Catch22
Major
Geeze Andy, this looks amazing.
**** DONE: 1/48 CF-104 Starfighter - The Jet Age.
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- #182
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks again all and nice to see you back Cory.
Take two on the pitot tube turned out satisfactory. This time, I used a decal again and this one behaved itself. Again the tube is just fitted loose in this photo as I'll wait til the very end to permanently fix it to the model.
The other thing I noticed that now needs to be done is to remove the little air scoop at the base of the windscreen as this was not present on CF-104s. The other thing I did fix was the glue under the rear canopy. I managed to easily remove the clear part and sprayed a flat coat onto the deck to blend in the glossy glue. Below are before and after pics and I'm now happy with the outcome.
This next thing that I fixed was the demarcation of the white wings with the NMF fuselage. As Terry pointed out and as confirmed by pictures, the fairing along the wing root should be bare aluminum so a bit of masking and a careful application of Alclad in thin coats over the Tamiya white did the trick.
Finally, I began detailing the cockpit sills by scratch building the explosive charges and the various latch mechanisms on the right sill.
Next up will be work on the hinged canopy which will require the addition of a fair amount of scratch built details to replicate the actual canopy.
Take two on the pitot tube turned out satisfactory. This time, I used a decal again and this one behaved itself. Again the tube is just fitted loose in this photo as I'll wait til the very end to permanently fix it to the model.
The other thing I noticed that now needs to be done is to remove the little air scoop at the base of the windscreen as this was not present on CF-104s. The other thing I did fix was the glue under the rear canopy. I managed to easily remove the clear part and sprayed a flat coat onto the deck to blend in the glossy glue. Below are before and after pics and I'm now happy with the outcome.
This next thing that I fixed was the demarcation of the white wings with the NMF fuselage. As Terry pointed out and as confirmed by pictures, the fairing along the wing root should be bare aluminum so a bit of masking and a careful application of Alclad in thin coats over the Tamiya white did the trick.
Finally, I began detailing the cockpit sills by scratch building the explosive charges and the various latch mechanisms on the right sill.
Next up will be work on the hinged canopy which will require the addition of a fair amount of scratch built details to replicate the actual canopy.
fubar57
General
Great fixes all around.
Geo
Geo
Great job
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Dang Andy... your modeling is hitting a higher level each time out! I'm thoroughly impressed. It's one thing to scratch out those details but it is quite another to do them as cleanly as you are doing them. Quite a master's touch! Touche! Can't wait to see the canopy work!
Looks great so far Andy!
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Great work Andy. What materials did you use for the canopy latches on the sill ? Once I've done the seat on mine, they'll be next, along with the internal frame for the canopy.
BTW, that 'air scoop' at the base of the canopy, was an optical range finder linked to the gun sight - it was re-fitted when the Vulcan gun was re-fitted.
EDIT: Forgot to add, the rear decking over the avionics bay appears to be the same colour as the instrument panel shroud in the photos I've seen, although a few do look slightly darker, and may be black.
BTW, that 'air scoop' at the base of the canopy, was an optical range finder linked to the gun sight - it was re-fitted when the Vulcan gun was re-fitted.
EDIT: Forgot to add, the rear decking over the avionics bay appears to be the same colour as the instrument panel shroud in the photos I've seen, although a few do look slightly darker, and may be black.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #190
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks again everyone.
Terry, the latches are just thin sheet styrene carefully cut with a scalpel, and thanks for the clarification on the "scoop". Your explanation makes perfect sense. Speaking of which.....
The windscreen was masked off and the bulge ground off with jeweler's files until flush.
After that was done, I repainted the area, this time taking advantage of the masking to lighten the black just a touch to replicate the phenomenon seen in many pics whereby the nose cone and fuselage anti-glare panels are not quite the same tone as each was painted at separate locations. As you can see, I also started on the decals. Another thing that I discovered at this late stage is that the grey on the nose cone is painted too far into the fuselage so this is another area I'll need to fix.
Fortunately, the grey was painted to a panel line, which is what threw me, and pictures also show that this panel had a different shade of NMF on it so I won't be disappointed if the tones don't match.
As I said above, I started on the decals today but not before I tossed around a number of issues in my head. It started with the fact that I really like the old flag scheme but I could not get photo evidence to confirm the profile below.
