1/32 Italeri F-104S ASA Starfighter

[wbill76]

Nice work on the exhaust pipe Doogs! Zinc chromate around anything having to do with the engine doesn't seem right...sometimes you have to wonder where they come up with some of their recommendations.

[panzerjager2]

Cool subject.........luv the F104. I got to go up in the 2 seater back in 1983

[doogsatx/]

You know what's fun. Seam cleanup. Kill me with a spoon.







Think I have a few more days of this before I'm ready to start painting.

[JimD]

Oh the joy of seam cleanup. It pays off though. Don't give up. Haha.

[deafpanzer]

I spot a seam!!! NO I was ONLY KIDDING!!! Thanks for reminding me why I am afraid to resume my work on B-24. LOL

[wbill76]

At least the seams are all in 1/32...

[doogsatx/]

So I've been remiss in posting the past few weeks - bench time has been a bit weird lately and I was honestly procrastinating about filling and sanding, because it's just the worst.

But the 104 is coming right along...

Radome and anti-glare strip painted



Underside painted with decanted Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver. I decided against the usual Alclad because every pic of Italian 104s shows what looks more like flat, weathered aluminum lacquer than straight up bare metal - and AS-12 seems to get to that better than Alclad IMO.



Pylon tanks painted up. In the background is one of the tip tanks...this will be getting a more weatherbeaten, olive drab treatment and is still in progress. The other tip tank will be done in Italian sky grey...mismatched tip tanks are surprisingly common in my reference photos!



Masking sucks.



Masking still sucks.



Black-basing with Mr. Surfacer 1500 ahead of paint.

[wbill76]

I feel your pain when it comes to masking Doogs. At least it's all large scale masking!

[afvfan]

Jan 1, 2016 13:16:35 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

I feel your pain when it comes to masking Doogs. At least it's all large scale masking!

I don't know if being large scale is any real consolation, Bill. I had a summer job years ago masking military vehicles for the paint shop on post. Even at 1:1 scale, masking sucks.

[doogsatx/]

Gray is down! General black basing rules apply, though in tonight's foray I added a few different grays to the "marble coat" stage.

Primer - Gunze Mr. Surfacer 1500



Gray - mix of Gunze 305 and 337, with some un-lightened 305 and some Mr. Paint Medium Sea Gray added for variation.



After the thinned blending coats. I should note that this entire effort consumed just slightly more than one tiny tattoo ink cup worth of paint - less than that actually since it was so heavily thinned. Black basing really, really sips on paint.

[doogsatx/]

So yesterday I unexpectedly had a full day to myself, and spent most of it masking the F-104. Hard edge camo is just the worst.



Again using the black basing process, I added Gunze C309 Dark Green as the main marble coat, with some C12 Olive Drab and some other Dark Green (lighter, for JASDF aircraft) for some color variation. It didn't show up so well in photos...



Then, a blend coat of olive drab on the port tip tank, and a blend coat of C309 Dark Green on the 104 itself, and a lengthy mask-removal process...

And here's where it came out.

[deafpanzer]

Camo looks great!!! Looks like you went thru entire roll of masking tape!

[doogsatx/]

It was ridiculous. Think I'm going to go through my stash and sell off anything else that has hard edge camo!

[wbill76]

Jan 4, 2016 13:20:18 GMT -5 doogsatx/ said:

It was ridiculous. Think I'm going to go through my stash and sell off anything else that has hard edge camo!

Especially if it's that big of a subject...time to buy stock in 3M!

[Leon]

Fantastic work on the camo Doogs!

[wing_nut]

Can't argue with the results of your efforts.

[doogsatx/]

Had some awaited paint show up yesterday, including the elusive Modern Italian Gray



So I was able to get the off-scheme tip tank painted up.



Just a few things left now (canopy, fiberglass bit behind cockpit, AIM-9s etc) before I can move into decals and weathering.

[doogsatx/]

All glossed up! Decals commence either tonight or tomorrow.

[JimD]

It's so very shiny. That subtle tonal variation. Hrrnnnggg.

