1/32 CF104 Italeri

[MikeA]

Greetings from the cold bottom end of Australia,

 

This is my first WIP here, and I must admit to being somewhat in awe of the standard of work which seems to be the norm on LSP. I have been modelling on and off for many years now, but only just plucked up the courage to show a completed project here. I build very very slowly, so hopefully that will not prove frustrating to follow. I also like to try doing new, for me, stuff - so the ambition is prone to outrun the skill level.

 

As background, the core of my models are of aeroplanes of the de Havilland design, and typically 1/48. However, I do break out into 1/32 with particular subjects which catch my attention for whatever reason. This one was picked mainly as I wanted to try a NMF and it seems a suitably uncomplicated airframe to try that for the first time. I picked up the Italeri F104 G/S for a decent price and will see how it goes, having started on it about a month ago. Hopefully it ends up better off that a Flanker I started some years ago which tragically lost a dogfight with our Labrador puppy at the time. The Labrador remained in NZ whilst we relocated to Australia - not to escape the Labrador, but at least this model is relatively safe!

 

The photo below is the obligatory box art and two of the most significant pieces of "after-market" aids I came across. I love being able to get as much of my references out of books rather than on-line - just something about the feel and smell of a book full of great photos! The Daco Publications book is absolutely amazing as a reference. the Canadian Starfighters book is less useful for the detail of modelling but has loads of very clear photos and history of the Canadian aeroplanes. The Net is only really required to uncover the cockpit details of the Canadian starfighters, as the Daco book covers the German versions.

 

 

Apart from the two books, the after-market details I have at hand are:

• Eduard Brassin set with the resin C2 seat, early nozzle and early wheels
• Eduard fabric seat belts
• Eduard colour interior PE
• Quickboost control column
• Eduard electronic boxes PE
• Eduard exterior PE
• Eduard wheelbay details
• Aires wheelbays
• Master metal pitot tube
• Canuck Symmetrical Marking Canadian decals

The kit shortcomings are very well known, which is why the plethora of after-market I guess. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Eduard PE, but it does seem to dress up jet cockpits especially well.

 

I still haven't settled on exactly which of the Canadian jets I will finish this one as, except that it will be one that's in natural metal and carries the symmetrical markings from the later period.

 

Anyway, on to what I have done so far..........

 

The build started with the cockpit. I didn't take a photo of the rear bulkhead as supplied, but it was entirely a work of fiction bearing no resemblance to any reality. i sanded off all of the detail, cut it in two and reassembled it as a single flat wall on which to build the detail. Having taken this photo, I noticed that the fresh air pipe (I think it is) is crooked so will need re-doing. Essentially pieces of plastic card, wire and solder with a couple of pieces of very fine brass mesh. It took a lot of dry fitting to make sure that the ejection seat rails sit as they should and that the whole bulkhead doesn't foul the nose gear well that sits immediately behind it.

 

 

The Eduard interior comes with a tray which inserts into the floor. On studying the interior photos it was apparent that this tray is actually the top side of the antenna panel which sits in the nose hatch under the cockpit. The cockpit doesn't actually have a floor as such as the bang seat in the first version went out through the bottom hatch, and then this hatch was used to service the seats in later versions. Anyway, careful measuring and lots of trial fitting lead me to attempt to replicate the inside of the nose hatch.

 

 

That meant cutting out almost all of the floor in the kit's cockpit tub. The next photo shows the Eduard side panels in place. I also raided my collection of foil from emptied bottles of single malt to line the rest of the cockpit walls in an attempt to not have an edge showing on the incomplete Eduard panels. The pieces of white card on the left hand side panel are to replace my overenthusiastic removal of detail in preparation for the Eduard panels. Also in place is the Quickboost gaiter for their control column.

 

 

 

When put together, the nose hatch and partially destroyed cockpit tub look a tad better than the original offering. As to how much, if any, will be visible on the final model........at least it was fun.

 

 

Before starting on the coloured PE for the cockpit, I thought I'd get some practice with the electronic boxes. These are supposed to be a number of separate computer boxes mounted in frames. the kit provides a single piece with fairly clunky "detail" on the top of it, which I again forgot to photograph. The Eduard boxes are also in one piece.

 

 

With heart in mouth, I cut the pieces apart using my PE shears and then also cut the PE handles apart. These sit on top of the boxes and provide a lot of the visual interest, but the Eduard pieces are necessarily very flat. After assembling and flat coating the result looks ok, especially compared to the original kit piece. I used some fine solder for the wires. The closest photo I have of this area in a Canadian Starfighter was taken from about 20m away at a sharp angle, so I have no idea of how accurate it is for these aircraft. There is still some work to do on the box in the front middle but otherwise should be good to go. The pixellated finish is invisible at normal viewing, as is the slight offset on a couple of the buttons. 

