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

[chuck540z3]

1 hour ago, Alex said:

Congrats on the new publication, Chuck!  I periodically think about not renewing FSM, because most of what's in there is of minimal interest to me, but then they occasionally run a fantastic piece like one of your builds, and that keeps me on the hook...

 

Thanks Alex.  Like most print magazines, FineScale Modeler has undergone a lot of new changes lately and with the demise of Scale Auto magazine in October 2020, car subjects have now migrated over to FSM.  With my focus on aircraft models and only aircraft, my interest in FSM has dwindled as more Star Wars subjects, Tanks, Figurines and now Cars fill the pages of the latest issues, including the March issue.  Nothing wrong with this, since I believe most modelers are more well rounded in their modeling interests than me and FSM needs to cater to the widest range of modeling subjects in order to survive.  FSM has been very good to me over the years and I wish them nothing but success in a very tough genre.

 

This is why I have migrated my last two models (Kitty Hawk T-6/Harvard and Special Hobby Tempest Mk V) over to KLP Publishing instead.  As an aircraft modeler and professional writer, LSP Kevin understands what we want to see and how to explain it clearly, so rather than sift through pages and pages of one of my typical build threads full of background noise, there will be an eBook guide that will be easy to follow and read.  I'm really looking forward to the first one on the Tempest!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[Hawkwrench]

What exactly is KLP publishing?

Another model magazine like FSM?

 

EDIT: Nevermine, I found it 

Too bad Pete didnt didn't do an ebook on his HH-60G build!!!

 

Tim

Edited January 28, 2021 by Hawkwrench

[LSP_Kevin]

6 hours ago, Hawkwrench said:

What exactly is KLP publishing?

Another model magazine like FSM?

 

EDIT: Nevermine, I found it 

Too bad Pete didnt didn't do an ebook on his HH-60G build!!!

 

Tim

 

It's my own company, Tim:

 

https://www.klp.com.au/

 

If you take a look at our existing catalogue, you'll be familiar with many of our authors, and perhaps even their featured builds. We also have a sponsor forum here on LSP:

 

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/forum/88-klp-publishing/

 

Kev

[Hawkwrench]

Kev, try talking Pete into making an ebook for his HH-60G build!

I know I'd buy a copy!

 

Tim

[Marine104]

On 1/24/2021 at 4:39 PM, chuck540z3 said:

 

No, I'm not going to fill all the panel lines and rescribe them.  There's far too many and after painting when they are all filled, they might not look too bad.  

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

Hi Chuck,

 

I agree filling and rescribing them all would be excessive, you might as well start with the Hasegawa kit! I've built two of these Italeri kits in the past and did do some things to the panel lines which I think improved the overall scale appearance no end and were not that drastic.

 

I filled these two really wide (trenches imho) panel lines, and a few others of the same type with stretched sprue, then a final blend with Zap-A-Gap CA. 

 

 

On top of this, some sanding was done to the main top fuselage around the access panels to reduce their emphasis and ended up with this,

 

 

 

It really was not much work but I think improved the overall scale look no end, particularly when you view the model down it's length. To show the results here is the finished model zoomed to see their impact from this viewpoint. They hardly stand out anymore which is much more like the real thing imho. 

 

 

So just my take on a little panel line mods that imho helped out quite a lot.

 

 

Another little thing I did notice on the Italeri 104, I don't think the rear bottom canopy frame demarcation is quite right.

 

Compare my pic below to the linked close up from prime portal here : 

 

 

 

When test fitting the canopy I noticed something looked a little off with the rear section. To me it seems Italeri has the rear canopy lower frame joined to the kit where the white sealant strip should be, to which the lower canopy frame panel line should be below that. If left as is the white sealant strip on the rear canopy will look too high when compared to the white sealant strip on the centre canopy, these pics kind of shows what I mean. The two parallel strips (above left on my pic) are where the white sealant strip will be as Italeri want it, and the too large space between this strip and the white strip on the main canopy. The bottom arrow points to the new line I scribed representing the lower rear canopy frame. The rivets on the bottom of the rear lower canopy frame were filled and then the white sealant strip was painted over this section. If you look at the finished model pic above and compare it to other Italeri kit builds online maybe you can see the slight difference in canopy profile.

