Norwegian Starfighter

[franky boy]

Hi everyone

 

I'd like to throw my hat into the ring with another Starfighter. In the 80's GB I built a couple of Mig 21's (still to be finished) so thought I'd do something from our side of the iron curtain this time.

 

I see the other two are West German and Belgian so thought I'd go with an NMF Norwegian example.

 

This is an F104G. I'll be using Hasegawa's 1/48 scale F104J kit converted to a G which I'm assured by the good people here in BM land is a merely change of wheels and some bulged undercarriage doors. This also works for me quite nicely as I voted for the NMF GB in Novembers poll which didn't get through so two birds killed with one stone. Or something like that? Plus I've always liked the look of the Starfighter and haven't ever modelled one.

 

 

Decals and other goodies are in the post so hopefully some updates soon.

 

Thanks for looking

 

James

[At Sea]

Noggie Starfighter is a very good choice!

[Col.]

Cool. Excellent choice of markings  Which decal sheet are you using?

[franky boy]

Hi Col.

 

It's by a Czech company called Armycast. I'd never heard of them before, just found them on the net. They produce a big sheet of NATO Starfighters, not cheap but you get quite allot for your cash. I'll post some pics up when it arrives.

 

Will also use an Eduard canopy mask set and maybe some etch for the cockpit.

 

James

[Col.]

Thank you for letting me know James. I'm away to have a look...

[modelling minion]

Very nice choice James, both of aircraft and colour scheme.

I think that Lex used  some decals from the Armycast sheet in the 80's NATO/WARPAC GB, they look nice.

I look forward to watching your build.

 

Craig.

[franky boy]

8 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Very nice choice James, both of aircraft and colour scheme.

I think that Lex used  some decals from the Armycast sheet in the 80's NATO/WARPAC GB, they look nice.

I look forward to watching your build.

 

Craig.

 

Thanks Craig

 

I'll be watching your Mig with interest to see how that kit goes together.

 

James

[RMP2]

12 hours ago, franky boy said:

This is an F104G. I'll be using Hasegawa's 1/48 scale F104J kit converted to a G which I'm assured by the good people here in BM land is a merely change of wheels and some bulged undercarriage doors. This also works for me quite nicely as I voted for the NMF GB in Novembers poll which didn't get through so two birds killed with one stone. Or something like that? Plus I've always liked the look of the Starfighter and haven't ever modelled one.

 

 

You might want to check which seat should be in the Norwegian 104, I think the 104J comes with the older C2 type rather than the later MB - if that bothers you of course, I just stuck a pilot in mine to hide it

 

Good luck, theyre lovely kits these that only seem to need a little work on the inlets otherwise they just fall together.

[franky boy]

31 minutes ago, RMP2 said:

 

You might want to check which seat should be in the Norwegian 104, I think the 104J comes with the older C2 type rather than the later MB - if that bothers you of course, I just stuck a pilot in mine to hide it

 

Good luck, theyre lovely kits these that only seem to need a little work on the inlets otherwise they just fall together.

 

Thanks RMP2

 

I pretty sure Norwegian G's retained their Lockheed seats while some other NATO countries replaced theirs with MB seats. West Germany was one.

 

TBH once its painted and the canopy is closed no one will know anyway.

 

James

[Boman]

Norwegian F-104's all carried the C2 seat, no question about it. 

[Mountain goat]

 This subject I'll have to give all possible thumbs up !

 

Jay

[mirageiv]

Great choice, look forward to how you go about the NMF, have a few 104s lined up for similar treatment!

 

David

[franky boy]

Thanks David

 

Will most probably be going down the tried and tested Alclad route. I am tempted to try a technice that I saw Spencer Pollard doing using decanted  Tamiya AS12 put through the airbrush and using various greys to tint different panels. The best thing about it was it didn't require a primer.

 

Thanks

 

James

[Vingtor]

On 2/11/2017 at 11:52 AM, Boman said:

Norwegian F-104's all carried the C2 seat, no question about it. 

 

In fact, the F-104Gs had C2 seats while the CF-104s had S2 seats. The differences were minor, though.

 

Nils

[Hewy]

On 17/02/2017 at 23:48, franky boy said:

Thanks David

 

Will most probably be going down the tried and tested Alclad route. I am tempted to try a technice that I saw Spencer Pollard doing using decanted  Tamiya AS12 put through the airbrush and using various greys to tint different panels. The best thing about it was it didn't require a primer.

 

Thanks

 

James

Is there a link to this technique james, im doing a bit of nmf research at the mo for my yak build, i quite like the look of different colours under the alclad or a black base and patches of grey before a top coat of aluminium ,and then mask some panels off and do it again ,

Glynn

[franky boy]

Hi everyone

 

Slow progress this week, modelling time has been limited so all Ive manged to do is fill all of the rivets in the flying surfaces and sand them off using Mr Surfacer 500. I havem't taken a picture as it's quite boring but below is a profile of the colour scheme I'll be using. The picture is pinched from the Eduard website but I'll be using Armycast decals. Norwegian, obviously,from the early 70's.

