Italeri 1/72 QF-104A

[Angus Tura]

Heollo. I'd like to add this drone.

 

 

So, this is the Italeri F-104A/C, which I think is still the only F-104A in 1/72. The kit decals are on the left and on the right are Carpena decals  for the QF-104A. These are at the top of the sheet and so are for the earlier paint scheme on these. Latterly I think they were international orange with black serials, but initially they seem to have been red-orange dayglo with white serials. There is quite a bit of quite confusing stuff about the colour on-line, as you can imagine. I like the more red colour and have gone for this fairly lurid number:

 

 

Gunze C171 "fluorescent red". It's still a bit orange in spite of its name.

 

In an effort to complete a GB on time I thought I wouldn't post till I'd got this well started. The box and bits picture above is 11 days old but work kicked off rather last week with Covid-absences and I've only now got this to the point of some paint:

 

 

In the middle are bits to paint before completing construction. The seat has been brushed up a bit with extra belts and an ejection handle from sprue. The canopy needed some marks polished out with tamiya compounds and I'm sorry I didn't take before and after pictures. The most work has been blending the "A" tail and rear fuselage into the common front fuselage. This was glued on as best as possible and then the join filled/covered with stretched sprue and then sanded back and panel lines restored. I'm sorry I didn't photograph the stretched sprue stuck in but I'm pretty happy with the end result. It hasn't all been polished up because I'll have to repeat that on the centre-line joint and so forth.

 

 

This week work is not kicking off for me at all. I'm stuck at home caring, covid-19 negative, for my covid-19 positive son...so I might progress this.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Alan

[Retired Bob]

Good work on hiding the joint on attaching the tail section, I have one of these kits in an Ertl boxing and the Carpena decals but in 1/48th scale which I will use on a Kinetic kit.  You are correct that the early drone QF104's were painted red/orange with white markings but the markings did not stand out very well so they were changed to black.  As these drones were flown from Florida they faded in the bright sun, I'm tempted to try the fading to a yellowish orange on the top surfaces but worried I'll fudge it.  

[Dansk]

Welcome Alan. Do you have a picture of the airframe you're building?

Sounds great with the dayglo!

my italeri 32er's tail attachs in the same way. I dont know why italeri dont halt the join where it meets the vertical stabilizer, and the run it horizontally foreward along the top of the fuse to the origin of the vertical stab. 

I hope your sons covid is not too unpleasant or serious.

[modelling minion]

Welcome to the GB Alan, and with a fantastic choice too, a zipper in dayglo, whats not to love!

Bob is spot on with his description of the scheme and markings.

3 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

I'm tempted to try the fading to a yellowish orange on the top surfaces but worried I'll fudge it

Do it, do it do it! It will look fantastic.

 

🇺🇦

[RidgeRunner]

A fantastic choice, Alan. The QF-104As were great and I have one planned for the future ;). Good luck with it!

 

Martin

[RidgeRunner]

9 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

As these drones were flown from Florida they faded in the bright sun, I'm tempted to try the fading to a yellowish orange on the top surfaces but worried I'll fudge it.  

A great idea, Bob. I’ve never been brave enough to try that

 

Martin

[Angus Tura]

Thanks chaps for your interest.

 

On 6/27/2022 at 1:21 PM, Dansk said:

Welcome Alan. Do you have a picture of the airframe you're building?

Sounds great with the dayglo!

my italeri 32er's tail attachs in the same way. I dont know why italeri dont halt the join where it meets the vertical stabilizer, and the run it horizontally foreward along the top of the fuse to the origin of the vertical stab. 

I hope your sons covid is not too unpleasant or serious.

 

Paul. Thanks. My son's Covid was very mild and so was mine and my wife's when we got it. It is all pretty weird, however. I'm test-negative for several days but still pretty wonky.

