Breaker Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Looking good so far Mike, this is a kit I keep getting tempted to buy, be interesting to see how it goes for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeA Posted October 11, 2016 Author Share Posted October 11, 2016 Thank you for the feedback Breaker. If you can get the kit for a decent price it is worthwhile. I suspect whichever route you go in this scale with F 104s you will either be settling for substantial compromise or doing a lot of either aftermarket or scratch building. Some of the details are pretty soft on this. It reminds me in some ways of Heller kits. Generally accurate shapes with a mix of very nice parts and some which are best described as an opportunity for building on. Will be interesting to see how it develops. Early days yet as I have only used a few parts off the spruces and partially destroyed those in my efforts. Cheers Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F`s are my favs Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Awesome start, very beautiful plane, perfect construction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Wimmer Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 That's some breathtaking detail work here! cheers Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimW Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Wow! That is some amazing detail work. Outstanding. I have plans (delusions?) to do a CF-104 at some point, but am still looking for some resin nuclear weapons in 1/32. Don't seem to be any... Cheers, Tim W. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FunkyZeit Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 great stuff! Justin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BloorwestSiR Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Very nice looking cockpit Mike. For the nose gear bay, I recall having a similar issue as yours. I used a spreader bar inside the bay to make the walls parallel. This was only placed in and not glued in place. I then glued the bay to the lower fuselage piece. I made sure all the sides were adequately glued and then removed the spreader bar once dry. Hope that makes sense. Carl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeA Posted October 13, 2016 Author Share Posted October 13, 2016 Thank you for the feedback guys! It does mean a lot when you're hiding away somewhere that seems a million miles from anywhere at times. Unfortunately almost all the detail gets lost when the cockpit finally goes together, unless the seat is left sitting outside the fuselage! For the nose gear bay, I recall having a similar issue as yours. I used a spreader bar inside the bay to make the walls parallel. This was only placed in and not glued in place. I then glued the bay to the lower fuselage piece. I made sure all the sides were adequately glued and then removed the spreader bar once dry. Hope that makes sense. Carl Thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep that as a fall back option just in case. I did, after I had posted the photo, try the hot water again. This time it was almost boiling and the part was almost completely immersed for a full minute. On extraction, I kept some judicious pressure on the problem area and it is now straight. Whether or not it stays that way ....... And hence the fall back option. Still haven't got to the seat belts, but I have planned how to approach them. The fabric belts are seemingly designed for the kit seat, so will need some tweaking or supplementing. All good fun! Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeA Posted October 15, 2016 Author Share Posted October 15, 2016 Good afternoon, I managed to get the seatbelts done in between household jobs today. The Eduard fabric belts are a lot easier to put together than the PE versions, now that I've tried them. It's a weird fabric - kind of rubbery. It is fairly robust, but, as I found out with one piece, still quite easy to tear with needle tweezers. You can see the battle damage on one of the main lap belts, which I will repair with some good old whisky bottle foil. The belts are coloured on both sides, but the rear faces do not have any detail and are quite glossy. I did try scrunching them up and rolling each piece into a ball, but it didn't really make to much difference for me. I used the relevant PE pieces (repainted in green), that were in the PE set with the resin seat, for the top arm restraint pieces which drop down from the head rest box. In the photos I have also painted the fabric seat release belt, which sits behind the shoulder belts, as the colour needed to be closer to the green I had mixed for the arm restraint belts. A couple of the small buckles turned out a bit "ho hum", but look fine with the naked eye. I used white PVA glue throughout, except for some superglue on those very top belts. The PVA glue dries fairly quickly on the fabric but you get enough time to adjust things. I did note one error on the instructions where they call for part 36 to be used as the tab for the shoulder belts when this should be part 33. I discovered that after glueing the wrong pieces and fitting them to the seat, but managed to rescue it ok. The belts still need an oil wash to tie them in better with the seat, which has already had a wash. The ejection pull ring, foot plates and a couple of other pieces still have to be mounted once the belts are finally finished and the various touch-ups needed are done. Anyway, for those who have not used these belts, this is what they look like in place but without any further finishing on them. Than you for looking, Cheers, Mike mark31, allthumbs, Uncarina and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F`s are my favs Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Not the most detailed, but probably the best seat for a model that I've seen so far! The weathering and the belts look super real. Maybe the red could look better if masked and sprayed, it seems like its hand painted with a brush. Otherwise it's very very very very very GJ!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Excellent seat, Mike! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BloorwestSiR Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Your seat looks fantastic Mike. I agree that the fabric belts are definitely easier to use than the PE kind. The F-104 has to have dinner of the most complicated belt assemblies around. Carl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The1971Show Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Looking very nice so far, especially the PE electronics. Darren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Very nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeA Posted October 17, 2016 Author Share Posted October 17, 2016 Good evening, This is a quick post before heading off back to NZ for a visit to celebrate the arrival of our first grandchild. No distractions of the modelling kind for me for a few weeks. Not the most detailed, but probably the best seat for a model that I've seen so far! The weathering and the belts look super real. Maybe the red could look better if masked and sprayed, it seems like its hand painted with a brush. Otherwise it's very very very very very GJ!! Thank you for the feedback F's are my favs - much appreciated. You're right - it is brush painted. I then finished it with a wash of turpentine to thin out in a patchy way to try to replicate the patchy red finish in the photos I have. It is still a tad furry around the edges, so I did another pin wash to see if it would improve. These photos are a with the remaining PE pieces in place on the seat, an oil wash applied to the belts and then a matt coat over the seat cushion and belts. My repair of the main buckle pad thing worked out fine - much easier than placing the ridiculously tiny hoop of PE on the same buckle which forms part of the catch on it, which took me about half an hour to do! Full marks if you can actually see it. I will need to do a bit more work on the footplates, mainly to scrape them a bit. Aside from that, it's done. Pity that most of it will never be seen again once it descends into the cockpit. I tried a dry fit and it just slips in behind the control column and the footplates fitted perfectly against the floor below the pedals - a clear case of good luck over good management I suspect. I'm pretty happy with it. I was a bit worried about the PE hoops, but they don't look too bad - I built them up a bit with PVA glue and finished the paint off over the outside edges of them. When I get back it will be on with the wheel bays or, if the instrument panel bezels have arrived, I'll have a crack at scratching the main panel. Thank you for looking! Cheers, Mike Derek B, Seversky, HerculesPA_2 and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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