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Luftforsvaret F-104G (Hasegawa 1/72 with Vingtor decals) - Completed


Giorgio N

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Looking very good, Giorgio. 

 

I am am intrigued by the Vallejo paints. I am stuck on enamels. I grew up with them and can't shake that off :(. Is it okay to use mixed media? Any downsides?

 

Martin

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On 25/11/2017 at 9:54 AM, RidgeRunner said:

Looking very good, Giorgio. 

 

I am am intrigued by the Vallejo paints. I am stuck on enamels. I grew up with them and can't shake that off :(. Is it okay to use mixed media? Any downsides?

 

Martin

 

Martin, really Vallejo has become a true power in the world of modelling paints today. I still believe that enamels have some advantages that acrylics may never match, however the fast drying time of acrylics and their lack of strong smells are very strong points. Vallejo's are also very easily available and IMHO their price is right. Airbrush and brushes can be cleaned with ethyl alcohol, ammonia or window cleaner.

I've used paints from 3 different ranges here:

- The Model Color. These have been originally issued for figure modellers. They thin with water or their thinner (and some other thinners too), they can be sprayed or brush-painted, work very well with both. Need thinning for use with an airbrush. They dry fast and the risk is that they can dry on the tip of the needle. Always use a few drops of retardant in the mix to avoud this. IIRC their thinner already has this.

- The Model Air. These are pre-thinned for use with an airbrush. Still need some retardant to avoid drying on the tip, generally I spray some retardant first so that it makes a film on the tip and then just drop the paint into the airbrush cup. The metallics in this range are actyally very good, not too many shades but by mixing them together it's possible to make some very realistic finishes. My only gripe is that the paints are not all properly matched to real colours, some trial and error is needed. These paints don't work well with a brush for large surfaces, they are too liquid. However it's possible to apply small quantities for touch ups. I've also seen modellers use them with a brush for some special effects of particular camouflages, like smoke rings on WW2 Macchis and Luftwaffe wellenmunsters

- The Metal Color. These are all metallics, there are several shades in the range and they can also be mixed together. They look like very fine real metal particles in suspension, bit like Alclad. Don't need thinning as they are already very highely thinned. Better go with very light coats, they dry very quickly anyway. I've had some drying on the tip but nothing serious really, so no need to add anything, just put paint straight from the bottle into the airbrush. As with every metallic of the kind, surface preparation is paramount.

Then there are the primers, that seem to be working pretty well with both brush and airbrush. A Tamiya can will IMHO give a smoother surface but these primers seem to grip on the plastic even better

 

On 26/11/2017 at 9:32 AM, RidgeRunner said:

Giorgio,

 

if you can get the book by Jan Jorgensen which has some good Norske '104 images and information. 

 

Martin

 

Thanks for the advice, will check !

 

On 26/11/2017 at 4:30 AM, Cookenbacher said:

That finish is a definite endorsement for the Vallejo metallics,  it turned out great Giorgio.

 

Thanks, glad you like it ! I'm very impressed by these paints, so much that I'm now more and more attracted to natural metal schemes.. I have a few Sabres in the stash waiting to be built :D

 

12 hours ago, mirageiv said:

I agree with the others, looking fantastic! The shiney metal, white wings and red/white/blue markings will sure make for a very smart finish. 

 

 

Indeed ! Speaking of shiney metal and white wings, I discovered yesterday the existance of a sheet by Armycast that includes a number of early NATO aircrafts in this scheme... a Belgian one wouldn't look bad beside this Norwegian one

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And now a post-weekend update.

Saturday was spent painting all the areas that are not in natural metal, like antennas, intake deicing boots and wings. I had already painted the top of the wings but not the bottom. I should say almost all areas though as I left a couple off. One is the natural fibreglass antenna on the ventral fin, because I forgot to paint it. The other is the radome and the reason here is that I want to leave this for a little while. The radome will have to accept the pitot tube on the tip and I prefer to add this as late as possible to prevent the risk of breaking it while handling the model. With this in place I will paint the radome, followed by the antiglare panel.

