International Scale Modeller

Si Guys , a little late this entry on this Sig , but hopefuully will try to finish it , not too much time next month , will see ...

So this will be my entry , I choose to do one of the versions from this limited edition from Eduard Bundesfighter F-104 in 1/48 scale ,



It will have some extras , some already here , will have some more too arrive soon , the extras are some Eduard Brassin sets , I have the exaust in Resin (LAte version) , the wheels , also I have some AS.34 Kormoran Missile ( an anti-ship missile used in German Marine , also used in Tornados later than the F-104 , this all Resin sets, then I have the suoerfabric seatbelts also from Eduard , and a pitot metal from Master model from Poland



The kit in the box still unpacked , the plastic kit parts are from Hasegawa's ...



All in one bag , let's expct that no issues inside ...



This is with the kit ...Phot Etch parts for cockpit andejectable seats , resin seats , and a mask for wheels and cockpit glass ...



DEcals for 5 different color schemes , 1 from US Air Force and the other four from West Germany , two from Luftwaffe , two from Marine ...



Instructions



the version I will make



Will start the build today night , more details in some next update , I really like this plane , remember to read some books in little and the hero was Dan Cooper , a canadian, he flied the F-104 but in RCAF colors , and it is a real nice plane to look at ...so I have to choose one to male , and so not to make my initial plan that was the Corsair , this is a change ...and will try to use some new techniques with this build ...

Some images I took from Internet , really one of my problems could be the info on the plane as I only have a lot of stuff regarding WWII Planes , not modern ( well this one is aready a bit oldie ) , Internet is our friend ...



In this Photo with the Kormoron Missiles and also with sidewinders ( I'm waiting for them and also for soem 'remove before flight' ribbons ...

love the Starfighter

Stunning kit and lots of AM! Gonna be a great build. Looking forward to seeing it unfold!

Thank you guys , hope to be a nice build ...

so ...first steps on the build :

Instructions ...



the usual Eduard ...first sprues schemes (Blue the ones not to be used ...actually I must use the missiles pylons ) , the colors to be used , only Mr Hobby references ...

let's start with the build :

Cockpit , seat rail ...exhaust ...wheel bay ...



After ...to place all in the fuselage and glue both halves ...seems easy

The Big sprue all in one bag ...one of the pieces ( seems one oft the missile pylons...) come out of the srue ..I'm really against this packaging , fortunately no more damage to sprues it seems ...





a look at the first sprue ...



some nice detail ,the plastic is of good quality



cockpit bay



exhaust ( the one from the kit ...in my opinion it is very good and I could miss the resin set ...)



first to do ...cockpit bay , must remove the detail of side panels in order to place the PE ...

Cut with modeler knife and some help of my favourite sanders ( form Ultimate modelling products , do not know if you heard on this fantastic sanders ...)





Then the seat rail ...in resin , must do like R17 for the version I'm doing ...



some cutting and sanding to be done





In this step we must be very carefull as this is a very 'delicate' part and we can damage it with the slightest mistake ...

start to using the PE



the piece already sanded and with the excess resin cut away



must make two of this small PE to make the supports of the rail





After some painting and side panels PE , this is the cockpit almost ready and to be fixed on to the fuselage





now to go on the resin exhaust ...

as I mention before , the plastic parts that come with the plane are of very nice quality , but I will use the resin ones





that is all for today ...thanks for watching my thread !

Ah, the starfighter....... such a great looking plane
One on my "to do" list.

Good luck with the build.

Cracking start mate cockpit is looking cool

New update , about one week or so away from the workbench....

I started now on the exauhst ( Resin set from Eduard Brassin ...



Instructions :



Just to see the difference between the resin and the palstic piece (resin is the top one ...)



all cut and sanded ..



some CA glue to place the PE parts in the turbine



PAinted with Gunze Sangyo Dark Iron



This with Aluminium , also from Gunze Sangyo



Glued inside the exhaust 'tube'



Glued the Wing wheel bay ( actually is in the plane fuselage not the wing )



Time to start on the fuselage halves



all ready to assemble ...



now glued and put some clamps to make a proper fix



next steps





Nose wheel bay ready to place on the fuselage



Instrument panel ready , a lot of little PE to place as handles in it ...one of them lost in action ! And it was one of the ones that isn't dubbled in the PE plate ...



