1/32 Italeri F-104S ASA Starfighter

[sabre]

Doogs that's a great little tip, I thought you might find a Linbide scraper useful for doing that scrapping. The Linbide scraper's tungsten blade will last you a lot longer then that window scrapping blade and would be a lot safer as well. These scraper's are used in the painting game for scrapping off old vanish from timber windows, doors, steps, etc.. and I can testify that they work a treat. Linbide is a New Zealand company but I have seen them listed on Ebay as a Stanley carbide scraper.

[doogsatx/]

I'll look into that. The 90 degree angle looks like it might make for some awkward hand positions though.

[doogsatx/]

Also, can they scrape in a "pulling" motion? I know a lot of scrapers kinda suck at that and are meant to be pushed, which I'm keen to avoid.

[doogsatx/]

Okay. Last night I used my limited bench time to tackle the stencil decals on the Eduard bang seat. Huge props to AK's decal solution here...it's not generally my favorite, but it works very well for getting decals around weird small details, which were in abundance. It really helped me wrap decals around tanks and handles without too much swearing.



Also, IMO at this scale, these kind of decals should be mandatory. Really wish Quickboost, AMS etc would take note.

[Leon]

WOW...Nice work on getting the decals on Doogs!

[sabre]

Oct 29, 2015 12:07:10 GMT -5 doogsatx/ said:

Also, can they scrape in a "pulling" motion? I know a lot of scrapers kinda suck at that and are meant to be pushed, which I'm keen to avoid.

Yes mate the blade is designed to be pulled towards you and is also great for getting into corners. Blades have the added bonus of having two scrapping edges to them, so if for whatever reason one edge goes blunt you just turn the blade around. I use to resharpen them on a stone from time to time as the blades aren't cheap but the biggest problem was hitting a nail that you didn't see, but no fear of doing that on a model though.

EDIT - You can also get different types depending on the job and although there is not much out there on the web about these scrappers they have been around for years. I found one article and there is one YouTube clip that mentions them but little else.

[doogsatx/]

It's been hard to get my usual run of bench time lately. Work projects and an old dog who's developed anxiety and taken to barking at night unless someone's sitting with him have been keeping me otherwise occupied.

But...I did manage to get past my procrastination on the instrument panel last night. One more hurdle hurdled.



Decals were punched out with a punch-and-die set and applied very carefully. I also plopped the clear part for the radar scope in place. I think it looks a bit "bright" at the moment. When the rain passes I'm thinking I'll hit it with some Tamiya Smoke. Did that on the Hellfire seeker heads on my AH-1Z and they really did a great job of killing that side/edge brightness and doing a better impression of glass.

[John Everett]

Good idea with the punch and the dials. I would tend to agree that the screen looks a little bright.

[doogsatx/]

Here are those aforementioned Hellfires. Before the Smoke application they were extremely bright around the edges and looked like clear plastic (not unlike the radar screen).



Also. I really wish Eduard or someone would get around to some aftermarket Hellfires.

[doogsatx/]

Hi ho, hi ho, I really hate colored PE so...

Yeah. Not a fan of colored PE belts, especially in 1/32, but thanks to Eduard only doing fabric for the C2 seat, it's what I got. Installation was not fun, and I replaced a few bits with flat lead for better workability. I also gave the main harnesses a coat of Vallejo Khaki which makes them a bit less awful but still lets a hint of the stitching show through.

[deafpanzer]

Sharp work as usual!

[doogsatx/]

Rain = let's focus on some construction stuff since I can't paint!

Not much worth showing...glued the wings together and other exciting bits. But I've also started adding detail to the gear bay and landing gear. That included drilling out some holes and installing some tubing for the brake lines to dump into.



This'll be the most prominently visual wiring...lots more to do...but have to start somewhere!

[wbill76]

If you can't paint, you can at least build! Got to love Texas weather...

[doogsatx/]

Poking ahead...

There were some sink marks in the central landing gear bay beam. Were.



The cannon was removed from the F-104S ASA, so I've installed the faired bit. Reference pics show what looks like a completely smooth area here, so I'm guessing the it was filled and painted over. I'll be doing the same.



Early work on the tanks and Aspide missile. The tiptanks will have to come later - as with the fuselage there are clear bits that install from the inside, so I need to paint around the holes first.



Finally, installing brake lines on the main gear struts. A combination of lead wire, some brass wire posts, and brass tubing.

[wing_nut]

Nov 5, 2015 12:11:40 GMT -5 doogsatx/ said:

At first when I saw this, I was looking for the parts you were referring to, thinking this was some kind of weird clamp. Those ARE the parts.