 

Really the inspiration for the build...was another build: https://imodeler.com/2019/12/1-72-esci-amt-usaf-f-104-drone/. There are pictures of this particular plane here: https://www.i-f-s.nl/183-1001-1010/. Weirdly this particular plane is the only one I can find photos of in the red/white letter early scheme. It also seems to be the subject of the carpena decals here and the esci/amt boxing of this kit.

 

Likewise re the alternative tails. The fin is harder to blend than the fuselage.

On 6/27/2022 at 1:11 PM, Retired Bob said:

Good work on hiding the joint on attaching the tail section, I have one of these kits in an Ertl boxing and the Carpena decals but in 1/48th scale which I will use on a Kinetic kit.  You are correct that the early drone QF104's were painted red/orange with white markings but the markings did not stand out very well so they were changed to black.  As these drones were flown from Florida they faded in the bright sun, I'm tempted to try the fading to a yellowish orange on the top surfaces but worried I'll fudge it.  

 

Thanks Bob. I know the look you mean with the faded dayglo. I think it probably stops being dayglo as it fades? Anyway, I want the lurid look.

 

Quite a bit of progress.

 

I've started off painting the inner aspect of the canopy. I've read, ages ago, the idea of sequentially masking and spraying frames oriented in different directions but never previously tried it. It works well, at least on the inside: I'm not sure it would look OK on the outside.

 

Unfortunately I noticed this gap,

 

 

after painting the inner canopy frame. I was concerned that whatever glue I used for the canopy, it would leak into the inside. So, I've filled this with magic-sculp using the canopy wrapped in clingfilm to mold the magic-sculp:

 

 

 

Tad-da! Here is the seat, which has had a firing handle and lap-belts added only.

 

 

and other cockpit bits. The grey is Mr.Color C317 dark gull gray.

 

 

I don't think this needs any nose weight but I like a bit for a bit more oomph.

 

 

And finally a bit of major sticking:

 

 

and here's the canopy glued from the outside with epoxy resin. It's had 5" epoxy where there were any little gaps and, after that had dried, slow-setting epoxy to the rest.

 

 

The intakes have been stuck on and the gaps filled with melted stretched sprue but the splitter plates aren't glued in so that I can paint their interior/intake sides separately from the airframe so as to have less masking to do. The coamings inside the canopy were a really good fit but I had quite a lot of self-inflicted mucking about with the HUD (? I think F-104s might be too early for HUDs)

 

Wings on:

 

 

I am very much enjoying this kit. Hopefully get some paint on this weekend.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Alan

[modelling minion]

Great progress Alan, almost a complete Starfighter now.

Very good idea with the magic-scuplt, thats taken acre of the tricky gap around the canopy very well indeed.

Looking forward to seeing the paint going on.

 

🇺🇦

[Retired Bob]

Good progress Alan and well done eliminating the gap under the canopy, I'm at the same stage with my Six's, fill, sand, repeat ready for some paint.

[RidgeRunner]

Its great to see this coming together Alan. I'm a sucker for dayglo/International Orange so I'm looking forward to this.:) Its also a Starfighter and so a double whammy! 

 

Martin

 

[Dansk]

great work of the canopy gap 

[Angus Tura]

Hi. Sorry for the delay. This has been caused by struggling to smooth in the intakes and restore the panel line, followed by cracking one of the intakes off when it wasn't supported by the splitter plate, followed by birthday party: I was sixty last saturday.

 

However, this continues pretty well. Having improved the canopy fit and sticking it on it's been filled,

 

 

sanded,

 

 

and polished.

 

 

Then started painting where I was keen to try a couple of things.

 

First was trying tamiya polishing compounds on paint, rather than transparencies. Here is the bare metal part of the fuselage undercoated black, but there is a bit of orange skinning.

 

 

and here it is after polish:

 

 

Amazing! It's like glass. Unfortunately, the Alclad II seems to have matted it back down,

 

 

Still pretty nice.

