect is a bit too dark, so I looked into the various paint and decided to use Vallejo's yellow olive as the final finish.

As a model in overall green would not really look that realistic, I decided then to spray over the primer areas of the lightened final colour:

Unfortunately the different colours don't really show in the picture, I should have taken this in daylight but I have no time to wait til tomorrow to take pictures.... some more paint will go on later tonight !

[Giorgio N]

I was quite happy with the green I obtained as it looked quite similar to that I could see in several pictures... yet when I checked the picture of "my" CF-104 I noticed that this was much more olive, almost brown.... oh well, I'm not going to change now, especially as decalling is underway !!!

I could always hope that the picture on the screen is not as good as the others I've checked on books and magazines.ù

Back to the decals, the original plan was to get most parts from the Belcher Bits sheet. However I decided to keep as much as I can of this for some other build, so I resorted to using roundels, stencils and some titles from the hasegawa box. I have to say these decals are behaving quite well, they settle down well with micro set/sol and the carrier film is quite thin. Looks like the most recent Hasegawa decals are way better than the old ones used to be.

The individual numbers were printed on my new Epson colour laser printer.. and this is simply brilliant! The resolution is not high, being only 600X600 DPI, however this is plenty enough for things like lettering and so on. I've also printed some more complicated stuff and again I'm quite happy. I think I'm not using the inkjet ever again for my decals !

I did the numbers using a CAF font found on the web, and this too is quite good and it compares well with the lettering and numbers on the Belcher Bits sheet. And using my decals means I don't have to align individual characters to build up the number, something particularly difficult for the small 4" numbers on the tail...

So in the end the only decal bit to come from the aftermarket decal sheet will be the Indian head on the tail. But the rest of the sheet will be used soon on a couple of other CF-104 projects !!!!

[Lex77]

Some nice progres here!

Looks very good,