 

 

It still needed some detail to represent the stuff inside the fuselage which the Eduard set allows to be seen. This should give some added depth to the area when finally in place. The pieces are square to the rest of the panels, but look crooked due to the piece of solder cutting across. The tiny buttons were the smallest pieces of PE that I have ever had to fold and glue - but the cockpit ones will be even finer! I placed the PE on top of masking tape which was taped, sticky side up, to a ceramic tile. The glue used is my favourite PVA white glue heavily diluted, which gives plenty of strength for non-structural elements but flows easily around and under minute pieces of PE paced in position without leaving visible traces of glue.

 

 

Most of the Starfighters in Canadian service after the mid-seventies had the cannon reinstated, so I added the Eduard detail to the magazine area as it will still be seen even with the cover hatch closed. I'm not sure that the AETE aircraft had the cannon though, and may have retained the extra fuel tank instead of the cannon. Why this matters to me is that I was keen on modelling one of the AETE Starfighters (104702) as it has an interesting tail flash marking and red tip tanks, but I cannot find any photos of the top of the fuel tank. The fall back is to leave the ammunition area as is and complete the model as one of the usual Cold Lake starfighters. That would save me making some decals from scratch I guess.

 

Finally, for this post, are  the sidewalls for the cockpit. I used the Eduard panels as a starting point, but it took several iterations to get to where it is. I use white PVA glue typically to allow repeated assembly and disassembly until I finally arrive at something I can live with. I this case the rear most portion is not quite right on each side, but to change it would mean having to completely rework the scratched rear bulkhead. I decided to live with the error.

 

 

 

I've moved on to painting the cockpit, but I'll show that in a separate post. Having seen a few amazing builds of this model on LSP, I realise that I have taken a slightly different approach which is, hopefully, worth the look.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice project, Mike. And I must say, some very impressive work so far, too!

 

Kev

[Mark M]

one to watch

[alain11]

Hi 

 

good start !!!!!!! I will follow this thread with interest , that's promising !!!!!

Alain

[ClumsyDude]

Looks awesome so far, Mike. 

 

Jim

[The1971Show]

Very nice start to the project!

 

Darren

[Stevepd]

Wow that's some very impressive modelling.

[Guest Peterpools]

Mike

Excellent start of the 104 and will be following all the way

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[MikeA]

Thank you for the encouragement! I'll try to keep the updates coming. I'm horrified at how unforgiving the close-up shots are and suspect I will spend even more time reworking pieces.

 

I've continued with painting the cockpit. I ended up using US Compass Grey as the base colour mainly due to the odd colour that Eduard have finished their instrument panels for this kit in. It's a slightly more blue/grey than that used for the electronic boxes, but I'm not convinced that it was actually correct for the real aircraft. The Eduard interior PE is of the adhesive and pre-coloured variety. The black panels actually look very good, although the small switches which were added were ridiculously tiny. I actually lost a couple on my cutting mat, only to have them miraculously reappear in plain sight whilst I was part way through the job.

 

The left hand panel was slightly oversize and I ground off the rear overhang after the panel was solidly in place. Which brings me to the adhesive part of the design of these pieces. I've never used them before and I can't say that I am a fan at all. The problem wasn't so much that they stuck anywhere inappropriate, but quite the opposite. The glue seems quite elastic and messy in use, taking a long time to actually set the pieces in place. I much prefer my dilute white PVA glue applied with a 00 or even smaller brush. With larger pieces I use the same glue but undiluted. In future I shall strip the adhesive off before using the pieces.

 

I have applied some dry brushing and an oil paint wash to the parts, including the PE, but none of it has been flat coated yet. The throttle lever has had the mic button, another unknown button and the speed brake switch added - none of which were on the kit part. The control lever is the beautiful Quickboost part, positioned to eventually allow the seat to slide in place behind it. It's even got the zip running down the back of it! I haven't added any detail forward of the pedals as I was unable to track down any photos of this area - I imagine because it is all but invisible. Is it worth doing, or does anyone have any idea of what actually lives there?

 

 

 

On the next photo you can see the area of the rear bulkhead which was sanded extremely thin to eventually allow the nose gear well to fit.Just outboard of the throttle are the wing flap/slat lever and its associated guard, both donated from one of my single malts.

 

 

The finish on the inside of the underside cockpit hatch in the photo below should settle down with a flat coat - otherwise the "canvas" type covering to the rear will need another coat.

 

 

And they come together .........