[doogsatx/]

Started laying the decals down last night. The Italeri decals are Cartograf-printed, but clearly not all Cartografs are created equal, as these are proving extremely reluctant to loosen from the backing sheet. But once they're down, they suck into the surface well enough. Still a far cry from the sheer excellence of, say, Furball, but I can work with them.



Then, there are the roundels. The Italeri ones are too big (enough so that even I, with my FICE attitude, notice), so I tried using some from the Zotz sheet. This will be my last time using Zotz decals. I've never been satisfied with them in the past, and once again I am disappointed. While not particularly thick, they absolutely refuse to suck down into surface detail, and the large carrier film is already a fan of silvering, despite my every attack with solutions ranging from Mr. Mark Softer and Solvaset to AK's Decal Adapter.



My plan now...pull this travesty off and instead punch out some circles and mask and paint the roundels. They're small enough that I'm pretty sure I can bring the punch-and-die into play for at least the white and green circles.

[John Everett]

We were all watching the paint so closely on this one, I sort of forgot there would be decals too. They look nice.

Maybe that's why I do so many tanks, the decals are finished pretty quickly.

Not sure your panel lines are dark enough. You should go back and pre-shade!

[george]

What a great paintwork, as always. I like your stile and subtle modulation effect.

[Leon]

Nice start on the decals !

[adt70hk]

Very, very nice!!  'nuff said.

Andrew

[wing_nut]

As usual stunning work. Good call on the roundels. I saw the photo and was immediately wondering what you had to say about that.

Question about your gloss. Is that the Tammy clear and leveling thinner again? That wasn't really the question. When you do that, do you have 2 ABs in play to get the thinner down just after the clear or do you do a just empty the AB f the clear and get going with the thinner? I was showing pics of your Skyhawk at my last club meeting describing that technique and you should have heard the ooohs and aaahs. There was likely a spike in Mr; Leveling thinner that weekend.

[doogsatx/]

So decal removal led to a bit of paint removal, which led to me sanding back to the plastic and repainting. Did a bit more decal work up toward the front while I'm dealing with all this crap, but tonight I'll be masking the roundels (Eduard 1/48 F-4 wheel hub masks are the exact right diameter, LOL) as well as the red stripe that circles the fuselage just ahead of the tail separation line. There are decals...but I don't trust them. And since I'll be playing with red anyway...

[doogsatx/]

Jan 13, 2016 7:55:10 GMT -5 wing_nut said:

As usual stunning work. Good call on the roundels. I saw the photo and was immediately wondering what you had to say about that.

Question about your gloss. Is that the Tammy clear and leveling thinner again? That wasn't really the question. When you do that, do you have 2 ABs in play to get the thinner down just after the clear or do you do a just empty the AB f the clear and get going with the thinner? I was showing pics of your Skyhawk at my last club meeting describing that technique and you should have heard the ooohs and aaahs. There was likely a spike in Mr; Leveling thinner that weekend.

So typically what I'll do is spray a section (upper surfaces for example), then pull the remaining gloss, put it back in the mixing cup, load up some thinner, do the mist coat, then go back and reload with gloss for the next section.

Of course, my Grex has a relatively small cup, and so with something as big as the 104, it's almost easier to empty the cup. But it's not necessary to get it down IMMEDIATELY after. Within 15 minutes or so seems to be fine.

[wing_nut]

Thanks doogs. Just getting ready for the gloss coats on my Spitfire after 1 last touch up on the camo.

[wing_nut]

Doogs when I get to Texas in a couple of weeks i gotta meet ya and give ya a big kiss to give to the guy you got that from. Never in my life have a gotten that much shine for the decals. If you don't know who it was i just shake your hand. don't want to leave with a kiss and no where to put it

[doogsatx/]

Jan 14, 2016 18:38:10 GMT -5 wing_nut said:

Doogs when I get to Texas in a couple of weeks i gotta meet ya and give ya a big kiss to give to the guy you got that from. Never in my life have a gotten that much shine for the decals. If you don't know who it was i just shake your hand. don't want to leave with a kiss and no where to put it

Where in Texas are you heading? Big damn state!