F-104D Starfighter - 57-1315 - AFFTC Edwards AFB, 1960

[Gazzas]

I like the way the cockpit, canopy and pilots are going in well together.  Sorry to hear abou8t your wire troubles.  I don't enjoy electrical work, myself.

[Bstarr3]

Wow, this is incredible, Brian. I really admire all the thought and continuous troubleshooting that has gone into it already

[Dandiego]

5 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

 

Apparently neither do I since I can no longer get any of the lights to light.

 

Brian,  that's probably a good thing. Just one big problem affecting everything,  probably one loose connection. Hit it with a hammer a couple of times,  should be fine.

 

Dan

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks again gents.

 

After thinking I may have spilled something on the tiny pc board, or dropped something on it, I still could not find any evidence of anything catastrophic happening to it. Richard at Magic Scale Modeling has been great, and after I sent him a vid of the issue, he is sending me out an new PC board, as I seem to be getting good current, around 6 v out of the battery pack.  

 

Hopefully the new board will show up soon, so I can continue on the power trials, but for now, I continued on with the cockpits, including figuring out how best I am going to light each of the two cockpits with 3 MLEDs apiece, as well as getting the pilots and observer's poses finalized. 

 

These are two Master Details USAF pilots, and are supposedly for Vietnam era planes but its about as close as I could come without having to scratch up a whole bunch of stuff I wasn't planning on, and I already have way too much stuff on the plate I'm going to have to custom figure out.  The era is close, and I know its not the correct style of helmet for an early 104 like this, but again its about as close as I cared to get since I had a lot of mods to do to each figure anyway. 

I had to dry fit everything in the cockpits including the glass above the observer so I wouldnt get his fist pump raised too much  and seats to get the final pose of each figure correct, so I could move on with smoothing and finishing them, headed for paint. 

 

I think I may end up naming this one "First Ride" in honor of the back seat observer.  The pilot of course is taking care of business but making sure this new observer (who in this instance I am envisioning as a camera man, assigned to the AFFTC to record chase flights and what not) gets the full business and experiences the full capabilities of the F-104D on his first day.........

 

Just some raw modifications to each of these figures at the present. They got a bit handsy so I had to cut them off. Really, the pilots  right hand is now connected to the flight stick (it was a PITA trying to get the height right for him holding the flight stick!) and as I will show in a min, the observers left hand is holding the Paillard-Bolex H-16 Camera.

 

You can tell of the two who's having a good time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After much, much MUCH, finagling, moving, gluing, re-gluing and braking of limbs , I roughly have them both in the final positions I will need them in when it comes time to glue them in after painting.

 

You can see here how the observers left arm with look holding the Paillard-Bolex camera, after I have finished it:

 

 

 

 

 

I also put in an order for some hobby spools of varying sizes of "end-glow" fiber optic cable, which I will (hopefully)  use to light up the two IPs with the help of Peters instrument layovers.

 

 

[crobinsonh]

Lovely work - the pilots are really going to bring it to life IMO.

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks! I actually went a bit further last night than I expected to, as I got a coat of Mr. Surfacer black on the *inside* of all the airframe.

This was an unusual feeling process, as I've not done this on the inside of any models before.  The MSM lighting system instructions do call for coating/painting the inside to control and stop light bleed from the MLEDs. I'll smooth things out after the black primer hardens off and then take some pics before I press on. The MSM instructions also suggest spraying the insides chrome to further avoid any chance of light bleed through the outside of the plastic.

This one is going to have foil on it in most places, so the primer and chrome I will eventually spray are really insurance.

 

More later!

[Alain Gadbois]

Wow!

Missed this build for some reason!

Very interesting to see all eight pages and very curious for the next steps.

Did you check the effect of the light out the tail pipe through the acrylic rod? I expect the light would not be visible from the side as it is conducted right to the bottom. It is the same principle as fibre optics. Maybe some sanding of the exterior surface could help?

