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Project Starfighter


reini

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On 19/11/2019 at 21:25, Baldy said:

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.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up! I will continue with the decaling on this coming weekend.

 

Thanks all for the comments! :)

 

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KINETIC 1/48 F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

Gluing the final parts in order to get this bird prepared for some primer. Also did the ejection seat:

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The Martin Baker Mk. Q7 ejection seat that replaced the older Lockheed C2 seat. Nice touch is that the kit actually comes with two different headrests - this 'narrow' one, and the little bit wider one that was used in the Italian machines. No Italian markings in this kit though - but it's quite telling that eventually there will probably be one. The older C2 seat also comes with the kit which is nice if you wanna do early version (kit decals are for mid-late '80s german planes though). Germany & Italy started modernizing the seats late '60's & early '70's. Not sure how it was for the other countries.

 

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I really like this Vallejo Plastic putty. I mean it's really bad at making seams disappear  - but it's really good at filling gaps such as the wingroots or other things that you don't want to have a gaping hole, but you don't want to completely smooth out either. Easy thing is that you can just put it on, don't have to be particularly tidy, wait for it to harden a bit and then the excess comes off easily with  a cotton bud and water. You don't lose details and the filler stays in the gap. Nice stuff for certain purposes - but not really as a general putty for really smoothing out seams. I prefer Tamiya stuff (dries up much harder and cleans off with alcohol if needed) or CA glue for those purposes.

 

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Just need to wipe off the surface with some alcohol to get all the dust & dirt off and glue on the clear parts - and we're ready for some primer. Wingtip tanks are not glued in yet - I think I will paint them separately. Paint scheme will be german NORM 62 - which I think is a great looking camo with it's sharp lines.

 

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1 hour ago, Andy350 said:

The Kinetic is looking really good so far.  When it comes to priming and painting what brand are you going for?  Sorry If I'm jumping the gun.

I really like Tamiya Fine Surface Primer (Light Grey) spray can  - excellent stuff. Creates really thin and tough layer that paint sticks well to. But as the cold seasons are upon us, I've been using Vallejo light Gray primer with airbrush as it's much nicer (less messy & smelly) to use indoors being acrylic. Good stuff also. Doesn't sand quite as nicely as Tamiya though.

 

For painting in general I am using Vallejo Air (and some Vallejo Model Color too).

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16 minutes ago, reini said:

I really like Tamiya Fine Surface Primer (Light Grey) spray can  - excellent stuff. Creates really thin and tough layer that paint sticks well to. But as the cold seasons are upon us, I've been using Vallejo light Gray primer with airbrush as it's much nicer (less messy & smelly) to use indoors being acrylic. Good stuff also. Doesn't sand quite as nicely as Tamiya though.

 

For painting in general I am using Vallejo Air (and some Vallejo Model Color too).

I will look at using that in the future.  I've used the Vallejo light grey primer with good results.

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On 21/11/2019 at 17:14, Andy350 said:

I will look at using that in the future.  I've used the Vallejo light grey primer with good results.

 

It's good stuff - but pretty expensive. Now that I have an airbrush, I'll be using more Vallejo primer for sure.

 

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KINETIC F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

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Finishing details on the cockpit. Well, not really. Still need to get a pilot - so I'll just lightly glue the middle portion of the canopy. Really nice and detailed cockpit this Kinetic has, has some separate dials for the front dash and so on.

 

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Ready for primer!

 

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... and off to the closet to dry.

 

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Size comparison between the 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32. Still waiting on the 1/144 to arrive - finnish postal service is still on strike. And looks to be like that until christmas...

 

Next up, I think I will finish up the decals on the Big Italeri.

 

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Really excellent work Reini, and I can only hope my own F-104G project will yield the same result. I love reading this thread and already took quite a lot from it.

 

Regarding the ejection seat, only a few countries followed Germany in replacing the original Lockheed C2 with the Martin-Baker seat. And IIRC, Belgium did not and retained the C2 (as did the Netherlands Air Force). As  all versions Kinetic offer are for a German 104, only the MB seat is provided in the kit. And as I will be building my 104 in RNethAF colours, I will use an aftermarket C2 seat.

 

But as you will be displaying your 104 in flying mode, the pilot figure will conceal most of the seat anyway, so who cares? :)

 

Keep up the excellent work, I will continue to follow this thread with great interest!

 

Robert

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1 hour ago, RobertF said:

Really excellent work Reini, and I can only hope my own F-104G project will yield the same result. I love reading this thread and already took quite a lot from it.

 

Regarding the ejection seat, only a few countries followed Germany in replacing the original Lockheed C2 with the Martin-Baker seat. And IIRC, Belgium did not and retained the C2 (as did the Netherlands Air Force). As  all versions Kinetic offer are for a German 104, only the MB seat is provided in the kit. And as I will be building my 104 in RNethAF colours, I will use an aftermarket C2 seat.

