Italeri TF-104G Marineflieger - final struggle

[Marcel111]

The weathered look you have achieved so far just looks excellent!

 

Marcel

[Fanes]

20 hours ago, Derek B said:

Hi Joachim,

 

Like you, I could find nothing on the internet which shows the aircraft you are making in that condition for the area you are interested in. All I could find was an image of the aircraft wearing the same scheme in a much fresher condition:

 

 

I think that you may have to go 'generic' on this one in that area, but from what I can see, it appears to be worn and faded fairly consistently on the upper fuselage and spine area above the wing with less scuffing and marks compared to the upper wing surfaces if that helps?

 

 

Good luck

 

Derek

Thank you very much Derek - that helps a lot!

My plan is now to use 27+79 as a guide for the touch ups since it seemed to be in y comparable condition and there are several good shots from the port side:

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Germany-Navy/Lockheed-TF-104G-Starfighter/2618622/L?qsp=eJxtjrEOglAMRf%2BlMwuQALLB4qiDP9D0VXwJwktbEwnh361onNzae5p7ugLNk/HTLktiaEEZhW6QQULBu0K7AkYhwav1qJE%2BZ03e5NkPHHli%2BY%2BgLYuq8kB4iGqCFuepI3vg6LKirg%2Bu0lmsX3wPaNwRcTIO3/wkgeWNWGn/anCH9yWW8z5DWXkeoqYR9w42jCNs2wtrXUfc

I'll try to create the faded spine and upper fuse in a later stage with light filters and maybe salt fading.

 

 

[Fanes]

Yesterday the port side recieved its touch ups. Unfortunately photographing them with artificial light didn't work out as planned.

The contrast between the touch ups and the base paint is a little bit higher than in the pictures.

 

Clos up from the tail. Inspired by 27+79 and the starboard side of "my" zipper 27+81.

 

The upper and front fuselage is made up from a combination of 27+79 and some artistic license.

 

In the next step the radome recieved its colour: ADC grey and this time the AK real color seems to be spot on.

I couldn't resist to pull the masks from the demarcation line and to put on the wingtip tanks.

Finally I can see where this is heading and the tendency to bin/SoD the thingy has vanished.

 

I'll pull the masks later today and hopefully all markings are sound.

[Fanes]

Finally the moment of truth

I pulled all the masks yesterday and it mostly went as planned. There are some small defects I need to fix but that was what I expected.

Remember my stupid paint spill? - Well it haunts me for another time

 

The MFG2 patch on the tailplane isn't perfect but I guess aceptable (I have a spare decal) The A in Marine is somewhat crooked. I habve no idea how that happened since I used frisket film to transfer the mask (not going to fix that).

 

The overall look from starboard

 

and from port

 

The plan ist to fix the little mishaps with black and white in the same turn as painting the anchor on the inlets. Right now I'm trying to cut the serial number and lettering with my Silhouette and so far it's a challenge. The letters are merely 2mm high.

[Lothar]

You have proven your ability to cope with small mishaps quite a few times, I have no doubts at all that this one will be another easy one for you. Other than that, outstanding work in all respects, impressive build so far 

Lothar

[Fanes]

22 hours ago, Lothar said:

You have proven your ability to cope with small mishaps quite a few times, I have no doubts at all that this one will be another easy one for you. Other than that, outstanding work in all respects, impressive build so far 

Lothar

You're being too kind Lothar . On the other hand one build without a major boo boo would be nice.

 

There is good and there is bad news.

The  latter up front: Unfortunately cutting the serial number and surrounding with my Silhouette proved to be nearly impossible. Even with the slowest setting and loest possible force where there was still a cut, the masks got butchered. Some letters (like the M in Marine) went fairly well but rather complex letters (A, R, 5 and 9) ended up torn apart.

I guess letters with a height of 1.5 mm are and maybe will remain in the decal domain.

Some better news:

all mishaps are patched up and the anchors were painted

 

The upper proved to be difficult since it's really thin - even though the mask looked fine. Well one mor repair before the gloss coat.

[Fanes]

I'm bacl on track with this zipper!

After some airbrush struggles (both defect) followed by their repair a new airbrush was added to my tool collection.

Some cheapo single action with a pistol grip intended for shooting (read blasting) primer and clear coats.

First test run on th zipper was a succes

 

In my clumsiness I forgot to paint some of the (electronic) panels on the underside.

Gunze radome tan and Tamiya tape to the rescue:

 

and on the bottom fin as well (that one's hard to see on the original)

 

With that done I'm finally ready for my least favourite part on any build: decals

Luckily the zipper doesn't feature too much stencils....

To keep my self sane I'll do some work on my side project (ICM's I-16) inbetween the decalling sessions.

 

[mozart]

Well done for keeping on the project Joachim; facing problems and overcoming them is character-forming!  She’s looking very promising, I’m really looking forward to the final reveal. 

[spyrosjzmichos]

Beautiful looking Starfighter and excellent colour variation!

Lovely work!

[Fanes]

It's not dead!

During the last two weeks I've spent several hours with applying the stencils to the zipper.

I worked in small sessions to keep the frustration level low.

Somehow I had huge issues with the decals this time. They're from the kit (printed by Cartograf) and are nice and thin.

It can go well (with Microsol):

 

One decals looks like it somehow melted??

 

And some others (read a lot) show heavy silvering

 

Right now it's mostly the inconsistency which annoys me a lot. Nonetheless the belly is all decaled up and the port side about 90% finished.

 

There will be a small halt until I've figured out what I'm doing wrong with the decals.

[Michael931080]

That is really looking good!  What are you using for reference material?

[spyrosjzmichos]

Decals sure to give the plane it's signature character!

I had the same silvering issue with the exact same decals when I was building my single seater.

Not sure if a bit of light sanding would help.

[alaninaustria]

Beautiful build so far mate!

Really nice work so far! I too am almost done my TF-104 build, albeit in Canadian markings! I love the German MARINE masks!

Cheers

Alan

[Fanes]

9 hours ago, Michael931080 said:

That is really looking good!  What are you using for reference material?

My main reference for the zipper in general is the magnificient Daco book. It covers at least 99% of the details. Fo r the overall look and some of the specific details the pictures from airliners.net and 916-starfighter.de were a great help.

7 hours ago, spyrosjzmichos said:

Decals sure to give the plane it's signature character!

I had the same silvering issue with the exact same decals when I was building my single seater.

Not sure if a bit of light sanding would help.

Ooof - then it's not just my clumsiness . Sanding would be my last resort. my current work-around (not a solution for sure) is to poke small holes with a sharp blade and then flood the whole decal with Microsol. It's tedious and annoying but it works.

5 hours ago, alaninaustria said:

Beautiful build so far mate!

Really nice work so far! I too am almost done my TF-104 build, albeit in Canadian markings! I love the German MARINE masks!

Cheers

Alan

Thanks Alan! The canadian TF-104s are all NMF right? That's soemthing I would dare to do on a Tamiya kit.

[Out2gtcha]

Very nice! I like the orange on the tanks with the Luftwaffe scheme, nice and eye catching. I've had similar silvering issues too, and found with me, it's mostly a gloss issue.