Italeri 1/72 F104B "Starfighter" SmokeII, Udorn 1968

[Thunderchief1966]

Hi everyone, ok this is my first GB and third build since returning to the hobby so here goes,

I got this kit, which only came out this year with this decal set, with the intention of doing a metal finish but I love the F104 in SEA camo and it's sort of forgotten as a Vietnam era aircraft so this GB made up my mind for me. I did a SEA scheme on a 1/48 F105 but I can see it being tricky at this scale. Its not the most challenging kit but I am making it easy on myself for my first GB,

The only F104 Photo from Vietnam that I could find



Here is the kit







Good luck to everyone, there are some great subjects so far so I best get stuck in

Cheers Ian

[snappercity]

Good choice. I look forward to seeing this.

[rwsmith14]

good choice I considered building a F-104C as well. at the last second I changed my mind. looking forward to this.

[UKguyInUSA]

Nice choice....some great planes and a lot of entries into this GB!

[chief5437]

I love the starfighter, amazing looking machine! Never seen it in sea colours before. Good luck

[DBMiller]

I was hoping someone would build the 104!

[Lee]

Nice - Got to love the Vietnam camo scheme

[martin57]

great choice, hope it goes together well .

[rwsmith14]

Here are a few more F-104C Vietnam images for inspiration:







Below pic: Notice the APR 25/26 radar warning receiver antenna under the nose. It was fitted to all F-104C deployed to Vietnam



these next few are pictures are of Capt Harold Alston completing 100 missions in the F-104C. He states his last mission,The target was an ammo storage site. His ordinance was finned napalm. probably BLU27S.

[DBMiller]

You MUST build the pilot with the hat!

[Thunderchief1966]

Wow the pics are great and I think " SMOKE II " is the aircraft that the model is based on so the ideal ref pic, many thanks for posting these shots, inspiration indeed, lets hope I can do it justice, should have some time tomorrow to get the ball rolling. I think the Merkava will be on hold for a while !!

Cheers Ian

[Willem]

Very nice choice. Looking forward to following all these builds.

[Thunderchief1966]

Hi everyone, finally after a week I have managed to make some progress and get started,the current work area is the dining room table,I've been given permission to convert the utility room into a workshop so that's a WIP at the moment,



A quick sprue wash



A much closer inspection has shown up a lot more flash than I first thought and some really bad injector pin marks, so despite being a relatively simple build there's a lot of cleaning up to do, the undercarriage doors in particular are badly affected as is the main undercarriage.

Refueling tube



Main doors showing IPM




Main gear


There are also some IPM inside the fuel tanks, which are themselves not a problem, but they have caused blemishes to the surface which needs sorting, it's affecting all of them.





I think i've been spoilt with the Meng and Hobby Boss kits that I've done so far, as far as flash and crispness of molding are concerned, this kit is definitely a step back in quality, although the overall level of detail is ok, and panel lines are quite nice and fine. The other issue is trying to remove parts from the sprue as the attachment points are really thick and there are some really delicate parts. I am going to remove most of the smaller parts and ordnance, and have an afternoon cleaning them up ready for priming.

On the plus side, I took the plunge and ordered a full set of Vallejo Model Air which arrived on Friday, so I'm going to build a nice paint rack for the soon to be workshop, so they'll probably still be in a box this time next year !!

Cheers Ian

[UKguyInUSA]

I know the feeling....after building a nice Tamiya kit and then going to an older Revell kit, I was disheartened by the difference in quality, flash due to age of the mld, poor fits etc....but, I'm sure you'll turn her around into a shining beauty! Good luck

[Thunderchief1966]

Hi, hey thanks for the vote of confidence, I need it, its taking quite a bit of fettling to get some of the marks and flash sorted. I am doing things back to front and getting all the undercarriage, doors, wheels etc sorted first before the main fuselage as these are the worst affected areas so sanding sticks at the ready,

Smaller parts removed and sanded and prepared for primer coat, I am using Vallejo grey primer on everything as I will be using Model Air for the main colour coat, which prefers a primer over bare plastic



Yet more IPM's to deal with, managed to get to all the awkward bits with some Flory skinny sticks which are great on smaller and more delicate parts



After several hours of sanding, filling and glueing i've managed to get some paint on, albeit primer, and the fuel tanks which needed the most work, have come up really well



Next job will be to start applying paint and decals to the cockpit tub, i am going to have to use the instrument decals as there is no raised detail to highlight and, as the canopy can only be displayed closed, its not going to be that visible.