Sunday was spent on day trip with some friends, including a great lunch in a countryside restaurant, so no work on the 104. The trip however brought us to a small city where a flea market was held in the morning, I was surprised to see an AMT Thunderbirds set including the ex Esci F-100D, F-4E and F-16A.. as €15 was all the dealer asked for, I came home with this of course. Not sure anyone will ever suggest an F-100 STGB but in case I'm now covered :lol:

 

Ok, enough blabbering, on with the pics

 

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While removing the masks I had the first occurrance of paint lift. Fortunately it was only in a couple of tiny spots, I tried to cover these with the Metal Color paint applied with a small brush and guess what ? It worked ! It worked very well and these spots are now almost impossible to see even looking for them. I've also noticed how it's possible to apply this paint with a brush and it will give a semitransparent metallic coat if applied thinly. I can see several effects being possible using this technique, for example the "striped" effect often seen on the metal around exhausts.

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Thanks everyone !

If you haven't used these paints before, they sure are worth a try. They are not the only good product around as there have been several other solutions to natural metal finishes, particularly in the last few years, but these are very easy to use. The fact that they are available from a very close shop (that is an arts supply shop, not even a modelling shop) makes them even more interesting for me... :lol:

Jokes apart, availability of a product can be an important factor to consider.

 

No picture today, however I've started applying decals. And the model is starting to look very colourful ! I've hit a small problem with stencils though as I'm not sure of which stencils were actually applied on these aircrafts...

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Did I say it was starting to look colourful ?

 

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I've started decaling from the wings, with the idea of sealing everything once the decals are on. This way I can then progress onto the fuselage without having to worry about masking, as while the wing require a final coat, I'm not planning on any coat on the metallics to avoid dulling the effect.

Wings have been coated with a 50-50 mix of gloss and satin varnish, they should be gloss but IMHO on a model a very high gloss finish is not realistic, apart from a few cases (aerobatic teams for example). IMHO the final effect is quite good. In the end I didn't apply the no step markings as these don't seem visible in the pictures I've checked.

I then moved to the tail and the plan is to progress with the fuselage until I hit the cockpit. At that point I'll have to glue the pitot tube, something I want to leave for last to avoid this breaking while handling the model.

Speaking of canopy, there's one more area of paint missing and this is the antiglare panel. This will be the next step.

A word on masking: to avoid lifting paint, I'm using tape only where necessary (that is around the demarcations) while the rest is masked using cling film. This is perfect for the job as I can quickly wrap it around the model to protect large areas. And can also be reused... the amount of tape I'm using on this model is crazy !

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Great progress, Giorgio. It's not just colourful, but all shiny and metallic too - keep going! Don't be afraid to follow Martin's advice and add a Norwegian CF-104 to the mix as well... I'm sure that's what he meant.

 

Andrew.

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12 hours ago, Andrew said:

Great progress, Giorgio. It's not just colourful, but all shiny and metallic too - keep going! Don't be afraid to follow Martin's advice and add a Norwegian CF-104 to the mix as well... I'm sure that's what he meant.

 

Not exactly, Andrew, but it's a good thought! I was simply adding a couple of videos of LN-STF on her most recent outing. Sadly when I went up to Sola to see her this summer she went unserviceable :(. Friends of a friend work on her and he'd got me close access to see and touch her. Sadly, it my trip to Norway was fruitless in a Starfighter sense. Another time. I have an open invite to Bodo, though. I've been there before, when I got stopped by the Norske Rozzers for using my camera!

 

Martin

Edited by RidgeRunner
typos
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Great videos Martin, thanks for sharing ! It's great to see the Starfighter flying again over European skies, watching the video brought back a lot of memories, from the noise of a low level Starfighter to the trail of smoke at landing. I wish all the best of luck to the people behind LN-STF !

