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CAF 417 Squadron CF-104 colour bird


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Hi All,

I had started this kit early last year in hopes to have it completed for the "Gone But Not Forgotten" group build. Needless to say work and life got in the way and the project was shelved at a very early build stage. I'm resurrecting this project for the group build here and I will have time to complete it this time.

The project is of the CAF 417 Squadron colour bird # 104763 as it was painted for the June 1983 stand down of 417 squadron and the end of training with the CF-104 at Cold Lake. The kit is the Hasegawa CF-104 along with a few aftermarket items. Decals are from Leading Edge, exhaust and wheel wells are from Aires, cockpit from Black Box, pitot tube from Fine Molds and masks from Eduard. Since the kit has been barely started I think it's okay to include it in this group build. Please let me know otherwise.

Pics of the kit as I left it more than a year ago:

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I have a direct connection to this subject as I was the lead technician on a crew that reassembled this particular aircraft for display at the Reynolds Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin Alberta, Canada. 763 arrived to our shop in very complete condition. Unfortunately we received wings and radome from a different CF-104 and they required painting prior to installing on the fuselage. It was a fun project and the following photos are just a small taste of the massive collection I took while we restored the CF-104.

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In%20Work-1.jpg

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Cheers,

John

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Our team completed the restoration in 1992 and we transported it to various airshows on a flat bed truck. The photo with the Mig-29UB is at the Edmonton International airport where I worked at Northwest Industries Ltd.(NWI). We brought the CF-104 there after the Namao Airshow for an open house they put on. NWI overhauled 77 CF-104's in the late 70's early 80's and they really appreciated having it there. The Ukrainian Air Force brought over two Mig-29's in 1992 for the summer airshow season and we installed an ATC transponder into the UB for them.

The really unfortunate part with this aircraft is that it got repainted at Cold Lake some time in the mid nineties, which wasn't required, and they completely messed up the scheme.

Cheers,

John

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  • 1 month later...

It's been a while so now it's time for an update.

The kit is now assembled and primed with Tamiya gray primer. Some minor filling and rescribing and then the white primer followed by the colour coats. Hopefully this will happen in the up coming week.

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Cheers,

John

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi All,

Just a one picture update. The white and blue have been sprayed and I'm in the process of mixing a proper red for the tail. With any luck the red will be going on later today or tomorrow.

Cheers,

John

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:thumbsup:

What paint did you choose for this Blue ?

I used Tamiya X-4 Blue with a touch of XF-2 White to lighten it to the shade of blue to match the decals. I also like to spray flat colours so I added a little X-21 Flat Base to the blue to allow easier spraying.

Cheers,

John

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The painting has gone well today. Got the blue and red on. Next will be the black for the intakes and then an overall clear coat of Future before the decals.

Here's three more shots of the progress.

Cheers,

John

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;)

Super clean job on the fit and painting. Those colours look fantastic on it. When a kit looks that good before decals, it is stunning when decaled up!

ALF

Hey ALF,

Thanks for the comments.

Since I had to work today I was only able to paint the black on the intakes, the tan for the various antennas and aluminum for the gear wells. Next up is to spray with 3 coats of Future and then decal the beast.

Cheers,

John

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Beautiful work, John! Love the shots of the original as well.

I'm curious to hear if the decals behave for you, some of the Leading Edge sheets can be more "difficult" than others.

Cheers,

Sean

Hi Sean,

I am a bit curious about the decals as well. I've had problems with early Leading Edge sheets in the past and have 3 sets of decals on hand for this one just in case. I'm tempted to give the decals a coat of decal film just to be certain they don't disintegrate on me.

Cheers,

John

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Funny, I've never had an issue with Dave's decals. These are a relatively recent release, too, so I wouldn't forsee any problems. Hot water helps, particularly for large decals, and give the decal time for the adhesive to soften (with LEM's large decals the backing tends to curl up in water; if you straighten them too soon, they'll tend to crack and split; give it time for the adhesive to soften and the decal to start sliding on the backing; you'll see the paper ease up a bit, then you can flatten the backing back out)

But that's more to do with the fact that his decals often cover colourbirds, which means there's often very large decals to be applied, and large decals can require a bit more finesse than normal insignia.