What I like about the profile is that it combines the old flag scheme with the camera pod and also the 1 Wing crest on the engine intake. The thing is, the only pic I have of 842 with the old flag scheme (below) is one in which it is not carrying the camera pod nor the 1 Wing crest. Also, reading through this interesting site ( North Luffenham Marville Photos ) it appears that 842 was not on strength with 1 Wing in Marville at the time that the flag switch was done in 1965 but it did show up later.
Picture source: Canadair CF-104 Starfighter 12842
As an aside, a really interesting thing about the above pic is that the two machines in the foreground have the old flags on the fin whereas the next one in line has the new flag so this must have been taken right around the time that the transition was being made.
So the decision was made to stick with the new flag scheme and show the aircraft exactly as it appeared in this pic:
Note the lighter anti-glare panel at the front of the windscreen which I was able to replicate above. Now, the thing interesting thing here is that there was a period of time in the new flag scheme where the maple leaf in the roundel was smaller than in later years and it appeared to me that this was the case with the insignia in the picture. The Belcher Bits decal sheet makes provision for this but does not make it easy. Whereas they provide a fuselage roundel with a blank center into which the separate smaller leaf that they provide could be placed, no such provision was made for the wing roundels, though the separate smaller leaf is provided. I had doubts about this small leaf, though, but decided to proceed. So, based on the assumed smaller leaf use, I cut the larger leaf out of the center of the the wing roundel, since the wing was white anyway, and then placed the blank roundel on the wing as shown here. The cut out center is also shown.
Next, I added the separate smaller leaf for the wing insignia and life was good.
Things were going well until I got to the fuselage roundel and my suspicions were confirmed that the small leaf scheme, though accurately portrayed by this decal, is not what was actually on the plane in the pic. D'oh!
So it was back to depicting the later, large leaf insignia. This was an easy matter on the fuselage since I had just put the decal on when I made the decision to revert to the larger one and it same off easily to be swiftly replaced like so:
The only problem now was that I had destroyed the large leaf decals for the wings since no blank ones were provided. However, I still had the cut-out centers so I went back and trimmed the maple leaf from the white background. Now, the smaller leaf decals on the wings had been finished with setting solution much earlier and had stuck to the wing like sh!t to a blanket before I got to this point and they weren't budging. I did not want to risk damaging the white paint by scraping them off so I decided to place the larger decals right over top of the smaller ones. As luck would have it, all this turned out well and life is once again good.
A plug here for Belcher Bits. The the absence of larger blanks fro the wing roundels was an annoyance, their decals are beautifully printed and behave nicely with setting solution. The 1 Wing crest, for which I took pains to find a scheme that I could use it with, is a masterpiece:
While all this was going on, I was also working on and off on the hinged canopy section. This, along with the other clear parts, had been dipped in Future some time ago so that I could use CA glue on it without running the risk of it fogging. I leave a piece of the sprue on to do the dipping and take this off as late as possible to avoid finger prints.
I first started by masking both the inside and outside surfaces:
Then between decal sessions, I slowly scratch built the framing on the inside and here's how it looks part way through:
Materials used are 0.6mm solder and sheet styrene. I need to do this kind of stuff in short spurts and that's why I was doing the decals in tandem. It also helped that the weather outside was sh!t with rain and no more than 7 degrees C. Tomorrow is a holiday and should see me finish the decals and maybe the canopy frame. Til then mes amis....
Terry, the latches are just thin sheet styrene carefully cut with a scalpel, and thanks for the clarification on the "scoop". Your explanation makes perfect sense. Speaking of which.....
The windscreen was masked off and the bulge ground off with jeweler's files until flush.
After that was done, I repainted the area, this time taking advantage of the masking to lighten the black just a touch to replicate the phenomenon seen in many pics whereby the nose cone and fuselage anti-glare panels are not quite the same tone as each was painted at separate locations. As you can see, I also started on the decals. Another thing that I discovered at this late stage is that the grey on the nose cone is painted too far into the fuselage so this is another area I'll need to fix.
Fortunately, the grey was painted to a panel line, which is what threw me, and pictures also show that this panel had a different shade of NMF on it so I won't be disappointed if the tones don't match.
As I said above, I started on the decals today but not before I tossed around a number of issues in my head. It started with the fact that I really like the old flag scheme but I could not get photo evidence to confirm the profile below.
What I like about the profile is that it combines the old flag scheme with the camera pod and also the 1 Wing crest on the engine intake. The thing is, the only pic I have of 842 with the old flag scheme (below) is one in which it is not carrying the camera pod nor the 1 Wing crest. Also, reading through this interesting site ( North Luffenham Marville Photos ) it appears that 842 was not on strength with 1 Wing in Marville at the time that the flag switch was done in 1965 but it did show up later.
