1/32 CF104 Italeri

[Marcel111]

The exhaust looks very good! From the reasearch I have done on Phantom J-79's, the inside afternurner green is pretty accurate, that's the way they look on my Phantoms also. Here and there the green can tend to lighten and yellow a little but I think you're looking good.

 

Cheers,

Marcel

[Finn]

Mike a walk around of a CF-104 has just been posted here:

 

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235012227-lockheed-canadair-cf-104-starfighter/#comment-2546137

 

some details you may find useful.

 

Jari

[MikeA]

Mike a walk around of a CF-104 has just been posted here:

 

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235012227-lockheed-canadair-cf-104-starfighter/#comment-2546137

 

some details you may find useful.

 

Jari

 

Thanks for that Jari. Very nice photos! I'd started work on the instrument shroud and glare protector under the front canopy and had eventually decided that the Canadian version was rather different from the European one. I did find some photos which looked like they were similar, but on further research discovered that they appeared to have been refitted by one of the European air forces. I did manage to find a close up of a period airframe which has the same gare protector arrangement as shown in the walkaround, so I have gone with that.

 

 

The kit provides this, which has the European glare protector, and a not particularly great instrument shroud.

 

 

A few cuts later I had this, together with a new base to hold it all together a bit more solidly, as well as to fix the HUD and other bits and bobs to. This will give a hint of the mess of pipes and cables which lurk under the shroud. I thinned the exterior frame on which a whisky bottle foil canvas will later fit, as I need to make room for the front demister pipes which run around the base of the canopy.

 

 

I then almost completely removed the kit glare protector and removed what detail was left to fit a suitably scribed piece of card.

 

 

Onto the canvas shroud now. Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[spyrosjzmichos]

Wonderful work Mike!

[MikeA]

The exhaust looks very good! From the reasearch I have done on Phantom J-79's, the inside afternurner green is pretty accurate, that's the way they look on my Phantoms also. Here and there the green can tend to lighten and yellow a little but I think you're looking good.

 

Cheers,

Marcel

 

Thanks Marcel! Very encouraging. I'll probably make it a little sootier inside the can before completion - I'll wait to see what the tail section ends up looking like and try to tie them together colour-wise.

 

I've completed the instrument shroud. It could have done with some more folds, but the foil was difficult to work over the remains of the kit piece. In hindsight I should have left off the shade extension until I had completed the rest of the piece, as the extension is quite fragile - very thin card which has been scribed and is only glued along one curved edge. Still, it's done and I think a substantial improvement over the kit part and closer to the Canadian version.

 

 

I've now started on the top instrument panel. I gather the idea is to make a sandwich construction and set the instrument decals on a blank rear piece with the bezels fitted either directly on top or on a covering matching piece of card with the instrument faces drilled. I played around with the bezels on cut piece of card and it seemed to me that the tolerances are so fine that it would be extremely difficult to drill holes to allow the exact placement of the bezels. I'm contemplating painting the IP as it is now and setting the instrument decals into the bezels with some Kristal Klear for glazing. Any thoughts? The end of the match head is just in the photo to give some sense of scale.

 

 

I've matched all of the bezels to instruments so they should fit in without too much bother. I notice that I do have to completely flatten two of my homemade bezels (the silver ones).

 

Thank you for looking.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[ClumsyDude]

Mike, that's some brilliant work.  I don't think you'll lose anything by cutting out the decals and using clear coat for the lenses ... you can always punch out the dials with a punch and die set, and then you don't have any issues with carrier film.

 

Super stuff mate.

 

Jim

[Azgaron]

Nice work!

 

HÃ¥kan

[MikeA]

 

 

Mike, that's some brilliant work. I don't think you'll lose anything by cutting out the decals and using clear coat for the lenses ... you can always punch out the dials with a punch and die set, and then you don't have any issues with carrier film.

 

Super stuff mate.

 

Jim

Thank you Hakan and Jim for the feedback! I decided I wasn't that happy with the first cut at the IP. My main issue was fearing how cleanly I could get it painted, so I figured a way around getting the holes in a front panel centred correctly and set to it - a very fiddly and time consuming process. I think my wife was concerned that she had lost me to some wizened creature hunched over a work bench manipulating invisible objects.

