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

[Derek B]

 

Lovely work Chuck 

 

As for the code numbers (in this case, the '8'), if you cannot find any matching numerals from another source, you could always carry out a little jiggery-pokery by cutting up pieces from other numbers (like 5, 6, 9, etc) and add the to the two remaining number 3 numerals to produce two more '8's'?

 

Cheers

 

Derek 

[chuck540z3]

23 hours ago, allthumbs said:

Wow, the paintwork looks great! 

 

Was the white paint laid down over bare plastic? Or where those areas treated with a primer first?

 

No, but likely would have covered better if I did.  Having said that, I never use primer in order to reduce paint coverage that fills detail, but on this model with wide panel lines, it might have been a good idea!

 

19 hours ago, Derek B said:

As for the code numbers (in this case, the '8'), if you cannot find any matching numerals from another source, you could always carry out a little jiggery-pokery by cutting up pieces from other numbers (like 5, 6, 9, etc) and add the to the two remaining number 3 numerals to produce two more '8's'?

 

Cheers

 

Derek 

 

Luckily Derek, I had also bought the Belcher Bits T-33 Decals (BD-24-2), which is still available and they have FOUR of each number for the sides and tail.  It looks like 104788 it is!

 

Thanks,

Chuck

Edited February 13, 2021 by chuck540z3

[dmthamade]

Hello Chuck!! I remembered on one of my Zip build, the canopy jettison door on the left front fuselage is a little low. May not be a big deal, but on the one build the decals for that area didn't look "right" because of the position of this door. Think the round hatch in front is a little low as well.

 

Don

[Marcel111]

Wow, you are crushing through this build and somehow you're weaving a spell of magic to make it look pristine!

 

Marcel

[Marcel111]

On 2/9/2021 at 10:47 PM, chuck540z3 said:

 

Thank you sir! 

 

No the Trumpeter A-10 is in a whole league of its own for being generally very bad in every respect.  As you may recall for that build I broke tradition and didn't title it "Kicked Up A Notch", but "Trumpeter A-10C, Putting Lipstick on a Pig of a Kit!'.  Lol, it was so true too.  Still, it turned out OK in the end after 20 months of hard work.  If I may once again.....

 

Custom made door decal from Jake Melampy's Modern Hog Guide book (used with permission).  "Oh Thank Heaven for 70

Cheers,

Chuck

ALWAYS good to see your Hog again, Chuck!

Edited February 13, 2021 by Marcel111

[scvrobeson]

Almost gloss black time.  Fun times.  I've got the new MRP 2k Gloss Black to test, that could be the next step from the Tamiya lacquer paints.  It's a polyurethane like the automotive ones, so it's paint and hardener.

 

 

 

 

Matt

[chuck540z3]

On 2/13/2021 at 1:04 PM, scvrobeson said:

Almost gloss black time.  Fun times.  I've got the new MRP 2k Gloss Black to test, that could be the next step from the Tamiya lacquer paints.  It's a polyurethane like the automotive ones, so it's paint and hardener.

Matt

 

I would be very interested in your results.  Right now, the Tamiya Gloss Black from a rattle can works for me as shown below!

 

On 2/12/2021 at 10:19 PM, dmthamade said:

Hello Chuck!! I remembered on one of my Zip build, the canopy jettison door on the left front fuselage is a little low. May not be a big deal, but on the one build the decals for that area didn't look "right" because of the position of this door. Think the round hatch in front is a little low as well.

 

Don

 

I had not noticed that before Don, but even if I did, there's no way I was going to move that complicated latch mechanism.  It's not really too bad anyway, but thanks for pointing that out.

 

 

Feb 14/21

 

Before painting the fuselage, I noted that there should be a protective plate for the arrestor hook over the drag shoot door, so I installed one from my spare PE collection.  According to the DACO book it is offset from center, just like the hook.

 

 

 

 

In most of my builds I show off my modeling box, which has served me well for many years and was used on just about every model I have ever built, from my small Harvard to my big F-15C Eagle.  Besides being almost free, what I like about it the most is that the pipe wrap is gentle on the model and pressure points are more evenly distributed than some of the contraptions I see used by other modelers.

 

 

 

 

To make it even softer and help reduce dust, I cover it with microfibre towels and on my Tempest build I discovered that spraying the towel with a light mist of water reduces dust when painting, which is critical if you want a dust free and glossy finish of Tamiya Gloss Black lacquer (TS-14).  I use this paint as a primer for Alclad, but also as a “check-coat” to look for flaws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small flaws like seam lines that were not filled properly are revealed, which I will fix before painting with several shades of Alclad.  There are lots of other small flaws as well, that you might never see with a flat paint finish.

