AX 365 Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) No photos or anything at all. This is a topic starter to declare my participation in this GB. Good luck everyone! Mike Edited April 6, 2015 by AX 365 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 :popcorn:/> Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 (edited) I'v changed my mind and I will be using the Revellogram kit for this build instead of a Hasegawa kit. The rear to front fuselage joint MAY pose a bit of a problem and if it does, I can hopefully use that seam as a demarcation between the black and yellow. I'll still be using Belcher's decals though. Although these are photos from the last time I built this kit, here's the kit I'm using, the contents of the box and a bit of what I did last night: You can see Mike Belcher's decals in this set of photos. The speedbrakes have been glued in place (closed) and the fit is very good. A minor bit of filler will be needed there (as shown in the previous build). The wing tanks have been glued together. The long bits inside the tank are locating pins, not pour stubs or spare plastic. They locate the depth of the tank onto the end of the wing. The bay for the Vulcan cannon can be posed open or closed. I've closed it. A problem with the door is that it is 'flatter' than the curve of the fuselage. The door fits the hole but it will require filler and elbow grease to get it to look proper. I did it before and I can do it again. As you can see, the fuselage is a four piece affair; the front is top and bottom and the rear is left and right - like the 48th scale Hobby craft CF-100. When I build the kit this time, in order to help reduce the step / seam between the front and rear pieces, I'll glue only the top part of the rear sections together and then glue the rear to the front. That way, I can align the seam / joint properly and then fill the gap in the bottom of the rear section with shims. I plan to leave the landing gear assembly out of the the gear bay and tack all the gear doors in place to facilitate painting. I'll also raid the spares box to see if I have a spare exhaust nozzle. The kit piece is abysmal. As usual, paints will be Model Master enamels. There's still plenty of work to be done but the deadline is still a fair piece away so I don't anticipate and significant problems in not getting to the finish line. Thanks for looking in and as usual, comments and constructive criticism is always welcome. Mike Edited February 27, 2015 by AX 365 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 You are a brave man, my friend. I actually pulled my box of that kit off the shelves in the garage, opened it, thought about the travails you had the first time you built it, shuddered, and put it back on the shelf. Hopefully it will be like the second time I built a Classic Airframes F-5A in 1/48; the lessons learned will make it easier for you. Which tiger scheme are you doing? I am about to start a build thread for my own Tiger CF-104. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tobiK Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Now the canadians are coming to the GB! Welcome...there's no NTM without the guys from the Country of wide forests! Wish you success with the (vintage) Monogram kit. Despite its shape inaccuracies it will look like a Starfighter in the end... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Mike, if you want, I can send you this: It's the exhaust nozzle I'm not using from my Hasegawa kit. Honestly, I have no clue which I should be using, but both look OK to me. Just say the word, and it's on its way. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 Tobi / ALF, Thanks guys. I only ever got to see a Starfighter in her element once. It was at an airshow here in Ottawa in 74 - 76. I'll never forget the characteristic whine of the engine. The spectacle was pretty impressive. A friend who flew with Uncle Guy said that of the 33 types of aircraft in his log book, the CF-104 was his favourite, hands down. I'll be doing my tiger as the one displayed in 82 or 83. Bite my tongue but it should prove simple enough...hopefully. ALF - I am hoping that, in this instance, the second time's the charm. I did learn a few things from the first build. I did find a spare exhaust nozzle in the spares box from my Checkerbird build in the StarFish GB. Nice tribute to dad, ALF. Tobi - you're right in that although it has a few issues, it will look like a Starfighter when she's done. Finally, although I never met the man, this build will be dedicated to a former C/O of 439 'Tiger' Squadron (when based at Marville, France and later Lahr, Germany) Brigadier General (Ret'd.) Stephen Gulyas. He passed away here in Ottawa on 23 February 2015. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ottawacitizen/obituary.aspx?pid=174260033 Per Ardua Ad Astra, Mr. Gulyas. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Nice tribute to the former CO, Mike. He lived a very full life and it sounds like he had a great family time after he retired. Pictures! ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted March 9, 2015 Author Share Posted March 9, 2015 Now that my Hornet for the Shelf Queens GB is done, it's time to concentrate on this build. Bowing to pressure from our friend ALF, here are a few pictures as to what I have done since my last post. Filling and sanding of the gun panel and speedbrakes. They look pretty good but a bit of primer will tell me how good...or not so good...they are. I've also filled the four little hollows for the missile rials with CA glue and filled the little hole for the spent cartridge chute wit a piece of Evergreen styrene and Tamiya Extra Thin. Here's the exhaust nozzle I found in my spares box from a Hasegawa kit. It's much nicer than the kit offering. The seat and cockpit tub have been assembled. I used the kit decals for the side consoles and IP. Unlike the Hasegawa IP decals, these decals are in four sections; left and right and upper and lower main. They are a bit thick but settled down after a good dose of Solvaset. Had I sanded the details off the IP it would have been easier but I'm a bit of a sucker for punishment that way. The C2 isn't the greatest but I'm not spending more on a resin seat than what I paid for the kit. The kit comes with an MB seat as well. I've also painted the IP coaming and rear deck area as per guidance provided by ALF in a previous build. I'll give the coaming a wash to tone it down a bit. That's it for now. Thanks for looking in and as usual comments and constructive criticism is always welcome. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Looking nice, Mike. You've perfected the art of applying lipstick to a pig with this kit. I especially like the decals for the instrument panels. They look nicer than the Hasegawa ones to me. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Thanks for the kind words, ALF. I think the Revell IP decals look better than the Hasegawa ones as well. The Hasegawa cockpit assembly is much nicer than the Revell one though. That's for sure. I've managed to get the fuselage buttoned up and the tail installed. i think I managed to do a much better job this time than when I tackled this kit the first time. Not as much of a putty hog in version 2. I'll use photos to illustrate. Top photo is the first time I built this kit and the photo underneath is version 2. Right front fuselage joint Left front fuselage joint and gun access panel Right tail joint Left tail joint Bottom seam A few more photos in the next post. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Here's the spare Hasegawa exhaust nozzle just set in place. Night and day compared to the kit piece in the photo in the previous post. The IP coaming with a wash applied. There's still some sanding to do on a few of the joints and seams but these results are much better, if I do say so myself. <_< Thanks for checking in. As usual, comments and constructive criticism is always welcome. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CorsairMan Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 I saw Mike working on this one a couple of weeks ago. I think he was crying a little. Nice work on the speedbrakes! Those definitely look the part. I've always had trouble scribing puttied areas and yours looks clean. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Woah! Same kit? If I had any reason to doubt AX_365's integrity, I would be convinced it was not the same kit. Terrific job on the second time around, Mike! Any hints as to how I could achieve similar results the first time building one, or does it involve black magic and animal sacrifice? I am now not so put-off about the prospect of building this kit one day. Looking forward to seeing the paint job. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 I saw Mike working on this one a couple of weeks ago. I think he was crying a little. Nice work on the speedbrakes! Those definitely look the part. I've always had trouble scribing puttied areas and yours looks clean. Thanks, CM. I stopped crying after I got home and dipped into the Crown Royal. All was good after that. As for the speedbrakes, I was very fortunate. I only needed a bit of filler and I used the back of a #11 blade to lightly follow the line. Woah! Same kit? If I had any reason to doubt AX_365's integrity, I would be convinced it was not the same kit. Terrific job on the second time around, Mike! Any hints as to how I could achieve similar results the first time building one, or does it involve black magic and animal sacrifice? I am now not so put-off about the prospect of building this kit one day. Looking forward to seeing the paint job. ALF Thanks ALF. Patience and time is the answer. No voodoo or satanic animal offerings but I'm not finished yet so there may be some of that in the future, if things go sideways. During this build, I left out the part that represents the gun bay and simply glued the door in place. I took my time lining up the door as best I could. Leaving the gun bay part out allowed me to manipulate the door from the inside as well as the outside thus letting me get the edges more level this time. As for the speedbrakes, you'll need to sand off a lot of the detail on the inside of the door to allow it to sit flush. You could also probably remove the speedbrake well from inside the tail pieces to get rid of the interior detail and to allow a better seat. I didn't do this and If I were to build this kit again (highly unlikely as I have a few other kits to finish my CF-104 projects) I would probably follow that route. You will also have to do a bit of sanding of the door edges to get the proper contour of the door to fit into the well opening. Moving onto the top to bottom fuselage join, I simply glued in quarters. For some reason, the fit of the fuselage halves in this kit was better than my first kick at the can. I was contemplating having to glue shims onto the inside of the fuselage halves to get the seams to line up but it was unnecessary. I placed the two halves together and