 

But as you will be displaying your 104 in flying mode, the pilot figure will conceal most of the seat anyway, so who cares? :)

 

Keep up the excellent work, I will continue to follow this thread with great interest!

 

Robert

Thanks! Great to know about the seats. I'll do mine in Luftwaffe colors included in the kit so MB seat is fine. But the C2 seat parts are actually included on the kit also :)

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KINETIC F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

Painting has started on the Kinetic Starfighter.

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I painted some pre-shading with NATO black.

 

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Followed by Vallejo Metal Color Dull Aluminium. I think it creates nice dulled down and bit greyish metal color that fits this purpose quite well. I also did not put clear black as a undercoat which usually brings out the metallic shine on the metallic colours.

 

Next step is to mask the underside color and start painting the grey on the upper surface. I'm doing the Norm 62 color scheme - should be easy enough masking as all the color lines are straight and sharp.

 

 

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2 hours ago, reini said:

KINETIC F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

Painting has started on the Kinetic Starfighter.

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I painted some pre-shading with NATO black.

 

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Followed by Vallejo Metal Color Dull Aluminium. I think it creates nice dulled down and bit greyish metal color that fits this purpose quite well. I also did not put clear black as a undercoat which usually brings out the metallic shine on the metallic colours.

 

Next step is to mask the underside color and start painting the grey on the upper surface. I'm doing the Norm 62 color scheme - should be easy enough masking as all the color lines are straight and sharp.

 

 

Looking good.  Did you apply the black lines before applying aluminium?

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44 minutes ago, Andy350 said:

Looking good.  Did you apply the black lines before applying aluminium?

Yeah. Not really necessary step - but if you want to add slight shadow effect you can do it. Better to add it before so you don't need to be very tidy.

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KINETIC F-104G STARFIGHTER (Luftwaffe norm 62)

 

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We painted the underside last time - also off-white on the radome underside. Now some gray - I used Vallejo Model Color Basalt Grey (70.869)

 

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Norm 62 is a cool camo scheme. And relatively easy to mask also. Gray is taped over in preparation for the green.

 

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Green is done. Color I used was Vallejo Model Air US Forest Green (71.294).

 

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Really need to put clear coat over a metal color next time - before applying any tape over it. The Dull Aluminium (Vallejo Metal Color) did not stay put when I lifted the tape, so the gray that was painted over it also came off. Now on the underside it left kinda cool worn & patchy effect (that would have been a disaster on a NMF build!) that was easily blended in to look like a worn aluminium paint. In the picture, you can see a line below the gray & silver colour line where the tape was. But slight spray with the airbrush and it was blended in. In this case, no harm done - easily fixed - but need to be more careful in the future. Ive used to the Tamiya AS-12 silver spray which is rock hard so I haven't had this problem before :) 

 

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This is where we are at now. Also did the fuel tanks at the same go - and the engine nozzle. Next it will be clear coat and decals! I need to start figuring out the base for this soon! I'm thinking of sticking something into the jet nozzle so I wouldn't need to drill any extra holes to the model. Maybe some acrylic rod, need to start looking if I can source some of that locally.

 

Until next time - comments & constructive criticism welcomed! :)

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Decal time. I'm really mixed about decals - they really bring the model alive and it finally starts looking like a finished model instead of pile of plastic. But it can be bit slow & tedious at times... :P Italeri Starfighter was definitely one of those. Really big sheets of all kinds of small stencils and the worst part was that it was really hard to make them stick properly. I was getting silvering & air bubbles if I tried to push the decal into place right away. Just letting it rest on the surface in a pool of Tamiya Mark Set before trying to make them stick was helping a bit - as was generous amounts of Micro Sol afterwards. But I still got silvering on some of them. But it was slooow. And there was a lot of them. But it's done!

 

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Tail section pretty much done.

 

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About half way there. One page of the common stencils done, page shown here still to be done....

 

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Both done! Kinetic was pretty much the polar opposite of the Italeri. There was very few decals, only few of the biggest stencils in addition to the main markings - much less than for example in a Hasegawa 1/72 Starfighter. But I decided to use the kit decal sheet anyway - time & money constraints were limiting a bit but it still looks OK.  And they were high quality, it only needed one short session to fix them all on the Kinetic. In contrast to the Italeri one which I think I did in four long sessions.

 

But one step closer, then some clear & matt coat and start thinking about the weathering.

 

 

 

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On 15/12/2019 at 21:39, Andy350 said:

Really nice looking. I think I'm starting mine soon. 

Great! Have fun with it - looking forwards to it.