PE 40 , we will miss it in the cockpit ...I do not know where it went here , lost almost all night searching until I give up ...



Now I was looking to this step and to place the instrument panel ...seems easy right ?



WRONG! , Big Instruction mistake from Eduard ....or me that shouldn't follow that precisely the instructions , maybe it was from being away from the bench one week or so , and didn't noticed that it is impossible to place the Instrument panel at this point and with fuselage already glued ...



Ok , I will not say inappropriate words here at the forum , my neighbours hear them , a lot !

Really it is an instruction mistake but should be more carefull , it was impossible that this could enter in that tiny space ...and the control stick already in place ...so I put some glue again and try to remove it in order that I Could place the panel ...it worked more or less...some break on the stick ,but I managed to place all without more issues ...seems ok ...but now I almost throw the plane away , a very nice kit with wrong instructions, be careful if you are going to make this ...



As for the missing PE we almost cant see it , now I'm afraid that more issues arrive when I'm going to place the ejection seat ...



PAinted now the air intakes and the cockpit rear part



it is nice for now ...and a lot of struggle



also painted the wheel bays





One fellow here in the forum inform me of another error , and really appreciate that info ...seems that there wasn't any navy squadron in Hannover , it seems that they put this color scheme based on some photos of the plane in Hannover airport , not representing some squadron , after the tip from our fellow modeller I investigate further , and found 'some' photo of this particular color scheme in Hannover airport ...armed with the Kormoran missile and sidewinders ...but their base wasn't in Hannover ...

here is the photo

http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/2274.htm

and by the way check this site/blog , it has a lot of photos and information about the F-104 , in this first page you even get to listen the engine roar of the F-104 , it is called 916 , because in some time it was the number of German F-104 in service at some time of his History serving Luftwaffe and MArineflieger ...such nice photos and reference ...great site for all that love Airplanes , really great !

http://www.916-starfighter.de/main.htm

well that's all for today , thank you all that followed this thread so far , some more work to be done the next days ...hope that no more issues arrived , would like to finish this one !

Wow, super build so far! The cockpit is looking awesome!

Those links are very cool!

Brilliant work so far mate

Thank you guys !

More things done ...

SO after I already put the Air Brakes ...guess that I could put them after paint , but I will pait the plane with them and then make the interior in silver after ...





This next steps will be done after all is painted ...







still will use the resin wheels kit

wing tanks



And ejection seat ...





Starting with ejection seat , the kit come with two resin ejection seats ...will use the version for the plane that I buikd , should be the MB Mk 7A GQ



closer look



The seat done with the decals :



still need to add this small resin piece :









For the seatbelts will use Eduard Superfabric aftermarket kit ...



The instructions



so it is only to 'peel' them off the sheet and place them using some white glue ...









They are easy to handle then the fabric ones ...no metal buckets to deal with , this are like some very thin plastic ...they are easier but also we must be careful so they do not glue in each other if not ...but I liked the final result

One word as how the resin pieces and seat come packed ...didn't like that come in one plastic bag , one part of the seat was broken , lucky that I could solve it with some CA glue ...

Still need to place the final PE in the cockpit , the support for the HUD , that also comes in some plastic sheet ...







not the last PE , still must place the mirrors in the cockpit clear part ...



well that will be for another update , as today I dealt almost all the time with the seat ...now will be finishing the cockpit , placing the clear parts masked , put some putty where nedeed , mask also and start the paint job ...see ya !

The seat looks awesome!

Thank you for your comments !

New update , it was my yesterday work (holliday here in Portugal , it was our National Day ...) , some stuff done , and the plane starting to come toghether ...

The kit come with some canopy masks (always good ...) , but I must use some Maskol to completly cover all canopies , speacially the mid and rear one ..



Then Primer ...used Tamiya Grey Primer , my favourite !