then glued the right front seam together, taking my time to ensure the seams lined up as closely as possible. Yes it meant holding the plastic together with my fingers for about 5 minutes but the result was worth it, as you can see. I started to use a clothes pin to keep the pieces together but that started to bow the joint due to the pressure. Light finger pressure was all that was needed. I made sure the glue had cured properly (about an hour) before attempting the second seam; the right rear. This is really only a very small seam from the back of the wing to where the plastic starts to taper for the 'engine'. After that seam was dry, I repeated the same process for the left side. The seams, as you can see in the photos, lined up very nicely and resulted in a minimum of filling and sanding. I then glued the 'engine' pieces together. Accuracy is not a must here. As I'll be using a Hasegawa exhaust nozzle, I had to cut the kit 'engine' to allow the proper depth of the Hasegawa nozzle into the fuselage. Where do I cut the exhaust pipe to allow the Hasegawa part to fit properly, you ask? If you refer to the photos of the fuselage pieces in the box at the top of the thread, you will see where the exhaust start to taper at the back end of the part. This taper is about 1/4" in length. Once the fuselage parts are glued together, use a razor saw to cut the 'engine' part at this taper. Use the little nubs on the 'engine' as a cutting guide. You can't go wrong. The back end of the Hasegawa nozzle is sitting flush against the 'engine' in the photo above. Best of all, you can leave the nozzle out of the aircraft until after painting. Simply apply CA glue to the back of the nozzle and mount it against the 'engine'. Presto. A clean exhaust nozzle without having to mask it off. As for attaching the tail parts, I followed my own idea (and it was suggested by CorsairMan and another very knowledgeable fellow modeller, Earl Atkins) and I simply glued the top seam of the left and right rear tail pieces together, leaving the bottom join open to allow for manipulating and gluing the tail piece onto the front piece so there was no step in the seam. The open seam on the bottom closed up very well with only a need for a small amount of filler as depicted in the photo above. I've also learned to apply filler sparingly, instead of one large dollop, as it dries quicker. It also makes sanding easier too. That's what I've done up to this point in time. I've masked the canopy to get it ready for installation and painting. I still have to add, and paint, a few pieces in the cockpit area and then apply the clear pieces. I'll then apply the radar warning bits and once that's done, it's primer time. I'll be using Model Master Light Grey and then Model Master Flat White. Main colours will be Model Master Insignia Yellow and Flat Black. I'm leaving off the landing gear to allow placing the gear doors in place with tape when spraying the black. I'm also doing the same with the horizontal stabilizer. Thanks for looking in gents and leaving your comments. I appreciate it. Next post will have more photos. Cheers. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted March 13, 2015 Author Share Posted March 13, 2015 I have the yellow sprayed. It's not really as dark as depicted in the photos. After a day or so to cure, I'll polish with a trashed cotton tee shirt and then I'll tape the stripes and apply the black paint. Thanks for looking in. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Those knowledgeable with late Canadian CF-104's will note that yours truly forgot to add the radar warning sensors under the nose and at the rear of the fuselage before applying the yellow paint. I realized that as I was posting the photos in my post above. No worries. I simply scraped away a bit of the paint in the affected areas and installed the sensors with CA glue. Presto! The nose was masked and sprayed with flat black. After that was done, I masked the fuselage and wings and sprayed the black stripes (flat black). The painting was done about 20 minutes ago. After the black has had a chance to cure, I'll remove the masking and hold various pieces in place (horizontal stabilizer, gear doors, wing tanks, ventral fin, etc) and mark them so I can apply masking and the spray the appropriate spots on these parts with flat black. Once that bit of painting is done, I'll mask the areas that need to be painted in a fibreglass colour (area on spine behind canopy, ventral fin and area under front fuselage). I'll prime with light grey and then apply the fibrelglass colour. I use MM Radome Tan for this. I also need to spray the exhaust nozzle with MM Burnt Iron and the gear bays, gear legs and inner doors with MM Gloss Black and then Alclad Aluminum. I'll post a few more photos next time to illustrate what I've done between this post and the next. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
