reini Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 EDUARD Eikó 1/48 - F-104J Starfighter F-104J was a version of the F-104G specifically built for interceptor role for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. F-104J was armed with cannon and up to four sidewinders but lacked any strike capability. A total of 210 were built, most of them under license by Mitsubishi. A dual-control trainer version F-104Dj was also produced. The kit is Eduard 1/48 special edition box set which comes with some extra goodies. Also multiple paint schemes to choose from. Plastic parts are from Hasegawa - which should be a good kit apart from some excessive riveting. Not sure whether I will let that bother me. Hasegawa kit is fair bit older than the rather new Kinetic Starfighter but we will see how it holds up against it. I have built the Kinetic kit before but not Hasegawa. Some of the extra stuff that comes with the kit. Paint masks, resin ejection seat, PE cherry blossom and PE parts for the cockpit. Ejection seat is rather nice - even more so after some paint and PE harnesses. Some aftermarket stuff I got. Not sure whether the 'remove before flight' tags are correct for the Japanese machine but if not I will just leave them out. I also have some extra PE parts and resin pitot tube to spice things up. The kit not only comes with brilliant full color instruction booklet but with a reference book also. While I could do any of the paintjobs that come with the kit, these two catch my eye the most. High quality photos in the reference book. Pretty handy! This truly is pretty inspiring kit and I can't wait to do one of those Air Combat Meet -paintjobs on a Starfighter 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Ooh some nice stuff in that box! The box art scheme looks pretty exciting as well, isn't that one provided? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberto Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Lovely project 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Nice subject choice Reini 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 9 hours ago, JeroenS said: The box art scheme looks pretty exciting as well, isn't that one provided? Certainly, that is one of the options. Pretty cool looking at that 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 5 minutes ago, reini said: Certainly, that is one of the options. Pretty cool looking at that OK so I'm voting for that one 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franky boy Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Nice choice of subject Reini. Having built both both the Kinetic and Hasegawa kits I can say that while the Kinetic kit is newer and more up to date the Hasegawa 104 is still a great build. If the rivets bother you to much there’s always the Daco replacement parts for the wings, tailplane and tip tank fins. Look forward to some progress. James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 (edited) 13 hours ago, reini said: Some aftermarket stuff I got. Not sure whether the 'remove before flight' tags are correct for the Japanese machine but if not I will just leave them out. You look to be all good on the DNR tags. The 1st photo of an F-104J has them. https://nara.getarchive.net/amp/media/a-left-front-view-of-a-parked-japan-air-self-defense-force-jasdf-f-104j-starfighter-aa1b16 By the way 518 would be my choice. Edited May 9, 2022 by Corsairfoxfouruncle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 I love this kit. I'm thrilled to see this one here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dansk Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 nice reini. looking forward to this. i've built both hase and kinetic kits and both are super. rivets on the wings on the hase is the only negative as you have pointed out already. daco set is expensive and you can buy a kinetic kit and perhaps swap the wings for the same price in some circumstances. but both are expensive fixes so i'd either live with them or fill them manually. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 welcome along Reini, haven't seen one of your builds for a while., and what a great choice! Those special Eduard kits are , will those nice extras and the book to boot! To tell the truth I've never built a F-104 before, had the Hasegawa version with the Daco set and sold the lot (for a nice profit), have the Kinetic model but want to get rid of it as well. Anyway.... Nice to see you have some extra AM stuff as well! Though I do wonder about the resin pitot probes, brass master Model ones would have been a bit safer, trust me you'll only stab yourself once! As far as the scheme goes all 3 look great though the left hand one is my fav. Good luke with the build, I expect there'll be a lot of interest in this one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted May 15, 2022 Author Share Posted May 15, 2022 On 10/05/2022 at 10:46, trickyrich said: To tell the truth I've never built a F-104 before, had the Hasegawa version with the Daco set and sold the lot (for a nice profit), have the Kinetic model but want to get rid of it as well. Anyway.... Noo! You gotta have a Zipper for the Century Fighters GB! I made a start. Not much but I can say it's started. Cockpit has it's base colour. I'm still deciding whether I will actually use some of the PE parts, I think the plastic cockpit has some great details that should really pop out after some paint. I will probably use the PE instrument panel but probably not the side consoles. Fuselage also got some bits painted and glued on. Cockpit side walls has some colour, wheel well and engine are attached and primed/painted. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 I would probably use those side panels, but I think you'll be able to make something of what the kit has provided, that looks like pretty good detail right there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 1 hour ago, reini said: Noo! You gotta have a Zipper for the Century Fighters GB! we shall see... I agree, lease the side consoles alone, they look to have nice raised detail so they should pop (like a T-72 turret.. 