Popular Post chuck540z3 Posted March 31, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted March 31, 2021 (edited) March 30/21 Thanks to Covid and lots of extra time, I have finished the 1/32 Italeri F-104G kit, converted to a Canadian CF-104 in only 4 months, which is a record short time for me. I have a WIP Thread on how I built this model here: 1/32 Italeri CF-104 "Kicked Up A Notch" Kit is one of the latest versions with great decals, #2514. Aftermarket Items are as follows: Black Box Resin Cockpit, 32009, made for the Hasegawa kit Aires Electronics and Ammunition Bay, #2208 ResKit Engine and Exhaust, RSU32-20 ResKit CF-104 Wheels/Tires, RSU-32-9 Master F-104 brass Pitot Tube, AM-32-037 Eduard Exterior PE set, 32427 (only 1 part) Videoaviation SUU-21 Bomb Dispenser (converted to MN-1A), 141632 Airscale Instrument Bezels and Gauge Decals Belcher Bits CF-104 decals, BD-8 Belcher Bits Canadian T-33 decals, BD24-1 (Letters and Numbers only) HGW decal rivets, 322011 (> 9,000 of them!) Paint was mostly Alclad Chrome and Aluminum shades over Tamiya Gloss Black Lacquer (TS-14), followed by a clear coat of Tamiya X-22 to allow for decals and decal solutions on the fragile Chrome. Other shades were mostly MRP synthetic lacquers. Final Quick Thoughts This kit is a real mixed bag of some good features and many challenges, but overall can be made into a pretty accurate looking F-104. The deep and wide panel lines are the weakest part of the fuselage which are very hard to mitigate, so you pretty much have to just live with them. While the Black Box (Avionix) resin cockpit made for the Hasegawa kit fit fairly well with a few modifications, the Aires Avionics and Ammunition Bay was a very tight fit and is not recommended for beginners. The ResKit engine/exhaust and CF-104 wheels are outstanding, while the Videoaviation SUU-21 (converted to MN-1A) bomb dispenser was pretty good with 2 sets of decals. The biggest surprise was the kit decals, which I would also consider outstanding, but I understand that decals in earlier versions of this kit are not very good. The HGW decal rivets worked much better than I thought, but with over 9,000 of them, you really have to put in a lot of extra time and effort to get the desired effect. Overall, a very good modeling experience, but I’m also really glad it’s over with! Oh Canada eh!, for the subject theme. Here is generally the look I was going for (second one in), which was in the mid-60's before the "RCAF" was replaced with "CAF". Note the "modern" roundels, which is a fairly rare pic, because pics of CF-104's with RCAF on them almost always have the older and more complex maple leafs in the roundels, suggesting that this must have been a short lived event. Tonal color variations in the metallic skin, as well as painted areas for corrosion protection, were incorporated. Note: The metallic finish was very hard to photograph with my usual flat white background, which made the paint look dull, so I have added a few more pics with a blue background to show the metallic finish a bit better. I’m really proud of this "no-glue" accomplishment, which allows me to take stuff off that will break when transporting the model or flipping it over for pics. This is the Master brass pitot tube, but it’s not plug and play. I sanded the nose down before painting to ensure that the rear of the tube fit flush and used red decal film for the sharp red stripe, which should be about 5 bands. Lots of stencils and decals underneath as well. A few of the cockpit area. Note the holes where the pins are inserted along the sill on the right. Buried behind the Electronics bay is a fuel tank as found on early CF-104's, replacing the Ammunition Box since there was no gun. The angle of the Avionics door should be more vertical, but once you drill the holes for the pins you are stuck with what you get unless you want the door sloppy. Good enough! And now some walkaround pics. Cheers, Chuck Edited April 22, 2022 by chuck540z3 dodgem37, Old Dog, Dandiego and 56 others 57 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthumbs Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 (edited) Congratulations Chuck on finishing yet another museum piece. I followed the WIP all the way through and, like always, found it entertaining and informative. Rich Edited March 31, 2021 by allthumbs chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 That is amazing, Chuck! Can I post it on the website, or do you have other plans for this one? Great finish! chuck540z3 and Kagemusha 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaxos345 Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Absolutely awesome!!!! John chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockie Yarwood Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Outstanding. I absolutely love it. Well done! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Hey not bad ... Kagemusha and chuck540z3 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 2 hours ago, LSP_Ray said: That is amazing, Chuck! Can I post it on the website, or do you have other plans for this one? Great finish! No plans, at least not yet so fire away and thank you. Cheers, Chuck Kagemusha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaro Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Chuck, Spectacular result; you play in your own league. Definitely the best F104 I've ever seen! The final result is worth every minute you spend on building and mastering the kit. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airea Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 This is a great looking model, I wonder how you manage to execute all painting and gluing and sanding so cleanly and neatly:) No paint overruns, no glueing errors, no lints, no dust, no nothing… Simply amazing work. I followed your comments re chrome painting process and it seems that chroming cannot be executed any better when you have to apply decals on it. Probably the model looks much much better and more chromy/shiny/realistic to naked eye, as camera sensors take reflected light from chrome paints more grainy than human eye. In any case, this is a brilliant model... chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subodai Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Bloody superb job! Nice work sir. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheetah11 Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 (edited) Terrific build with a difficult kit Chuck. The metal finish is just awesome. Well done Edited March 31, 2021 by Cheetah11 chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrzemoL Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Subject-wise not my piece of cake. But the model is top-notch, looks absolutely spectacular, especially with immaculate NMF. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Spectacular, absolutely love it. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgrease Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Another great build Chuck - I learn something on every one of your builds. Got me looking at the other -104 kit I have in the stash... John chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oppenheimer Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 excellent work as alway Chuck, beautiful metal finish, and the positive rivet brought this model to life, what i found when taking pictures of natural metal airplanes is to use a black background . Jorge chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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