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Italeri CF-104 Starfighter "Kicked up a Notch": KLP Publishing eBook now Available!


chuck540z3

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December 9/20

 

 

This model is fighting me already, but I’ll call it a draw so far.  As mentioned earlier, the panel lines are way too wide and the rivet/fastener detail is all over the place for placement and quality.  Reviewing the DACO book and several reference photos, I decided to modify many things.  To go over every fix is almost impossible, but I thought I would document from now on the major things I have altered for your future reference.  I will do this numerically in several pics as follows with my “Chuck Wash” of Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color applied to show up these details.  Other than the changes below, all parts were sanded smooth, every panel line re-scribed and every fastener that I kept was re-punched.  Unfortunately, this Italeri plastic is harder than almost any model I have ever worked with, so this was bit harder to do than usual.

 

Port Side

 

 

#1  There should be a hole drilled beneath the canopy release handle

 

#2  The recess for the AOA vane and circular panel above it have fasteners all around them which are rivets that aren’t really that noticable.  I filled them all in, then added 4 interior fasteners to the panel and 4 external fasteners to the AOA recess.

 

#3  There’s a small rectangular panel right beside the stuff above, so I added it while I was in the neighborhood.

 

#4  This is a big one.  The gun doors don’t really fit to anything and they have large irregular gaps around them.  To fix this, I added strips of styrene on the inside, glued them in place, then filled the outside gaps with CA glue and re-scribed the panel lines.  All of the big fasteners on the front door were re-punched with my Mega Tool, creating circular fastener detail.  Not easy.

 

#5  That little bulge on the rear door has a flaw on the top and bottom of it.  It should be totally smooth, so I sanded it accordingly.

 

#6  The forward fuel pump door should have fastener detail within the panel and not around it.  It’s too small anyway, so I filled the panel line and moved it outside of the existing fasteners.

 

#7  The main fuel cap is a mess of fasteners around an oval with no detail on the cap.  I carefully cut a circular recess where the oval was and glued a spare brass fuel cap within so that it was flush.  Fastener detail was then added around it according to references in a somewhat complex pattern.

 

 

rzTbVJ.jpg

 

 

#8  The outside of the intakes on both sides is quite lumpy and should be sanded smooth.  This pic indicates that I still have some work to do!

 

 

aHfFfq.jpg

 

 

#9  If you glue the air brakes closed, they don’t fit very well and have gaps around them.  Like the gun doors, I filled the gaps with CA glue and re-scribed the panel lines.  Again, tricky to do cleanly.

 

 

imM342.jpg

 

 

 

 

Starboard Side

 

 

#10  Same as #9.  It's too bad I don't have a "Before" pic, because the fit of these brakes is quite bad.

 

 

X6FP1r.jpg

 

 

#12  (#11 deleted)   As shown earlier, the navigation light on the starboard side has a ring around it that is way off center.  I filled it in and then created a new one with a template.

 

 

QxTMBb.jpg

 

 

#13  Same as the port side, another fuel pump door with the panel line on the wrong side of the fasteners.  Panel line was moved to the outside.

 

#14  For the fasteners on the electronics bay door, I re-punched every one with my Mega Tool to create more circular fasteners.

 

 

cJwbgF.jpg

 

 

#15  Unlike the AOA vane on the port side, the one on the starboard side is quite a bit more forward and has correct fastener detail, so I added a few more.  This is a better pic of the fasteners I created on the electronic bay door on the left.

 

 

XPhzaM.jpg

 

 

OK, that’s it for fuselage modifications for now, but I’m glad I have most of it behind me before I play with resin cockpit fit, which is always a trim and dry fit do-loop struggle.  Stay tuned……

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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  • chuck540z3 changed the title to Italeri CF-104 Starfighter "Kicked up a Notch": Dec 10, More Fuselage Edits
1 minute ago, Finn said:

One little extra detail that is missing, there is a hole below the refueling port, in front of the intake spike as seen here:

 

pof_f-104g_01.jpg

 

it's main purpose was a grounding point when refueling.

 

Jari

 

 

 

Cool.   Of course I just noticed 6 other things I need to change! 

 

Thanks,

Chuck

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Well done.  Not an easy exercise.

 

'Unfortunately, this Italeri plastic is harder than almost any model I have ever worked with, so this was bit harder to do than usual.'

Italeri seems to hit or miss when it comes to plastic and detail.  The PT boat plastic, and especially the detail, is soft.  I was really disappointed in the softness of the detail.  Their earlier armor kits, M7, M109, M32 DUKW, and the like, had great fidelity of detail.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

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On 12/1/2020 at 10:49 PM, chuck540z3 said:

December 1/20

 

My new project, more or less.  Look at those scratched upper fuselages.  This should be fun to try and replicate.

