Dirty Dane

[Chrisj2003]

Third completion for 2024, and second zipper, a late finish in Baby Boomers GB. RDAF F-104G R-699, US serial 63-12699 first flight June 5 1964, to Denmark November 1964 (NMF?) painted green October 1 1969 and as seen a bit (a lot?) worn at RAF Gutersloh in September 1975 and other dates and locations.

 

• Hasegawa F-104G
• Paulus Victor decals from @0viking0, very, very nice, but the individual numbers for the tail serial are tiny. 
• Two Master pitot tube (first broke nearly at end)
• New Ware mask
• Painted mainly with lightened Humbrol 116, and then enamel aluminium and acrylics for the interior
• Humbrol washes
• Quinta 3D cockpit decals 

 

WIP at link:

 

Photos also show Hasegawa AMI F-104S and RNorAF F-104G.

 

Chris

 

[Farmerboy]

WOW!!

[bigbadbadge]

Ooooooo I like that, looks fantastic in this well used scheme  great work.  Like the group photos and backdrop too.

Chris

[Mynimal]

Beautiful trio . Well done.

[Pantherhawk27263]

That is very nicely done!

[Drakendk]

That’s really really great work. It looks very convincing. Those Danish F-104’s weathered really badly. Thanks for sharing 🙂

[RidgeRunner]

Very, very nice Chris. I have the Paulus set and will get a Danish ‘104 done at some point. I renenber seeing my first dirty Dane - at Greenham Common in 1974. It was R-340 and she has been stuck in my modelling memory ever since

 

Martin

[stevehnz]

That is really very nice Chris, a difficult scheme to make look convincing & you've pulled it off beautifully. 👍

Steve.

[MrB17]

Nice trio of 104’s Chris. Very realistic finish and I love the background, it really adds atmosphere to the photos. 
Well done.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[MikeC]

Nicely done Brings back memories of seeing them at shows in the 70s. Was the paint quality the reason they weathered and faded so much, I wonder? IIRC their F-100s looked just as faded.

[RidgeRunner]

1 hour ago, MikeC said:

Was the paint quality the reason they weathered and faded so much, I wonder? IIRC their F-100s looked just as faded.

Yes, it was exactly that, Mike. From that they changed to a semi-gloss/gloss alternative in the mid-1970s. It is a tricky effect to get on models. Many modellers simply employ pre-shading on the panel lines but in reality it was a mix of paint fade and “touching up” by mechanics using brushes. Chris’ has achieved a great balance of the two. 
 

Martin

[kelly9mm]

Excellent work!

[Patton gunner]

Just beautiful! I grew up around Starfighters,had my first chance to watch a scramble close to the runway when I was 5 years old, back in 1965 ; yes I'm that old.

I just love the 104 and I love your build

 

Cheers 

Walter!!

[HPoirot]

Absolutely convincing, excellent job ! 👍

[Hook]

Awesome stuff!

[franky boy]

Nice collection of Zippers Chris. 
 

Great work. 
 

James

[0viking0]

Very nice work.  Congrats.

[eng]

Thats a beauty, very nicely done and a tricky scheme to pull off.

 

Eng

[Lord Riot]

Proper NATO hardware, love it!

[Chrisj2003]

On 11/07/2024 at 20:11, Farmerboy said:

WOW!!

Thank you .

 

On 11/07/2024 at 20:31, bigbadbadge said:

Ooooooo I like that, looks fantastic in this well used scheme  great work.  Like the group photos and backdrop too.

Chris

Thank you, it’s just a Coastal Models base.

 

 

On 11/07/2024 at 21:14, Mynimal said:

Beautiful trio . Well done.

Thank you.  
 

 

On 11/07/2024 at 21:44, Pantherhawk27263 said:

That is very nicely done!

Thank you.

 

On 11/07/2024 at 22:28, Drakendk said:

That’s really really great work. It looks very convincing. Those Danish F-104’s weathered really badly. Thanks for sharing 🙂

Thank you.  I like trying weathering and this is a great subject. 
 

On 11/07/2024 at 22:38, RidgeRunner said:

Very, very nice Chris. I have the Paulus set and will get a Danish ‘104 done at some point. I renenber seeing my first dirty Dane - at Greenham Common in 1974. It was R-340 and she has been stuck in my modelling memory ever since

 

Martin

Martin, praise indeed, thank you.

 

 

On 11/07/2024 at 23:12, stevehnz said:

That is really very nice Chris, a difficult scheme to make look convincing & you've pulled it off beautifully. 👍

Steve.

Steve, thank you, and for alerting me to these decals in the first place. 
 

On 12/07/2024 at 03:52, MrB17 said:

Nice trio of 104’s Chris. Very realistic finish and I love the background, it really adds atmosphere to the photos. 
Well done.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Jeff, thank you. 
 

 

On 12/07/2024 at 06:29, MikeC said:

Nicely done Brings back memories of seeing them at shows in the 70s. Was the paint quality the reason they weathered and faded so much, I wonder? IIRC their F-100s looked just as faded.

Thank you, envy that, I have only ever seen a Danish one in a museum 

 

On 12/07/2024 at 07:39, RidgeRunner said:

Yes, it was exactly that, Mike. From that they changed to a semi-gloss/gloss alternative in the mid-1970s. It is a tricky effect to get on models. Many modellers simply employ pre-shading on the panel lines but in reality it was a mix of paint fade and “touching up” by mechanics using brushes. Chris’ has achieved a great balance of the two. 
 

Martin

😁

 

On 12/07/2024 at 09:11, kelly9mm said:

Excellent work!

Thank you. 
 

On 12/07/2024 at 09:27, Patton gunner said:

Just beautiful! I grew up around Starfighters,had my first chance to watch a scramble close to the runway when I was 5 years old, back in 1965 ; yes I'm that old.

I just love the 104 and I love your build

 

Cheers 

Walter!!

Thank you, wow, didn’t get to see any zippers until much later at RIAT and the like.

 

 

On 12/07/2024 at 18:23, HPoirot said:

Absolutely convincing, excellent job ! 👍

Thank you. 
 

On 12/07/2024 at 18:31, franky boy said:

Nice collection of Zippers Chris. 
 

Great work. 
 

James

James, thank you.

 

22 hours ago, eng said:

Thats a beauty, very nicely done and a tricky scheme to pull off.

 

Eng

Thank you.

 

7 hours ago, Lord Riot said:

Proper NATO hardware, love it!

Thank you, ahhhh, the great days of very different schemes from different countries. 

 

22 hours ago, 0viking0 said:

Very nice work.  Congrats.

 Thank you, the excellent decals should take a lot of the credit. 😉
 

Chris

[Rob de Bie]

Extremely nice! That weathered paint is very well done.

 

As a fellow 104 fan I have to point out one problem: it looks like you used the wrong nozzle. Most Hasegawa issues contain two nozzle types: one suitable for a J79-GE-11A, short with 24 petals, and one later German-modified post-1970 smokeless J79-MTU-J1K engine, long, with only 16 petals. You used the long one, which makes the nozzle stick out to far.

 

Here's a picture of the nozzles by Esci, Hasegawa (2x) and Revell.

 

 

Recently I bought the great Fine Molds F-4C kit, and it has beautiful nozzles. I copied it in resin, and I now have plenty of nozzles for all my planned F-104 models.

 

 

Lastly, if I may advise, don't dry-brush the nozzle. The real thing was simply soot black, no more, no less.

Rob