[wbill76]

Glad I'm not the only one that thought the same thing Marc!

[doogsatx/]

It's been awhile - was away from the bench last week on vacation and I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. Namely...getting really close to wrapping up the 104's cockpit.







Not entirely happy with the kit's side console detail, BUT it's going to be pretty buried and looks passable once it's trapped within the fuselage. And it'll fit a lot easier than battling with resin - which means I stand a fair chance of getting this one to paint!

[wing_nut]

Don't think the side consoles are bad at all. They were treated with care and look great. and now that you're rested and free of stress from a vacation the plans for pliant shouldn't be a problem.

[doogsatx/]

Been doing lots and lots of "invisible" work on the F-104 the past few nights, getting close to the point where I can close up the fuselage and finally move on to the rest of the build.

First...ejection handles for the seat. I wasn't at all happy with the PE in the Eduard seat. Fortunately, the kit pull rings are actually pretty good.



Next...installed the cockpit into the starboard side of the fuselage, and added the PE cockpit sill. The port sill will be added after the fuselage is all closed up. Fit here was very good with the exception of having to trim a tiny bit off the sill to fit with the Eduard ejection frame.



Next - clear parts. These install from the inside, so it's necessary to get them painted up first. I'm also going to be painting up the areas immediately surrounding them before closing the fuselage. Hopefully I'll knock that bit out tonight.



Last night was all about doing a big test-fit. The nosegear bay is built now, and installed into the belly insert so I can use it for test-fitting. Overall the fit there is very good, but takes a bit of work to get to it since it's a very tight fit. The main gearbay assembly fits well, and actually helps traps the wings - though the port wing still has some up-down floppiness that will need to be addressed carefully to ensure proper alignment.

[wbill76]

All building up to the finale of pulling it together and getting some paint on that exterior. Looking good so far.

[doogsatx/]

Adventures in test-fitting continue!



Last night I shoved a strip of thin styrene into the port wing join - from the inside - and it resulted in a MUCH firmer fit. It also put the wing slightly higher than the starboard, so I think I'm going to have to do something similar over on that side. Dihedral is going to be a PITA on this one, though, I think.

I also got all the various lenses installed - the AMMO crystal colors looked a bit silly on the sprue but they really look the part once installed.

[doogsatx/]

The tricky question of the wings is sorted. Using styrene shims inserted from the inside, I got a nice, tight fit and consistent dihedral.



Yay!



I also got the first coat down on the burner can - Alclad Steel. Much more to come, but it was getting late last night.

[deafpanzer]

I really like its shape... hard to believe it actually flew with those tiny wings!

[wbill76]

Dec 2, 2015 11:09:29 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

I really like its shape... hard to believe it actually flew with those tiny wings!

It was often described as a 'manned rocket' Andy...very fast for its day but not exactly maneuverable!

[JimD]

Dec 2, 2015 11:09:29 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

I really like its shape... hard to believe it actually flew with those tiny wings!

Hehe...they didn't call it the Widow-maker for nothing...a lot of times it didn't fly. I heard an anecdote that the German pilots were allowed to smoke because they weren't expected to survive long anyway..and no sense in dying in a fiery crash having lived a pure life.

[doogsatx/]

Joke in various NATO countries: Want an F-104? Buy a plot of land and wait.

[doogsatx/]

And...the 104 is closed! Still have to do the tail and the nose, and some small bits like fins, but a lot of that has to wait on seam cleanup or some painting or a combo of both.

With the nose and tail taped on, this sucker gets SERIOUSLY huge.

[wbill76]

Nice work getting it all together and positioned for the photos. Long skinny subjects are the hardest to get just right to show off all their details.

[doogsatx/]

So before I can install the tail, I need to finish up the engine. The instructions say nice things about installing the exhaust can after the fact, but my experiments with this were wanting in the extreme. Far easier to slide the tail over the already-installed engine (and then mask it with a rolled up post-it note or something).

Last night I added some variation to the exhaust, including some (barely visible) heat staining. I'll probably go back and add more - it's very nearly invisible on the dark metal.



It shows up a little better on a dark background. The inside of the exhaust was given a very light coat of Gunze Engine Gray, then some Vallejo black wash and some rust wash back toward the actuators. Nothing extensive, just trying to approximate the wear patterns seen in reference photos.



Next up...finish cleanup on the tail, then go and metalize the "engine hole". The instructions call for zinc chromate, but, yeah that's not something I'm seeing in any photos (which all indicate metal).

[John Everett]

That final photo only looks like a model due to the background. Crop the edges and it would look like the real deal.