 

eE0UuG.jpg

 

 

With the Tempest put to bed in my increasingly crowded display cabinet, it’s time to start another project and as always, I like to “Kick it up a Notch” with aftermarket items and enhanced panel line and rivet detail.  After 2 props in a row, it time to get back to jets and a fighter that I’ve always wanted to build one day is the Canadian CF-104 Starfighter, which is the Canadair version of the original Lockheed F-104G built under license.   Apparently, Canadair built 200 of them for Canada and 140 F-104G’s for Lockheed, most of which were exported to Europe.   I talk like I know what I’m doing and I know all about Starfighters.  Trust me, I don’t, and like every other aircraft I build when I start them, I know almost nothing about F-104’s, other than I like them.  It always feels intimidating at the beginning of a new build, because I don’t want to screw up my model due to lack of knowledge about the aircraft, so I consulted others in the LSP Discussion Forum recently and found out a few things.  I was already to hit the “Payment Button” at Sprue Bros on a number of items, but then changed and deleted a few with the following tips from others (thanks guys!).  In kind of random order, here are some of them:

 

·        -  The Italeri kit is way better than the Hasegawa kit, but I already assumed that.

·        -  The Italeri #2502 kit has the older 1960’s era RCAF decals like the pic above, while the #2514 kit has the late 70’s Canadian Armed Forces decals. 

·        -  The Aires and CMK resin cockpits are too wide and do not fit the kit hardly at all.  Delete that idea.

·        -  The main landing gear doors are closed when the jet is parked (like F-15’s), so getting the Aires gear bay set is mostly a waste of time.  Delete that idea as well.

·        -  CF-104’s have a combination of “Early” and “Late” wheels.  Interesting.

·        -  The gun was deleted until very late jets, so there should be a cover fairing over this opening instead.

·       -   IR seeker blister at the base of the windscreen should be deleted.  Thankfully the kit instructions call for that already.

 

So here’s the obligatory first pic of most of the stuff I’ll be using to build this model.  Everything from Sprue Bros. to Canada in 9 days, mostly because I paid extra for Air Mail shipping.  I tried regular mail on my last US order and it took 6 weeks due to the pandemic, so lesson learned.

 

 

Q6l33F.jpg

 

 

 Consisting of:

 

- ITA2514 1:32 Italeri F-104G F-104S Starfighter Upgraded RF Version. 

- ARS2208 1:32 Aires F-104G F-104S Starfighter Electronics & Ammunition Bay Set

- MASAM32037 1:32 Master Model F-104 Starfighter Pitot Tube

- RESRS320009 1:32 ResKit CF-104 Starfighter Wheels Set

- RESRSU320020U 1:32 ResKit F-104 Starfighter (A/C/D/J/G) Exhaust Nozzle Set

- EDU32427 1:32 Eduard PE - TF-104G Starfighter Exterior Detail Set

 

I also have:

 

- BELCHER BITS BD-8, Canadian CF-104’s (1979) 1/32 (OOP), donated by Rockie Yarwood.  Thanks Rockie!

 

And have ordered:

 

- DACO F-104G Starfighter Reference Book, DCB005.  Hard to find, so I have one coming all the way from Greece!

 

 

And this is what I already have:

 

BLACK BOX F-104G Starfighter Resin Cockpit

 

I got this cockpit from Scott Wilson, who helped me so much on my F-4E build, along with a BLACK BOX F-5E resin cockpit, both of which are made for Hasegawa kits.  Scott sort of gave up on modeling when he moved to the Big Island of Hawaii several years ago to live, so he gave much of his stash to me.  He then got his pilot’s license and is now flying air ambulances for a living.  A few years ago, my wife and I met Scott and his wife in Hawaii for the day, and they took us on a tour all over the island.  Very cool and very kind of Scott.  He’s a great guy and he still remembers every panel line and every rivet on the Phantom, which he worked on for many years in the US Air Force.

 

I have no idea if this pit will eventually fit this Italeri model, but I’ve done a little dry fitting already and I think I have a chance, so I’ll give it a try.  I shoe-horned the F-5E pit into my Kitty Hawk build and it turned out quite good, so maybe I’ll get lucky twice.  I’ve never had a resin cockpit fit any of my models without a lot of work anyway, so this is nothing new.

 

Something new for me is from ResKit, who are recently making a name for themselves with very high-quality resin products.   They make an awesome F-15 nozzle that is the best I’ve ever seen and here is their J-79 engine set for this model.

 

 

ef3iPp.jpg

 

 

A close-up.  Just look at those fine features!

 

 

33fgIA.jpg

 

 

Thankfully, they make the correct tire and wheel combo for CF-104’s as well.  No worries about which version is correct with this set.

