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F-104 S Special Colour with open Engine Bay


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So I'm in with another 104, can't really stay away from the DACO SET!

Since it was not complicated enought to follow DACO instructions and Hasegwa one I also bought this nice engine from CMK!

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Since I have several of my own photos showing this area I choose to add it to my next kit

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the engine is very heavy, to avoid the need of too much weight in the nose cone I choose to remove some resin from the inside of the engine, I think I removed almost half of it weight now

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I will use the rivet-less wings from DACO set in this one, so I choose to also remove rivets from rear fuselage

here I'm using Mr. Sufecar 500, but I have to say typewriter corrector fluid works much better for this job, Mr. Surfacer use to retire a lot and won't stay in all the small holes even if I'm trying to press it down with a blade.

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for any S and derivatives (ASA and AS-M) mind to move the position light behind the main landing gear bay and close the grills opening that you will find in that position on any kits

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another small part from CMK engine set:

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and the truly nice door, very detailed!

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now a suggestion: trow the CMK instruction sheet in the bin and be sure not to watch it! :woot.gif:

Have you done that?

If so we can carry on: don't cut anything, don't remove any parts from Hasegawa kit if not the door opening: engine will seat easily in your fuselage, just lay it's back to the interior part of the airbrakes, no major surgery required!

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the wings could have problems with the resin engine, so I suggest to remove the small area as shown in the photo here below.

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I also opened the small air intakes in the lower fuselage to add some dept to them, interiro must be replaced with plastcard

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My one and only problem is choo which one to finish:

Tiger 1988 F-104S from 53°Stormo

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or the big Yellow one from 23°Gruppo?

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Back in Spring 2008 I have already made the latter, but later I gifted it to the painter of this Special Scheme when he retired from Air Force, so it is no longer in my collection and choosing between these two it not simple for me.

I hope it is not against any rule of this Gruop build to not declare how I'm going to finish it since, sincerly I stil don't know... :crying2:

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Hi Paolo, this could well be THE build for our StarFish enterprise! I am really excited about this one, and will follow your progress with the CMK items closely -I have a few of these to put in another build, but will never manage it in time for this GB... :rolleyes: Life keeps getting in my face, but I suppose it's better than the alternative!

Both those schemes are awesome, and I would never try to influence your choice, but the 23º Gruppo scheme is exceptional, even by Italian standards!

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this is the part of the CMK to not to follow, if you remove that part it will be impossible to fix your landing gear and you will have no advantage since the engine is 1 cm away from the main gear box.

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to start with the engine and it's cover got a coat of Zinch Chromate Yellow (Mr. Colour laquer in my case).

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Then I painted the engine with Mr. Colour Steel and added some more colored bits and wire with Vallejo acrylics

with the engine in position I started painting and detailing the door, more is needed here, a wash and a cople of instruments to check pressure of the systems

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Here you can see a noce and useful detail available in the DACO set: it is a cover that was applied on F-104S, F-104S ASA and F-104S ASAM each and every time the external pylons (BL104) were removed.

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I also opened the parabrake hatch and spryed the kit with Mr. Colour white

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FINALLY MY CHOICHE: will build Tiger'88 since decals for this subject are better even if the yellow is a bit too dark than needed:

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  • 2 weeks later...

in the last couple of weeks I painted my model as Tiger 88, but I was unappy on how it turned out and unable to match the (wrong) shade of yellow of the Hasegawa decals, so last Friday I stripped off all black and yellow paint and now I will try to build it as "Giallone" the big yellow one

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Again I found out several mistakes in the way Hasegawa made the decals, the white and black stripes didn't follow the countors correctly, so I'm trying to paint it all using more accurate masking, just wish me luck!

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I'm slowing going on the hardest way, as you know yellow is not modeller friendly and when you have black so near it is the worst schenario!

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for the nose cone I think I will use decals since black, yellow and white stripes are too thin in that area, more soon

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thank you all for the kind words, I'm approaching the end of this project but going slow since I keep loosing smallest antennas and sensor to the carpet monster!

Anyhow, there are two small dials inside the hydraulic compartment door, I cut two decals from the Mike Grant's sheet for generic dials using the punch and die

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then gave some ddep to the compartment using sepia oil colour thinned with Zippo fluid, it is winter and I can't really use Turpentine indoor :woot.gif:

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  • 3 weeks later...

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