Italeri CF-104 Starfighter "Kicked up a Notch": Feb 27/21, Decal Rivets Half Done

[Finn 2,107]

Chuck you should be glad you aren't building it in full scale:

 

 

Jari

[ScoobyDoo 609]

On 1/6/2021 at 9:01 AM, chuck540z3 said:

Thank you very much guys!  A few model supply items that might be of interest:

 

-  I just ordered 30 bottles of MRP paint, but MRP out of Slovakia won't ship directly to Canada any more.  This may be due to our stupid Canada Post service not allowing the mailing of solvents and other paints as "Non Mailable Matter", with no regard to volume and actual risk of a few small bottles of paint.  HobbyWorld-USA thankfully will, so they may not have got the memo.    Having said that, I can get paint deliveries from SE Asia all day long, probably because they don't care about stupid Canada Post rules.

 

-  HobbyWorld is out of New Hampshire and I got my paint order in about 2 weeks by USPS mail.  Pretty darn good.

 

-  UMM-USA (excellent hobby store) is out of Illinois somewhere and ship through Chicago, which is the black hole of the USPS these days.  My last shipment took 6 weeks and my current two shipments (Rosie the Riveter and HGW decal rivets) still sit in a Chicago warehouse somewhere doing nothing after 5 weeks- so far.  Pretty darn bad, so try to avoid the Chicago area if you're in a hurry for anything from the USPS.  This is not a dump on the USPS in general, especially during this horrible pandemic, but some areas are much worse than others for deliveries.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

 

 

 

Artscale in the Czeck Republic will ship MRP to Canada.

 

I spoke to the owner of MRP, he is looking for a Canadian distributor, I may have found him one.

 

I ordered from Hobbyworld recently, it was very slow and he shorted me two bottles last order. I tried to contact him but he didn’t return any of my emails. Unfortunate as he was fast and a good communicator in previous dealings.

 

Spruebrothers ship to Canada even though the site says they don’t. I know others who have used them in the Toronto area but I don’t know how they accomplish it.

 

Awesome work on the avionics bay!

Edited January 11 by ScoobyDoo

[scvrobeson 3,477]

20 minutes ago, ScoobyDoo said:

 

I ordered from Hobbyworld recently, it was very slow and he shorted me two bottles last order. I tried to contact him but he didn’t return any of my emails. Unfortunate as he was fast and a good communicator in previous dealings.

 

E-mail, or Facebook works with Matt.  I've used Facebook messenger through the Hobbyworld page, always gotten fast replies.  I've been short bottles a couple times, they've shown up later on though.

 

Matt 

[chuck540z3 9,120]

January 11/21

 

 

A big update!  As shown above, the landing gear parts are full of big seams, so it’s taken me a long time to clean them all up, or at least most of them.  Here’s all the parts painted up and when I install them, I will be adding the odd hydraulic and electrical line if it’s obvious.

 

 

 

 

Here’s the main gear dry fit together.  I have to admit that despite all the seam lines, the gear parts are fairly well molded, detailed and accurate.  Most of the front of the front of this gear bay will be covered with doors, so adding a lot of detail here is mostly a waste of time.

 

 

 

 

 

I have the ResKit tires and wheels, which are specific to the CF-104 rather than just a generic F-104G.  Here they are when compared to the kit wheels.  They were a ton of work getting them off their casting blocks and sanded down to size, then holes were drilled to fit the gear parts, although they main gear has square rather than round axles.

 

 

 

 

 

Painted up and weathered a bit, they look pretty good and the inner wheel has an accurate brake line connector for when I add these lines.

 

 

 

 

Before I close up the fuselage halves, the engine needs to be installed, so I thought I’d get going on the ResKit resin engine.   More resin blocks to cut off.....

 

 

 

 

With no instructions, other than this diagram I found on-line.

 

 

 

 

Here’s the parts after getting them off the casting blocks, next to the kit nozzle, which would require significant clean-up to get all that crap out of the opening cleanly.  That little brass ring was not used, since it’s installation would be very difficult and more importantly, you’d never see it hidden behind the grill on the left of it.

 

 

 

 

After a coat of Tamiya gloss black lacquer, followed by Alclad Steel.

 

 

 

 

Here’s what the interior look s like on a J-79 engine I took in 2007 (note the date on the cone: 2006/12/11).  The rear is usually a rust color while the ceramic sides of the flame tube are green.  Note the flame holder on the bottom.