Still some scribing and riviting and some small gaps to fill , mainly some rivets disapear because of my 'hard' sanding ...



Now some experiment in using Creatcolor pencil (ivory Black) in doing some Pre-shading...if you can call it that ...) , well guess that all disapear when the paint enters ..but it was some minutes time to think not dto do this again ...maybe it is good to do after the paint ...



But looks nice ...cartoon style



Paint...Gunze Sangyo Neutral Grey H53 on Top



Nice paint to airbrush ..used Mr Collor Rapid Thinner this time ...just to try ...



some pre-shade detail visible ...try to imagine it



All small pieces ready to add after paint and decals ...



Wheels are on Resin ...forgot to take the pictures
They had some nice deformation weight detail ...



Start to thinking on the payload ...Two Kormoran Missiles and two sidewinders AIM 9L ...still get to check the missiles rails somewhere in the kit ..on the parts not to be used ...



The Kormoran anti.Ship missile

Details on this Missile in wiki :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AS.34_Kormoran



Instructions and another issue ..this set comes with two Kormoran Missiles , but two different versions ..Kormoran 1 and Kormoran 2 , as I need two missiles I will place one each ing , no Big Differences , and I'm not going to buy another set ...only if you look hard you noticed the differences ...it is in the back , and version 2 has some round hatch in the middle between the wings ...also the fixing on the rail seems different ...again not very well explained in Eduard Shop ...check instructions always to see what's inside of this AfterMArket kits (at least Eduard has this possibility ...1 poit to favour them ) , also the quality of this Resin kits is very good ..



Some decal sheet also



Now leaving this to go to the plane ...sorry 'The mummy return...' I masked as I can the upper part , as I always get paint where I do not want , and even it isn't a hard color scheme i'm not too fond to discover lately a color invasion somewhere ...lack of practice I think ...



I now use for the bottom Mr Hobby gray (H308)

The result , by the way I buy this Plastic thins as I think they are better to have all parts and also to have the build protected when moving it from side to side ...



Oh and forget that I painted the wheel bay ..I apint all and lately will paint in Silver all again ...and again not study the project earliear , also the instructions could help more ...



some nice detail ...and painted with this Gray ...almost a very, very light blue ....



While it dries ..back to the missiles ...

Sanding and cutting resin again ...I'm becoming an expert ...



PE added , this is the Kormoran 1 , see the bended PE part on top , one of the differences ...



This one finish ...



One to go ...only PE to add , this is the Kormoran 2 ...

Sidewinders ...come with resin parts, PE ...included are 'Remove before flight ' banners ( in metal ...there is an Eduard Kit in Fabric , maybe more realistic ..or not , the metal ones you can bend and seems that there is some wind or something ...)
oh and they bring some clear parts so you to place in front to depict the optical in the missile head ...more food to my carpet monster !



Detail on the PE

Round pieces are the missile engines exhaust , the star pieces are the STencil so you can fix correctly the forward wings (sorry do not know really the English name for those )



The Resin missile ...hard to remove the back , as the back wings are very fragile ...what I did was cut very careful the resin links andwith a lot of patience with the modelling knife separate the mould from the missile part ...not easy and shoudl be very carefull not to damage it ...



It brings 4 missiles , with the safety covers fro the front



First separated from the mould ...



Ready to primer and paint them ...

I add the pivot tube at the front as I was checking some photos and the color should be the same as the nose/radar cone

by the way this is the plane that I'm building ...here in this photo in the 916 site that I mention earlier ...

http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/2274.htm

also it gave me the idea of the colors to use in the missile rail and on the missiles ...but if you check the pivot , only the very end point should be silver ...in the instructions is mentioned that should be all silver ...




the pivot tube was an aftermarket metal from MASTER brand ( it is polish ..)



see the different shades in the fuselage ...not very marked ...



PAinted the plane radar cone in Mr.Hobby Light Gray H338 ...the three shades of grey ...



Missiles painted Olive Drab ...the sidewinders take also some stainless color from Mr Hobby Metal Colors range ...



see the small optics on front ...almost lost one in action , the kit brings 4 in surlus ...guess that the manufacturer knows that the carpet monster really exist !