 

Again, awesome work and a great read!

 

David

[chuck540z3]

Thank you very much David for your input and advice.  Your F-104 looks awesome!

 

You have inspired me to work on a few of those panel lines after all, but I think I will tweak them another way, TBD.  As for the canopy and rear window alignment, it doesn't really matter in my build, because both of them will be in the open position and you won't be able to see the difference anyway.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[dmthamade]

4 hours ago, Marine104 said:

 

Hi Chuck,

 

I agree filling and rescribing them all would be excessive, you might as well start with the Hasegawa kit! I've built two of these Italeri kits in the past and did do some things to the panel lines which I think improved the overall scale appearance no end and were not that drastic.

 

I filled these two really wide (trenches imho) panel lines, and a few others of the same type with stretched sprue, then a final blend with Zap-A-Gap CA. 

 

 

On top of this, some sanding was done to the main top fuselage around the access panels to reduce their emphasis and ended up with this,

 

 

 

It really was not much work but I think improved the overall scale look no end, particularly when you view the model down it's length. To show the results here is the finished model zoomed to see their impact from this viewpoint. They hardly stand out anymore which is much more like the real thing imho. 

 

 

So just my take on a little panel line mods that imho helped out quite a lot.

 

 

 

 

David

 

Have to say, this is EXACTLY what i'm doing on my Zip build right now!!! It is a fair amount of work but the results are well worth it. Did this to another Zip, happy with results. Did a Revell F-15 this way, got the HUGE trenches to a very acceptable level. Doing this is a lot easier than filling and rescribing the whole kit, a few lines should be filled and redone as shown by David. Pic shows where i'm at, darn cold out now so will spend a few...hours doing the rest.

[Alex]

On 1/27/2021 at 3:24 PM, chuck540z3 said:

With my focus on aircraft models and only aircraft, my interest in FSM has dwindled as more Star Wars subjects, Tanks, Figurines and now Cars fill the pages of the latest issues, including the March issue.  Nothing wrong with this, since I believe most modelers are more well rounded in their modeling interests

 

You know, I'm the same way (airplanes and more airplanes), and have felt bad a couple times thinking I should maybe try something different.  But on some introspection, my interest in models fundamentally derives from an interest in military history, and I'm mostly interested in naval and air conflicts, less so in infantry/mechanized cavalry engagements.  Plus I feel like I'm likely to spend the rest of my life trying to become half as good as people like you at building airplane models - I can't imagine trying to climb the AFV learning curve at the same time.  And I've already proved to myself that I don't have the patience to build ship models - my half-finished aircraft carrier on the SOD reminds me of that.  I enjoy reading SF on occasion, but I want to build models of real things where real-world references are available, so SF models are out.  I enjoyed playing D&D as a kid, but just not interested in making models of this sort, so...  And finally, I'm not nearly as interested in cars as I was as a young man, and if I did have a really strong interest, I'd buy a real one to play with, rather than build a model.  So that leaves airplanes.  I think occasionally of trying to scratchbuild a Falcon 9, so "real space" is an option too, I suppose.

[Oldbaldguy]

7 hours ago, Marine104 said:

 

Hi Chuck,

 

I agree filling and rescribing them all would be excessive, you might as well start with the Hasegawa kit! I've built two of these Italeri kits in the past and did do some things to the panel lines which I think improved the overall scale appearance no end and were not that drastic.

 

I filled these two really wide (trenches imho) panel lines, and a few others of the same type with stretched sprue, then a final blend with Zap-A-Gap CA. 

 

 

On top of this, some sanding was done to the main top fuselage around the access panels to reduce their emphasis and ended up with this,

 

 

 

It really was not much work but I think improved the overall scale look no end, particularly when you view the model down it's length. To show the results here is the finished model zoomed to see their impact from this viewpoint. They hardly stand out anymore which is much more like the real thing imho. 

 

 

So just my take on a little panel line mods that imho helped out quite a lot.

 

 

Another little thing I did notice on the Italeri 104, I don't think the rear bottom canopy frame demarcation is quite right.

