CF-104D Triple Sick

[BlrwestSiR]

Ok, so Martin and I have been talking about Starfighters lately. That sort of pushed this to the front of the queue on my end of what I wanted to start next. 

I won't be getting too crazy with the build as far as AM goes:

There's a resin burner can, wheels and PE bits for the IP and seats. 

For markings, I'm using the Canuck Models decal sheet 

There's only one problem. There aren't enough markings in the set for a complete plane. I'm going to have to splice something together once I get that far in the build. 

Onto the subject I want to build. Originally I thought of doing 12641 which is outside the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. But the insufficient number of decals put pause to that. 641 would have been beat too as it's the same code on my CT-133. 

Then I read about 12666 which was nicknamed Triple Sick. In the book "Starfighter" the pilot mentions how after he crashed the plane, the ground crew would buy him beers as they were so happy they no longer needed to work on the plane as it had a rep for being a pain to maintain. Hopefully that won't translate into my build of her. 

Carl

[Martinnfb]

Nice!

[Jeff]

for reference

http://www.rwrwalker.ca/CAF_CF104D.html

[Jeff]

http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/Stars/wC666.htm

[BlrwestSiR]

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

for reference

http://www.rwrwalker.ca/CAF_CF104D.html

I found that when I was trying to figure out what serial to build. Thanks for finding it again and posting it.

[BlrwestSiR]

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/Stars/wC666.htm

That is one shiny plane. That's more or less the scheme I'm aiming for but RCAF markings rather than the CAF ones. 

[Jeff]

4 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

I found that when I was trying to figure out what serial to build. Thanks for finding it again and posting it.

I should have known I was a day late....

[BlrwestSiR]

Not at all. Like I said, I couldn't find it again so having the link comes in handy.

[Martinnfb]

A little inspiration here

[BlrwestSiR]

Ok, progress has been a bit slower than expected. Partly because my boys don't sleep any more now that they're home from school until most likely Sept.

First thing I did was glue the fuselage front and rear halves together. I don't plan to show off the J-79 so might as well eliminate/reduce a potential step in the fuselage.

The seam edges need a quick sanding to make sure they're free of mould lines. 

I then started on the bang seats. I'm using the Eduard fabric belts which come with some PE bits. I've started assembly of the seat on the left while the one on right shows most of the kit seat parts.

The Eduard instructions are a bit vague on what goes where especially with regards to the replacement seat back. I ended up assembling the lower sections and then attaching the seat to that section. 

I also cut off the pour blocks from the Eduard resin burner can that you can see in the background. 

Next up I started cleaning up the MLG legs. They're not bad but the mould seams is quite pronounced. 

 

[Bomber_County]

Carl, following along on this to learn some “fan thing” tricks........

[Jeff]

[Martinnfb]

That seat is already looking like a impressive pile of metal/reso/plastic. Joy to follow.

[BlrwestSiR]

8 minutes ago, Martinnfb said:

That seat is already looking like a impressive pile of metal/reso/plastic. Joy to follow.

Thanks Martin! Speaking of seats, yours is on its way. 

[BlrwestSiR]

1 hour ago, Bomber_County said:

Carl, following along on this to learn some “fan thing” tricks........

Phil, I hope I'm a good enough teacher. Don't want to lead you down the Dark Side. 

[BlrwestSiR]

I got to spend a bit of time today (so far) at the bench. 

I started on the J-79 engine. Italeri gives you a full engine and the option of displaying it either installed via the removable rear section or outside the fuselage on a stand. Since I've joined the fuselage halves together I'm going for the installed look.  I also won't need to add the external detail so that should speed things up a bit. 

I've painted the rear halves in cockpit green. I might give them a quick wash before joining them together. 

I then painted the flame holder. 

There's a ring that goes onto the engine next. This ends up being the mount for the kit burner can. 

After cleaning up all the moulding pips on the inside of the ring, I checked and realized it isn't needed when using the Eduard burner can. 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

While working on the cockpit tub, I noticed something interesting. 

Italeri reuses the single seater tub on the two seater kit. They do make a specific rear tub wall though. 

Here's the single seat and two seat tubs side by side. The two seater is on the left as I've started modifying it. 

The two seater rear wall isn't as offset as the single seater. Which means it overlaps the side consoles. 

Here's what the single seater rear wall looks like:

So it looks like the best option is to use some AM cockpit details to fix this. 

[TJTX]

I'm looking forward to watching this one. I've been wanting to build one of these, but I'm gun shy because of all the open panels on it.

[harv]

How many you building ?....harv

[BlrwestSiR]

59 minutes ago, TJTX said:

I'm looking forward to watching this one. I've been wanting to build one of these, but I'm gun shy because of all the open panels on it.

Tony, the panels don't fit too badly. The gun access panel needs a bit of shimming on the single seater but nothing you wouldn't be able to do. 

[BlrwestSiR]

16 minutes ago, harv said:

How many you building ?....harv

Umm, maybe more than one?

I blame Martin....

[Bomber_County]

Martin gets blamed for everything 

[BlrwestSiR]

Ok, so a bit more progress. I'm using the Eduard PE sets for the seats and cockpit. Needless to say, their choice of colour for some of the pre-painted panels is a bit off. They've got more of a Russian cockpit blue grey to them. So I've started slowly airbrushing over using the correct shade of grey.

We'll see how that goes soon enough. 

Meantime, I did a bit more assembly of the front cockpit. Mostly this was the ejection seat rails and rear bulkhead along with a coat of paint. I've started shaving off the rear cockpit details as well.

The kit intakes are fairly straightforward with a couple ejector pin marks inside that need filling in the trunking. 

Odds are you could probably skip this part as they're fairly buried inside the plane. 

Thankfully, the intake lips only need a quick swipe with some sanding sticks to clean up. There is a rough surface texture to them so the sanding took care of that at the same time. 

Finally, I got the engines closed up. 

Since I'm not planning to have anything open, these are pretty much done. 

Martin is working/ about to work on his own Starfighter and I was grabbing some spare bits I had to send his way. Which led to a second kit being out and about so rather than take the easy route and box it back up, I decided to add it to the bench. This'll be a single seat kit and I'm planning to do it as a JASDF F-104J. The nice thing is the Starfighter isn't a complicated kit, especially with everything closed. 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

I got a smidge more done. I continued working on the cockpit tubs. 

The single seat tub in the middle needs a section of the floor removed and a replacement section installed from the Eduard set. Hence the bunch of holes. 

Of course the Eduard instructions don't mention leaving a lip around the hole to install the new bits. I figured that part out thankfully before removing everything. So it may not be square but it'll be covered. 

[Martinnfb]

That wasn't blame , it was a compliment :). I am still in the gathering phase , and Carl generously sent some bits to me, so I can build the correct A/C from Hasegawa's kit. Hopefully I will be able to join Carl soon. Also I need his knowledge and help.

Great and inspirational work buddy. Thank You again for your kind help.