Jump to content

Project Starfighter


reini

Recommended Posts

On 30/10/2019 at 10:26, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

You’re not hanging around, are you?  Looks excellent so far, and the extra little touches & details really lift the whole thing up a level.  Great stuff!

 

Yeah, I don't hang around - I'll rather be making plastic models :D  Thanks!

 

 

On 30/10/2019 at 19:34, mirageiv said:

Beautiful work on your F-104! The cockpit and fabric look brilliant. If it isn't too late, I have a spare front canopy for the Italeri kit, you can have it if you want. I cracked my main centre canopy whilst building mine (be careful with this one too, it is brittle!) and had to order a replacement clear sprue from Italeri. 

 

Best regards,

 

David 

 

Thank you for the offer & looking forwards the part. This is pretty awesome community I must say :) 

 

On 01/11/2019 at 03:02, f111guru said:

Do like the finished anti-glare shield. Attention to detail. Yep the little things bring out the highlights in the smallest of things. I don't have the Italeri F-104 but have 2 very old Revell kits. I may buy up a couple of sets of update kit parts and try to get them to fit those Revell kits. May or may not work but I can scratch build with the sheet plastic and the support bases most resin parts have.

 

I'm liking your progress.

 

Wish you the very best,

 

Ron VanDerwarker

Thanks Ron. I knew there is an old Hasegawa 1:32 Starfighter - but didn't know of a Revell one. In the future I'm tempted to have a go at all the different Starfighter kits - I mean I've already pretty deep in this so why not go little deeper... :P 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had build a very long time ago, thinking late 70's or the early 1980 the Hasegawa F-104 and the F-86. I want to say I started the F-104 while I was stationed at RAF Lakenheath and finished both here in New Mexico. I purchased the 1 F-104 and the RF-4E from an estate sale way back when.

IMG_4476 IMG_4477

Also have a number of other Revell kits in storage but had these in my home.

Continued luck on your Italeri F-104 kit.

 

Ron VanDerwarker

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@f111guru Nice looking kits Ron!

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

 

Work continues on Italeri 1/32 Starfighter - I sorted out the remaining small bits ready for painting:

 

spacer.png

 

The plane itself is masked up and ready for primer. But I think I will wait for an intact front cockpit glass that @mirageiv has graciously promised to send me - so I can mask it and prime it at the same time.

 

In the mean time, I thought I'd take a peek in the Kinetic 1/48 F-104G Starfighter box.... :)

spacer.png

 

And the sprues:

 

spacer.png

spacer.png

spacer.png

spacer.png

 

It looks very good I must say. Looks very crisp and is full of details.

 

spacer.png

If I would nitpick about something - it would be the manual. I mean in a modern kit of this price - it would have been nice to have it in colour. After all, the manual is available in colour from the website, so why not just put it with the model... oh, well, small things :)

 

So, I'm building this plane as flying - so I want to get a pilot for it. Also make somekind of simple stand. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 24/10/2019 at 23:02, reini said:

spacer.png

Parts ready for assembly!

 

spacer.png

Batman is overseeing the construction :D 

 

spacer.png

Parts are fitting together very nicely, very minimal sanding will be needed which is nice.

 

spacer.png

Intakes coming together.

 

spacer.png

This is the one of the few parts that will need sanding - there shouldn't be a seam on the top of the intake. Should be easy enough to take care, though.

 

spacer.png

Nose wheel well all painted up and ready to be closed & attached to the model. I'm bit worried how this will take up the weight of such a big model, the pegs on the side don't even go thru the wheel well side panels and the struts on the front are purely cosmetic when it comes to structural integrity. We will see...

 

spacer.png

Most of the separate fuselage parts were shaped so that they follow panel lines. This in together with bit heavy panel lines and nice fit means that there is hardly any gap filling to do.

 

spacer.png

It had to happen eventually I suppose. Knocked over my Tamiya Extra Thin. Oh well, glad it didn't go over the model - just couple of brushes!