I was also going to display the air brakes in the open position however the IPM's are in such an awkward place that I can't see any way of removing them without ruining the raised detail, they are curved and about the size of a 1p piece, any ideas would be really appreciated



Cheers, Ian

[Hillbilly]

Looks like a challenging kit with all the cleanup required.Can't wait to see what you do with it.

[Thunderchief1966]

OK time for an update, things are a little sporadic but finally making some progress and even getting a little paint on,

Front and main undercarriage and doors cleaned up as far as possible and sprayed Vallejo aluminium, which is a really nice metallic, with a bit of heavy Vietnam weathering they should look fine



The cockpit tub is bereft of any detail at all and there are no aftermarket PE parts at 1/72 for this kit so decals it is. On the plus side the seat fills and covers the IPM's and as the canopy is one piece, there will be little of the interior on view, again a little weathering should help



Seat, tub, and engine nozzle together with cockpit cowling all sprayed up with Vallejo MA



Engine nozzle in gungrey metallic


The fuselage went together beautifully with virtually no visible seam lines on the upper edge, after a light sand and polish it looks good to go, the underside will need a little more work and a touch of filler to get it up to scratch. Again i'm going to try and add some detail to the main wheel bay which is just featureless flat plastic at the moment, whereas the front wheel bay has some nice detail, why one and not the other




Busy weekend ahead so may not get much more done this week, i'm enjoying the kit despite it's challenges, but definitely not the quick build I thought it would be for my GB debut. More progress reports soon hopefully, cheers Ian

[EagleOnyx]

You MUST build the pilot with the hat!

OMG, my Dad wore the same type of hat back then! He was a submarine sailor though.

[Deacon]

A great start mate.

[Thunderchief1966]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the comments so far, much appreciated
Good and bad week for progress, I decided to mask up the canopy but to my horror it was nowhere to be seen , so I have either thrown it by mistake or my 4 year old has had away with it, a new one is on order from Italeri who were very helpful, so hopefully it shouldn't take too long to get here..... In the mean time i'm progressing without it,

The tail section was a bit warped, but with a little clamping it's gone together well and the fit with the rest of the fuselage is pretty good,



The cockpit tub fitted well with no adjustment needed



Getting the wings to the correct angle was tricky as the slots are way too big, allowing them to flop about, so I used some masking to fatten up the locating tab, and the trusty liquid cement held everything in place whilst curing.



The next job was adding the air intakes which again did not fit properly, after careful sanding I got them to lie flush with only a little filler needed to tidy up



After a de-greasing with IPA she is now primed and ready for painting, note the addition of the in flight re fuel tube which despite tons of flash, has come up well and fitted neatly, I've also drilled out the end of the fuel probe and the cannon to improve the look





I should be able to get on with spraying this week, just making a final decision on the two greens, dark green is ok but I might choose a slightly lighter shade than recommended to get a better contrast at this scale....results to follow

Cheers Ian

[grover]

Looks like its coming along nicely Ian, even if it has been a bit of work .

[Jamesday1998]

its coming along great Ian! i have heard that italeri are a bit hit and miss at times but youve powered on through it!
KUTGW:)

[planemaker]

Superb job so far! And also a great subject. Can't wait to see more of the build.

