This is the “Tour of Duty” boxing that I bought this kit from a fellow on another modeling board. I’ve always liked the lines of the Starfighter, and I was able to get this kit on the cheap. I figured it’d be a great way to practice some scribing and NMF techniques. Besides rescribing, this kit was built OOB. The kit’s fit was terrible, so rescribing helped restore the details obliterated by the inescapable filling and sanding. My biggest mistake was painting the underside of the wings white. I didn’t learn that they were painted ADC grey until after the kit’s decals had been applied. (Something to keep in mind for my next Starfighter.)
I like the lines of a “clean” F-104, so I left off the missiles and refueling probe that came in the box. The kit’s decals were useless, so I had to cobble some markings together from the decals floating around in the black hole that is my spares box. The kit was painted with a mix of Alclad II colors and MM enamels. Unfortunately, the subtle variations in the metal colors were dulled by the metalizer sealer and flat coat. Flory’s products were used for washes. The decals were from whatever sheets I could find.
Anyway, enough blah-blah-blah. Let’s move on to the pix!
You might be able to see that I tried to do some “heat staining” on the rear of the fuse. I’m pretty happy with the way it came out, even though it’s not as obvious after the clear coats. This is something that I’d like to use again on future builds.
Anyway, that’s it. The first one of 2013. Feel free to comment or criticize.
I skipped pages whenever I saw one of these, and to be honest, when I saw this topic, “oh, not another one” was what I said. I really don’t like the look of this “rocket with wings attached”, but this is amazing work. Just noticed that I’ve been staring at the photos, checking details for minutes now, first time ever to an f-104. Heat stain is just fine, not overdone. Great work.
Thanks for the kudos everyone! I’m glad you like her.
Fly-n-hi, I used different shades of Alclad II to achieve the heat discoloring. First, I painted the panels different base colors. I used Duraluminum, Aluminum, White Aluminum, Dull Aluminium, Dark Aluminum; you get the idea. Then, I used custom mixes of the above colors, Alclad’s Exhaust, Burnt Iron and Burnt Metal, and sprayed various fine, thin streaks of these colors over the base colors. I tried not to use the same base color more than once, or the same “streaking” colors on adjoining panels, to get subtle variations from panel to panel. The variations were initially more obvious, but once the metal sealer and flat coat went on, they became less apparent.
I know that explanation might be a little difficult to understand without visual aids, but hopefully you get the idea. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Again, thanks for looking everyone. I appreciate the pats on the back.
Nice job, I like the rescribing, it looks very clean and straight in the photos. Care to share any techniques, i.e. tools used, straight edge guides, etc.?
First, thanks for your kind words. In regards to techniques, I try to keep things simple. Some people like to track down line drawings of their subjects to get everything just right. Me? I go for close enough. To that end, I use the kit’s existing raised panel lines as my guides.
My tools include several scribing templates that help when scribing shapes (e.g. circles, small squares and rectangles, panel hinges, etc). The Dymo tape is great for straight lines, and it’s what I use to guide most of my scribing. The tape’s not very flexible, so to get it to lay down around curves, I cut a very thin strip to use as my guide. The compass helps for measuring spacing and drawing parallel lines. Scribing is done using a sharp needle point held in a pin vise, a sharpened dental tool, or a dedicated scribing tool (the little yellow handled thing) that came with one of the sets of templates). The Tenax is used as the final step to smooth things out.
I use Dymo tape laid down along the line I want to replace, then using a scribing tool, I engrave the new line. I tend to use a lot of Dymo. It seems it looses its tackiness fairly quickly (from handling and sanding dust), so a fresh piece ensures that the line stays where its supposed to. That helps eliminate moving guides and wayward lines. Once the line is replaced, I use some sandpaper to remove the original raised line and any plastic that was pushed out along the edges of the scribed line. After the sanding’s done, I use a toothbrush to remove the sanding dust from the new engraved line. If the toothbrush doesn’t work, the scribing tool or a sharpened toothpick run through the line removes any stubborn dust. The last step is to run a very small amount of liquid cement through the line to smooth things out.
Anyway, I hope my rambling helps. If you have any other questions, let me know. I’d be happy to help if I can.
Cheers!
-O
(NOTE: Go to YouTube and type in “scribing panel lines” into the search bar. A few helpful tutorials will pop up for ya. Good luck!)
Thanks for the info, very informative. I’ll have to pick up some Dymo tape.
I’ve used some homemade templates for tight, compound curves where a piece of tape just doesn’t cut it. I made them from thin sheet plastic, cut to shape with a pair of sissors or a hobby knife and sanded smooth. Then used as a scribing guide for the curved line. Seems to work pretty well.
If I could afford to, I would too. My modeling budget pretty much keeps me away from the Tamiya & Hasegawa kits. The good thing about building kits with poor fitting parts is that they help hone my modeling skills.