Hmmmm, these two pictures show the plane already finished on paint ...the Orange on the external wing deposits is Mr Hobby Orange (surprise ...it is orange ...) it's reference H14 , now I must take from now the pictures with my Phone , thy are much better than the camera

I painted the exausts entry Flat Black , Tamiya XF-1 and the Tan color also painted in brush is Mr Hobby H27 ...



Bottom ...Wheel bay pain is Mr Hobby Super Mettalic SM01 Silver (great colors ...)



Gloss Sprayed , Used Tamiya TS13 CLear



Bottom



to dry now ...then decalling marathon , a lot of stencils to do ...

with this color I'm thinking to use some Light grey wash on it or Ultimate concrete ...or oils ...I don't know ...must check what to do next ...

well decalling in missiles and plane to follow ...still thinking on the base , will use an Ushi van der Rosten Scenic display from Langley Eustis Joint Base ...still must do also a ladder from an Eduard PE kit , but will show you in next updates ...

thank you for watching guys , see ya !

Last update before the final reveal ...

so left my build with the plane drying after a Clear coat , Tamiya TS13 , I like this Spray for doing the clear coat , the smell being it's main problem ..

I now will start preparing the base that I will be using for this build ...

Will use some cork frame and a Ushi Van Der Rosten Scenic Display , the 1/48 Langley Eustis Joint Base ...





Well not exactly the Hannover airport ...but ...

this come in three printed cards ...







Then we must cut them and is like a Tangram puzzle



final aspect ..



But now must wait ..off to some decalling ...Stencils...a lot , I mean really a LOT of them ! Boy I miss WWII planes ...

This base I arrange it in my work , something from protecting a new computer , and look how nice it is to do the decals





German 'No Step' ...







The main decals in some situations must be placed on the stencils ...really think that could have only placed the main decals ...



The Kormoran and the sidewinders missiles with decals, in this some decals were so small that they just turn on smithereens when I try to remove them from paper ..so only a few were used ...

The main decals for the plane were from Cartograf and such nice decals ...the ones from the missiles well ...such crap ones ...



Now I bought this F-105 ladder in PE just to add something the build ...



Simple , a ladder and instructions ..







And the more simple PE that I done in last weeks ..





Back to the base ...

I painted in some dark wood color the frame just to get nicer



Will use some Spray Glue , yes it is German glue in honnor of the build



Now the plane is drying from another Clear Coat to seal the decals ...



Also add the last pieces , the wheels on the gear bay ...



Front wheel bay



I done some panel with some gray panel line , decided to leave it like this



The Flat coat on the plane and we now go to the base , to do the base we must cut all to a small puzle , so to not to guess how the puzzle was done I stack all pieces from top to bottom and from left to right in the base after I check how must be done ...





After spraying the Glue to the base ...you may consider t use White glue if you want to add some grass in the intervals between the card pieces ...as this is a modern airfield I guess that this should not happen frequently as the airfields are maintained ...just a thought

I use a Black ink pen to 'shadow' the cutted pieces



Then and after glue all pieces , I will use some Vallejo Dark Dust to fill the joints and to give some texture to the diorama base ...



And that's it ...now for some final reveal photos ...just a remark that I make a mistake , the positioning lights should have been glued from the inside, some mistake from my side , then I must correct all the lights ...but now it is done ...could be better, still isn't this time that I build a proper model , a lot of mistakes , in a good kit ... the instructions in my opinion could be better , the fit was good and the experienced modeller could turn this in a great build ...still if you want to use the Kormoran Missiles you must buy two kits ...not one ...maybe Eduard could supply the wing mounts to this missiles as I place them in the wing mounts that the F-104 used for additional external deposits , think that they aren't the proper ones to use with the missiles ..in the end is a nice piece to my build collection , and now entering the Jet age with the last GB and SiG , will build more in the future , that's for sure ...

Hope you like the thread ...at least you may learn something for my mistakes and that's why I like the Threads and the forum we learn a lot doing this builds and watch your builds ...

Final reveal here:

http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.p ... 54#p170754