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

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Andy, no problem, and I realise you're not being argumentative my friend.
The information Geo sent is in the markings diagrams on pages 4 and 6, but I admit it's difficult to see at first, as the printing is very small, and the layout of the drawings somewhat cluttered. Note also that, where wing-tip tanks were painted, for example on Canadian based aircraft, the leading edges and tips (sides) of the tank fins were also left in bare metal, again one inch wide.
Being only one inch wide, it's often very difficult to see in many photos, especially color shots with high contrast, but having studied a lot of pics, it appears to be the norm.
To be honest, omitting the 'bare metal' edges wouldn't be a major crime, as they're hard to see anyway on the model, and their absence probably wouldn't be noticed . I finished my pair in bare metal, cos I'm a nutter and enjoyed the hardship of masking the b*gg*rs not!!
 
Today, I applied the NMF with various tones of Alclad and plenty of masking. The overall finish at this point is very "chromey" and needs to be toned down a little but so far so good. At this point, the wings are just dry fitted:



Though difficult to see here, the wing leading edge has been masked and has a NMF strip 1 scale inch in width per Terry's observation.



The colours on the tail are quite varied and here you see 5 different colours applied.



This was the reference pic I used for painting the tail:



One of the drawbacks of the highly mirrored finish is that it provides very little grip for later coats of paint to adhere. I discovered this when painting the steel coloured panel on the starboard side and will need to repair this area.



With the major painting now done, I will concentrate on the details as well as toning down the shine to make the aircraft look less new and toy-like.
 
Nice work there Andy !
Although I haven't used Alclad, you might find it 'tones down' naturally after a few days - most other 'shiny' metallic finishes do. The RCAF birds were quite shiny though, although perhaps not as 'chrome' looking.
 
Thanks guys. Got a little more done today:

Below is an overall shot of the model as it now stands. The wings are now permanently installed, as is the landing gear and the tailplane has been glued on. I decided to paint the tailplane in natural metal so far. Though the spec called for these to be white for European based aircraft, not all aircraft got this treatment. Closer study of pictures of my particular subject will be required to determine whether or not the white is there.



Here's a detail shot showing he black intakes and the odd beige-coloured panel on the avionics hatch.



A detail of the tail assembly follows. I have weathered this area some more and, though I like how it's turned out, the finish on the middle panel of the tail pipe is almost always very shiny in pictures of the real aircraft with no streaks evident. I may need to rethink this area.



Here's the starboard intake showing a panel just aft of the intake outlined in grey as evident in many pics I've studied. Though the wing leading edges have been masked and painted aluminum, these are barely visible as the scaled width worked out to just 0.5mm.



This close-up of the nose area shows a dark wash treatment over the olive green instrument cover and the reflector glass installed over the gun sight. The anti glare panel and grey nose cone turned out to my liking as did the streaking I did on the aluminum. However, one thing that is bugging me is that the side panels of the cockpit are not modeled correctly and I may need to add some scratch built details here.



Here's the underside showing the large gear doors partly closed, an odd feature given that the gear assembly in the down position interferes with full closure of these doors. I've not yet installed the smaller doors over the main struts as there's some detail work I need to complete on these.



I hope to get a little more done tomorrow so hopefully will post more tomorrow evening. Thanks for checking in.
 
Incidentally, I'll be making this model as s/n 12842 of 1 Wing based at Marville, France in the mid sixties. Here are the pics I've found of this particular aircaft:



The colour pic suggests that the tailplane could be white as the small fin on the top seems to be that colour. Opinions welcome.
 
That's looking the biz Andy !
Yep, I think the tail-plane is white, although the 'small fin' you mention, which I presume you mean the top of the tail fin extension, above the tail-plane, looks, and should be, natural metal - see the aircraft tail at right in the pic below, found via Internet search.
For the cockpit side-walls and sills, I have some more pics, if you need, them showing more detail, such as the canopy locking latch lugs and, often missing from preserved examples, the two canopy-jettison explosive charge cylinders, one either side, which are pretty prominent.
Incidentally, that panel, outlined in grey, aft of the intake, is the auxiliary intake door, which opened when ground running to allow extra air-flow to the engine. Your decals sheet(s) should include stencils, and the outline of latches and hinges, for these doors.
 

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Yes, the application of the white is not a gimmee. Terry, thanks but I have plenty of references, including the one below showing non-white tailplanes.



As to the white fin extension, it's my belief these were whit on white painted tails and that the reason for it not being white on the pic Terry posted is that the tail plane is probably in NMF. See the pic below showing what appears to be a white fin extension.



..and this one showing red extensions on Cold Lake based machines which had red tail planes.



I'm thinking that my choice of white tail planes will depend on whether or not I go with an early scheme with the old flag or the new-flag scheme for which I have pics the only reference I have of the old-flag scheme is this profile:

 
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Interesting that two of the aircraft in the first colour pic lack roundels on the wings.
I don't doubt that some aircraft might not have had the white tail-plane even after the 1963 change date, as I've seen pics where it appears the tail-plane is natural metal, and obviously that colour pic shows it too, although it may be a case of being 'in between painting stages' in this particular case.
As for the white vertical area, again it may well be, but in the B&W pics, the tone also matches that of the dielectric panel on the fin, with the colour pics also exhibiting a similar tonal comparison.
I haven't seen any mention of the white vertical area, either in the material Geo sent, or the Canadian book, or even the 'Cannuck Decals' instructions, all of which mention the white tail-planes, but, of course, that doesn't mean it wasn't white !
I'll be interested to find out either way, and I'll do a bit of digging myself, as I'd like to get my model right, when I'm able to get back to t.
 
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