 

Alain

[Out2gtcha]

25 minutes ago, Alain Gadbois said:

Wow!

Missed this build for some reason!

Very interesting to see all eight pages and very curious for the next steps.

Did you check the effect of the light out the tail pipe through the acrylic rod? I expect the light would not be visible from the side as it is conducted right to the bottom. It is the same principle as fibre optics. Maybe some sanding of the exterior surface could help?

 

Alain

 

 

Thanks Alain!

No, you are right, the effect will be lessened, and I have not fully tested it yet, but I intend to bury the larger exhaust light inside the acrylic rod, and will mirror the bottom of the rod too. 

I think the light will be visible out the side more in low light, but I hope I hope with the LED being inside the rod, as well as refracting some light from the bottom it at least will be somewhat visible. 

 

[airscale]

I can't wait to see how this turns out!

 

so adventurous

 

Peter

[Out2gtcha]

Quite a bit of progress this past weekend, but not a whole lot of pics to show, as most of it was painting and drying.

I started out by getting a coat of YZC on the seats and cockpit tub, as only they will get some scant wear in the form of some chipping with AKIs worn effects. Im not always happy with how the worn effects spray, thinned or not, as it always seems to bead up a bit, but hey-ho, the process still seems to work.

 

 

 

I also got a coat of my own mix of light gray on after the worn effects were sprayed, but no pics of that as things were still drying. 

Next I went to the local hardware store and purchased a cheap rattle can of "chrome". This was recommended by MSM to spray on the inside of the model wherever light from the MLEDs may shine, to prevent light bleed on the outside of the model, and instead reflect any ambient light back inside.

 

 

I sprayed on a layer of black primer on everything so it would have some bite, then sprayed all the interior parts that would get or be near a MLED with the chrome spray paint.

For absolutely NO prep on the surface other than a wee bit of light sanding prior (I was only after the effect of reflections inside the model VS getting a super baby butt smooth surface) I was quite shocked and surprised how well this paint (enamel from what I can read on the can) laid down. I hope to have a good solution for the MLEDs in the end, that not only will give them a place to be mounted VS just gluing them over a hole, but will also help to "seal" them in position and prevent nearly all light from escaping to places I dont want, but I figured the chrome paint was insurance to make 100% sure no light bleeding occurs since once everything is sealed it will be impossible to correct:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also sprayed the inside of the wing tip tanks since they will also be getting MLEDs, as well as the underside fuselage parts including the single battery hatch door I made from the MLG doors:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of the MLG doors/battery hatch, I moved on to make the attachment for it using some 1/8th RE magnets. You can see above the two RE magnets on the left side on either side of the center of the hatch.

Here is a better view of the two small magnets I glued into the hatch with JB Weld prior to painting it chrome for reflection purposes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the X2 small brass tubes I used to glue in two more magnets for the corresponding attachment point inside the forward bulkhead:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The magnets have created a very positive closing action to the hatch, which now seals up nicely with a very positive "click".  Its still not a 100% perfect fit on the outside (definitely due to the fact that the battery holder/bulkhead tray is not glued in, and still floats around a bit causing imperfect fit still) , but at least I now know 100% where the hatch will set when closed so I can work on a more perfect fit once the fuselage is glued together. 

You can see better here how they match up:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much more progress to show, but did not get a chance to take more pics. Ive got the paint on the cockpit tub and seats, as well as primer on the pilot and observer, so Ill probably push forward with both of those, as I still do not yet have the replacement PC board from MSM yet, and cannot yet move forward with further power testing. 

 

[Gazzas]

Heh...  better than alclad without the preparation.

[bdthoresen]

Hey Bri- nice work so far.....And congrats on the recent marriage! 