 

My eyes don't allow me to come close to assessing where the centre of a circle is when peering at it through the perspex guide on the punch set - it's that lack of 3D vision thing I think. Anyway, I ended up using dilute white glue to fix the bezels on the front panel and then, when dried off, filling in the instrument areas with black enamel. After this dried I then floated the assembly in a dish of water and retrieved the front panel which now had perfect black discs on it where the instruments would fit. It was a simple affair to then punch these out using the Waldron Miniature Punch.

 

I pre-painted the bezels by placing them on the sticky side of some Tamiya tape, and painted the rear panel with gloss black. I didn't fancy trying to hold the two panels uniformly whilst positioning each of the decals, so made a simple jig to hold the panels correctly.

 

 

 

 

In this last photo, the two panels are just placed but not glued, so the positioning isn'y quite accurate, but you can get an idea of its final look. I still have the rear instrument cases to do and the glazing of the instrument faces once fitted together.

 

 

The close up is a bit unkind, and I see I need to straighten up a miniature foil placard at the top of the panel. the colour is more grey than the Eduard panel which it will sit above, but I have noted from various photos that the colour did vary a bit anyway. Don't really think I want to do this again though. I'm not sure if this is a better approach, or maybe doing the pre-paint thing but sitting the bezels directly on top of the decals might be better. I guess the final glazing will tell whether or not this way worked for me.

 

Thank you for looking.

Edited November 27, 2016 by MikeA

[Mark M]

this thread is a work of wonder

[MikeA]

Thank you Mark for the very generous comment! 

 

I've completed the IP and, although I'm not convinced that the construction method chosen was the best approach for a panel this small and packed with instruments, I am happy enough with it to let it be. The Krystal Klear did do its magic and make the instruments look better. I did put some cases on the back, but forgot to photograph them. You can just make out some shapes through the HUD cover which is all that they should be.

 

The first photo is of the IP and glare shield. The other two photos were the best of a bunch taken with the cockpit just sitting in the taped up fuselage and the shroud/IP assembly sitting in place. The clearest shots were with the flash, so the colours are a little washed out. It's very difficult to photograph as the ejection seat head box and rails get in the way. Still, you can get the idea.

 

 

 

 

And two more photos, without the flash, and at a slightly steeper angle.

 

 

 

Still waiting for my replacement hubs to arrive, so I might start on the landing gear doors before putting the fuselage together. 

 

Thank you for looking. Any feedback from those expert IP painters and assemblers out there most welcome.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

 

 

[Azgaron]

Looking very good!

 

HÃ¥kan

[allthumbs]

Nice looking IP!

[MikeA]

Thank you for the comments guys! 

 

The new hubs arrived the day after completing the IP, so I finished those and the wheel bay doors. As it turned out, the nose wheel hub was wrong as well. I found examples of both white and aluminium coloured nose wheel hubs, and went for the former just for aesthetics. The Brassin main hubs are not concave as it turns out, but the spokes run flat with the centre piece slightly protruding from the hub - all of which gives an appearance very similar to the CF 104 hub and different to those shown in the Daco book for the German machines. Which was very fortunate for me!

 

There's still a stencil to put on one of the main wheel bay doors, but otherwise they're done. I'll cut the stencil up to try to minimise the carrier film showing on the highly polished finish. Apart form the Aires pieces and some Eduard additions, I added the wiring and a couple of bulbs for the landing lights and the closing guides. Alclad colours were used, airframe aluminium for the insides and variations of polished aluminium, airframe aluminium and duralumin for the outers. 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's on to preparing the fuselage halves for putting them together. I have joined the rear sections to their respective front sections  - one side went really well but the other is still showing a seam, so I will need to attend to that. I'll also dry fit the wings to make sure any hassles there are dealt with, as they won't be finally fitted until the very end of the build.

 

I have also conclusively established that the airframe I am doing did not have the Vulcan cannon fitted at any stage, which then leads me to a question. What did the top of the fuel tank fitted in place of the magazines look like? Even with the hatch down, there will still be some of this visible through the electronics hatch. Was it similar to the fuel bladders carried further aft?

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[LSP_Kevin]

Brilliant stuff, Mike!

 

Kev

[Finn]

The gun started to be added to the CF-104 in 1974, of course it took awhile before they all got them but being an AETE bird you are doing i'm sure it did get it's gun as some point. Naturally you can have it during the period when it didn't have a gun. DACO products for the 1/48 F-104 does have the option for a fuel tank instead of ammo bin:

 

http://www.hyperscale.com/2015/reviews/accessories/p7hg_img_15/fullsize/07_fs.jpg

 

if you leave the cover closed not much will be seen. 

 

Jari