glorystomper Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Looks sweet, AX! Hope you won't mind, but I'll be joining the GB with an F-104 as well.. but it's a Belgian machine :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 Looks sweet, AX! Hope you won't mind, but I'll be joining the GB with an F-104 as well.. but it's a Belgian machine :)/>/> Thanks for the kudos. Good luck with your Starfighter build. I'll check in to see your progress. A bunch of photos for this update. As noted, the radar sensors have been installed and painted. They are not painted in this first photo. They're black resin. They are painted, along with the rest of the airframe, in the second photo. Here's the masked airframe with the MM flat black sprayed. And here's the finished result with the gear bays sprayed aluminum and the fibreglass panels masked and painted. Finally, the landing gear parts, doors and exhaust nozzle sprayed. Next is a couple of touch ups and then a couple of coats of MM clear gloss. I then have to mask and spray aluminum backgrounds for some of the decals ('CANADA' wordmark on the intakes, last 3 on the nose, tail serial number, etc). Belcher Bits supplies some of the aluminum bits as decals but I think painting will make the application of the decals better. It will take a bit longer but the results should be worth it. Thanks very much for looking in. As usual, comments and constructive criticism is always welcome. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crazy Snap Captain Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Mike, That's a nice paint job mate! Love it. She's looking good! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted March 26, 2015 Author Share Posted March 26, 2015 Mike, That's a nice paint job mate! Love it. She's looking good! Thanks brother. Small update today. As stated in my last post, I've masked and sprayed with Alclad, the aluminum spots where assorted decals will go, as this was done on the real 104706. It was very tedious having to measure the decals and then masking the appropriate areas to those measurements. Thank goodness for calipers. The circles were cut by placing Tamiya tape across a hole of the appropriate diameter on a circle template and cutting carefully with a new #11 blade. Pretty good results in my opinion. I've got all aluminum bits painted and I gave the fuselage and wings a coat of gloss this morning. Decaling will take place over the next few days. I'm going to a retirement party this afternoon (one of the guys I joined with in 1984 has retired) and then this evening I'll be watching the Sens playoff push continue. Working days this weekend and there are Sens games Saturday and Sunday night. The Boss and I will be going to the game Sunday evening. I'm off Monday and Tuesday so I should be applying stickies by then. After the decals are applied, I'll attach all the other pieces, except the wheels, and apply another gloss coat or two. Thanks for looking in and more photos in the next update. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SARguy Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Looking really nice, great paint job Gordon Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Looking really nice, great paint job Gordon Thanks for the kind words, Gordon. I'm calling this one done. There were a few setbacks but nothing I couldn't overcome. The setbacks were of my own making. In the posts and photos above, you learned that I measured and masked the aluminum parts for the roundels, flag, serial numbers, etc. As it turned out, I measured the wrong roundel for the fuselage. Consequently, I had to correct my oversight and that cost me the better part of a day of masking and painting because I farked up a couple of things. Breathe. Relax. Go to your happy place. Breathe in. Exhale. I did manage to get the proper diameter aluminum disc sprayed. After all was said and done, in retrospect I figured out the way I should have done the masking. I should have made a copy of the decals. After making the copy of the decals, I should have laid a strip of clear packing tape on the back side of the copied sheet. I should have then placed Tamiya tape on the packing tape and cut the copy of the decal from the printed sheet. That would have created a mask for the appropriate decal. After priming, I should have sprayed the appropriate shade of Alclad over the primer, applied the mask I created over the Alclad and then sprayed the yellow and black. Hindsight is always 20 / 20. Anyway, here's a couple of shots. The Hasegawa exhaust nozzle turned out really nice with a coat of Model Master Burnt Iron Metalizer. After the decals were applied and the rest of the fiddly bits were installed (except tires and wheels), I sprayed another coat of Model Master Gloss Coat. I masked the anti glare panel so I didn't have to apply Dull Coat to it. I would much rather build Hasegawa's 48th scale Starfighters but if push really came to shove, I could do another one of these kits and it would turn out not too badly, although I think I'd only go with a painted scheme and not a natural metal finish. The amount of work that would be required to get a proper base for the Alclad would be pretty substantial. To those who took the time to visit and leave a comment or provide guidance and feedback, thank you. It was greatly appreciated. To the organizers and moderators, great job! Thanks again. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tobiK Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Congrats to your nice Tiger-Zipper! Well done...yaa I know, in the end Murphy really likes to disturb! Something tiny is breaking (more times...), clear parts are fogging, paint is rubbed of the edges from the fingers...you finally get a nice shot of the original and realize that you did mistakes in paint scheme etc. So I feel with you about the masking desaster! Nevertheless...noiceee!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Very nice and clean build. I am doing this one right now but in flight....And in 1/32. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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