 

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Time to get messy.

 

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I'm not gonna weather these too heavily - but something that makes them look that they have been in use. I started with some panel line wash. I've tried oil and pigment washes - but gotta say I like this clay based wash from Flory Models quite a lot. And big thing about it is that it's very easy apply - and get off if you want. Basically just slightly damp tissue is enough to wipe the excess off. I liked oils too but there was always slight hesitation when putting oils and thinners on a already painted surface that have I done good enough job with my clear coat and so on...

 

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Tidied up. I had a clear coat underneath so the wash came off real easy - except the panel lines. I think next time I will try matt coat to see if I could manage to do some weathering also with the clay wash.

 

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All was looking good, I had changed in the new forward cockpit glass and all  - but I managed to break the middle canopy glass! :( I swear I wasn't rough or anything, it just seems super brittle. Oh man, not happy about it...

 

 

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1 hour ago, Andy350 said:

I've got the same dark dirt wash, and was debating on using this for the Kinetic build.  I read that a satin clear coat helps the dirt get into the finish.  Shame about the glass, will you find a replacement?

Yeah I've heard you can use satin/matt varnish on the base too especially if you want bit more grimier look.

 

@mirageiv Was gracious to send me a replacement windshield  - but I think it's my turn to order new clear sprue from Italeri. That way I'll have extra windshield for someone who is in the same situation that I was.

 

 

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ITALERI 1/32 F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

I'll worry about the canopy later - I'll just finish the model otherwise. Easy enough to add once I get the new canopy, I will display it open anyways.

 

I've got pretty much everything painted and done - just need to pop them in place and add some final weathering like small oil leaks and such.

 

Let's start with landing gear, so the model can finally stand on its own.

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Added the links & cylinders that move the landing gear in & out.

 

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Landing gear doors added in. Because of the landing gear mechanism the forward main landing gear bay doors don't fully close when the landing gear are in the down position. 

 

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Nose gear bay.

 

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Wheels down.... or up!? :P Let it dry a bit and test how it sits. I put quite a lot nose weight- but I doubt that a Starfighter  actually needs any nose weight. Don't take my word for it, though - better safe than sorry! Nobody likes a tail-sitter...

 

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ITALERI 1/32 F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

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Standing on it's own legs. Looks a bit bare still, time to add all the small bits.

 

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Finishing touches in the cockpit - adding the seat and some etch details on the canopy sides.

 

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AIM-9B's in the wingtips.

 

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I added only light weathering in the form of oils spills and so on. I thought as it was a demo plane for airshows - it would be kept in relatively nice shape.

 

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Tail hook in place. 

 

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And here we are! I'd say it's finished - apart from the canopy, that is. It will be next year until I get a new one - but I can move this out of the work bench and start looking for some GB stuff next. Oh, and the tiny 1/144 Starfighter too.

 

Kinetic F-104 is on the final laps too, just need to sort out a pilot for it. PJ Productions has F-104 pilot, anyone know if it's any good? I've only seen a small & fuzzy picture of it, bit hard to tell...

 

 

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KINETIC 1/48 F-104G STARFIGHTER

 

Time to sort out the Kinetic kit. Adding the final bits'n bobs.

 

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There are quite a few lights on a Starfighter and Kinetic has offered them in clear form. I use clear red & green to paint them (I use Citadel by Games Workshop) - or leave them unpainted, depending on the colour of the light of course. I paint the recess silver.

 

 

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They can be somewhat small & fiddly but look pretty nice when in place. I use ZAP Canopy Glue but any glue that will dry clear will do.

 

 

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Little weathering. I'm using MIG and Vallejo for this. MIG is great because its enamel based so it's easy to play around with it - but Vallejo leaves nice glossy finish, you just have to be super neat when applying it. Good thing about Vallejo is that you get what you see - it will look excatly the same once dried. I think it's good to use couple different types of products so you get little bit different 'textures' and variance in your weathering. Added some chipping too.

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More weathering.

 

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Okay, time for the pilot. I didnt use the Tamiya 1/48 Thunderjet pilot so I thought I'd use it for the Starfighter. Let's call him Bob. Little problem though, it sits quite high. Sorry Bob, I have to make you little shorter...

 

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Little liposuction from the bottom and you're better than before. Bob sits at a better height now, let's try him inside the cockpit.

 

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Nope, sorry Bob. Didn't fit. Take of your feet and but more from your behind...

 

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Not quite there, the angle is wrong. That looks like an akward position to fly a plane. Also, sorry to say Bob but I think I took too much out of your bottom, you're sitting a tad low...

 

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Don't worry Bob, we'll figure it out. I'll add a pillow!

 

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That's more like it! Bit crude work but I think it will work. Now, off to painting!

 

 

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