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1/48 Hasegawa CF-104 1st Canadian Air Group TAM 1980 FINISHED!


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Just a quick update to let you know I'm still plugging away with this one. Unfortunately though I have major pc issues, it has decided to die. This means I can't do a proper update with pictures (I have taken some though) as I'm using my wifes kindle at the minute and have no way of uploading them.

Hopefully I will be properly back on line soon.

Craig.

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That looks very good Craig. The issue with the exhaust area is familiar to me. I have seen somewhere that they used some foil to cover it up. I did it in the past with filler and that didn't went very well. Next year there will be the F-104 STGB so I am taking notes.

Sorry to hear about your PC. Hope it can be fixed?!

Cheers,

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And we're back!

One new hard drive later, which means I have lost hundreds of photo's which I hadn't backed up (there is a lesson here guys please learn it the easy way) and then there is trying to re-set up the computer the way it was before, which is no mean feat for someone with the computer know how of your average walnut, but we're finally back in business.

Any way her are some pics of the build so far, first off an attempt at recreating the fabric covering around the gun sight area.

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Not 100% accurate but better than what Hasegawa provide you with out of the box.

Next up is the completed seat. First of all I have to give a very big thank you to Lex who sent me some spare Eduard brass components which he didn't use on his excellent Greek F-104 and which includes the very complicated seat belt arrangement which I don't think I would have been able to reproduce myself, cheers mate. The dodgy lap belts and central harness are my own poor efforts.

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And lastly the main wings, well one of them anyway as they are both identical.

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As you can see I decided to give the wing a bit more interest and dropped the slats and flaps, I know it breaks up the classic lines of the F-104's very thin wing but I just preferred the look of it, my next one will have everything in line I promise!

I'm off now to put an undercoat on and find out how many gaps need filling, there are always some!

Thanks for looking in.

Craig. (who hates computers)

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Superb update and glad you managed to get your computer sorted! Really envious how well you weather things so finely Craig , the seat and the fabric look real! The homemade belts look bang on too, :popcorn:. Its almost becoming a warm up Starfighter GB :winkgrin:

Edited by mirageiv
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Superb update and glad you managed to get your computer sorted! Really envious how well you weather things so finely Craig , the seat and the fabric look real! The homemade belts look bang on too, :popcorn:. Its almost becoming a warm up Starfighter GB :winkgrin:

A Starfighter GB, now there's an idea! Already signed up for the one happening next year, I expect to see you there David. Just got to decide what to build for it, probably a 2 seater in JASDF markings, but that's a topic for another time.

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Nice looking seat Craig.

Nice to see the belts were a help.

Thanks Lex.

The belts were a great help, I doubt very much I could have got anywhere close to the real thing, I am extremely grateful for your very kind help.

Edited by modelling minion
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Here's a brief update to let you see how the F-104 looks at the minute.

The paint I used for the undercoat is one of the new Vallejo metal colours (Duraluminium) which forms a very nice undercoat and is very useful for weathering as when the top coat is scratched and weathered metal is revealed, just like the real thing.

This is how she looked.

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This paint really gives a great result, nice and smooth as can be seen in this closer shot.

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Almost seems a shame to put more paint on it doesn't it.

The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed that the stbd wing has already been painted green (no I didn't remember to undercoat it first) using Tamiya XF-13 (I think) and looks like this at the moment.

DSC02808_zpsqmzyzp2k.jpg

I shall have to weather it separately as the first stage of weathering for this model has been to pre-shade the panel lines using my trusty black marker pen and it makes for a striking looking result on the metallic finish.

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And a closer look.

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And the port wing.

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And finally one of the drop tanks.

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Hopefully I will be able to get a coat of the light grey on the undersides. I could really do with getting a move on with this as I've got RIAT at the weekend followed by a weeks holiday.

Thanks for looking and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

Craig.

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And here's a picture of the fuselage after the light grey has been applied.

