**** DONE: 1/48 CF-104 Starfighter - The Jet Age.

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I think so Dave. I believe the replacement CF-5's and Voodoos were painted from the start, though I'd need to check.

I have decided to put my Me262 on hold and to spend any modeling time I might get to focus on a pushing this one to completion for the GB deadline. We left off in the middle of my favourite activity (NOT!) in smoothing seams and rescribing panel lines. To that end, I was able to get some work done around the intakes, spine, and avionics cover. Hopefully a final coat of primer will show this work to be good enough to proceed with a gloss black coat in preparation for the NMF.



I then moved on to the wings and test fitted the fuel tanks. It was during this process that I discovered that I had glued the fuel tank fins on upside down as the little winglets near the wing leading edge showed up under the wing leading edge rather than above. As a result, I had to remove the fins and re-attach them in the correct position as shown below. A note to anyone building this kit to be cautious at this step in the instructions as they are not very clear.



One annoyance is the abundance of ejector pin marks on the control surfaces right in the middle of all the fine rivet details. I filled these with primer and then sanded them smooth once the paint had dried.



It was then on to the wings and, because all the control surfaces are supplied as separate parts, I decided to deploy the flaps and to droop the leading edges



The wings are such a clean and firm fit to the fuselage that I have decided to do something I have never done before, and that is to paint them separately and install them after the fuselage is painted. That will make painting both the wings and fuselage a lot easier and will eliminate some masking.
 
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Good progress and nice to see you back on this one Andy. It's also reminded me, now that I'm back at the bench, to complete my '104s, after four or more months of neglect!
 
Thanks Hugh and Terry. I was also able to close a mystery on whether or not those knee guards on the ejection seat had the red and white stripes. I had since uncovered this photo of the restored seat going into the newly restored CF-104 here in Calgary nicely displaying the stripes. Note that the seat is being installed through the bottom of the aircraft, even though the ejection system that had originally dropped the seat through this hatch under the aircraft had been abandoned after early trials in favour of the the upward firing seat that was used on all CF-104s.

EDIT: Didn't post the pic!

 
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Thank-you gents.

Moving along, below shows a bit of filling I had to do around the brakes which are almost impossible to get perfectly flush since there is no way to push them back out from the inside. Also seen here are the signal lights which I have drilled out. Rather than using the clear parts supplied with the kit, I've opted to make these concave holes that will be filled with clear glue.



Here's some work on the main landing gear. After assembling the parts, I painted them in Alclad Aluminum.



It was only after I painted the legs that I noticed that there should have been some towing eyes represented on them per the pic below:



Well, we can't have that, so it was decided to scratch build some eyes using square stock and lead wire:



And here's the finished main gear with the eye painted and brake lines added.



As I stated earlier, the wings fit so nicely that I decided to paint them separately. The top of the wing is a gloss white and the underside is a mix of about 2 parts Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey to 1 part XF-23 Light Blue to 3 parts clear gloss to represent the bluish grey Canadian spec 501-109.



I had mulled over filling all those rivets on the wings as they look a bit unrealistic but decided against the extra work involved. Besides, I would have then had to think about doing the tail assembly as well and there was no way I was going to start down that slippery slope.

 
Great stuff on the whole lot so far Andy.
Don't forget that the leading edges of the wings and tail planes were smooth, polished, bare metal - only one inch wide on the full-size aircraft, so some tricky masking.
 
Thanks again.

Airframes said:
Don't forget that the leading edges of the wings and tail planes were smooth, polished, bare metal - only one inch wide on the full-size aircraft, so some tricky masking.
Click to expand...

To be honest Terry, I have been having a hard time substantiating that based on available photos. Where did this info come from?

Anyhoo, I finished the nose gear and painted the fuselage and tip tanks gloss black.

 


Andy, I think it's mentioned in the stuff Geo provided (can't remember without checking, but fairly sure it is, and also on the markings diagram drawings too), and is also mentioned, and shown in photos, in the book I have " In Canadian Service - Starfighter CF-104".
When researching for the model of '771' after it went to the Royal Danish Air Force', I couldn't find any mention of this, but found one photo where the bare metal leading edges are just visible. I've also seen pics of painted '104s of other Nations, and the bare metal is in evidence there too.
I suppose it's logical, given the extremely thin profile of the sharp leading edges, so thin they require safety guards when on the ground, and I assume it's to allow the wing to 'work' as designed and intended, rather like the P-51's laminar-flow wing requiring a smooth surface, whether painted or not, to perform as designed.

Neat job on that tiny landing lamp - looking forward to seeing the NMF going on !
 
Thanks guys.

Terry, thanks for the response but I did not see it in Geo's stuff though it's possible I missed it. I hope I don't come across argumentative as that's truly not the intent. Rather, I find this to be an interesting discussion. Here's what I referred to when questioning whether the leading edges were indeed left unpainted. First, here's the strongest evidence I have in favour of at least the lower edge of a CF-104 wing being unpainted. Note that the tail plane does not show the same feature:



Then there's this one, suggesting the leading edge was painted, though the distance of the camera from the wing and the resolution of the picture could arguably suggest that the unpainted edge was there but not visible due to the limitations of the picture:



And here's the best picture of an F-104 wing, though it's a USAF bird, and clearly the edge is painted:



So the jury is still out on this one. I am still waiting on access to the live example of the surviving CF-104 s/n 12846 at the local museum but, based on the pictures I have seen so far, it looks like they have painted the entire edge. I need to also keep in mind that there is plenty of evidence out there of museums getting things wrong!

I've not touched this model since Friday due to being fully booked with other activities and it will be a few days yet before I lay my hands on it. Thanks for your continued interest and comments though. I will keep everyone posted if I learn more on those leading edges!
 
Went through my books and it seems the photographers weren't that interest in the leading edge......jerks! Most of the photos I found showed top side colors(couldn't find any photos of the underside) however, I did find these two....



....I wonder if the red on the Turkish aircraft is a protective device only, as Terry mentioned. I've seen U.S. aircraft with "Remove Before Flight" tags on the leading edge, which I just found out, was the thickness of a butter knife.






Geo
 
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