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Hasegawa Starfighter 1:48 *completed*


Dansk

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I shamefully have two 1:48 starfighters in varying degrees of incompletion sitting on the shelf of doom currently.

So this is the perfect KUTA to get at least one of those situations rectified.

 

This one...

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I can’t recall why i put this project on hiatus as it’s pretty complete. 🤔

 

I was building a US Air Force example in bare metal.

I do remember buying and using ak extreme metal on this after a gloss black base and that looks pretty good i think seeing it again.

 

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Cant remember what I did in the cockpit though i think its oob with decals, not sure.

theres an eduard interior instruction sheet in the box though but i may have used that in the other starfighter.

 

Ermm.. I hope all the parts are still there.😬

 

I dislike the fancy pancy decorative stencils, so I plan just to use the regular parts of the decal sheet to create a bog-standard USAF example.

 

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Edited by Dansk
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A little progress report on the starfighter-
I gave the wings a panel line wash (but tried to stay away from the majority of the rivets - (as the real aircraft doesn’t have them on the wings!) but i dont want to spend forever removing them now as they were already painted.

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I also added the decals to the wings. 

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The kit was very old i got it cheaply on ebay and the decals have been very difficult to work with, breaking up easily. (Hope yours turns out better @Back in the Saddle) So i have to be careful and now have to correct some mistakes i made. 

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The hasegawa decals seem overly simplistic too. Theres hardly any stencils, the last mig-21 project i did in the same scale had hundreds and hundreds. My starfighter reference books show lots too. 

I noticed one of the reasons i may have put the kit down back then- is with the wings - (i have installed the flaps, ailerons and slats upside down in relation to the main wing so, the wing shows the incorrect inspection panels (the bottom panels are on the top) but if i flip them upside down now then the ejection pins on the lower control surfaces will be more visible. I should have filled them anyway, as well as the rivets... well..
....To cut a long really hard-to-explain story short you can see 2 inspection panels on the upper wing that should be below. shhhh dont tell anyone ;)
I’m not very happy with the me from the past right now 😆
Contemporary me meanwhile also been masking and airbrushing the rear fuselage where multiple tones are evident in BMF real starfighters.  And masked up and painted the ‘thingy’ on the top behind the cockpit.

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Oh and i bit of finessing with the tailpipe was done...
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I think next i’ll be attempting to add varying silver panel tones to the fuselage to get some depth to it.


 

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11 hours ago, Dansk said:

The kit was very old i got it cheaply on ebay and the decals have been very difficult to work with, breaking up easily. (Hope yours turns out better @Back in the Saddle) So i have to be careful and now have to correct some mistakes i made. 

49075286361_40468d9520_h.jpg

The hasegawa decals seem overly simplistic too. Theres hardly any stencils, the last mig-21 project i did in the same scale had hundreds and hundreds. My starfighter reference books show lots too.

That looks like weathering to me ;) 

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I touched up the cracked decal end with a black pen @col, i think it’ll pass ok now.

 

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The metalwork colouring on the rear is progressing. But even with a future coat this ak stuff is so fragile, i find it easy to damage and mark it and its tricky to touch up, all in all a pain to work with but gives a good shine. I might experiment with true color wax to touch up the polished aluminium coloured parts.

 

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Edited by Dansk
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This sucker is all decalled up now except the nose.

it was awful, all the decals were too old and broke up, refusing to break lose of the backing paper.

but now its done bar a few small touch ups.

 

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I love the century series aircraft in bare metal they’re so retro cool.

So its onwards and upwards.

I have an aftermarket pitot tube for this kit also which I’ll add as the last thing, 

but maybe someone can help me decypher these instructions, Why can’t they make these damn things a little easier to follow they’re way too complex!

 

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Edited by Dansk
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1 hour ago, Back in the Saddle said:

What shade(s) did you use for the NMF? That finish looks incredible; I will try to replicate it when my F-104 arrives...

I used Ak interaktive Black base over everywhere (the black base gives it the solid shine feeling) Then Ak interaktive Polished aluminium over everywhere. I think thats what you’re referring too.

 

Then details at the rear fuselage / tail are mostly experiments:

ak interactive Pale burnt metal mixed with polished aluminium 50/50 for the warmer parts and Ak interaktive Matte aluminium / 

Tamiya greys and tamiya metallics mixed for smaller areas.

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I’ve removed the wash now, and dry fitted the tip tanks and wings.

 

It just didn’t feel right with that super-chromium-like finish

So i’ve matt coated temporarily it to see how it feels and i think it feels much better to my eyes, less toy-like or something, i think it was just too clean. i want to dirty it up just a touch also, not too much.

 

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The nose is off as there were two joins very visible that i’ve repaired, primed and painted, but that aside its looking like a starfighter now.

 

Before this thread the kit was built a fair time ago

And theres a lot of things i would have fixed now that i didn’t notice so much back then, ejection pins on the lower wing surfaces, ejection pins on the main gear legs - seams there too, rivets on the wings,  joins on the intakes, the list goes on, so I’m not 100% thrilled with this build right now; theres too many things wrong with it to thoroughly enjoy it and get emersed in the project, but i’d like to get it finished as nicely as i can now with all that in mind and then move on with a new one.

 

 

Edited by Dansk
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  • 2 weeks later...

Out of interest here is the starfighter compared to its stablemate, my last build, a mig-21, its really interesting how different the metal finishes turned out.

 

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Edited by Dansk
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Both F-104 and MiG look very very realistic and convincing - if I saw a photo of them on the daylight and with more natural background, I would thought they are real machines!

 

Great job Dansk, BRAVO!

 

Cheers,

S.

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14 minutes ago, srkirad said:

Both F-104 and MiG look very very realistic and convincing - if I saw a photo of them on the daylight and with more natural background, I would thought they are real machines!

 

Great job Dansk, BRAVO!

 

Cheers,

S.

You’re too kind, thanks so much S!

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1 minute ago, Back in the Saddle said:

They both look great and really complement each other. My F-104 arrived in the post today - I’m looking forward to building this one!

 

Nice work👍

Thanks a lot Matt.

It’s a really nice kit, goes together very fuss-free i found. hope your decals are good.

Looking forward to see your build when you get to it.👍

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Sounds like you got a good one.👍

my box wasn’t sealed and the decals were extremely fragile breaking up all the time.

14 minutes ago, Back in the Saddle said:

The entire kit looks immaculate, including the decals. I might spray them with some liquid decal film, just in case... was that the issue you had, with them breaking up a bit?

 

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