 

 

 

 

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this first coat of paint and thanks to the wet towel, dust and other crap is minimal.  A bit of a walkaround….

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will knock down the shine on the top of the nose area later.

 

 

 

 

A few bits of crap here and there, but not many....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lots of clean-up and sanding, I also painted many other parts that will also be aluminum in color.

 

 

 

 

After lots of trial and lots of error, I have finally figured out a method to apply this paint easily, so I will do a write up of how when I have a bit more time.

 

After this lacquer dries for another day, I’ll go over every square inch of it and repair flaws and sand off contaminants.  After that, it will be the application of a few thousand HGW wet transfer rivets!

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited February 15, 2021 by chuck540z3

[Troy Molitor]

Nice painting update.   A few thousand more rivets on a Straighter?  Yikes.  

[Brett M]

Thousands of rivets are FUN!

 

Black sure looks good, I need to start going for gloss.

[Scale32]

Sexy dart!

 

Cheers Bevan 

[supersabre20]

Just a quick note regarding the main wheel doors ( The larger ones ) If you are building your model as a CF - 104 then those doors  did not have the bulge, as that was for the F-104G, which had slightly wider wheels. Both the CF - 104 and the Japanese F - 104J had the same "Plain " wheel doors.

If I remember correctly Italeri did include both types of doors in the kit. If not, I'm sure no - one will notice, and I shan't tell anyone ! .

[chuck540z3]

4 hours ago, supersabre20 said:

Just a quick note regarding the main wheel doors ( The larger ones ) If you are building your model as a CF - 104 then those doors  did not have the bulge, as that was for the F-104G, which had slightly wider wheels. Both the CF - 104 and the Japanese F - 104J had the same "Plain " wheel doors.

If I remember correctly Italeri did include both types of doors in the kit. If not, I'm sure no - one will notice, and I shan't tell anyone ! .

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I have been using pics of the restored CF-104 here in Calgary, that clearly has bulged doors.  According to the Military Museum website, this was its history:

 

"The CF-104 in the Cold War Hangars at The Military Museums made its first flight on the 2nd of October, 1962 at Cartierville, Quebec. It was the 146th CF-104 of the 200 single-seat aircraft ordered by the RCAF to fulfill its NATO commitment in Europe. After several test flights and troubleshooting it was Taken On Strength by the RCAF in July, 1963.

The aircraft was then partially disassembled by removing the wings and the aft section and on December 12, transported by C-130 Hercules to #2 Fighter Wing, Grostenquin, France where it was assigned to 430 Squadron. A few months later #2 Wing was closed and 846 was transferred to #1 Fighter Wing, Marville France where it was flown in a photo reconnaissance role by both 439 and 441 Squadrons.

In March 1967, 1Wing Marville was closed and all assets and personnel were relocated to the new 1Wing at Lahr in Southern Germany. In 1971, Canada sold the aircraft to the Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF) as part of a force reduction as Canada moved from the Photo Reconnaissance and Nuclear Strike roles to conventional operations.

Renumbered as R-846 the aircraft was modified to meet the RDAF air-to-air requirements. In 1984, 846 was retired and for the next 16 years spent its days on display in a museum in Billund, Denmark, then into storage when the museum closed."

 

It would appear that the RDAF likely modified it, hence the bulged doors.  The restored CF-104 in Winnipeg- also with bulged doors- is from Denmark and no doubt had a similar modification.

 

The Italeri instructions show the bulged doors and the flat doors on Page 31, with no indication which doors are for which version, as they do on other pages.  Mind you, some of these instructions are wrong, like which engine cover doors to use on Page 22, so you really need to check your references and apparently the history of the jet!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by chuck540z3

[Rainer Hoffmann]

I allways admire the flawless finish of your models, Chuck. Can't wait to see the various shades of Alclad. Oh, wait, several thousand rivets, you said? Ok, take your time ...

 

Rainer

[chuck540z3]

Feb 15/21

 

 

Step 2 of a Gloss Black Finish!

 

The first coat of gloss lacquer revealed quite a few tiny flaws that I couldn't see on the bare plastic, much more than with a duller finish.  A metallic finish will magnify any flaws even more, so now's the time to fix as many as possible.

 

Back to the drawing board and while I was at it, I sanded the entire model one more time.

 

 

 

 

Better now....