 

Compare my pic below to the linked close up from prime portal here : 

 

 

 

When test fitting the canopy I noticed something looked a little off with the rear section. To me it seems Italeri has the rear canopy lower frame joined to the kit where the white sealant strip should be, to which the lower canopy frame panel line should be below that. If left as is the white sealant strip on the rear canopy will look too high when compared to the white sealant strip on the centre canopy, these pics kind of shows what I mean. The two parallel strips (above left on my pic) are where the white sealant strip will be as Italeri want it, and the too large space between this strip and the white strip on the main canopy. The bottom arrow points to the new line I scribed representing the lower rear canopy frame. The rivets on the bottom of the rear lower canopy frame were filled and then the white sealant strip was painted over this section. If you look at the finished model pic above and compare it to other Italeri kit builds online maybe you can see the slight difference in canopy profile.

 

Again, awesome work and a great read!

 

David

Wait, wait, wait.  You’re telling us that the middle photo is a model???  That’s what you’re saying, right?

[Alex]

1 hour ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Wait, wait, wait.  You’re telling us that the middle photo is a model???  That’s what you’re saying, right?

Oh it's obviously a model - a better model than I'm ever going to be able to build... 

[Skyhawk174]

HI Chuck finally found you and it looks like I missed a lot. I cannot comment on this latest build as I have not read any of it as yet. I will spend some tim eover the next few days having a read. Interestingly enough I recently got this kit, well recently like at the start of 2020. The only reason was that the guy who sold it was local (in Alberta) and it came with 2 Canuck Models decal sheets for RCAF. As you know I do not build 1/32nd too much but the F-104 is so cool. Will be following this build of course and I was planning on starting my kit next winter but now it looks like I have to move that time table up.

 

[LSP_Kevin]

3 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Wait, wait, wait.  You’re telling us that the middle photo is a model???  That’s what you’re saying, right?

 

I'm pretty sure that's a photo of the real thing, but we'll let David confirm.

 

Kev

[chuck540z3]

2 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

I'm pretty sure that's a photo of the real thing, but we'll let David confirm.

 

Kev

 

My money is on model- and I'd love to see some close-ups!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[chuck540z3]

2 hours ago, Skyhawk174 said:

HI Chuck finally found you and it looks like I missed a lot. I cannot comment on this latest build as I have not read any of it as yet. I will spend some tim eover the next few days having a read. Interestingly enough I recently got this kit, well recently like at the start of 2020. The only reason was that the guy who sold it was local (in Alberta) and it came with 2 Canuck Models decal sheets for RCAF. As you know I do not build 1/32nd too much but the F-104 is so cool. Will be following this build of course and I was planning on starting my kit next winter but now it looks like I have to move that time table up.

 

 

Hi Chris!

 

Don't look too close, because this model is kind of rough to begin with and it still has lots of challenges, like the deep and wide panel lines noted above.  You are a lucky man to have those Canuck decals, which are for the early "RCAF" version, which are apparently high quality and are definitely impossible to find.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited January 30, 2021 by chuck540z3

[Marine104]

20 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

Thank you very much David for your input and advice.  Your F-104 looks awesome!

 

You have inspired me to work on a few of those panel lines after all, but I think I will tweak them another way, TBD.  As for the canopy and rear window alignment, it doesn't really matter in my build, because both of them will be in the open position and you won't be able to see the difference anyway.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

Thanks a lot Chuck, amazing what photos can hide! Ok cool, I look forward to see how you tackle some of them, I've more F-104s planned in the future so interested to see how you go about it. Yep I figured given all the great work around the avionics bay the canopy wouldn't be something to worry about but thought I'd mention it  . 

 

12 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

 

My money is on model- and I'd love to see some close-ups!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

I posted some more pics in the display area for anyone interested and to stop taking your thread off topic. Ironically I posted the wrong photo regarding the panel lines here I was talking about, you can see them better in my thread.  

 

19 hours ago, dmthamade said:

 

Have to say, this is EXACTLY what i'm doing on my Zip build right now!!! It is a fair amount of work but the results are well worth it. Did this to another Zip, happy with results. Did a Revell F-15 this way, got the HUGE trenches to a very acceptable level. Doing this is a lot easier than filling and rescribing the whole kit, a few lines should be filled and redone as shown by David. Pic shows where i'm at, darn cold out now so will spend a few...hours doing the rest.

 

 

Yep the larger access panels really do benefit from a sandpaper session, looking great!

 

Cheers,

 

David