my favs are F`s

It's difficult to believe that the ''rivetting'' is done. I used so many different and new methods to me, that are difficult to describe too. I also finished with the painting of the different colors - mainly white and black, and some dark alluminum/steel/magnesium (and concoction of them) for the discolorated panels. And she's ready for decals.

Oh yes, another shiny NMF F-104... 🙂 About the ''green'' instructions - I think they mean you should not scrape off the plastic details, and instead add the decals on top of these plastic details... to make them pop up just a bit more. 😉 Anyway, we are talking about so small parts that any difference would be almost impossible to see, especially if you add the wiring/cables over the boxes.

Almost finished with this NMF... So, I glued the wings, and there were two major issues - 1) the wing root joints were at a 90ish-degree angle, and there must be a smooth transition with the fuselage, so I did it with some filler on both sides. 2) there were gaps between the fuselage and the flaps, while on the real pics - there is almost no light that can be seen, which was a realtively easy fix. Here is this area before: And after the edits: The ''additional'' alluminum parts are also covered in NMF, but they still n

Wow, it sounds like mission impossible, but who knows... 🙂

The nose is ready with the surface prep - 4 types/sizes of rivets, and polishing. 🙂 It's looking good already...

Congrats on the very nice and clean model! Awesome display case as well!

Finally, the fuselage is ready with the basic foiling procedure: I bet you can't find the three ''little mistakes'' I did, but I hope they will stay known just by me. 🙂 Next up, foiling of the rudder and the horizontal stabilzer, and on to the overwhelming sanding and polishing adventure.

Yeah, just get that construction started! 🙂 Man oh man, that's probably the best looking F-4 cockpit in this scale I've ever seen.

Looking Decent. : ) Btw the IP or whatever part could separate easily if it is not glued properly. I blame the Tamiya extra thin or whatever else extra thin liquid cement for that. It just offers a superb capillary action, but that's it. The bond lacks thickness, and thickness means more ''material'' that melts the plastic, that is the key to a better weld. The good old Revell (or the yellow/white one, I forgot the name) tube is unmatched, at least in my opinion. The extra thin glue sounds (to me) like cheating in a game. I tried it... I glued the two halves of a Starfighter intakes... I accid

This pod is a whole another model by itself! What a model, indeed! It can easily go as 1/32. It kinda needs some very little subtle weathering, to my taste at least. Can't wait to see it on the plane.

Hey ALF, thanks for the pics. How about the ''safety'' of the clear coat? I imagine it behaves the same way as normal paint, which is quite easy to scratch away/peel off/remove... I'm thinking about preparing a trial soon-ish, but I did try with paint directly over the foil in my F-117 (the exaust ducts), and it just scratches away after a few touches. At least it is safe to touch (not touching these areas at all), but here almost the entire model is NMF... there is no way to handle the model without touching the foil. I'll give it a try anyway, with acrylic- and lacquer-based clear coats.

The intake parts: I had to prep the aluminum surfaces behind them beforehand... This is actually the whole nose section after 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper. I know there are scratches left, but I was afraif of getting to the plastic underneath. Then polishing only the area around the intakes, then rivetting, then final polishing with up to 12 000-grit sandpaper. And the intakes are glued. After geting a better idea what it would like once finished... the verdict is that this would be my one and only NM

I like it a lot! A very GJ!

NMF adventures... I had to fill all panel lines and rivets, cause whatever happens - they are too too big... just out of scale. Then, the first panels on the nose section, almost ready for adding the intakes. The panels are far from ready though... they need a ton of surface prep.:

And here it is in true daytime shine and color + the bombs and all that can be open/moved. 🙂