1/72 scale Century Series Jets - F-104G..................(Completed 29 Mar 2015)

[lastvautour]

Progress report. Wing tanks carved and sprayed on one side only. I fished them out of the paint shop for this photo. The gun blister(not visible) has been added. The exhaust ring is the part of a toothpaste tube cover cut down. It was the perfect diameter.

Lou

[lastvautour]

First coat of gloss white has been applied to the upper wing and top and bottom of stab. Most pictures show the more colourful red stab, however that was used only in country.

Lou

[lastvautour]

Wings and radome painted their respective colour. Now a coat of gloss white followed by chrome rather than silver. The chrome needs a glossy surface as it will show up every imperfection.

Lou

[lastvautour]

The masking has been removed and the canopy, engine intake lip masked and painted flat black. Tip tanks are in the paint shop and will be ready to attach later today if I find time. I still have the intake bullets and some shading of the rear fuselage and we will be ready for decals. I have some 1/72 scale aftermarket CF-104 decals in the spares box so home made one will be serial numbers only. I anticipate roll out sometime next week.

Lou

[lastvautour]

Just finished painting. Went with Krylon brilliant silver.

Lou

[Boomerang]

  Excellent work Lou.

[lastvautour]

Thank you Gordon. Just finished printing my decals. It takes about half an hour to dry and then another half hour for the Krylon gloss spray. With any luck, I may be able to have the roll out later today. The roundels will be aftermarket spares.

The image is a print screen image from the Word Doc I use to create the decals. I attach clear film over the serial numbers and white film over the flags and run through the printer again. I normally use the normal setting, but lately problems have occurred with some gaps so this time it was best setting and that seemed to work. I will know only after the image has dried if things went well.

Lou

[lastvautour]

All decals are home made as the aftermarket ones just crumbled when I attempted to move them of the paper.

Lou

[Boomerang]

Looks good with the decals, Lou.
I need to spend some time to sort out the "best" printer settings. I get fine white lines through
  mine and the colour is a bit washed out. Using the settings as detailed on the Testors paper.
Gordon

[buccfan]

Excellent model Lou, great decal work as usual. Best regards Paul J.

[lastvautour]

Thank you Paul and Gordon.

As to the decal setting, I use "Normal". I had that problem of lines, however it went away on its own. This would happen with the darker colours and mostly on white decal film. On occasion I have printed on clear film to place over the previously printed white film decal.

Lou

[Boomerang]

  I'll experiment.
  Cheers
  Gordon

[R.F.Bennett]

Great job Lou,. . . There is a variation of an F104A-10 that might inspire you too do another Century Jet subject. It is one of a kind and actually flown by Chuck Yeager.  http://www.landspeed.com/ Vehicle specs can be found at; http://www.landspeed.com/project/vehicle 

[lastvautour]

Thank you Ray. I down loaded the drawings.

Lou