 

spacer.png

Did not notice it when I took the photos when I opened the box - but I realised that one of the canopy rear view mirrors were missing (part number 9). This is the photo I took right after taking the sprues out of the plastic bags. It's a tiny part but this is an expensive kit and one would assume that it comes with all the parts - I thought that it would be sorted in no time by Italeri. But I gotta say - not impressed by the Italeri customer service at all :( They wanted 12 euros for it (for the whole PE sheet). I tried to explain that It's a brand new kit and it had been missing since new, I had not lost the part. They replied that it was a very unlikely scenario that their quality control had made an mistake but were very generously offering to ship me the PE sheet free of charge - with only the cost of shipping. Which would be 8 euros! I'm wee weed. I mean should I need to pay 8 euros extra just to have all the parts that come with the kit? Am I just expecting too much here? How's your experience with similar situations (with Italeri or any other brand)?

i took advantage of their spare parts service and I found it useful but somehow ridiculous. Considering i'm italian and living around 140km from the factory, it took more than 3 weeks to receive one envelope with decals  (3 weeks of journey, is it clear?) for the usual 8€. A normal letter takes 2days on average..... They don't explain why if you try to ask for. I had also to pay for some transparent parts of a F117 actually arrived with the rest of the kit (20 years ago) but totally broken or badly moulded. I put apart the kit until 2 years ago when I bought the parts. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, giuseppe said:

i took advantage of their spare parts service and I found it useful but somehow ridiculous. Considering i'm italian and living around 140km from the factory, it took more than 3 weeks to receive one envelope with decals  (3 weeks of journey, is it clear?) for the usual 8€. A normal letter takes 2days on average..... They don't explain why if you try to ask for. I had also to pay for some transparent parts of a F117 actually arrived with the rest of the kit (20 years ago) but totally broken or badly moulded. I put apart the kit until 2 years ago when I bought the parts. 

Yeah - they refused to send it free of charge and I refused to pay for it out of principle as I think a kit should come with all parts. Anyway, it's such a small part I can make myself. In any case, it's good to know the parts are available if you're not in a too much of a hurry :P 

 

- - - - - - - - - - -

 

Did some more work on the Italeri 1/32 today.

 

spacer.png

I noticed that the wingtip sidewinder launchers had nasty looking sink marks on them.

 

spacer.png

I've been using CA glue as a filler lately. It's good for uses like this as... well.. it sticks well. Normal putty has tendency to crack or wipe off completely if you apply it to a shallow places such as these, but CA sticks great and is nice to sand.

 

spacer.png

And done! No more sink marks.

 

spacer.png

Most of the small bits are now done - so basically just pop them in at the very end of the build.

 

spacer.png

While reading the '... Uncovering the (T)F-104G Starfighter' again, I noticed that Belgian Starfighters had camera & mirror arrangement in the cockpit for training purposes. Now, I'm not sure how widely this was used - but I still thought it was nice detail and would be fun to add to the build.

 

spacer.png

Mirror made out of plasticard rod and sheet. Could have been bit thinner rod but It'll do...

 

spacer.png

Camera made out of piece of a F-102 missile rail/trapeze (would you have guessed? :P ) and a wire.

 

spacer.png

Here's how they look painted up and ready.

 

spacer.png

Also finished rest of the bang seat with the belts. 

 

So next up the sidewinder launch rails and Sidewinders themselves. Unless anyone has good picture of the wingtip ends with the sidewinder rails but without the sidewinders? The kit parts are made so that the Sidewinders are meant to be installed, there's no detail at all. Just wondering if it could be something to be scratch built - or do I just pop in the Sidewinders. Would kinda like to have proper 'clean look' with no tanks or any weapons. Initially I thought I'd display the model electronic compartment open (behind the canopy) - but I think I'm gonna go for just the canopy open to further enhance the clean look (and not completely waste all the work I've done in the cockpit :P  )

 

Until next time. Comments & constructive criticism welcomed! :) 

 

  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let's do some work on the Kinetic 1/48 F-104G Starfighter!

 

spacer.png

Cockpit is nice and detailed - and it really looks like a Starfighter cockpit. The side panels for example have more detail than the Italeri 1/32 (for which I added some detail myself). On the other hand, no dials on the gauges and no decals which is a bit of a shame - but this will be displayed in flying pose with canopy closed so I'm not too worried about it.