 

The second was to use a pencil for panel lines. This works well:

 

 

 

I've primed the wings with Mr.Surfacer, grey, 1500, drawn in the panel lines with a 0.2mm mechanical pencil, and then sprayed Alclad aluminium. Sone panels are white aluminium and some dark aluminium.

 

 

The upper surfaces of the wings are white Mr.Surfacer 1000, pencil, and Mr.Color C316. I am well chuffed with this appearance. The front and back of the natural metal is Alclad II, pale burnt metal. The canopy seals are a Mr.Color IDF "yellow". The radome is Mr.Color FS36622. 

 

So, I'm off work for several weeks now and should, hopefully, get this one finished.

 

See you later.

 

Alan

[modelling minion]

That is really nice work Alan.

I was worried when I saw the canopy with the scratches on it but you have polished it up really well. And the polish worked really well on the black paint too, something that needs to be looked at to achieve high gloss finishes in the future.

Really looking forward to seeing more paint going on.

 

🇺🇦

[arfa1983]

That canopy is like a magic trick! 

 

In the past I have polished the bare plastic, then used gloss black, then alclad. It gave a really shiny finish. 

 

 

[Angus Tura]

Craig thanks.

 

That NMF is just brilliant, Arthur. Which polishes and paints have you used? Also which Alclad is it? Chrome, Polished Aluminium. I really want to give it a go.

 

Meantime the QF104A has gone along but it won't be done on time, albeit for an unusual reason: I've run out of paint rather than time:

 

 

 

Here it is masked and then multiple layers of white Mr.Surfacer and of Mr.Color C171 Fluorescent Red. That all went fine. Then panel lines with this:

 

 

But this was an error. I should have put the panel lines under a top coat of white before starting on the fluoro red. The covering power of the red is so poor that I've run out of it before the panel-lines looked OK. I can get more tomorrow but I'm not going to be able to get that done and the rest before going on hols on Saturday. Very annoying. You live and learn.

 

Here is my current state of play:

 

 

My Samsung mobile clearly has a lying camera on it! The red is a lot oranger (?) to the eye. Also, the panel lines look great here, and on the underside they are OK really, but the upper surface ones are a lot crasser than this would suggest. I'll get the dayglo finished this week, not least because I'm keen to get the masks off while I'm away.

 

I'll put it up here when done. I do love this kit and want to do more. It does go together really well and having learnt on this edition, I think I'll be quicker next time(s):

 

 

Thanks v.much for the GB.

 

Alan

 

 

 

[modelling minion]

I'm really sorry to hear that you won't get your wonderful Starfighter across the line, especially as she is looking so good. 

Please do keep us updated on your progress as I am sure I am not the only one that wants to see how she turns out.

 

🇺🇦

[arfa1983]

Hi Alan, 

 

If I recall correctly, I used Tamiya acrylic gloss black as the primer, then Alclad  polished aluminium for the airframe and Alclad chrome for the nose ring. 

 

Before the Tamiya black I polished the plastic with micromesh down to 12000.

Edited September 20, 2022 by arfa1983

[Angus Tura]

Thanks. I'm surprised that polishing the plastic makes such a difference, but I need to try that. PPPRS (is that right?) Looks like the perfect GB to try it. I've already got two definite projects for it, however.

 

Alan

[Dansk]

i've never seen a canopy sanded and polished after being installed before, but wow thats amazing.

[Angus Tura]

Paul. Hi. I have developed this way from the problems of vacforms in my youth, and I was quite proud of myself!

 

.... however, there is nothing new under the sun! Thinking about another Esci/Italeri starfighter build I was searching on "Red Baron Starfighter Colours," and came across this on our own beloved Britmodeller: 

Bill (?) in Madison, WI has done the exact same thing to merge a monogram 1/48 canopy with a Hasegawa F-104. I'm not sure what polishes he's used but I've used these graded wet and dry sheets, 400 to 5000 grit,

 

 

followed by Tamiya polishing compounds on a cotton bud:

 

 

These are great. I've never seen them in the UK. The "finish" one (white cap), I bought on holiday in Greece. The "coarse" and "fine" I e-bayed from HK.

