ALF18
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Fantastic job! ALF
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Tough decision, isn't it? Trying to figure out if a particular aircraft had such things at a specific date is very tough, unless you have reliable photos from that time. In general, those vertical reinforcements behind the formation lights were rare during the 1991 era, but showed up on more and more aircraft in later years. Do whatever you want - it's your model! ALF
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Thanks Shawn! I saw your beautiful tiger. I love the detail from those cockpit 3D decals. ALF
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After some paint touch-ups, I applied my floor wax gloss coat. I painted on the black anti-glare panel (the kit provides a decal, but since I am making a black-nosed and not grey radome version, the paint is easy to do and look okay). I also made the fronts of the tip tanks grey/silver, showing the paint scrubbed off at speed that was very common on these aircraft. While I'm not showing much weathering, I will have the tip tanks and the little vents above and behind the wing with subtle colouring. Decals next. Thanks for stopping by. ALF
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The lower portions of the rear and centre canopy bits have what looks like a fibreglass band. I used masking tape thinly sliced to replicate them. I also chopped off the IR search/track bump from the front of the windscreen. CF-104s never had them. Now, the main landing gear doors. The kit comes with two options - bulged, and not-bulged. CF-104s had not-bulged doors as in the picture. The kit bizarrely shows these doors as possibly opened or closed. I've never seen a 104 with them open on the ground, unless it's in maintenance. They also don't fully close - they sit on the gear strut
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Now it was time to choose the paint. I know that CF-104s did not have a paint colour that fit nicely into an American FS slot. It was a special blend that came from somewhere in Europe (Prestwick, Scotland perhaps?). There are all kinds of recipes to blend that purportedly make a perfect match, but I am fundamentally a lazy modeller and I wanted to use a Tamiya paint right out of the jar. I finally settled on XF-51, Khaki Drab. It looks kind of brownish green when dry. My Dad and I used to argue about the paint colour. I said they were green aircraft, and he called it brown. He was even a
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Only 16, Shawn? You've been slacking off! 🙂 I've never seen a 104 tail-sit, but somehow I allowed myself to be spooked this time. Just a little extra prudence this time, but I'm confident that it'll be fine. ALF
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I attached the rear fuselage. Joint is not bad, actually. Note that the speedbrakes are closed, although the kit shows them open. Dad told me that the speedbrakes are always closed when shut down, unless the maintainers force them open. Wings are attached as well. The model displayed tail-sitting tendencies, and I haven't even installed the horizontal stabilator, so I added some Play-Doh ahead of the instrument panel. In retrospect, I should have put some in the nose cone, which would have been even more effective. I have more bits to add forward of the centre of gravity, like the seat, ebay d
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Thanks Scooby! It was an honour to dedicate the book for your son. I know he'll do well with his aviation career. ALF
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Next is the nose gear well. I made a small tactical error. The nose gear strut has spokes that stick out each side, that fit into tiny holes in the side walls of the nose gear well. I had glued the walls in place before looking at the gear strut... oops. By bending the walls apart, I managed to insert the gear strut without breaking anything. Phew. At least it will be tight. After gluing the transparency in place, along with the gear well, I tried dry fitting. Looks like it's important to seat the front end first, prying the fuselage sides apart slightly, then clicking it in place at
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Next I worked on buttoning up the fuselage. First step - the small lights. After gluing them in place, I painted the insides gloss silver to provide a reflective surface from the exterior. The cockpit with the light grey throttle is in place. I took a while to get the e-bay and the cockpit into the right spots, doing more dry fitting than usual. I then glued in the main gear bay assembly, making sure it was in tight. I did a bit of chopping here and there to ensure a tight fit, and the fuselage came together reasonably well. Lots of tape and glue, and it's together.
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The kit includes an engine. I have no intention of displaying it on a stand beside the aircraft - I want it ready to fly, not under major maintenance. Besides, I have zero interest in how engines look. I have painted the interior of the engine, so that anyone looking up the tailpipe might glimpse bits of this. The J-79 F-104 engine, predecessor to the F/A-18's F-404, smoked heavily. Same engine in the F-4 (except for the RAF). Super easy to spot a CF-104 or F-4 - look for the dirty smoke trail, unless they're in afterburner when they burn cleanly. That means the interior of the engine is
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I've been slowly assembling the seat (Lockheed C2 is the right one for this aircraft). The kit actually does a decent job on it - I have previously used resin seats, but while the detail is exquisite on resin versions, they are a real pain to chop and fit into the cockpit. The straps are PE. I am painting them XF-19, a slightly lighter grey than the cockpit XF-83. After the grey dries on the PE, I will use a silver pen to do the buckles. Next, I attacked the landing gear. The main gear has some fiddly parts (2 assemblies, one per strut) that must be oriented correctly. Here is how
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Okay, finally back on the site - was very busy publishing my new book, Supersonic Stories, on Amazon. That has taken a lot of my energy in the last week or so. So, the cockpit. These 3D decals are life savers. No way I could do anything even close by painting. I painted the cockpit Tamiya XF 83, which is a perfect match for the real FS cockpit colour. It also matched well with the 3D decals as you can see from the pics of the e-bay above. One thing I will deviate from is the colour of the throttle. The kit instructions say to paint it black, but the throttle in the CF-104 is a
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As I said on FB, sorry we missed you. Left the museum at 12:40 to head for lunch, then drove the 450 km back home. Maybe another time! ALF
