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

[chrish]

Beautiful work...as usual.

[MikeA]

Going back to the fuel cells, for what it is worth. When I did mine I did roughly detail the bay vacated by the deletion of the gun magazines. Cut out the magazines, put in some thick foil to form the bladder top, plastic card to form the valve assemblies and some solder for the pipe work. You can make out the shapes with the electronics bay open, but only just - unless you shine a bright light into the area. Worth doing, but not worth spending too much time on, and especially not worth interrupting a cockpit for.

 

Cheers,

Edited December 22, 2020 by MikeA

[alaninaustria]

Really nice so far! I love following your builds Chuck!

Cheers

Alan

[chuck540z3]

December 22/20

 

 

Thank you, Gents!  No worries about what I’m going to do with the Avionics and Fuel Tank compartments.  I have a plan…. 

 

I was hoping to have more done with the cockpit painting by now, but as always, it’s taking more time than I thought it would.  Picky, picky painting and details take lots and lots of time to do correctly- or at least presentable in a public forum like this one.

 

First step as always is a gloss black lacquer base of Tamiya TS-14.

 

 

 

 

I then mask off those areas that remain black, then spray the cockpit US interior grey, FS36231, using my new go-to paint MRP-100.

 

 

 

 

Next step after paint repairs, is to spray everything with acrylic X-22.  This clear gloss provides a seal to the underlying paint, as subsequent layers of enamel paint are applied with a brush to add detail.  With painting errors, in my case lots of them, excess paint can easily be cleaned up with solvent without harming the underlying paint coats.  The gloss also helps to make the raised relief pop, so that I can paint them easier.

 

 

 

 

Same goes for the instrument panels.  That smooth lower resin radar scope is going to look killer when done!

 

 

 

 

And the ejection seat, prepped with X-22 for further painting.  Note how the black primer coat has provided dark shadows in tight details like the seat belts.

 

 

 

 

About 10 hours of detailed painting later, Ta-Da!  A Lockheed C-2 seat used in CF-104’s.  Painting process was as follows:

 

1. Seat painted with MRP-100, then sealed with X-22
2. Main seat belts painted with Light Grey enamel, ejection webbing on the sides Dark Green, base of seat Medium Green, seat cushion Dark Grey and belt buckles Silver.  The contrast in these colors is very hard to photograph, but it's there.
3. Headrest painted with Tamiya TS-85 (Mica Red) to match references
4. Emergency rings painted with MRP-122 Marking Yellow and Black
5. Airscale emergency decal applied to seat handle and large placard to seat back
6. The Detailer wash of Black and Brown
7. Dull Coat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upper emergency ring by headrest is made from copper wire, right seat handle covered with an Airscale decal and center pull ring is a modified kit part. 

 

 

 

 

Note the split placard decal behind the seat belts on the back of the seat, which is on the real deal, but also gives the belts some 3D depth

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m pretty happy with this seat, especially when compared to the kit parts.  I now move on to the two instrument panels and cockpit.  This could take a while…. 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited December 23, 2020 by chuck540z3

[shark64]

Another beauty in the making. I cant  wait to see what you do with the cockpit and the IP. 

Edited December 23, 2020 by shark64

[Brett M]

Really nice, Chuck. Your detail painting on the seat, brush?

[chuck540z3]

38 minutes ago, Brett M said:

Really nice, Chuck. Your detail painting on the seat, brush?

 

Yup, all brush.  There really isn't any other way with such tight spaces.  For the seat and as you will see on the instrument panels and cockpit consoles, it is an iterative back and forth session of painting stuff you want, some stuff you don't, and fixing the flaws with either solvent or another paint color.  This is particularly difficult on IP's with lots of grey in between black gauges, as I had on my F-15C.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by chuck540z3

[AlbertD]

Hey Chuck, it's looking great. It's obvious that you take the detail to heart. I also agree that having a build log with the talented people here looking in and commenting makes me a better modeler.

[Finn]

Nice work on the seat Chuck however Canadian 104s had the arms beside the seat painted as a safety measure:

 

also when you get to the weathering stage, there was a panel that was opened to access fueling controls: 

 

 

Jari

[chuck540z3]

41 minutes ago, Finn said:

Nice work on the seat Chuck however Canadian 104s had the arms beside the seat painted as a safety measure:

 

 

Jari

 

 

Thanks Jari.  Not that I doubt you, but are you 100% sure that was the case all the time?  I am fortunate that my arms are just inserted with the pins I used, so I could easily remove them and  paint them like candy canes above, but I don't want to do it if it wasn't "standard".  Any other info to show on this?  I've never seen it before, although I have seen just bright red.

 

Of course most of my reference pics are of restored CF-104's and like all restored birds, it's a crap shoot as to what was standard and what was just made up.

 

Thanks,

Chuck

[MikeA]

Beautiful work on that seat - the seat belt and cushion textures look particularly good. And the cockpit panels look full of promise with the gloss coat on. The few photos i found of the operational seat all had the striped arms, albeit very messily painted on it would seem. 

 

Cheers,

[dodgem37]

Damn, Chuck.  The painting definition of that seat is BEYOND!  Well done.  Did you split the decal and slide it under the belts?

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

[Oldbaldguy]

Okay, wait.  What?  You painted the seat cushions dark gray?  Then how did they end up that indeterminate mousey gray/brown color so common to seats after a lot of use?  I’ve yet to capture that after all these years.

[ax365]

On 12/22/2020 at 11:47 PM, chuck540z3 said:

 

 

Thanks Jari.  Not that I doubt you, but are you 100% sure that was the case all the time?  I am fortunate that my arms are just inserted with the pins I used, so I could easily remove them and  paint them like candy canes above, but I don't want to do it if it wasn't "standard".  Any other info to show on this?  I've never seen it before, although I have seen just bright red.

 

Hi Chuck.

 

Merry Christmas and splendid work, as usual.  This is a C2 seat that has been deployed and on display at the RCAF Museum in Trenton.  As you can see, it has the 'candy cane' handles on both sides of the seat.  The handles pivot at the front during the ejection sequence as they deploy the webbing that helps keep the pilot in the seat.

 

Mike

 

 

[Winnie]

The webbing us used to keep the pilots arms and knees from flailing at high speed ejections. 

 

The pull handle up on the right hand seat headbox is to pull the legs back. The pilots wear "spurs" that are attached to cables that come out from under the seat. When the ejection sequence is initiated, the legs are pulled back, but if crash landed the handle can be used for the same purpose. 

 

The optical sight vs. heads up display, the amount of information displayed is hugely different. The one in the 104 could do basic aim, and some basic corrections for lay down, but not much. The modern HUD can basically display anything not engine related so you can fly by it solely. But if you are to do an instrument approach you actually have to use the instruments...

 

Superb work. So nice it inspired me to order one from my local guy!