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Funny, I've never had an issue with Dave's decals. These are a relatively recent release, too, so I wouldn't forsee any problems. Hot water helps, particularly for large decals, and give the decal time for the adhesive to soften (with LEM's large decals the backing tends to curl up in water; if you straighten them too soon, they'll tend to crack and split; give it time for the adhesive to soften and the decal to start sliding on the backing; you'll see the paper ease up a bit, then you can flatten the backing back out)

But that's more to do with the fact that his decals often cover colourbirds, which means there's often very large decals to be applied, and large decals can require a bit more finesse than normal insignia.

Hey MoFo,

Umm... thanks for the decal primer... :worship: I know you're just trying to help but what you're telling me is nothing new with how I apply my decals.

Anyway, not withstanding how I apply my decals I've found Dave's decals to by quite a bit more fragile than most aftermarket decals out there. The 417 decals are from 2002 so they're not recent at all. I know Dave has changed a few things over the last little while to improve the decal durability when applying them so maybe these are the decals you are referring to.

Now, getting back to the build! I just finished spraying my future coats and once that's cured I'll be applying the decals.

Cheers,

John

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I have to agree with the trepidation about large LEM colour bird decals. I had some trouble with the 433 Sqn 60th anniversary scheme; some flaking and cracking happened despite my best efforts to do everything right. I've also had some Standard CF-18 scheme tail numbers shatter into a thousand pieces for no apparent reason on older sheets.

Dave from LEM found some really old CC-137 (Boeing 707) decals in 1:72 for me when I made a special plea for them. I used some decal film to prep them, and had minimal troubles with the very long window bands (only a bit of fragmenting, and Dave had supplied a couple extra strips just in case).

TLC and decal film, and a little finger-crossing - good luck!

ALF

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Hey ALF,

I haven't had great luck with LEM decals except for their newer releases.

I just did a test on the decals and they are very fragile. Any thought of bending, let alone sliding them off the sheet and they are going to fall apart. Time to get the decal film out and take my time on this one.

Cheers,

John

Edited by CF104
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Hi,

This will be my last update until 19 Sept. My wife and I are going on a short vacation so I'll be away from the work bench until then.

I tackled the decal job this afternoon. It's a good thing I had more than one set of these decals. Lets just say that they were very fragile. The sheet needed 3 thin coats of decal film before the decals would remain in one piece. Even then I had to dig into a second sheet to complete the wing stripes. These decals would have been impossible to apply without the application of decal film.

Well I'm pleased with how the decals look in the end. They need a bit more micro-sol and Mr.Mark Softer to get them to properly set. Here are four more pictures of the results.

Cheers,

John

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All,

Well I'm back from my short vacation and have been doing some decal cleanup and final paint touch-ups today prior to another Future coat. I plan on having the gear on some time tomorrow with a goal of completion by the end of this week.

Thanks again for looking in on this build and the favorable comments are greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

John

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Quick update here.

I didn't get as far along as I'd hoped this week but I do have some panel detail added and completed the Aires exhaust. The gear in is the final stages of weathering and the pitot tube is in work. I have the rest of today and all of tomorrow to devote to this build so I'm anticipating some good progress.

I'm also going to repaint the tan antenna behind the cockpit as it's too dark and the last thing to do will be to flat coat the black on the intakes and the anti glare in front of the windshield.

Cheers,

John

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POW!! That looks great!!! Having seen this particular Jet several times (in Red Deer, and at the museum where it lives)....you've really captured its beauty. Excellent job on the sudtle weathering. :D

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Looks absolutely amazing !!

can i suggest a little drybrushing on the burner can

Cheers

Neo

Hey Neo,

Thanks. I am not one to work with gloss schemes and this one is actually working out. :thumbsup:

Actually the burner can has some dry brushing on it. It's just that I used such a strong light to get the interior details that it washed out the colours a bit. I'll try and get a better shot today.

Cheers,

John

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