🤣) with some careful painting. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted May 23, 2022 Author Share Posted May 23, 2022 Holes for the lights needed to be drilled out for some reason. Then the clear parts were installed and I painted them with clear paint on the other side, creating these nice coloured lights. Then onto the cockpit. I picked out the panels and some other details with black. Then some drybrushing, with couple different greys, concentrating on the edges and details. Then picked out the details with a fine brush - like all the buttons and such. Some minor chipping also applied with dark grey and little bit shading on the recesses with Tamiya Panel liner. And this is how it looks now. It's done - but of course it's missing all the most detailed stuff like the ejection seat and instrument panel. There are also some PE parts for the canopy railing and such but I think I will add all those at a later stage. Summer GB wouldn't be the same without some BBQ, right @Marlin ? I made some south korean style bulgogi beef. Served with rice & kimchi and wrapped in pak choi. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 Very nice project! The Hase Starfighter is a nice and trouble free affair (if you ignore the inaccuracies, or get the dedicated correction improvement and detailing set from DACO ) tasty!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marlin Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 Hhmmm Bulgogi... And your Starfighter looks great too @reini /Bosse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 Awesome work. ...on the bulgogi! Model kit is looking good too! JASDF has some truly awesome wild paint schemes! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 5 hours ago, Marlin said: Hhmmm Bulgogi... And your Starfighter looks great too @reini /Bosse This is funny... I haven't seen Bosse on the forum in ages (I guess we're not in the same GB's!), but literally the first post about food and, lo and behold, there he is! 🙂 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marlin Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 5 minutes ago, JeroenS said: This is funny... I haven't seen Bosse on the forum in ages (I guess we're not in the same GB's!), but literally the first post about food and, lo and behold, there he is! 🙂 I'm still here, but not in this GB. At the moment I'm in the Bomber etc GB. And I also have an active thread in the Armour section. As you might remember our apartment building is under renovation and soon they'll start in our flat. So I'm about to pack everything up and close down shop, I guess for the rest of 2022. But I'll try and keep my thread in the Armour section live for the duration. I've bought myself an airbrush which I plan to learn how to use. /Bosse 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 13 minutes ago, Marlin said: As you might remember our apartment building is under renovation and soon they'll start in our flat. So I'm about to pack everything up and close down shop, I guess for the rest of 2022. Ouch, good luck with that! Will you be staying somewhere else for the duration? 13 minutes ago, Marlin said: I've bought myself an airbrush which I plan to learn how to use. Excellent! I'm sure you'll love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marlin Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 14 minutes ago, JeroenS said: Ouch, good luck with that! Will you be staying somewhere else for the duration? Excellent! I'm sure you'll love it. Yes, we'll have to move to another apartment for 10 weeks starting mid September. As for the airbrush, we'll see. Since it was rather expensive I hope so. /Bosse 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted May 23, 2022 Author Share Posted May 23, 2022 5 hours ago, Marlin said: As for the airbrush, we'll see. Since it was rather expensive I hope so. There is a learning curve - but once you learn it, it's real hard to go back And for all the problems you might (will) have - solution to those in 90% of the cases is to clean the airbrush I know I'm too lazy to do that sometimes but keeping it clean is essential. As for the rest 10% of the problems - wrong paint thickness and/or air pressure. I hope you can do atleast some modelling despite your move! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted May 29, 2022 Author Share Posted May 29, 2022 Fuselage closed. No problems here, gotta love Hasegawa kits. This part was pretty tricky, two separate panels for the underside. I worked them in while the glue for the fuselage was still bit soft so I could sort any alignment issues. But they went in pretty nicely. Only putty needed was to level out the centerline pylon plate. There are quite a few ejection pin marks that needed sorting out. Wings coming together. Just gotta love the beautiful lines of an 104 Without the tip tanks it's even more obvious how small the wings are! I wonder why they bothered to put them in the first place. You usually see Starfighters with wing tanks but in the book that came with the kit, there's plenty of photos of Japanese 104's without tip tanks and I think it's quite cool. I'm gonna do a super slick Zipper with no external load at all. And I think I'm going for the cover art scheme as @JeroenS suggested. Some of the camo options look real tempting but the cover art scheme is so different and the red & white should look great with the metal finish. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted May 29, 2022 Share Posted May 29, 2022 39 minutes ago, reini said: it's even more obvious how small the wings are! I wonder why they bothered to put them in the first place. You're actually wondering why they put wings on her? 🙂 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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 accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now