 

spacer.png

This is how it looks after some paint.

 

spacer.png

Some annoying ejector pin marks can be found - inside the intakes, where else...

 

spacer.png

All tidied up.

 

spacer.png

Intakes are a bane of many jet kits - let's see how Kinetic does it.

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

Honestly, not bad at all. There is some neatening to do on the corner, but overall the fit was good and not vague at all. The engineering is better than in the Italeri 1/32 as the seam goes on the inside - and not on the top. One of the better intakes where you felt that the part was actually meant to fit here :D 

 

spacer.png

Let's close the fuselage! There's some odd little bits here and there that I've left out - mainly the wheel wells as I'm building this in flying pose gears up.

 

spacer.png

Nice peacock! :D 

 

spacer.png

Note to self: before doing major things - such as gluing the fuselage parts together - always check the manual first that you haven't forgotten anything! Like open half a dozen holes for various antennas & bumps 😐 Oh well, just have to locate the correct spots later on...

 

Until next time. Comments & constructive criticism welcomed!

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

KINETIC 1/48 F-104G Starfighter

 

Close all the hatches!

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

The fit is really good. Atleast for the parts that are meant to be closed - wheel well doors needed some cutting & forcing in. Still not perfect but I'm sure little sanding & puttying will do the trick.

 

spacer.png

Might have been good idea to put the insides of the wheel wells in place - to help support the wheel well doors (which I kept loosing inside the plane while trying to glue them). But failing to do that, I made some plasticard support instead.

 

spacer.png

There is a slight gap with the doors - but it's not horrible. I think a dab of Vallejo putty in the seams will do the trick. No cutting was needed in order to fit these parts - just slightly sanding of the 'hook' undersides so that they will sit bit more flush with the fuselage. Those hooks were there to catch the emergency barrier net  - to avoid damage on the actual landing gear. Considering that the plane had those extra bits, an arresting hook and a drag chute - I'm getting a sense that Starfighter REALLY didn't want to stop :D 

 

spacer.png

Here is where we are at now.

 

spacer.png

I will tidy up the fuselage and start working on the wings next. Hassle free build so far this Kinetic, really liking it.

 

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

ITALERI 1/32 F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

The front cockpit sent by @mirageiv hasn't arrived yet - and I figured it will take a while longer because today the Finnish Postal service went on strike. I couldn't resist starting to paint the airframe - I glued the front canopy with PVA glue so it will be easy enough to swap out at a later stage.

 

spacer.png

I went with grey undercoat and highlighted the panel lines with NATO black. Yeah. I know - not my tidiest work. I'm quite the beginner when it comes to airbrushing :P I learned this technique watching YouTube videos (what else... 🙄 ) and tried it only once before in my Eduard 1/72 DDR Mig-21MF. And I think it worked nicely so here we go. Not really a problem that it's not tidy - it will be sorted out when you start painting the base colour. If something, it might be even benefical being not TOO uniformal so you get bit more varied effect going on.

 

spacer.png

First layer painted on the forward fuselage with Vallejo USAAF Light Grey. The black shines too much still but it will be toned down with the second layer where we smoothen things out.

 

spacer.png

Second layer painted on. I think it works ok, or what do you think? Creates a little variance in the large mono colour surfaces.

 

spacer.png

Top surface, first layers on all three colours. I was really struggling at getting decent demarcation line working but I got there in the end. By no means perfect, but good enough, considering the scale I suppose. Need more practice. I went with the colours that Vallejo suggests for SEA colour scheme - but looking at the photos, the lighter green seems like a different tone in the Belgian machines. So at the second layer I added some white & Green Zinc Chromate to the mix to get a slightly different tone.

 

spacer.png

I tried tidying up the colour line between the top & bottom - but it didn't go well :( I couldn't get it tidy enough line and always made a small mistake - and the line kept creeping up and up. I needed to mask it in order to get a decent line.

 

spacer.png

For masking I used this kind of stuff - don't know the english name but you can use it to stick posters onto walls and whatnot. Picked this up at my local grocery store for under 2€. Word of caution though - it can be bit greasy so test it before sticking it onto your paint. It did work great for me, it was on only for couple hours and didn't leave any grease stains.