Picture source: Canadair CF-104 Starfighter 12842
As an aside, a really interesting thing about the above pic is that the two machines in the foreground have the old flags on the fin whereas the next one in line has the new flag so this must have been taken right around the time that the transition was being made.
So the decision was made to stick with the new flag scheme and show the aircraft exactly as it appeared in this pic:
Note the lighter anti-glare panel at the front of the windscreen which I was able to replicate above. Now, the thing interesting thing here is that there was a period of time in the new flag scheme where the maple leaf in the roundel was smaller than in later years and it appeared to me that this was the case with the insignia in the picture. The Belcher Bits decal sheet makes provision for this but does not make it easy. Whereas they provide a fuselage roundel with a blank center into which the separate smaller leaf that they provide could be placed, no such provision was made for the wing roundels, though the separate smaller leaf is provided. I had doubts about this small leaf, though, but decided to proceed. So, based on the assumed smaller leaf use, I cut the larger leaf out of the center of the the wing roundel, since the wing was white anyway, and then placed the blank roundel on the wing as shown here. The cut out center is also shown.
Next, I added the separate smaller leaf for the wing insignia and life was good.
Things were going well until I got to the fuselage roundel and my suspicions were confirmed that the small leaf scheme, though accurately portrayed by this decal, is not what was actually on the plane in the pic. D'oh!
So it was back to depicting the later, large leaf insignia. This was an easy matter on the fuselage since I had just put the decal on when I made the decision to revert to the larger one and it same off easily to be swiftly replaced like so:
The only problem now was that I had destroyed the large leaf decals for the wings since no blank ones were provided. However, I still had the cut-out centers so I went back and trimmed the maple leaf from the white background. Now, the smaller leaf decals on the wings had been finished with setting solution much earlier and had stuck to the wing like sh!t to a blanket before I got to this point and they weren't budging. I did not want to risk damaging the white paint by scraping them off so I decided to place the larger decals right over top of the smaller ones. As luck would have it, all this turned out well and life is once again good.
A plug here for Belcher Bits. The the absence of larger blanks fro the wing roundels was an annoyance, their decals are beautifully printed and behave nicely with setting solution. The 1 Wing crest, for which I took pains to find a scheme that I could use it with, is a masterpiece:
While all this was going on, I was also working on and off on the hinged canopy section. This, along with the other clear parts, had been dipped in Future some time ago so that I could use CA glue on it without running the risk of it fogging. I leave a piece of the sprue on to do the dipping and take this off as late as possible to avoid finger prints.
I first started by masking both the inside and outside surfaces:
Then between decal sessions, I slowly scratch built the framing on the inside and here's how it looks part way through:
Materials used are 0.6mm solder and sheet styrene. I need to do this kind of stuff in short spurts and that's why I was doing the decals in tandem. It also helped that the weather outside was sh!t with rain and no more than 7 degrees C. Tomorrow is a holiday and should see me finish the decals and maybe the canopy frame. Til then mes amis....
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
A bit of decal mania there Andy, but bl**dy nice work !
Don't know if you've got to that area yet, but note that during the period that the Vulcan gun was absent, an extra fuel tank was fitted, the engraving for which can be seen on the top of the fuselage for your model, and the red circular stencil was shown surrounding this, but photos show the filler cap virtually above the lower one, not the engraved one, which, in photos, appears to be a 'blanking' plate, or an other hatch of some kind.
However, it isn't visible in the two photos of '842', although I have seen it in other pics of other aircraft, which might be due to the lighting, or it/they, might not be there. The pic of my model shows what I mean, and also shows the aft fuel filler, as well as the data stencil below the cockpit area.
I missed the 'two tone' anti-glare panel, so I'll now add this to my model - thanks for pointing it out.
Don't know if you've got to that area yet, but note that during the period that the Vulcan gun was absent, an extra fuel tank was fitted, the engraving for which can be seen on the top of the fuselage for your model, and the red circular stencil was shown surrounding this, but photos show the filler cap virtually above the lower one, not the engraved one, which, in photos, appears to be a 'blanking' plate, or an other hatch of some kind.
However, it isn't visible in the two photos of '842', although I have seen it in other pics of other aircraft, which might be due to the lighting, or it/they, might not be there. The pic of my model shows what I mean, and also shows the aft fuel filler, as well as the data stencil below the cockpit area.