 

 

4sfDIX.jpg

 

 

The Aires Avionics and Ammunition box behind the cockpit.  Since the CF-104 didn’t have a gun in 1979, I will be leaving the gun box door closed.

 

 

4z1Bqr.jpg

 

 

And a pic of the kit decals behind and the Belcher Bits decals that Rockie gave me on top.  More or less the same ones, so I’ll use the best of both- and I will always have that very important back-up decal for screw-ups, which always seem to happen. 

 

 

qIqPcA.jpg

 

 

Note:  Older 60’s era CF-104’s have the more detailed red maple leaf roundel and “RCAF” instead of “Armed Forces” like the first pic above at the top of this thread.  This configuration can be found in the #2502 kit instead if you prefer that scheme, but the later 70’s scheme found in the #2514 kit looks something like this.  I like both schemes, but I only have 2 sets of decals for this one, which gets the nod.

 

 

fxObe4.jpg

 

 

And the Black Box resin cockpit.  As mentioned, I’ll try to get the sucker to fit and if not, I have lots of nice detail parts to add to the kit cockpit.  The C-2 seat should add a lot of detail all on its own.

 

 

8x0DzO.jpg

 

 

A close-up.  Look at those finely detailed seat belts.

 

 

ycyfir.jpg

 

 

Unlike my last Tempest build, I’m not following any instructions in order, because the first order of business is to improve the surface detail, which this kit is infamous for.  Not many panel lines, not many rivets and molding flaws everywhere:

 

 

XRXBxr.jpg

 

 

9EQOwS.jpg

 

 

Considering it should look more like this, I have a lot of work to do.  Note the fairing over the gun opening.

 

 

OarH6e.jpg

 

 

We have one of these CF-104’s here in Calgary, but due to Covid, the hanger museum is shut down indefinitely.  Dang!  I was going to take hundreds of pics of every detail of this jet before I started this build, but I hear the DACO book is pretty good- and there are many on-line sources of reference photos.  When the book arrives later this week, I plan on adding a lot of new detail to the 2 fuselage halves, while cleaning up the existing detail.  When I’m happy with that, I will then try and get that resin cockpit and Aires avionics bay inside.  This will likely take a few weeks, so stay tuned- and stay safe!

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

The Daco book is friggin' amazing. I bought it and the F-14 book.

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2 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

 

Thanks again Jari.  You act like someone who has done this before!  :P

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Jari is a wealth of information and always willing to lend a hand. There are points in my Phantom build where I would have been guessing until he came through with amazing details that I would never have seen.

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Thanks Guys!

 

December 12/20

 

I had omitted the #11 fuselage fix in my last post, partly because I had missed something, so here it is now.  There are 2 large reinforcement plates on the corners of the big engine door on the bottom, which are jammed full of fasteners that really stand out and no two look the same, so the pattern is relatively random.  Also, on the starboard side are 4 thin slot-like hinges, so I scribed something similar.

 

cVti23.jpg

 

 

I am fairly proud of my recent build of the Kitty Hawk F-5E, partly because I was able to squeeze a Black Box cockpit made for the Hasegawa kit into it, to replace the horrible kit parts.  At the risk of promoting my own work (which never stopped me before!), this model will be featured in the March issue of FineScale Modeler.  The side walls, cockpit tub, instrument panel and many other things are all Black Box.

 

 

ITqDxh.jpg

 

 

Having done it once, I thought I had an excellent shot at doing it again on this kit.  Although this kit cockpit isn’t horrible at all, you can’t beat a resin cockpit for fine details.  Having done a little research, the Aires and CMK resin cockpits for this kit are way too big and are a real struggle to install, but since I already had the Black Box version (#32009, F-104G), again for a Hasegawa kit, I thought I would give it a try.  Straight to the punchline, it worked!

 

Here is why I thought my chances were good.  Unlike the Aires cockpit the BB version is roughly the same width as the kit cockpit tub, which is critical.

 

 

aUCIQ0.jpg

 

 

And roughly the same length.

 

 

G2uNAf.jpg

 

 

So here is how I went about installing it, after lots of experience (and frustration!) with resin pits in all of my jets.  Since my numbering scheme of explaining things went fairly well last time, I will do it again here.

 

 

#1  The most important thing to do before you do anything with the resin pit is to check out the kit one that was made specifically for this kit.  How does it fit?  Where should it align?  What does it attach to?  What might be in the way with a resin one?  Here you can see that the kit tub sits just below 6 vertical lines that represent the detail on the sides- and the reason I’m going with resin instead!

 

 

W3jAvG.jpg

 

 

#2  Resin cockpit tubs all come with a fairly large casting block on the bottom that needs to be shaved or cut off about 90% of the time.  Although crude on the bottom, this one wasn’t that thick, so I sanded a few millimeters off the bottom.

