Vietnam Air War GB - Extended!

As you wish...

Earlier this week, I glued the cockpit tub in place on the F-104's upper fuselage half



and I did some detail painting in the gun bay

Todays update on the F-104: sometime between my post on this build here earlier in the week, and gluing the cockpit into fuselage, I misplaced the ejection seat. Not to worry, a bit of web searching and I found an AM resin replacement seat (actualy two in the package) Since I have more F-104s in my stash, that's perfect. Ordered on Tuesday, and arrived in my grubby little mitts today courtesy of USPS. Gotta love the superb service from Sprue Brothers and the Post Office. Of course after the new seat arrived, I found the kit seat part in my paints bin.... dont know how it got there, but I suspect it may have something to do with the evening cocktails consumed at my workstation after work had been done for the day last Saturday evening... anyways here is the kit part next to the CMK Resin replacement seat... BIG improvement...

I am currently trying to find a front wheel myself, so frustrating. The cmk seat looks nice. Painting those things is one thing i hate (cos i suck )

TL, last night I went thru all the pages of this GB from the beginning. I think that I dropped out of watching this GB in this past winter when I was  moving. I completely missed your F-104. All that I can say about that one is wow! No sucking there. Thta is gorgeous work and your take off display is very innovative! What do you mean that you need a front wheel?

cant find the resin weighted front wheel for the MF im also building. its around somewhere, prolly on the floor under all the accumulated bumf  its NP ill find it eventually.

thanks for the kind words on the 104. looking forward to seeing yours.

Yeah, that is what happened to my bang seat. I spent a couple of days looking for the kit part with no luck after I lost it. After those two days of searching, I placed the order. Then of course, once the resin replacement seat arrived, I found the kit part. Isn't that the way the fates always work?

got a bit more (significant) work done today. Finished painting up the gun bay- a metalic overcoat on the Vulcan, and a dry brushing of Steel on the ammo chute. Then some touch up of the Satin White. Then I glued that in place.

Next I glued the fuselage halves together. I found one small panel that will probably be saned away during seam clean up, so I got out my scriber and template and headed off that issue.

and that I glued the rear fuselage halves together

and now it is starting to look like an F-104.... Such a gorgeous bird!

So I got back to the Navy F-4G.

Rebuilt the fuel dump that broke off and disappeared.

Preshaded

Painted some green.

More progress on my 104: I added the ventral strake and emergency landing tail hook to the lower rear fuselage

and I added the stabilator to the tailplane

and I glued the wingtip tanks together- they are only placed on the wings for this photo, I will need to  add some strip styrene to fill a gap where they attach

and I rescribed the panel lines in the tip tanks

c'mon stickpusher, im dying to see this finished. what black paint did you use ?

Well no more work is due up for this weekend because of the Weekend Madness GB here. Gonna work on a Hobbycraft Hurricane for that. The only black on my F-104 is in the cockpit- Humbrol matte Black (33?). The kit itself is molded in Monogram's old standard dark OD plastic.

Lol, i thought it looked a bit dull for a gloss black finish :-P must be my failing eyesight.

Mine is going to be in the SEA Camo, so no need for a gloss black undercoat.

OK, back on with this one. Nothing major today, but I did get the intake interiors painted in white- a primer coat of Flat White then a top coat of Gloss White after a short wait for the primer coat to dry a bit. Both Testors square bottle.

Do you have a trick for getting their white gloss from being tacky for a long time?  I actually think its all of their gloss enamels now that I think about it.

I just stir it thoroughly with my handy dandy stir stick and thin it with Testors Universal Enamel Airbrush Thinner (Red Can stuff) and no problem today.

I do the same thing and use the same thinner but most of the time I find their gloss remains tacky for a while like it takes longer to cure.  When its warn out I will place whatever I painted outside when dry to try and speed up the letting off of the solvents.

Had this problem recently in the Weekend Madness GB and decaled/cleared anyway.  Things turned out ok though.

true, cooler temperatures do tend to slow the drying time, especially with gloss paints. But the ones that I used yesterday did not remain tacky longer than normal for gloss enamel paints. On speed builds such as the Weekend Madness, I tend to work with Acrylics more due to their quicker drying times.

Just a tiny update today- painted the end of the intake area Flat Black.

Major progress up to and including today. This is what I accomplished during the week: intakes and tip tanks glued in place, and seam work sanded- looks like an F-104C

now a close up of the intake work

and of the shim work that I did on the lower surface of the wing where the tank meets the lower surface

so this afternoon I added the landing gear struts and associated arms in the wheel wells, Sidewinder rails and 20mm spent shells chute to the lower surface

and then I scratch built the APR-26 RHAW antennas that the F-104C carried in Vietnam.

Nose fairing- still needs a little more sanding to get the proper profile

and the tail antenna fairings, need to do a little filler work on where they meet the fuselage

and I glued the radome in place so this is how she looks now

Ready now to start some serious paint work here in the next few days.

stikpusher - i looked a t loads of pics from vietnam (da nang mainly) but never saw a C with the the apr-26 or the two tail thingies. could you share a link to a pic so i can see plz? was it just used on the ground attack aircraft?

The decal sheet that I am using, Orion "Starfighters in Combat" pointed me out to the system. I did a web search and came up with this.

 http://www.i-f-s.nl/udorn-ecm/

Thats brilliant, cheers! I have never come across a starfighter with that equipment before. It certainly makes yours a special, very nice :-)

Thank you sir. I did some white primer work today on the sped brake & wheel wells & doors. I need to pick up some Tamiya gloss white tomorrow at the LHS on the way to AMPS.

Hey tcepilot,

I would like to join with a U-1A Otter, but I don't see that listed.  Am I in? 

If so, it's a Hobbycraft 1:72 kit.

tcepilot has not been on here in some time.

Thanks for the heads-up stikpusher.

Well, I'm going to build it regardless.  I guess i will just snap some progress pics and post them if he comes back and accepts me.

tcepilot

Anyone can join anytime. I have just been busy with school.

Completely understandable!    I just wasn't sure if my choice of aircraft (U-1A) was OK since it wasn't on the list. 

Well it was used in vietnam, so  even if its not on the list i dont see why not :-)  i would like to see it too asi have not seen one before