KLU 322 Sqn. F-104G - Completed

[giemme]

1 hour ago, Col. said:

Your work in getting these stencils sorted out has created a busy but not fussy look to this one Giorgio. Well done.

Agreed 100%!

 

Ciao

[Giorgio N]

16 hours ago, Col. said:

Your work in getting these stencils sorted out has created a busy but not fussy look to this one Giorgio. Well done.

 

14 hours ago, giemme said:

Agreed 100%!

 

Ciao

 

Thanks guys, glad you like it. This was the effect I was trying to achieve, took me a lot of time but I'm quite pleased with it

 

Small update, I was trying to recall what paint mix I had used in order to spray the tanks when a thought crossed my mind: I have never built a 104 kit with wingtip launchers ! I immediately rushed to check the various pictures I have of KLU Starfighters in the grey scheme and found a few with these launchers. As 322 Sqn. was tasked with air defence it now made sense to depict this model with these. Mind, it's maybe not a common realistic load, as generally the wingtip launchers were used with underwing tanks. Without any external tank the Starfighter had a very short range, but still, there are pictures showing wingtip launchers only on Dutch operated machines, what better chance to finally build an aircraft so configured ?

The Revell kit unfortunately does not include wingtip launchers, these are included in the F-104C box from the same moulds and I have a couple of these but in the end I decided to use the launchers from the Hasegawa kit. As I said I never built any F-104 in this configuration so I have several Hasegawa wingtip launchers going spare.

[Col.]

Given the title of our GB I think having the wingtip launchers on your Starfighter for the first time is most appropriate Giorgio  

[Giorgio N]

Good point Col ! 😁

 

Work in the last few days has been focused on guiling all the various bits and pieces missing, like landing gears and relative doors. I've also glued the many clear bits that reproduce the various lights installed on the F-104 fuselage, all picked in the correct clear colour. The hardest part was gluing the canopy in place ! I had dryfitted this and fit looked good, so much that I left the canopy after painting... bad mistake ! This is no Hasegawa, the canopy required a bit of work to fit. I've yet to get the frames totally right too. In any case it doesn't look so bad from a distance and I'm happy enough.

I'm now installing the wingtip launchers... one broke while painting for some reason, reason why there's only one in the picture. Fortunately I have other spares.

 

 

There are a few other bits left but I should be able to glue them in place between tomorrow and Sunday, I should be able to finish this in time !

There's one part that however may give me troubles... the Revell box depicts a German F-104G and these received the longer afterburner of the S in the mid '70s. Dutch Starfighters on the other hand used the shorter type typical of the G, and as my aircraft is represented in 1966 this was true of every Starfighter in those days. I considered using one from a Hasegawa box (I have a couple spares from an S box and from a G that used a resin nozzle) but this does not fit in the Revell fuselage. I may have to use a resin nozzle for this one too. Interestingly the F-104C box of this same kit includes the shorter nozzle...wonder why Revell didn't offer both in this one !

[giemme]

Wow, almost done now, G!  

 

Canopy looks just good to me

 

Ciao

[Col.]

Looks to be coming together well even with those minor issues Giorgio and I'm sure you'll solve them without undue stress.

[RidgeRunner]

She looks great, Giorgio

 

Martin

[Giorgio N]

Thanks everyone !

The model is quickly progressing and should be done within the deadline. Yesterday I didn't have much time to dedicate to the hobby and this was used sorting the nozzle. As said before I needed a short nozzle instead of the longer S type provided in the kit. Having a few Hasegawa spares made using one of these a natural choice but the Hase part is too wide, I considered using a resin part but this model IMHO does not deserve a more expensive resin replacement so in the end I sanded the surfaces of a Hasegawa nozzle where they are at the widest while at the same time sanding the Revell fuselage from the inside. In this way I managed to get a tight fit between inner fuselage walls and nozzle.

Sanding the sides of the hase nozzle meant losing some of the petals detail but as this part is inside the fuselage nothing of this is visible. Using a part meant for another kit however created another problem: the length of the duct is now not correct. To sort this I used my preferred method for sorting J79s afterburner ducts: replace the whole duct with a tube made from corrugated paper. This is quite realistic as reproduces well the walls of the afterburner. J79 afterburner sections are in a colour that varies from a grey/green to a blue/green, all with a metallic sheen. In this case I simply mixed some RAF Sky with Vallejo metalizer medium, simple and effective. The nozzle was painted in a dark metallic grey and drybrushed with some lighter metal from the Vallejo model metal range. The turbine area was simply cut from the original Revell part, that includes the turbine and the duct. Having separate parts also made painting much easier.

 

 

What is not accurate here is the length of the duct, it's much longer on the real Starfighter, as nicely reproduced by the Hasegawa kit, but I couldn't insert a full length duct, this would have required some previous preparation before assembling the fuselage halves. In any case my solution is IMHO way better than Revell's. 