 

So, I had a thought in the mad-scientist grey matter that is my brain....the earlier post showing the -104 engine in full burner was gorgeous. You might be able to recreate that on the acrylic rod. I thought perhaps it might be possible to scuff the area of the flames with some 0000 steel wool run length-wise along the tube, for a bit of “tooth”. You then could use some Tamiya or Gunze clear paint to mix the ring color, and soft mask the rings down the tube. Spray them up. Then you could fill in the spaces between the rings with clear blue freehand, and follow that with a thin translucent coat of purple over the whole thing. Dip her in Future or spray with Tamiya gloss, and light her up! Might be a bit more dynamic than just a clear tube....might be a good experiment on a piece of scrap!

 

Ok. I’ll shut up now. Keep up the great work.

 

THOR

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks again gents!

 

On 7/23/2019 at 5:47 PM, bdthoresen said:

Hey Bri- nice work so far.....And congrats on the recent marriage! 

 

So, I had a thought in the mad-scientist grey matter that is my brain....the earlier post showing the -104 engine in full burner was gorgeous. You might be able to recreate that on the acrylic rod. I thought perhaps it might be possible to scuff the area of the flames with some 0000 steel wool run length-wise along the tube, for a bit of “tooth”. You then could use some Tamiya or Gunze clear paint to mix the ring color, and soft mask the rings down the tube. Spray them up. Then you could fill in the spaces between the rings with clear blue freehand, and follow that with a thin translucent coat of purple over the whole thing. Dip her in Future or spray with Tamiya gloss, and light her up! Might be a bit more dynamic than just a clear tube....might be a good experiment on a piece of scrap!

 

 

Thanks bud!   My only concern at this point is ruining the clear rod. It was fairly expensive, and took a bit to get here, so I'm a bit  leery at the thought of trying to do that gives me the heebie-jeebies!

 

But you are right, it probably would be much more dynamic than just the exhaust bulb.   Im still up in the air on that too, as initially I was going to paint the exhaust bulb a bright translucent purple color to add to the effect, but Im not sure on that either just yet. 

 

I still haven't gotten the new PC board back from MSM yet, and I think the hold up may be that Richard is attempting to see what kind of separate switch may be available, but at this point, I really need to push on with getting the interior figured out, and no advancement on that front can be made until I get a new PC board.  Im thinking of engaging Richard and seeing if I can just pay for a new board to get it here a bit faster so I can continue that part of the build. 

 

In the mean time, I have not been dormant!    I haven't taken pics yet, as they are no where near done, but Ive been working on my pilot and observer while I wait for the PC board.  Ive been detail painting them up, as the observer will have a green flight suit, and the pilot will have a cool helmet with an orange AFFTC flight suit.

Tonight will be the task of making an AFFTC patch for the pilots left shoulder, and a usaf test pilot school patch on the other (although this particular AFFTC flight suit has a 6514th Test Squadron patch on the right shoulder where my guy will have the test pilot school patch) :

 

 

 

 

 

Once I get the pilot and observer done Ill take some pics, as I have been working on them and the seats for final assembly.

Next up will be figuring out the seatbelts and how to put them on attached around the pilot and observer!   Could be interesting....................fortunately the seats themselves slide very nicely into the seat rails that are glued into the cockpits as I can finish off the pilots and seats, get the pilot and observer glued into their seats with seat belts, then pop them in at the last minute before the glass gets glued on.

 

I will also experiment with Thor's Idea of the afterburner rings too, but will need the new PC board to arrive so I know what things look like before install.

 

 

Pics soon, and cheers! 

[Fvdm]

Brian, don't you have the posibility to purchase a small diameter acrilyc rod to try to scuff it? A small diameter shouldn't cost much. You can see effect when you use a flashlight if you don't have the new board. 

[Out2gtcha]

Probably not a bad idea. I  might not get me the full effect, but should at least let me know if Im headed in the right direction.

 

Im hoping because Im putting the bulb inside the acrylic rod (via a appropriately sized hole drilled in the end to sink the larger exhaust bulb into) that the exhaust lighting effect will be greater down the length of the clear rod VS just shining it at the end of the rod like a fiber optic strand.