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CF-104 Variegated Camo (second one)


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Great progress and updates ALF.

This is the bottom piece, aft of the nose wheel well. The little indented shape here is for the empty casings chute from the gun, but CF-104s didn't have them. I was going to fill it with a chopped-off part from the chute itself, but it only fills part of the hole, so I'll just use filler on it.

I was not sure if I wanted to have the gun panel open for viewing, or closed up...it occurred to me that it was not a common occurrence to have this door open, and I also didn't want to have loose parts lying around all the time. That's when I made the decision to close up the panel anyway.

The fuel tanks are different from the 1/48 Hasegawa. There are (just like the Hase kit) 4 fuel caps, but these ones need to be installed before gluing the two tank halves together (the Hasegawa kit's caps fit into place after the tank halves are glued together). One of the fuel caps ended up being a bit indented into the tank; this will be hard to cover up. The solution is to glue all 4 in place on one side, pressing them into place from inside and ensuring that the angles are correct. I did that. What I didn't do was WAIT until the caps had dried in place before gluing the tank halves together; that's how one of mine ended up being indented a bit on one end.

If you haven't already done so, perhaps you might glue some scrap sprue into the void to minimize the amount of putty you'll need to fill that hole. It can lessen the chance of the solvent in the putty softening and warping the plastic.

Great tips and suggestions about the gun bay and wind tank fuel caps. :thumbsup:

There are, of course, a few things I did correctly. Thanks to the peanut gallery :rolleyes:/> I applied silver pen on the inside of the lights, then blue/green and red magic marker to the outer part, and here's what they look like on the tip tanks. As promised, they do have lots of depth as a result. Thanks for the tip, amigos!

Another thing I like about this kit is the way the fins attach to the tanks. First of all, the angle for the tip tank fins is correct, contrary to the 1/48 Hasegawa. The fins will end up parallel to the wings, and not parallel to the ground. It is possible to glue each fin in place before gluing the two halves together, thus allowing a nice straight angle when drying, to ensure a 90 degree angle. You can see on the right side of the photo above that the fins are installed.

...(what, me, follow instructions?). Then I was doing a quick review of the instructions, and I realized that I glued the wrong fin in place.

In my generosity a few months back, I sent a set of 104G landing gear doors (the bulged ones) to another ARCer. He had asked for a set of the wheels also, so I sent them off, forgetting that they were the ones I needed for the Canadian version!

Of course, as I am contemplating all of this, I was sipping on Cinzano at my in-laws' house, looking pensive. SWMBO came up to me and gave me big hug, saying that I looked so pensive, I must have been missing my family (who live about 4,000 km away) at Christmas... I just nodded, and took advantage of the warm hug. She doesn't need to know I was solving a modelling conundrum in my head! :crying2:

Now for the moment of truth for the wheels. I fit them, and voila! Perfect diameter. All the little bits around the wheel wells fit nicely. These are nice and solid.

One thing that is raising red flags, though, is the fact that it seems to be a bit of a tail-sitter with the engine in place. I will add some weight inside the nose cone.

Happily, unlike the Hasegawa kit, the join between nose cone and fuselage is right along the demarcation between camouflage and black radome, so I will have a nice straight line when it is glued in place.

I learned also that it is not a great idea to have glued the ejection seat rails in place early on; I should have waited until the end, because every time I sit the aircraft on its back, these parts come loose and threaten to snap off.

Much easier to use a 3D model than to do the old transposition from 3-view drawings to paint, with a mind addled by wine, Cinzano, and too much turkey!

Today, I spray the green, hoping to recreate the same kind of effect with it. Wish me luck!

ALF

First off, I resemble that remark! :) I've also been bitten by the "Instructions? Shminstructions!" demon. No fun.

When I read about your conundrum, and Mrs. ALF's kindness, it reminded me of the 'Her Diary vs His Diary' joke.

http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/03/Jul/diary.html

As I got this kit for Christmas, I'm really happy that you're sharing some of the pitfalls and helpful hints that you've encountered along the way. They will help when I, and others, tackle the beast. Thank ALF.

I'm happy that the Frankenwheels solved your landing gear issue. You see? No good deed goes unpunished!

And finally, there is no need for any triptophan induced errors coming down to the painting stages.

Good luck on the rest of the paining.

Mike

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Love that His Diary vs Hers! A classic that fits the situation perfectly.

I hope you and Mrs AX_365 are recovering from turkey overdose nicely. Merry Christmas to you!