After making the duct rounder by keeping it on a pen of suitable diameter for a couple hours, I could insert everything in the fuselage. The duct received a black wash to simulate the carbon residues, the nozzle received a wash to highlght details a bit and I could insert the nozzle in place.

I tried to take a picture that could show the effect of the duct and nozzle together but I couldn't get enough light in the duct and this was the best I could get... it looks good, trust me ! 😁

 

 

[Giorgio N]

With the nozzle in place it was time to get the last few details sorted. These included the front gear well doors, that also received a couple of stencils each (when will the stencils end on this model ???), a probe on the front fuselage and the spent case ejection rails under the fuselage. This is not represented that correctly but really it's hard to reproduce such piece in scale so Revell is to be commended for at least trying.

At that point I realised that the shape of the rear end of the missile rails was not right for a European F-104, and I had to cut them at an angle... I was very nervous during the operation but in the end I managed to do it wihout breaking anything on the model. The end of the rails were painted in silver and then covered with clear red and green paint to represent the navigation lights part of the rail. Should I build another kit with rails in place I'd replace the rear extremities with clear plastic, would look much better.

At that point all that was left was to glue the pitot tube in place. This was made from two sections of Albion Alloys tubing, as happens with most of my builds. Generally Starfighters tend to have part of the pitot tube in red and white stripes, however pictures of early KLU F-104s showed the tubes in overall grey with silver tips, not as good looking as the striped ones but a simpler job for sure !

 

And so it was that with the pitot tube glued and painted in place I finally had a completed model of a KLu 322 Sqn F-104G as it was in around 1966. With a few hours to spare I can declare this completed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Giorgio N]

As I always do when completing a WIP it's time to add a few comments on this build.

I'm quite happy with the completed model, it's not my best model ever but really I can't complain, it looks good enough for me. I made a couple of mistakes, I sorted most but some are still there, maybe hard to see but they are there.

The Revell kit: building the model was relatively straightforward but I've found several things in this kit that I don't like. I tried to correct some of these and really, it looks like an F-104 ! However there are good reasons why the Revell kit is ranked second after the Hasegawa offerings. It's a decent kit, maybe even a good one, but really is second best. Fit is not as good, accuracy is not as good, detail is not as good... This kit has recently been reissued and many may be tempted to buy it. To be honest I'm sure that most modellers will be pretty happy with the Revell offering. Serious F-104 enthusiasts however will prefer the hasegawa kit, that also offers a choice of parts to build F-104s from different countries, like the C2 seat and the short afterburner nozzle. This one can only really be built from the box as a German aircraft from the mid '70s on. As Revell offer markings for a selection of such aircraft I can't say criticize them, they give the right parts for one of these and they don't claim anything else. Just be warned in case you want to build a 104G from a different Air Force like I did.

For my next F-104G I'll get back to the Hasegawa kit, that itself is not perfect but is still better. I'm lucky enough that in my country we don't have things like the Royal Mail handling fee when buying from outside the EU and a number of Japanese webshops sell the Hasegawa kits for very competitive prices, even if charged with VAT by the postman I can get one for around £ 15, roughly the same the Revell kit costs here. To me the choice is easy, however I can see how the Japanese kit may be harder to get for other modellers.

The Italeri decals were a bit disappointing in terms of accuracy. The roundels are not fully in register and the unit markings are way too big. The stencils are very oversized and don't look good on a 1/72 model. At the same time they are thin yet strong and work beautifully using the usual Microscale liquids, settling in every panel line very realistically with no visible film. That I had to use decals from the spare box and print my own stencils was not ideal but at least I'm now left with a nice Corel Draw file for most F-104G stencils, something that will come useful again in the future.

Most important however is answering the question: did I have fun ? Overall I did, it was in the end an enjoyable build, had a few problems here and there but nothing major and I'm please with the end result. These are to me the most important things when building a model, so I'm glad to have built this model.

 

Many thanks to the hosts and moderators of this GB ! It was great to take part, give my contribution and watch the other models, although I admit that I commented very, very little and I apologise for this.

Thanks also to all the modellers that with their likes and their comments pushed me through this build, it's always nice to receive feedback and get steered in the right direction.

So, next step I guess will be the 50's NATO-WarPac GB in a few months from now !

 

[giemme]

Beautiful F104, Giorgio!  

 

Ciao

[Giorgio N]

2 hours ago, giemme said:

Beautiful F104, Giorgio!  

 

Ciao

 

Thanks a lot, glad you like it !

[RidgeRunner]

Very nice, Giorgio, and a great review of the Revelll kit, which I have in my pile

 

Martin

[Shalako]

Beautiful build Giorgio though I have a question; during a discussion I had recently with some fellow scale modellers, they pointed out that the Revell '104' has some accuracy issues, namely, a wrong-shaped radome and a narrow canopy. Are these true?

 

Cheers

 

Bill