 

spacer.png

Ready and masked. Here you can see how high my colour line had went while trying to fix it :P Anyway, idea of the sticky stuff instead of tape is that if you spray at 90 degrees angle you should get really nice slightly blended but still tidy demarcation line - instead of hard cut line. Let's see...

 

spacer.png

Yay - much better! :) Here you can also see the slightly altered Vallejo Air US Dark Green to get little bit more closer to Belgian colours. I'm just going by feeling here, and looking at the photos - so my take on the colour might be miles off - just to warn you :)

 

spacer.png

Masking some of the panels to finish off the exterior painting.

 

spacer.png

This is where we stand now - getting close to apply some clear varnish and start decaling!

 

spacer.png

Here are the colours I used for the exterior. Like I mentioned earlier, I slightly adjusted the US Dark Green (which actually - in this case - is LIGHTER of the greens).

 

spacer.png

Sidewinder for the wingtips. Belgians sometimes painted the Aim-9 body green to better blend it with the plane's camouflage. I thought it was perfect as I really dislike painting white :P 

 

Like always - comments & constructive criticism welcomed! :) 

 

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fantastic work Eero on these F-104s, the SEA camo looks brilliant, I'm loving this whole thread really! Hmm I'm sorry about the canopy not arriving yet, I posted it on the 2nd via Airmail so not sure what the hold up is, and of course the Finnish postal service goes on strike to help things out!  🙄

 

David 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@mirageiv Thanks David! :) Finnish postal service is definitely something that you can't affect - so don't worry about it. Finnish Post never ceases to amaze me really - they stopped delivering post on tuesdays and started offering lawn mowing services instead (yes, lawn mowing). Saying that there's not enough cash to be made with package deliveries - all while the managing director earns almost a million a year. And now they're cutting the salaries of the already low wages of their workers - hence the strike.

 

- - - -

 

Another thing, I was looking at this site: http://www.sbap.be/aircraft/f104g/f104g.htm

 

... and realized that it's actually the darker green that looks to be of a different tone than in normal SEA camo. More of a 'deep' green and less brown. But on the other hand, some of the panels look to be more closer to SEA green? Not sure what to think about it - probably not gonna repaint it but definitely something to think about when revisiting Belgian F-104.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, reini said:

ITALERI 1/32 F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

The front cockpit sent by @mirageiv hasn't arrived yet - and I figured it will take a while longer because today the Finnish Postal service went on strike. I couldn't resist starting to paint the airframe - I glued the front canopy with PVA glue so it will be easy enough to swap out at a later stage.

 

spacer.png

I went with grey undercoat and highlighted the panel lines with NATO black. Yeah. I know - not my tidiest work. I'm quite the beginner when it comes to airbrushing :P I learned this technique watching YouTube videos (what else... 🙄 ) and tried it only once before in my Eduard 1/72 DDR Mig-21MF. And I think it worked nicely so here we go. Not really a problem that it's not tidy - it will be sorted out when you start painting the base colour. If something, it might be even benefical being not TOO uniformal so you get bit more varied effect going on.

 

spacer.png

First layer painted on the forward fuselage with Vallejo USAAF Light Grey. The black shines too much still but it will be toned down with the second layer where we smoothen things out.

 

spacer.png

Second layer painted on. I think it works ok, or what do you think? Creates a little variance in the large mono colour surfaces.

 

spacer.png

Top surface, first layers on all three colours. I was really struggling at getting decent demarcation line working but I got there in the end. By no means perfect, but good enough, considering the scale I suppose. Need more practice. I went with the colours that Vallejo suggests for SEA colour scheme - but looking at the photos, the lighter green seems like a different tone in the Belgian machines. So at the second layer I added some white & Green Zinc Chromate to the mix to get a slightly different tone.

 

spacer.png

I tried tidying up the colour line between the top & bottom - but it didn't go well :( I couldn't get it tidy enough line and always made a small mistake - and the line kept creeping up and up. I needed to mask it in order to get a decent line.