 

Andrew, I'd like to add a CF at some point, I'll have to see what the decals situation is like. The grey numbers in particular will require a specific sheet. Vingtor of course did one but I don't know how easy to find it is.I have this vague plan of building 2 Starfughters per every user, one in "early" natural metal or grey schemes and one with later camouflage. As Norwegian F-104G didn't receive a proper camo scheme, the CF-104 with its green scheme would be a perfect companion to the model I'm building here.

 

Tempestwulf, give it a try ! These markings look great on natural metal, you'll have a very eyecatching model

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There are a lot of TFs in this STGB so I thought I'd remind everyone how they sounded - fabulous. Nothing came or ever will come close. Ah, memories! :)

 

Martin

Edited by RidgeRunner
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Looking fantastic Giorgio, all the colours/panels look spot on. Given the progress, you have loads more time now for more T/F-104s :) . The Vingtor RNoAF CF-104 sheets seem almost a myth from my experience, I'm looking for the 1/48 one but if I stumble across a 1/72 version in my searches I'll let you know! 

 

David

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On 9/12/2017 at 12:12 AM, RidgeRunner said:

 

 

 

There are a lot of TFs in this STGB so I thought I'd remind everyone how they sounded - fabulous. Nothing came or ever will come close. Ah, memories! :)

 

Martin

 

Ah, the sound of the Starfighter... great stuff, it was unmistakeably recognizable from miles away ! When I was a kid I used to go on holiday with my parents in a house they bought on the Adriatic Sea, just 90 km north of Rimini. Even in summer there was plenty of activity and we got F-104s from Rimini and Istrana, F-104s and Tornados from Piacenza and Ghedi, G.91s from Cervia (that is even closer than Rimini), plus whatever NATO aircrafts was on exchange (I remember Phantoms, F-16s and even a couple of Canberra T.17s). The jet noise was music for this young boy !

 

On 9/12/2017 at 9:09 PM, mirageiv said:

Looking fantastic Giorgio, all the colours/panels look spot on. Given the progress, you have loads more time now for more T/F-104s :) . The Vingtor RNoAF CF-104 sheets seem almost a myth from my experience, I'm looking for the 1/48 one but if I stumble across a 1/72 version in my searches I'll let you know! 

 

David

 

Thanks David ! I do have more time and a few more Starfighters in the stash... I may be tempted to build another one for the GB, however I'm not sure I could complete it in time. At worst there's a NATO '60s GB, the Dutch grey one may be built there.

 

On 8/12/2017 at 6:46 PM, modelling minion said:

She looks great Giorgio, those colourful Norwegian markings really stand out.

 

Thanks, those markings really show very well ! And now the model has received some more colour, plus she has been given an identity ! In the end I've chosen FN-T. The reasons are that this aircraft had a dark grey tailplane, something I quite like (very unusual on a NM Starfighter) and also has a small nose art.

The problem is that I've followed the Vingtor instruction sheet and this seems to show the code a bit higher than usual on the fuselage... pictures however proved this is wrong, unfortunately I checked these too late. The thing is not really that noticeable but I'm a bit annoyed by my mistake.

Other additions have been some more decals and the dark green antiglare panel. This is supposed to be in FS 34079, however most pictures show a darker green and for this I used Lifecolor's UA106 Airmacchi Green... now there is no Airmacchi green in reality, this really is the green used on Italian Air Force aircrafts from the early '70s til the introduction of the overall grey scheme. It's a dark olive green and IMHO replicates pretty well the green seen on Starfighters' antiglare panels. Actually I'm using this a lot for olive drab antiglare panels in general...

 

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One small detail that can be discerned from the picture is that she now is standing on her legs ! I've glued the main gear legs, it took a while to align these properly and I feel that the fit of this part is not the best. I'd like a sturdier way to attach the legs to avoid having a wobbly model...

One other thing that can be seen in the picture is how messy wy workbench is ! I promise, I'll try to tidy this up during Christmas holidays !!!

Here she is

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