1/32 CF104 Italeri

[ClumsyDude]

Wow Mike, that seat looks really super. Well done.

 

Jim

[Finn]

Nice work Mike, one detail about the CF-104 seat is the knee guards were painted a different colour as seen by these pics:

 

http://www.canadianstarfightermuseum.ca/resources/IMG_3116.jpg.opt288x384o0%2C0s288x384.jpg

 

in b&w but not hard to tell the stripes:

 

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/project/Biographies/H/Harrison_Ralph_CF-104/Ejection-Seat.jpg

 

Also you can have the gun in a AETE 104 as their role was to test things, including armament, one AETE CF-104 was actually lost on a gun firing mission:

 

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=187619

 

Jari

[MikeA]

Nice work Mike, one detail about the CF-104 seat is the knee guards were painted a different colour as seen by these pics:

 

http://www.canadianstarfightermuseum.ca/resources/IMG_3116.jpg.opt288x384o0%2C0s288x384.jpg

 

in b&w but not hard to tell the stripes:

 

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/project/Biographies/H/Harrison_Ralph_CF-104/Ejection-Seat.jpg

 

Also you can have the gun in a AETE 104 as their role was to test things, including armament, one AETE CF-104 was actually lost on a gun firing mission:

 

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=187619

 

Jari

Thank you for the info Jari. Just what I was after. I have that colour photo of the seat as a reference but wasn't sure if the knee guard colour was a later paint modification or not, in the manner that often museum finishes are non-standard. I'll redo the guards when I get back home.

 

I missed out on getting aftermarket AETE decals so will need to play around with doing the red X markings myself I think. I've got the symmetrical markings and correct stencils though.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[Finn]

Hi Mike, if you scroll down this link:

 

http://www.skahs.com/NovPlaneTalk.pdf

 

you'll see a pic of the actual seat the pilot used when he punched out during the gun mission and the guards were painted then. I was an armourer on the CF-104 in Baden West Germany late in service life of the Starfighter and even though it's been over 30yrs since i last loaded a 104 i still remember a few details that might be useful. Feel free to ask, i hope i can help.

 

Jari

[Gazzas]

Hi Mike,

Nice work on the cockpit details. I just picked up the A/C version...didn't like paying full hobby store price, but by the time you add in postage, you're really no better off. And ordered a pilot from Master Details...

 

Keep up the good work!

[MikeA]

Well we are new grandparents now! Now that we are back on the other side of the Tasman Sea, I've been able to catch up on this baby model instead.

 

 

Nice work Mike, one detail about the CF-104 seat is the knee guards were painted a different colour as seen by these pics:

 

http://www.canadianstarfightermuseum.ca/resources/IMG_3116.jpg.opt288x384o0%2C0s288x384.jpg

 

Jari

I repainted the knee guards, although the now multitude of paint layers on them has not been overly kind. I tried masking the stripes but wasn't too successful due to too many sharp bends over a very small area. I wasn't able to find the warning stencils in black, but did have a later "high viz" version in red so that has had to do. I'm pretty happy with the final result. Certainly does add another splash of colour to the grey and green affair.

 

 

I moved onto the wheelbays. The front one will be finished towards the end of the build as the kit build sequence requires the nosewheel to be mounted prior to fitting the bay to the fuselage, which would seem fraught with danger to the survival of the nosewheel. There doesn't appear to be any reason why the whole nose panel, with the nosewheel bay attached, cannot be left off until much later in the build.

 

I have used the Aires wheel bays. The instructions for the main bay are rather vague and would have you simply attach the resin bay to the rear kit bulkhead and then fit into the fuselage. I had a play, checked against some of the other builds and decided that this was not a good way to fit it. The kit rear bulkhead needs to be cut so that it fits into a "v" shaped space at the rear of the resin bay. I scribed a couple of lines on both the resin and the kit part to ensure a perfectly aligned fit, as any variation would cause the gear legs to be a tad off and the model to adopt a drunken lean. The rear bulkhead also aligns the wings, so it's fairly crucial to get it right.

 

In addition I glued the front kit bulkhead to the front of the resin part after first removing the Aires logo on the resin piece and the raised detail on the kit part. Finally I strengthened the whole assembly with a piece of sprue so that it will now have a very solid fit into the fuselage.

 

The wheel bay photos are a bit overexposed as I had primed the piece with Alclads gloss black - the difference was too stark for the lighting. At the top of the first photo you can see where a piece had to be cut out of the fuselage half, at the base of the air intake, to allow the resin bay to fit. The bay pour plug does protrude into the intake area a bit, but I doubt that this will be visible from the outside of the intake - if it is then this area of the bay could be ground back. I'll check on that before eventually closing up the fuselage.

 

 

The slots in the front bulkhead help align the bulkhead with the resin bay, if you first mark their position on the resin.

 

 

The next photo shows the bay, now with the intake trunking fitted and with a few coats of Alclad Airframe Aluminium, sitting in place in one of the fuselage halves - a perfect fuss free fit.

 

 

Hopefully this is helpful for anyone using these pieces.

 

Thank you for looking.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

Edited November 6, 2016 by MikeA

[Finn]

Hi Mike, i hope you didn't spoil the new addition to the family too much. Here are some details on the kit that may help, i don't have the kit but looking at the instructions online i can see what is missing:

 

If you plan to have the gun door open there are a few items you'll need to add, the feed chute, a brace for the door, and in the early days there was a zippered canvas cover that covered the housing assembly. I did see a couple during my time on the 104 but most had been removed. One other item was the firing lead, a single wire that provided firing voltage to the gun, you can see it just above the data plate in the pic below. Only at the arming point was it plugged in, normally it was stowed to a dummy receptacle at the top. 