I guess I must have been a good boy this year. As I was painting this kit, I was looking for the little triangular part that holds the horizontal stab in place. A cursory glance at the sprues; nothing. Hmm. Look at the instructions (I know, I've been doing that a lot with this build), and I discover it's part 28B. Look for sprue B. Nowhere. I have two x D, one E, one A, and a C (plus F, the transparencies). Crap. I remember having thrown out some "excess" parts. I looked at the drawings in the instructions (again with the instructions!), and to my chagrin, I recognized the portion of sprue that I had chucked into the recycling about 4 or 5 days ago.

My first instinct was to check the inside recycling bin. Nothing. As I was envisioning using a part scratch-built from the Italian ventral fin, I rummaged through the big recycling bin in the garage. Still nothing. I then started to empty the big garage bin, one piece of paper/cardboard at a time. Luckily it was not wet garbage! After about 1/3 of the bin, I hit paydirt. Found the part on the sprue, and all is well. Phew. :woot.gif:

Paint is coming along nicely. Green is done, masking tape is coming off, and it's looking OK. Still waiting for the decals, though, but I will be able to continue to progress with painting, canopies, and the ejection seat while I wait.

ALF

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Lots of progress to show, but in between hockey games, so only a few minutes to post!

I did the green. Some of the variations are a bit too light; I touched up some of this later with a brush here and there. Did all of this freehand with the airbrush, with only masking between the bottom grey and the two top camouflage colours.

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Comparison with my 1/48 build. The hues look lighter on the big one, but (as proven by where I am now) the gloss and dull coats will darken up the colours.

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I love the panel line detail on the Italeri kit. I will be adding some silver tips to the 4 tanks; these all blistered off with airflow on all CF-104 camouflage schemes, including the overall dark green.

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There is some PE for the cockpit sills. In my opinion, this kit does not need a resin cockpit, because the detail is sufficient inside, and the cockpit sills come with these nice details. The only area where resin might make a difference is the sidewalls (which are hard to see anyway), and the seat, but the seat is very good for injection moulded with PE.

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Some of this PE was very hard to bend. This little part snapped on me. I keep telling myself I don't need one of those bending jigs for PE, but it might be a good investment...

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Installed on the sill.

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ALF

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Last update before hockey nail-biting time.

The replacement Leading Edge decals arrived! Got them a few days after Christmas. Thanks to Dave at Leading Edge Models for being so quick to send me the proper size after sending me 1/48 by mistake. Did I commend him for his prompt action and excellent customer service yet? Thanks! :thumbsup:

The resin RHAWR blisters came with the decals. I glued the two rear ones on after trimming the little excess off them, then took a break. For those who are real perfectionists, you may want to wait until very late in the build to attach the rear ones. Why? Because the "support here" lines and legends should go under the rear RHAWR blisters. I realized this too late, so I fudged the decal positions a bit too far forward.

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Of course, disaster is lurking every near on this build. As I took a break to watch a hockey game and read a book, I must have inadvertently brushed the forward RHAWR blister onto the floor. SWMBO was vacuuming... and as she ventured a few feet into my model room, we both heard the sound of something hard being sucked into the vacuum. "Oops", she said. I cringed. She described the part as being large, black, and kind of wedge-shaped... and I couldn't find my forward RHAWR blister. Luckily, I was able to retrieve it from the central vac's barrel the next morning. I glued it on quickly, before making any more mistakes.

As I was painting, I worked on the seat. Here the PE is installed, and I have also added a bit of corroded guitar string to make the little hose on the right rear side (not visible in this picture).

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I hand-brushed some dark panel lines on the tip tanks, and did some other minor touch-ups to the camo scheme.

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More soon. Thanks for stopping by. Go Canada!

ALF

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Now to catch up to where I am now. I can finally relax again, after our Junior Hockey team provided me with unwarranted heart palpitations last night. I felt somewhat bipolar as I watched the game, going from this :woot.gif::thumbsup: to this :blink: to this :o then finally to this :cheers: Thankfully, it never came to this: :crying2:

I applied the Future gloss coat.

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Decals are mostly on

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Warning: there are two big anomalies on this build. One is that I used the wrong single-point refuelling cap decal, deliberately. Leading Edge provides the correct one, but I liked the look of the kit one so much I used it... artistic license. I loved the stencils so much, I just had to go with this decal.

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Also, not visible on this picture, I got the placement of the green and grey on the right vertical tail wrong. There is too much green on mine, but I am not going to repaint it now.