 

 

7 hours ago, Hewy said:

Is there a link to this technique james, im doing a bit of nmf research at the mo for my yak build, i quite like the look of different colours under the alclad or a black base and patches of grey before a top coat of aluminium ,and then mask some panels off and do it again ,

Glynn

 

Hi Glynn

 

When I use Alclad I  prime with Tamiya fine grey surface primer. You can then mask of the odd panel hereand there and spray with Humbrol gloss black. As the Alclad is quite translucent the black produces a much shinier deeper finish than the lighter grey. You can also use darker greys aswell as the black. This way you can produce different tones and finishes with just one shade of Alclad. Golden rules are in my experiencemake sure the primer is nice and smooth, doesn't need to be shiny and spray it on in thin layers as it will chew through underlying enamels if you go to hard. It really is quite easy touse though. Just have a window open as it's quite smelly. Hope that helps.

 

Thanks for looking 

 

James

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2017 by franky boy

[franky boy]

Hi everyone

 

A long overdue update from the Norwegian Starfighter works!

 

So first up was the bang seat. I ended up ordering a Quickboost resin Lockheed C2 seat for this, and very nice it is too,  as i didn't fancy my chances of making all of those seat belts look anything like convincing using photo etched ones. I have a dislike of etched parts in general. Some people do it very well, but not me. Painted with Gunze and Vallejo paints and washed with a Klear/water mix with Tamiya flat black and red brown mixed in. Lightly dry brushed and then a coat of Gunze flat clear.

 

 

 

 

Next up were the fuselage halves, cockpit tub, coaming from behind the pilots seat and the dashboard part (sorry cant think of the proper name for this bit). The side panels for the tub are Eduard etch. I have to say that next tome i think i'll use the decals provided and some strong setting solution for this job as the etch is no better IMHO. Painting process the same as the seat.

 

 

 

 

 

The instrument panel. I ordered Eduard's pre painted etch set mainly for this part as I'm rubbish at painting them. Before it arrived i got a bit ahead of myself and scraped of all of the raised detail on the kit part only to find the grey colour on the pre painted etch to be nothing like the grey colour (FS36231, Gunze H317) that is recommended for the rest of the cockpit.

 

 

So it was off with this and on with the kit decals. I found an unpainted etch fret on Ebay for £3.77 so ordered this to use for the main part of the instruments panel and stuck with the decals for the rest as these parts weren't included. A bit frustrating. Wont be using pre painted etch again. Anyway it's cockpit closed for this one so it wont be seen once it's all closed up.

 

 

So onto the U/C bays. These were painted with Gunze Aqueous H8 silver. I'd seen someone else use this for an NMF for a P51 on BM not long ago so thought I'd give it a try. I have to say I was impressed and will deffinately be using this again. Washed and flat coated as above. It's not as shiny to the eye as it look's in the photos.

 

 

 

 

And finally the jet pipe.

 

 

 

So that's all the interior parts made and painted, now to stick it all together.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Questions and comments welcome.

 

James

 

 

 

 

[Hewy]

Super bit of painting, Love the seat and the panel  james 

Glynn

[modelling minion]

Very nice work James, the seat looks great.

[franky boy]

Thanks Craig and Glynn.

 

 I've been enjoying following both of your builds. Craig that Mig is a beast!

 

Thanks again

 

James

Edited March 1, 2017 by franky boy

[Giorgio N]

Great start, love the seat in particular, very realistic

[RMP2]

Yet another fine build coming together in this GB!

 

Lovely work on that seat especially.

[Col.]

Regardless of your trials and tribulations with the funny-coloured etch this one is off to a great start. Excellent painting of the seat in particular.

[mirageiv]

Lovely work James, the IP and the seat look especially good. I'm with you on the PE belts, always a pain in the bottom! I was messing around with the MLG bay on my kit last night and found it very difficult to close the fuselage around it when installed (made it bulge a lot). I've sanded the main walls quite a lot but nothing too drastic yet, worried I'll start upsetting the alignment of it all and have a lob sided Starfighter. Have you had these issues and got any suggestions if so? Typical, I manage to find fit problems with a great kit like this! 

 

keep up the great work

 

David

Edited March 1, 2017 by mirageiv

[franky boy]

15 minutes ago, mirageiv said:

Lovely work James, the IP and the seat look especially good. I'm with you on the PE belts, always a pain in the bottom! I was messing around with the MLG bay on my kit last night and found it very difficult to close the fuselage around it when installed (made it bulge a lot). I've sanded the main walls quite a lot but nothing too drastic yet, worried I'll start upsetting the alignment of it all and have a lob sided Starfighter. Have you had these issues and got any suggestions if so? Typical, I manage to find fit problems with a great kit like this! 

 

keep up the great work

 

David

 

Hi David, thanks for the kind words.

 

Yes the MLB did take a bit of fettling. I scraped  around the edges of the bulk heads where they meet the fuselage halves with a scalpel and also had to sand the main walls a little. My kit also had a small amounts of flash around the fuselage halves where the mating surfaces are. Once it was into one of the fuselage halves and glued I offered up the other half and just glued along the joint behind the MLB back to the first gap and let this set for a while and then did the rest of the underside of the fuselage. Then I worked along the top joint and it's currently sitting on my desk with plenty of clamps and elastic bands around it. The fit was snug but it's gone together ok in the end. Hope that helps.

 

A quick question for you. Are you going to put any weight in the nose of your kit?

 

 Thanks 

 

James