Icarus Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 (edited) Good morning. Would like to offer up this as specimen #1. Having almost finished a commision build of the Alcock and Brown Phantom with auto-destruct 1980's vintage decals, the 1993 decal fest that this will entail should be a breeze... Icarus Edited May 13, 2019 by Icarus Typos 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franky boy Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 Welcome to the gb, and another 104! You can can never have to many 104's. James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 Very nice subject ! You may already know this, this aircraft was an F-104S, that differ from the G in the box in a few details. The most visible is the addition of two extra fins under the rear fuselage, while the shape of the central fin was reduced. Both are easy modification, the two new fins can be made from plasticard (I can send you a drawing with dimensions if you need) while the central fin needs the leading edge cut to a 45° angle. The exhaust is also longer but I don't know what variant is in the Monogram box. There is of course a long list of F-104S specific features, of course depends on how interested you are in having all accurate details in your model, in any case the colour scheme is so catchy that this result in a great looking model even built from the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostbase Posted May 14, 2019 Share Posted May 14, 2019 Very interesting to see this choice and how she turns out, if the decals are good then she will be a looker 😍 Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 (edited) Right, well whilst I was working on the Tristar in the GB I used some of the intervening time to start on this. Lovely resin bang seat (Eduard Zoom) painted up and weathered... Have just realised I need to paint the foot restraining pads red as well, so will do this before cutting this off its resin casting block. I intend to finish the kit with the canopy closed (unusual for me, but I just love the "Buck Rogers" shape of the closed up air frame and want to retain this), so beyond the seat I don't plan to add too much detail in the cockpit. Icarus Edited June 20, 2019 by Icarus Typos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 Good evening. A bit more progress on this. The cockpit is coming along. I have just placed the ejector seat in it to check the fit. I have also spent the evening glueing various PE in with white glue.. A "team photo" of the bits... Still need to bend down the PE that is surrounding the cockpit sills (plus straighten that grill at the rear that I have just noticed is a bit wonky - that's why I use white glue!!) Icarus 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostbase Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 This is looking good and the resin seat really adds to the detail. Which PE set are you using? I can see it is Eduard but not which kit it was for. They did produce cockpit and detail sets years ago for this kit but I guess when the Hasegawa F-104 kits came out they stopped producing them. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted June 29, 2019 Author Share Posted June 29, 2019 Hi. This is the (presumably quite old) Eduard unpainted PE kit specifically for the Monogram 1/48 Starfighter. I bought this a while ago second hand from an auction site - surprisingly, it is complete. There are multiple options within it, which I presume relate to the relevant sub-types, particularly in the cockpit. Icarus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 Good afternoon. Progress now being made with this. A slightly moth-eaten Starfighter at the moment, but helps me check the seams have been sanded down... And a bit more detail on the PE afterburner ring (which took all of an evening to fold and glue) and undercarriage doors (plus the resin seat) Hopefully a bit more progress tonight (if I can get the little terrors to sleep this evening!) Icarus 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted July 12, 2019 Author Share Posted July 12, 2019 (edited) So now less "moth-eaten", but rather "pie-bald". It won't necessarily be obvious until the details are highlighted with a pin wash later on, but I have had a lot of fun over the last couple of nights adding all sorts of PE bits to the exterior of this... Next steps adding canopy (some temporarily), then masking up before the real fun of painting and decaling this thing starts... Icarus Edited July 13, 2019 by Icarus 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostbase Posted July 13, 2019 Share Posted July 13, 2019 This is starting to look good, seems to have gone together quite well for an older kit too. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 Looking very much Starfighterish. You are getting the best out of this elderly kit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted July 20, 2019 Author Share Posted July 20, 2019 (edited) So, the canopy is on now and masked. I have now been fiddling around with black paint, and as you can see I have made the new ventral fins for this "S"as these weren't in the original kit. They're the plasticard shapes on the top of the two bottles on the bottom of the cutting mat.. So now the difficult part - how to mask this, ready for the ancient decals? The instructions are not particularly helpful, so I will need to use the photos on the packaging plus any references I can find on the net. I think, unusually, it will probably be easier to have the black as the base colour, then mask it to spray on white both for the wings/undersides, but also as a base for the yellow in the scheme. This sounds simple, but unfortunately it is difficult to see where the transition between yellow and black is on the references, and I will obviously be assuming the decals have reasonable opacity on top of this, otherwise it will look a bit rubbish, to be honest. Oh well - nothing ventured, nothing gained... Icarus Edited July 23, 2019 by Icarus 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 So - a ridiculous amount of masking later... Ironically, all of those bits masked with yellow Kabuki tape will eventually by white (or black), whereas the bits that appear white now will be yellow. Anyway, this is what the result is following the first coat of yellow.. Can't wait to remove the masking on this. It will certainly be eye-catching! Icarus 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 Now this is a colourful aircraft! Let's hope the ancient decals are sufficiently opaque to cover that yellow/black dividing line... Icarus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 Looking forward to the unvailing ceremony! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted July 26, 2019 Author Share Posted July 26, 2019 So, I have spent most of the evening fishing bits of auto-destruct decal out of a dish of warm water, and trying to reconstruct the wonderful commemorative scheme this model is supposed to represent later. This is where I am 4 hours later - I need a break for the evening, as I'm starting to go a bit cross-eyed! Not too bad, although there are a few gaps which I will need to touch up afterwards. It'll be worth it in the end! Icarus 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 Sorry to hear of the decal issue's but its looking good so far. I have a feeling you will recover and tame this build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebra Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 It’s fighting you but you’re winning! Your Starfighter is looking great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted September 1, 2019 Author Share Posted September 1, 2019 (edited) Very, VERY late, but work travel put a spanner in the timelines for this. Anyway, finally done. Eduard's fantastic PE set for the kit has been used throughout, and the pitot is a Master models turned brass one. Much of the extra detail is in the cockpit, which perversely I have then shut up, but I do like the sleek lines of it with canopy closed. Anyway, as you can see from the last two piccies, the canopy isn't glued in place, so if I do later decide to display it open I can. Thank you for following! Icarus Edited September 1, 2019 by Icarus Additional cockpit images 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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