[Thunderchief1966]

Once again many thanks for the comments everyone, first chance to reply since midweek and actually managed to get a bit more work done. It has been more of a challenge than I thought but i'm really enjoying sorting everything out and trying to improve it where possible. I made my final choice of paint and went with Vallejo FS 30215 light brown,FS 34079 Dark Green and FS 34095 Cam Green which gives a nice contrast at 1/72 with FS 36622 for the underside, I think I was getting too hung up on super accurate paint colours and these planes were so worn and weathered it becomes a moot point. Having initially decided to do the camo freehand, it became apparent that a 1/48 F 105 is much bigger than this tiny 1/72 and my airbrush skills are not that good yet, so i've had a go at using the blu tack approach and, after a couple of teething problems, it's turned out ok. I need more practice but it's a good simple technique, thanks to ISM for the all the info for this,

Paint applied, all Vallejo using a Neo for Iwata



Bit of touch up needed on some of the demarcation lines as my blu tack skills need honing



Touch up done and aluminium added to airbrake interior and wheel bay, gloss coat is Microscale micro gloss thinned with IPA




I'm going to leave to harden for 48 hours and finish off painting the drop tanks and missiles, and then it's decal time of which there are many for a kit this size,

See you soon, i'm going to check out some of the other builds while i have chance, cheers Ian

[TheWeasel]

Great work on the SEA camo. Lovely!

[Jamesday1998]

awesome work on the camo!

[DBMiller]

Nice! The Vietnam camo is about my favorite.

[Thunderchief1966]

Thanks very much for the comments guys and I've got to agree it's nice doing a camo scheme on a jet rather than another shade of grey, I was panicking that the blu tack would leave marks or pull the paint but I removed it pretty much straight away and it worked great, although I've since read that white tack is better as it leaves no residue so I might give that a try next time.
Italeri have come up trumps and sent me my replacement canopy in less than a week, all for the princely sum of £3.20 incl postage, which is top notch customer service in my book



Ive managed to get just about everything painted and ready, drop tanks, missiles, wheels and bay doors are now painted and gloss coated ready for any decals









Next job is most definitely decal application which is going to take a few sessions as there are quite a lot of stencils and markings for such a small kit, which should really add to the finished look hopefully



I,ll also get that canopy masked off, possibly my least favorite task! See you soon, cheers Ian

[UKguyInUSA]

Great work so far mate....she's coming together nicely!

[Thunderchief1966]

Hi everyone, sorry for the gap but half term causing disruption !! I have now finished applying the decals but not without incident, I seem to have levelled a fair bit of criticism at this kit but having built the Meng and Hobbyboss aircraft and midway through the Academy Merkava, the gulf in quality is really apparent, Italeri need to up their game a bit. At first glance the stencil instructions looked ok, but on closer inspection its just a mass of straight lines pointing to various bits of the plane, no orientation or accurate location points are given. To make matters worse, at least a dozen of the stencils are numbered incorrectly and despite only having one number 56, it's got 3 location points!! Most of the stencils on the "common parts" sheet don't apply to the Vietnam version so I've had to get as many reference photos as possible to suss out which do apply,and also, either the instructions or the decals are out of scale as there is a marked difference in size between what is shown, and the actual decal itself. Rant over now

Despite the above, I am quite pleased with the results and the decals are well printed if a little glossy, but with micro sol and set they have gone on ok,

The aforementioned dodgy instructions


Finished top fuselage


Underside


Various angles, sorry about the lighting on some shots








Finished AIM Sidewinders mounted on their rack



Drop Tanks



Everything is now sealed with another top coat of Micro gloss ready for a wash, I need to finish masking and spraying the canopy and get the undercarriage and air brakes ready for install, and we are heading towards the home straight, back soon hopefully, cheers Ian

[Thunderchief1966]

Ok time for an update, managed to get the canopy neatly off the sprue and masked off with tamiya tape and new blade, primed with vallejo black surface primer and then dark green with a coat of gloss to finish,





Air brakes also painted, these now just need decals adding,



Next up was a complete wash with Flory models dark dirt, it always makes me nervous but the results are worth it





I removed the wash using kitchen paper and cotton buds for more difficult to reach areas, it's come up ok even though some of the panel lines are very shallow and ill defined, but it's the grimy effect i'm after,









The rear bay doors were an appalling fit and needed to be cut and sanded as they were both different sizes! They are now in place as best as I can do and need weathering to match up


Next up was adding the front and rear undercarriage, both weathered, and the F104 is really taking shape,





Next jobs are completing the front and rear bay doors and adding the weapons and drop tanks and engine nozzle and she will be almost complete, see you soon, cheers Ian

[UKguyInUSA]

That's coming together nicely, Ian

With some ordnance and drop tanks on her she'll look the biz!