 

 

I have more info as the build progresses. 

 

Jari

Edited November 6, 2016 by Finn

[alaninaustria]

Damn! Coming along nicely!!

[MikeA]

Thanks Jari. I spent a while deciding whether or not to open the gun bay and eventually decided not to - earlier today I fixed the covers in place. I really didn't want to detract too much from the lines of the airframe, particularly with a natural metal finish.

 

Thank you for the comment Alan - your build of the Re 2005 was inspirational in me hunting down the kit and building it eventually.

 

I had a happy weekend modelling as I have a rare weekend on my own. First up is the completion of the main wheel bay. I found the Alclad to be rather fragile, but it mostly survived the process. I nearly didn't, despite spraying it outside as I do not have a spray booth - highly toxic stuff! I used some data placards to add a bit to the Aires part. The insert, which eventually allows the gear legs to be added later on is only sitting in place at the left hand end of the central spar - easier to paint that way.

 

 

 

I did look at the travesty of an intake trunking which was completely missed by Italeri where the two trunks pass over the top of the wheel bay. It looks like it might be possible to extend the trunks using plastic card and thinning the wheel bay pour plug to within a hair breadth of its life, but I suspect it would be more work than it's worth.

 

Then it was onto the engine. I am not intending to show the engine separately, but couldn't resist putting it together to see what it looks like. I reckon you could probably use an after market burner can and rear engine assembly to fix inside the Italeri airframe, allowing the entire engine to also be displayed separately - but not for me, especially after looking at photos of the real engine. Don't think my stocks of fine solder wire would cope!

 

The rear burner assembly is painted with Humbrol polished steel, followed by a rough polish with an old brush, and includes the Eduard flameholder and a short length of stainless tubing for the igniter. I really like the old Humbrol metal finishes, but you can't add further weathering over the top of them. The rear cone was sprayed with Alclad Pale Burnt Metal, using a Verlinden circle template, and finished with brown pastel.

 

 

The after burner was painted a rather garish green, followed with a patchy darker green. After a gloss coat, this was then given a dirty turpentine wash and flat coated. Finally I added grey pastel to match the photos in the Daco book. 

 

 

The end result looks pleasingly close to the photos, despite the scary start.

 

 

I will be using the Eduard burner cans. In the next photo you can see that I have trimmed the petal activating rods (I assume they are) on the outside of the engine  - originally they went right back to the end of the afterburner chamber and, with the kit cans, slip inside the back of the cans. With the Eduard part, they have to butt up against the rear of the cans. If left untrimmed I would imagine fitting the cans at the end of the build would be an unwelcome PIA.

 

 

And finally, the last details for the instrument panel arrived from the UK whilst I was in NZ. This has been a mission. Initially I thought I would just need the 1/32 instruments and got those. Then I realised I would need the bezels as well so ordered those. Then when looking closely at the instruments, I realised that some were just too large, so I ordered the 1/48 instruments and bezels! Australian customs had obviously had enough of my shenanigans and opened the last envelope to check what I was getting. Strangely enough, that envelope only took a week to get to me whereas the first two took six weeks each - despite the customs interference.

 

 

I'll box on with the undercarriage before tackling the top instrument panel.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

 

 

That is some truly amazing wiring!

 

Kev

[MikeA]

Thanks Kev. The Aires bay is truly a piece of art, especially with all the undercuts and details behind other details. It was a pleasure to paint.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[Finn]

Hi Mike, another little detail gun related, don't add part 17C, the item just behind the nose gear, it was used to expend spent casings into the air stream but they discovered early on that you couldn't have anything loaded on the c/l pylon as they got dinged up by the casings. We had them available but we never used them at least during my time, i only installed one and that was on my CF-104 Armament Course. 

 

Here are some more cockpit pics:

 

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/chcmech/sets/72157625544670229/

 

scroll down past the F-5 ones, the IP is the later version with the RWR scope, there was a final version of the IP that had the LW-33 Nav system but that came into use in the early 80's.

 

Jari    

[Marcel111]

Beautifully done seat, and the wiring in the wheel well is far better than what I could ever achieve.

 

Cheers,

Marcel

[Finn]

Here is another photo of a seat that got used:

 

 

Jari

[MikeA]

Here is another photo of a seat that got used:

 

 

Jari

 

I am very pleased to note that the stripes appear to have been hand painted, so my efforts were not in vain. A very "modellers" comment as I'm sure that the pilot had other far more serious concerns!

 

 

Beautifully done seat, and the wiring in the wheel well is far better than what I could ever achieve.

 

Cheers,

Marcel

 

Thank you Marcel! Although, as a person with one eye which no longer focuses and a lifelong complete inability to see in three dimensions (I find 3D movies particularly distressing), I suspect you could do at least as well.

 

FWIW I either use enamel paint in an almost creamy consistency painting the wiring. I tend to rinse the brush out in cleaner quite often doing this. Any details are always picked out in W & N oil paints as these are a lot easier to both control and provide good coverage  for tiny details - especially for brighter colours like red and yellow. I have to work by feel as I cannot see when the brush is actually getting close to the piece to be painted. A pin wash of what is effectively blackened turps over a protective gloss coat helps give a depth to the final job - and hides most mistakes on the edges of the wiring. 

 

Cheers,

 

Mike