I missed the 'two tone' anti-glare panel, so I'll now add this to my model - thanks for pointing it out.
Attachments
Nice work Andy
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Andy me old mate, you're sure pulling out all the stops on this one. Simply masterful.
- Thread starter
- #195
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks all. Terry, I am aware of the extra tank filling points but I have not got to that point yet. I wanted to get the one shown done to help with placement of the call number string and there is still a decal to go over top of this one to add a black horizontal line which presumably is used to indicate the filler cap to be correctly placed for flight. I do ave an issue though, and that is that that I only have 2 filler location decals from the Belcher Bits sheet and those provided in the kit that I'm using are Luftwaffe ones that are dashed circles so I'm still mulling over how best to get these done. Other pics I have of 842 do show them in the locations that you have pointed out so I do need to do something.
By the way, I have an extra tail plane that you can have if you want it. It's already painted in NMF and can replace your white one should you wish to do that. Let me know.
By the way, I have an extra tail plane that you can have if you want it. It's already painted in NMF and can replace your white one should you wish to do that. Let me know.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
OK Andy, just thought I'd check.
I think I might have some spare fuel filler decals on one of my sheets - I'll check and let you know via e-mail, as I'm having a malware problem on the forum - nowhere else, just here !
Thanks for the info re the canopy latches BTW, I forgot to mention it earlier.
I checked the 35 mm slides scans again, and my bird, and the other three at Prestwick in November 1964, had the white tail-plane and NMF fin top, and it's also in most photos from the same period in my 'Canadian' book, and some I found on the 'net, so I'll leave it as is, but thanks for the offer.
However, if you happen to have the twin 'Sidewinder' pylons and rails, fitted beneath the fuselage, they'd be welcome for my Danish version !
If I hadn't 'jumped the gun' and butchered one from the Revell kit, to make the center-line pylon on '771', I would have been fine - but then I hadn't thought of doing the Danish version at that time !
I think I might have some spare fuel filler decals on one of my sheets - I'll check and let you know via e-mail, as I'm having a malware problem on the forum - nowhere else, just here !
Thanks for the info re the canopy latches BTW, I forgot to mention it earlier.
I checked the 35 mm slides scans again, and my bird, and the other three at Prestwick in November 1964, had the white tail-plane and NMF fin top, and it's also in most photos from the same period in my 'Canadian' book, and some I found on the 'net, so I'll leave it as is, but thanks for the offer.
However, if you happen to have the twin 'Sidewinder' pylons and rails, fitted beneath the fuselage, they'd be welcome for my Danish version !
If I hadn't 'jumped the gun' and butchered one from the Revell kit, to make the center-line pylon on '771', I would have been fine - but then I hadn't thought of doing the Danish version at that time !
- Thread starter
- #197
Crimea_River
Marshal
No worries Terry. I think I'll manage.
Do these look like the pylons you're looking for? These are halves and I have 2 sprues like this. No rails though.
Do these look like the pylons you're looking for? These are halves and I have 2 sprues like this. No rails though.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Yep, that looks like them - they're the actual rails, the pylons I can scratch, and they'll be much better than the bits I was going to use.
- Thread starter
- #199
Crimea_River
Marshal
They're your's Terry. I'll bring them along to Dux.
The hinged canopy was finished today. The pictures are self explanatory so I'll just post them here uninterrupted starting with the next step from where I left off at the last update. Materials used were styrene card, seen in white, aluminum tape to represent collars, stretched sprue, and solder or lead wire of 3 different thickness.
Also accomplished today, while I was in the mood for adding crazy detail, was the fabrication and addition of what looks like an emergency knife mounted on the left sill of the cockpit. It's still unpainted in this pic.
I also masked and painted over the incorrectly painted grey area behind the nose cone and added some stencil decals.
That's it for today. The end is near and I'll be using the extra week to finish off this project. Thanks for looking in.
The hinged canopy was finished today. The pictures are self explanatory so I'll just post them here uninterrupted starting with the next step from where I left off at the last update. Materials used were styrene card, seen in white, aluminum tape to represent collars, stretched sprue, and solder or lead wire of 3 different thickness.
Also accomplished today, while I was in the mood for adding crazy detail, was the fabrication and addition of what looks like an emergency knife mounted on the left sill of the cockpit. It's still unpainted in this pic.
I also masked and painted over the incorrectly painted grey area behind the nose cone and added some stencil decals.
That's it for today. The end is near and I'll be using the extra week to finish off this project. Thanks for looking in.
Incredible Andy, love it !