 

I have got a bit further. I got enough dayglo red on to get the panel-lines OK and have taken the masks off apart from the canopy. The masks have been great on the white and alclad on the wings but have lifted the highly polished aluminium.

 

 

This is not too bad, but I'll respray the afterburner after holidays. The hols are going to be a good opportunity for the dayglo to completely cure.

 

Here's the latest, in every sense:

 

 

Thanks again for the GB and thanks for interest. Seen you in a fortnight,

 

Alan

[billn53]

13 minutes ago, Angus Tura said:

. . . our own beloved Britmodeller Bill (?) in Madison, WI has done the exact same thing to merge a monogram 1/48 canopy with a Hasegawa F-104. I'm not sure what polishes he's used but I've used these graded wet and dry sheets, 400 to 5000 grit,

 

 

13 minutes ago, Angus Tura said:

 

followed by Tamiya polishing compounds on a cotton bud:

 

 

These are great. I've never seen them in the UK. The "finish" one (white cap), I bought on holiday in Greece. The "coarse" and "fine" I e-bayed from HK.

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, that's pretty much exactly what I used for my canopy.

 

And, I see you managed to glue your canopy on straight, unlike me!

 

-Bill

[modelling minion]

That really is one stunning looking Starfighter Alan, definitely a scheme I will have to do in the future.

Sorry that the masking has lifted some of the metal paintwork but I have no doubt that you will get it sorted.

 

🇺🇦

[Angus Tura]

6 hours ago, billn53 said:

 

 

 

Yep, that's pretty much exactly what I used for my canopy.

 

And, I see you managed to glue your canopy on straight, unlike me!

 

-Bill

 

Thanks Bill.

 

As I said, I found your red baron thread by Googling, "Red baron F-104 colours." I see you've used a bright red. The Hasegawa instructions say Mr.Color C003, which is bright red. So do the Esci instructions. However a number of photos on line and the Italeri box top show quite a dark red. It looks more elegant but definitely less whacky.

 

Is this a trick of the light, do you know, or was the plane different colours at different times?

 

Alan 

[billn53]

1 hour ago, Angus Tura said:

 

Thanks Bill.

 

As I said, I found your red baron thread by Googling, "Red baron F-104 colours." I see you've used a bright red. The Hasegawa instructions say Mr.Color C003, which is bright red. So do the Esci instructions. However a number of photos on line and the Italeri box top show quite a dark red. It looks more elegant but definitely less whacky.

 

Is this a trick of the light, do you know, or was the plane different colours at different times?

 

Alan 

I think it’s a lighting effect, I seem to recall some photos with brighter red than others. Here are a couple that look bright red:

 

 

 

and another, looking darker:

 

 

I've never heard of the plane being "re-painted" and can't imagine any reason why they would have done that.

 

(There are, however, differences in sponsor logos among the photos above, so who knows?)

 

[RidgeRunner]

Hi Alan, 

 

I’ve just caught up with this thread. She is looking wonderful. 

On 9/19/2022 at 11:09 PM, Angus Tura said:

My Samsung mobile clearly has a lying camera on it! The red is a lot oranger (?) to the eye.

Hopefully not as ‘957 was a neat red dayglo as opposed to the faded orange dayglo of other QFs. I’d say that yours is looking perfect :). I’m looking forward to seeing the finished model  👍

 

Here she is in her heyday! 

 

https://www.cloud9photography.us/Military-Aviation-Photography/Flying-Military-Airplane/Flying-USAF-Lockheed-F-104/i-GWS98wV/A 

and 

https://www.cloud9photography.us/Military-Aviation-Photography/Flying-Military-Airplane/Flying-USAF-Lockheed-F-104/i-H5s66SB/A

 

Martin