 

 

 

 

 

Seam lines at the rear shown earlier are now gone

 

 

 

 

This Starfighter kind of looks like an SR-71 when painted black

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here’s how I did it.

 

Painting a Smooth Gloss Finish

 

1. Before you paint anything, make sure the plastic is as smooth as possible to begin with.  Although I don’t use primers like Mr Surfacer, I’m sure they will help, but I prefer to try and retain as much fine detail as possible without the use of fillers before paint, which is a filler already.

 

2.  Remove as much dust as possible with compressed air.

 

3.  I use Tamiya Gloss Black TS-14 decanted from a rattle can, but the new line of Tamiya lacquers in a bottle like LP1 may be just as good, although I’ve never tried it.  After the lacquer has degassed, I add about 1/3 Tamiya lacquer thinner to 2/3 paint.

 

4.  I now use a wet towel underneath my model to reduce static electricity and trap lint.

 

5. I now also make sure that I only paint in my paint booth with air flow.  I’ve tried to paint beside the booth on a table for ease of handling large models, but particles from the air are attracted to the paint as the airbrush creates airflow disturbance.  In the paint booth, the airflow works with the airbrush, flushing most crap away from the model and not towards it.  I say “most”, because you will always get the odd particle of crap on the paint.

 

6. Like most painting, the lacquer should go down wet to get the smoothest finish.  If the paint is not entirely wet, orange peel is created and if too wet, it will run.  You want to be right in the middle of these too extremes and once you have achieved a wet surface, move on.  Try to spray continuously as much as possible, so that the tip of the airbrush never gets dry allowing clogging and resultant sputtering.  Always spray away from the model first to unclog the nozzle before directing the paint towards the model.

 

7.  Spray close to you at in the beginning and finish at the opposite end away from you.  If you spray in the opposite direction, fine paint dust will accumulate on areas that you painted only moments earlier, making it rough.

 

8.  Use a relatively large needled airbrush of about 0.3mm or larger at a flowing pressure a bit higher than normal, of about 12-13 psi.  This keeps the paint moving without sputters.  While my 0.18mm airbrush works with ultra-thin MRP lacquer paints very well, it chokes and sputters with Tamiya lacquers, unless I really make them thin.

 

9.  Flowing pressures are often misunderstood.  When I mention 12-13 psi, this is what the pressure gauge indicates when I’m spraying, not the pressure of the compressor before I spray.  For my particular compressor, a shut-in pressure of about 21 psi creates the above flowing pressure, whereas yours might be quite different, depending on size of tank and a host of other considerations.

 

10.  Paint only one side at a time and let it dry for at least 4 hours before even considering painting other surfaces.

 

11.  Large vertical surfaces, like the vertical stabilizer, should be painted on its side at 90 degrees to keep the surface flat.

 

12.  Have a space heater nearby that isn’t too hot and never one with an open flame due to a fire hazard.  Once you have finished painting a large surface, move the model close to the heat source to get the paint to flash, so that new dust particles won’t stick to it.  This is one of the reasons I like using my simple painting box, which allows me to move the model around without touching the paint

 

13.  While the paint will feel fairly dry after only 15 minutes or so, it really needs about 24 hours before you can handle it with your hands.  If you’re in a rush to do some repairs, always wear rubber gloves when handling the model.

 

14.  After the first coat of paint has dried for 24 hours, you can sand and do other repairs, always leaving smooth edges to the paint with no sharp edges.  Re-spray the model as required.

 

15.  After this second coat of paint, which may be the last, spray a flash coat of 100% Tamiya lacquer thinner over the entire model, allowing it to dry a bit before moving on to new areas.  The thinner partially dissolves the paint underneath, allowing it to lie flatter and smoother.  You want the surface just wet, then move on, trying to avoid any puddles.

 

16.  When this coat has dried for 24 hours, you will still have the odd piece of crap in the paint that you can lightly sand off.

 

17.  Assuming the above sanding did not go down to the bare plastic, spray the model with 100% Tamiya lacquer thinner again, which will smooth things out without the need for additional paint.

 

18.  Let the model dry for about 48 hours before you handle it too much again.  While you can handle it for shorter periods above since you are continuing to do repairs, you want this last coat to be hard enough that finger prints are not created with oily hands.

 

DONE!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited February 16, 2021 by chuck540z3

[MikeA]

A rare case in which words are worth a thousand pictures - although the black lawn dart does look very sexy. Thank you for the step by step to getting the finish!

 

Cheers,

 

Mike