 

spacer.png

For masking I used this kind of stuff - don't know the english name but you can use it to stick posters onto walls and whatnot. Picked this up at my local grocery store for under 2€. Word of caution though - it can be bit greasy so test it before sticking it onto your paint. It did work great for me, it was on only for couple hours and didn't leave any grease stains.

 

spacer.png

Ready and masked. Here you can see how high my colour line had went while trying to fix it :P Anyway, idea of the sticky stuff instead of tape is that if you spray at 90 degrees angle you should get really nice slightly blended but still tidy demarcation line - instead of hard cut line. Let's see...

 

spacer.png

Yay - much better! :) Here you can also see the slightly altered Vallejo Air US Dark Green to get little bit more closer to Belgian colours. I'm just going by feeling here, and looking at the photos - so my take on the colour might be miles off - just to warn you :)

 

spacer.png

Masking some of the panels to finish off the exterior painting.

 

spacer.png

This is where we stand now - getting close to apply some clear varnish and start decaling!

 

spacer.png

Here are the colours I used for the exterior. Like I mentioned earlier, I slightly adjusted the US Dark Green (which actually - in this case - is LIGHTER of the greens).

 

spacer.png

Sidewinder for the wingtips. Belgians sometimes painted the Aim-9 body green to better blend it with the plane's camouflage. I thought it was perfect as I really dislike painting white :P 

 

Like always - comments & constructive criticism welcomed! :) 

 

Brilliant thread, it is going to be really helpful to me.  I've had some issues with current builds, and am hoping that if I follow your lead and can get something that I am happy with.  I am planning to have this with wheels down if I can.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Andy350 said:

Brilliant thread, it is going to be really helpful to me.  I've had some issues with current builds, and am hoping that if I follow your lead and can get something that I am happy with.  I am planning to have this with wheels down if I can.

My models are far from perfect - but I'm having fun making them. And I try to learn something from every build - and take that lesson to my next build. And sometimes its better just to finish a build an move on - rather than get bogged down on possible problems or mistakes.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is looking very tidy 👍

 

On 12/11/2019 at 06:11, reini said:

For masking I used this kind of stuff - don't know the english name but you can use it to stick posters onto walls and whatnot.

In the UK, we call that product blue tack (or white tack, which is also available). It’s great for masking and holding smaller items when airbrushing

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

ITALERI 1/32 F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

Decal time. I did a quick gloss coat on the plane but my Tamiya spray can was bit on the empty side so I didn't get a too good of a coat - but I thought it was good enough. The main emblems and such got on nicely but with the stencils I noticed that they weren't sticking too well and were gonna leave silvering effects. Then I remembered what @Baldy said about his build of the same plane, to have a really good gloss finish for the decals. So I put the decaling on pause and put another coat of gloss coat and here is where I am at now:

 

spacer.png

 

 

- - - - - - - - 

 

KINETIC 1/48 F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

The fuselage of the plane is pretty much together - need to do some of the smaller bits. Like the tanks, I'm putting all four which I think is a good look for a Starfighter.

 

spacer.png

Tanks are pretty nice. The fuel tank caps are actually separate parts - which I wondered at first. But after having sanded the seamline, it was nice not to have to rescribe the round caps. Fit was good, but there's always some sanding to do no matter what.

 

spacer.png

I'm not sure I should share this - but hey... oh well. After a good general fit of the tanks, I wondered that the fit of the wingtip tank fins was bit odd. I actually had to cut them slightly and still didn't get a good enough fit. And I thought they looked bit funny in general but didn't quite understood what was the problem. You noticed it already, did you? Well, it took me tank and a half to notice that I had glued them the wrong way round.... :D:D:D

 

spacer.png

.... for future reference, this is the way to glue them :D And i have to do little seam neating because of my forceful fitting the wrong way round and ripping them out again. Oh well, like I said a while back - I'm not perfect, I don't make perfect models - but I try to learn something from every build. I think my take from this build is how a Starfighter wingtip tanks should look :D 

 

Anything you've done - that you thought you were doing the right way but having that little 'this is not quite right but I'm not sure what it is' knocking on back of your mind?

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking really good Reini - I may build my TF as a Belgian machine. The worst decals for silvering were the ones at the base of the fin and along the top of the fuselage just below the spine.

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...