 

 

kh34QO.jpg

 

 

#3  In order to fit the curved sides, the corners should also be shaved off at roughly 45 degrees.

 

 

a5AQvC.jpg

 

 

#4  Through progressive sanding and dry fitting sessions, you should be able to get the resin tub to fit in a similar fashion to the kit one to the side “detail” with the fuselage halves closed with tape.  This is important to ensure that you get the correct depth, so that seats and other things fit properly later.  This step is the hardest one and may take a few hours of repetitive dry fitting and a Warning:.  If you have to squeeze the plastic fuselage parts hard in order make everything fit, you need to shave off more resin from somewhere.  Forcing the fuselage closed will swell the cockpit so that other parts may not fit and you risk it cracking later due to stress.  Take your time, so that the resin tub is a drop in with no further drama.  I have learned this the hard way.....:BANGHEAD2:

 

 

LNZCpJ.jpg

 

 

#5  You also need to pay attention to the bottom, to make sure it isn’t colliding with anything important.  Here I have shaved off enough resin for the tub to just fit, keeping it out of the way of the bottom Part # C14, but also creating a cradle for it to held in.

 

 

SEm9IJ.jpg

 

 

Part C14 dry fit, which looks great and fit a lot better than I thought it would.  Maybe this kit doesn’t suck after all?  :P

 

 

sCsvZJ.jpg

 

 

#6  Once you get the tub to fit correctly, you need to erode off the side details so that they don’t interfere with the resin side parts.  Here I used a diamond bit in my Dremel tool, leaving the back anchor points for the tub back.  No points for neatness at this step.  I just ordered Troy Molitor's David Union router and sander for next time, which would have been much easier and likely would have done a cleaner job.

 

 

 

dxqrAz.jpg

 

 

 

#7  Since this resin pit isn’t made for this kit, the detail on the top of each side panel should be removed.  Thankfully, the kit has lots of detail for these areas on its own.  The backs of these panels should be sanded down paper thin so that they don’t stick out on the fuselage sides too much

 

 

kgfdSi.jpg

 

 

#8  Dry fit the tub again with the side detail removed, then try to fit the side panels.  Here you will find out what needs further trimming.

 

 

9d1xkM.jpg

 

 

#9  When you are happy with the trimming and placement of the side panels, glue them to the fuselage sides with CA glue.  You can see here that there are some small gaps and I used a styrene spacer to fill one of them.  These will be filled and sanded smooth later.

 

 

d8eeWb.jpg

 

 

I often use a combination of kit and resin parts in my cockpits.  While the resin rear wall is more detailed on the right, the kit one is the anchor point for both the tub and as you will see below, the top detail as well.  The seat should hide most of it anyway.

 

 

wLwVdj.jpg

 

 

#10  The kit rear wall was cut at the base so that is meshed with the bottom of the resin tub, then I added styrene and resin reinforcements lathered in CA glue to keep everything strong.  If the rear wall is anchored properly, everything else will be as well.

 

 

4WQBGS.jpg

 

axXWd4.jpg

 

 

Now everything dry fit again, including the top brass detail laid on top to check alignment.  Pretty darn good if I say so myself!  Again, the seams at the top of the side panels will be filled later.

 

 

Vs1vpG.jpg

 

0abPYI.jpg

 

Gaps at the front will be hidden by the instrument panel and glare shield.

 

WEsdu4.jpg

 

 

With the hard part over, I can now add all the other resin parts, assemble the seat and get everything painted and detailed.

 

 

MGETFC.jpg

 

 

The bad news, of course, is that Black Box/Avionix is no longer in business and these resin cockpits are very hard to find.  The F-5E cockpits are super rare, but I saw the exact same F-104G one I used sell on ebay a few months ago for $29, so there is still hope for you guys to find one if you want.  Also, just in case this cockpit isn't "accurate" for a CF-104, I don't really care that much.  I will always go for interesting vs. accurate in a cockpit, which is why my A-10C has a Black Box/Avionix A-10A one instead, mostly because the A-10C pit isn't available in 1/32 scale.

 

On to cockpit painting and detailing, my favorite part of modeling after painting!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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  • chuck540z3 changed the title to Italeri CF-104 Starfighter "Kicked up a Notch": Dec 12, BB Resin Cockpit
On 12/5/2020 at 11:25 PM, AlbertD said:

But the rivets are not a different color. They are made from aluminum just like the skin. All you really see is a small ring on the surface.

 

I believe many rivet types are made of pure aluminum as opposed to dural. They would have a different look when juxtaposed against dural.  Please correct me if I'm mistaken, don't want to put misinformation.

 

Cheers,

Damian

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