 

 

 

 

I'll post my thoughts on the instrument panels next, which is where I have stalled for the meantime whilst I contemplate the options.

 

Any comments or thoughts welcome - and thank you for looking.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[Shawn M]

very nice work Mike

[LSP_Kevin]

Looks terrific, Mike!

 

Kev

[Gazzas]

Mike,

Following with interest! I really like what you've done so far with the details.

 

Cheers,

 

Gaz

[MikeA]

Thanks for the comments! Still feel a bit like an imposter in court with all the amazing wok being shown!

 

I forgot to post the photo of the cockpit sides with their paint and final Eduard pieces on, although, like the rest of the cockpit, they still need to have a matt clear applied and I may yet give them another wash. The base paint is Humbrol 128.

 

 

I had also started on the lower instrument panel. After scraping the detail off the Italeri part, I painted it with the same Humbrol paint used for the rest of the cockpit and assembled the Eduard panels on it. It wasn't a good look!

 

 

After playing around with my stash of paints I came up with a mix of Modern Russian Blue/Grey and the Humbrol 128 in a 3:1 mix which worked pretty well. Why would Eduard use an almost Russian colour to finish a Starfighter instrument panel in? I did toy with the idea of using some sort of dilute filter in layers to refinish the panel in a more appropriate colour, but I chickened out. I'm still tossing around options for the main panel in my head, so I might revisit my decision yet.

 

 

Once that was hardened off overnight, I put in a happy hour or so placing the small toggles and switches. Miraculously I only lost one in the process, but the fret has a few spares of each so all good. The colour in this final photo is pretty close to what it actually is as I finally got the white balance sorted a bit better in the camera.

 

 

I can't see me getting to flat coating the cockpit work until Sunday at the earliest so will have to lock this panel away. With all of the tiny pieces on, it is fairly difficult to hold. And i just noticed that the panel for the radar scope is very slightly offset - close ups are good for something it seems. I managed to gently ease it down to completely align with the recession in the kit part and repaint the strip above it.

 

To finish this post off, I have a problem with the Aires nose wheel bay which I am unsure how to get around. The photo below shows one wall to be bowed inwards. I tried immersing that wall in hot water but didn't achieve anything. I'm a bit concerned about damaging the part. 

 

 

Thank you for looking. Any suggestions for straightening the Aires part will be welcome!

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

Edited October 5, 2016 by MikeA

[MikeA]

I managed to get the cockpit flat coated after work last night. A quick coat of Model Master Flat Clear Lacquer and some Micro Krystal Klear applied with a toothpick for the few dials on the panels. The radar scope was finished by using Tamiya Smoke inside the clear piece. I was going to give it a red tinge, but most of the photos I found showed just a glossy transparent grey when turned off. I think it actually took longer to take the photos as I kept finding tiny hairs which show up like crazy on the close ups. The "tub" is just sitting on the fuselage panel as that piece will only be fixed in place once the fuselage halves are together.

 

The next part to paint is the ejection seat. I'm using the Brassin resin seat which is extremely nice. I was surprised, however, that the emergency pack piece that fits into the seat tub took some adjustment to it in order for it to fit. I have also drilled out the holes in the rear frame and removed the resin wafers between the top arm restraint belts and the seat back. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for looking,

 

Mike

[MikeA]

I've pressed on with the ejection seat, but have reached a temporary stop with the remainder of the cockpit. I had thought initially that I would be able to rework the Eduard main panel to represent the Canadian version, but on contemplation I have decided that it won't cut it. The differences in the other cockpit panels are relatively minor and somewhat buried in the cockpit, whereas the main panel is very obvious.

 

The CF 104 panel looks like (hopefully it's OK to post the photo):

 

 

and the Eduard panel:

 

 

I had got some Airscale instruments with a view to using them with the Eduard panel. I've now ordered the PE bezels from Airscale to allow me to build up the panel. The only concern I still have is the large instrument at the top of the panel - the Attitude Indicator I think it is. It seems much larger than anything I can find. Once I have the bezels in hand I'm hoping things will be clearer.

 

In the meantime I've got the ejection seat to the point of putting on the seat belts. I have a choice of Eduard's fabric belts or their PE belts. Both look like they'll need a lot of work to both put together and look the part. I'll try the fabric belts first and see how they go.

 

 

I gather that the arm restraint belts were always neatly stowed away, so the Eduard seat suits fine. Whichever belts end up as the final ones on the seat will need to be painted as well as the colours provided look very flat and uniform. The final bits of PE will go on once the belts are in place as I suspect the seat will require a fair bit of handling yet.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Mike

Edited October 10, 2016 by MikeA