 

 

 

 

So I painted the individual assemblies in a similar fashion.

 

 

 

 

This is why I deleted that brass ring, which would be completely hidden behind this circular grill.

 

 

 

 

Like all exhaust staining, every exhaust is a little different, so I used this one as my template.

 

 

 

 

And tried to paint it in a similar fashion with a multitude of Alclad paint colors.

 

 

 

 

The detail on these resin exhausts is incredible!

 

 

 

 

Dry fit together, this exhaust looks fairly close to the real deal.  Too bad you’ll need a flashlight to see it!

 

 

 

 

I then noted the length of the assembly at 86 mm from end to end.  More on this later.

 

 

 

 

The engine attaches to the rear of the landing gear bay, but there are no locking tabs to hold it in place.  Since this join needs to be strong, I added a pin made from a drill bit and drilled holes to connect the parts.

 

 

 

 

While there is a tab at the back of the engine for it to be glued to, the rest of it is kind of free floating, other than a tab at the top of 2 brass fuselage walls.  This will be reinforced when I glue everything together.

 

 

 

 

The engine is held in place, however, when the rear tail is attached, but that doesn’t happen until near the end of assembly if you follow the directions.

 

 

 

 

Here is how the kit exhaust fits at the rear, which is pretty close to reference pics.

 

 

 

 

And where the resin exhaust would fit if it was the exact same length.  Based upon the reference pic above, I think this is just about perfect.

 

 

 

 

So if I want the resin exhaust to fit the same way, the whole assembly should be 161 mm like the kit parts.

 

 

 

 

With the resin parts already 86 mm (which is variable as I cut them), I need the front half to be only 75 mm, so I cut the kit parts accordingly.  Note I have drawn a line with a felt pen noting the top of the engine assembly, to ensure the flame holder winds up on the bottom, where it should be.

 

 

 

 

And now dry fit into the fuselage, by slipping the engine into the front and adding the exhaust from the rear.

 

 

 

 

Just above perfect exhaust exposure I think!.  This exhaust can just be slipped on at the end of the build in order to protect it from damage.

 

 

 

 

With the resin cockpit, resin avionics bay, resin wheels and resin engine, I’ve just had it with resin blocks and dust!  Next up is to check the wing fit before I glue everything together, because I’ve read that the wings may need some shims on the inside of the fuselage to keep the dihedral in the correct position.  I also need to add 8 navigation lights before I glue anything!

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited January 12 by chuck540z3

[DrewH 124]

Perfection Chuck! 

[F`s are my favs 2,648]

So far so awesome!  I just noticed (in the second to last pic) that the nozzle itself is slightly angled downwards in comparison to the lenght of the engine/exhaust duct. Should it be like that? It could be just an illusion though. 

[dodgem37 8,502]

That was one fine presentation, Chuck.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[chuck540z3 9,120]

13 minutes ago, F`s are my favs said:

So far so awesome!  I just noticed (in the second to last pic) that the nozzle itself is slightly angled downwards in comparison to the lenght of the engine/exhaust duct. Should it be like that? It could be just an illusion though. 

 

Thanks!

 

This is partly due to the angle of the photograph, but mostly the dry fit of the nozzle to the flame tube, which is sloppy without glue.  When glued in place, all should be well- or at least I hope so! 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[MARU5137 15,911]

ASTOUNDING  workmanship  throughout. 

Quite masterful and an epic build.

 

 

[Finn 2,107]

Here is a belly view for weathering reference, also note some early tip takes had a shorter inboard fin:

 

 

Jari

[Marcel111 2,540]

Beautiful work on that exhaust!

 

Marcel

Edited January 12 by Marcel111

[Hawkwrench 1,585]

Chuck, what razor saw do you use to cut away the resin stubs?

 

Tim

[chuck540z3 9,120]

9 hours ago, Hawkwrench said:

Chuck, what razor saw do you use to cut away the resin stubs?

 

Tim

 

Whatever saw fits the task.  I have a number of saw blades with an X-Acto set on the right, while my go-to saw is the CMK saw on the left, that also comes with different saw blades from very fine to coarse.  While thin and sharp, the depth is limited, so I usually start the cuts with it and finish off with a saw on the right.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[Hawkwrench 1,585]

Thanks Chuck. I think it's cool for an expert modeler like your self to open up and tell us what tools you have and use. 

 

Tim

[Oldbaldguy 513]

I have almost the same batch of saws but I can’t find any of them.  Good saws, tho.  Wherever they are.