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A few notes about how to build this great kit. Once again, by not reading the instructions, I got myself into minor trouble. Here is the horizontal tail, installed (snapped into position; it pivots if built correctly). Looks OK?

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Not! Check out the cap portion of the vertical tail. See those two little locator pins?

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Now look at what I thought was the underside of the horizontal stabilator; you see a couple neat little holes to fit the cap portion. Looks like I installed it upside down :doh:

No big deal. I just shaved off the locator pins, and the cap went nicely into position.

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ALF

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I glued the external tanks (underwing) in place, trying to get the fins horizontal to the ground. Note that you can just make out the silver noses of the tanks where the airflow has blasted off the paint.

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Good news and bad news about the lights. I had trimmed some masking tape and kept it on through the painting, gloss coat, and dull coat stages. I peeled off the tape, and here is the result. Good news is that the use of silver on the inside (as suggested by my loyal friends in the peanut gallery on this GB) makes the lights look really nice. Bad news is that the masking tape went slightly over the transparency onto the surrounding plastic, and I will have to try to touch up the missing camouflage colours here.

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Dull coat applied, masking completely removed, and finishing touches starting. I installed the instrument shroud and the sight's combining glass (it's not a HUD, given that it only provided weapon aiming information). Before gluing the nose in place, I added a bunch of lead fishing weight and a couple small rocks. It definitely would have been a tail sitter without the weight, which is unusual for a Starfighter. I think the reason is the detailed engine, and the fact I left the gun out of the forward fuselage.

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I really regret having glued the two ejection seat rails in place too early in the build. I have come very close to snapping them off a dozen times as I handled the kit or turned it over to work on the bottom. Next time, I will wait until this stage to glue them in place.

Thanks for stopping by!

ALF

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Looking real good.

those lights do pop out!

appart from the locating pins is the horizontal stab symmetrical(top to bottom) ?

Thanks Neo

The stab is almost symmetrical top to bottom; the bottom has an extra panel line with some rivets at about the 1/3 chord position (near the front). On mine, it shows on the top, but it is very hard to make out.

ALF

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Finally done. After decals, I glued the canopy and e-bay cover in place. I used my patented method of holding them in place with a largish bottle until dry.

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Thanks for participating in this GB thread with me. I may build another of these soon, in overall green camouflage. The natural metal version will wait for another day, though, when I can open the garage to spray the Alclad.

ALF

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She looks really good ALF. Is it my eyes, the angle of the photo or is the horizontal stab askew?

Mike

It was, slightly. The stab is not glued in tightly because it pivots. I'll fix it up and make sure it's true.

You can inspect it in person next summer at the airshow, I hope!

BTW, thanks for sending the XF-83 paint. I'll use it on my next Starfighters. It's nice to know I can count on friends like you to feed my habit!

ALF

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Got it! Very nice results on the variations and tones. I like it. As for the paint, anytime my friend. The shopping cart is always open whenever you need it. Still no reply from Bill regarding a 48th scale Tutor unfortunately. :(

Mike

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Nice result there ALF.

Might just have to get me one of these kits.

:thumbsup:/>

Cheers,

John

John

Coming from you, after the terrific result you had with your 1/48 of the same scheme, that's high praise - I'll take it! :cheers:

You need to get one of these - I can't wait to see what magic you could work on it.

Got it! Very nice results on the variations and tones. I like it. As for the paint, anytime my friend. The shopping cart is always open whenever you need it. Still no reply from Bill regarding a 48th scale Tutor unfortunately. :(/>

Mike

I owe you a meal at La Cage Aux Sports or La Voie Maltée when (if?) you come for the airshow next summer. You're a life-saver with your care packages.

ALF

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Good work there Alf18, these 1/32 kits are getting more and more appealing... but I would have no where to put them... The colours look spot on, for some reason the camouflage gray was bluer in Germany... you got it just right !

It woulk look great besides a 1 GTTF Kiwi CT-133 in same camo pattern... whenever Canuck gets out their 1-32nd sheet...

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Good work there Alf18, these 1/32 kits are getting more and more appealing... but I would have no where to put them... The colours look spot on, for some reason the camouflage gray was bluer in Germany... you got it just right !

It woulk look great besides a 1 GTTF Kiwi CT-133 in same camo pattern... whenever Canuck gets out their 1-32nd sheet...

Merci, Yves!

I can't wait for those decals to come out (the CF-104 ones); I have two more of these kits to do. You can fit this kit on your shelf... the Starfighter is small enough. :woot.gif:

ALF

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