DSC02813_zpsayggxkgj.jpg

It doesn't look the best in the photo but is more apparent in real life I assure you.

I am using some Gunze paints for the main camo colours and the light grey has gone on very well with a nice smooth finish so hopefully the dark grey and dark green will behave themselves as well.

I shall let the paint cure overnight and then mask ready for the dark grey tomorrow (hopefully!).

Thanks for looking.

Craig.

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very nice smooth painting Craig, interesting way to pre shade it too! I was wondering why you started painting before gluing the wings then saw the picture of how perfectly they fit, really need to try a Hasegwa 1/48 F-104 sometime. Look forward to the camo scheme!

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Well with the holiday out of the way a bit of progress has been made, not a huge amount but its still progress.

All the camo colours have now been applied and the pre-shading seems to have worked quite well, the pictures don't show it as clearly as it can be seen in the flesh but it is there and some subtle differences in the shade of colour applied help to show it off. Anyway here's some pics so you can make your own minds up.

The whole fuselage....

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A couple of close ups of different areas of the fuselage....

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And the port wing, which has also been glossed....

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To differentiate between the matt black areas of the intake areas and the area immediately in front of the cockpit and the glossy radome I used Tamiya NATO black for them and I'm not convinced that they are black enough, I am open to your opinions and suggestions.

As usual thanks for looking in and all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

Craig.

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Perfect painting again Craig, the fading comes through very well indeed. Always love this part of your builds and still have no idea (you did tell me IIRC!) how you get it so smooth! Magic probably.

From the picture, and if it indeed looks like that in the flesh, maybe I agree a tiny bit more black in the bits you suggest, or if it were me I'd darken the anti-glare panel a little more at least, the intakes from pictures I saw looks not far off. Btw which paint did you use for the gloss black radome? The gloss finish looks perfect too.

Cheers,

David.

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Thanks David, much appreciated.

Definitely no magic involved in the painting, not even micromeshed this one just used Gunze paints and a quick polish with a kitchen towel.

The black on the radome is Tamiya gloss black, which also worked very well. I will probably go with your suggestion and apply some matt black to the anti-glare panel, when it cools down a bit!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Where on earth has the time gone! Oh dear only a week to go and not finished yet, I really will have to give up this work business as it keeps getting in the way of modelling.

Anyway on to the F-104.

I haven't been completely idle, honest. After giving the model a couple of generous coats of Klear to achieve a nice glossy finish I have applied the decals and on the whole I was very happy with their performance with the one major fault being the large red stripe on the rear fuselage which broke into lots of tiny pieces on both sides and one had to be replaced with one of the ones from the Hasegawa kit sheet, which went on very nicely. I have also given everything a coat of Tamiya flat clear to get rid of the (very) glossy finish and this has toned things down very nicely indeed.

Before I added the matt coat I also did a panel line wash using very thin Tamiya smoke to help with the pre-shading effect.

Enough rambling here are some pics to show you the current state of play.

The fuselage, with a couple of close ups of the front, rear and part of the underside.

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Looking suitably grubby I think, without being overdone. The wings and tailplane have received the same treatment and this is how they look....

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Well that's how she stands at the moment. Given that the deadline is now only a week away I'm really going to have to get my finger out this weekend. I might yet leave off the under wing pylons due to the time constraints but I will try and get them done. I will try and get the undercarriage on this weekend and get the seat glued into the cockpit as well as fitting the Canadian specific lumps and bumps under the nose and on the rear fuselage. I also need to mask and paint the panel behind the cockpit on the top of the fuselage, I also need to decide which colour to paint it as well.

Well that's it for now, thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are welcome.

Craig.

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Very nice done, as you say it looks suitably weathered without overdoing it. I've been gazing at some CF-104 stuff recently and it has certainly captured the look very well if I may say so! Can I ask which Klear you used to get the glossy finish? Always on the lookout to try and get the best gloss layer for decals etc..Hoping you manage to get this one done in time Craig :thumbsup:

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