Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star 53-5819 81 TFW USAFE

Alex K
Another Hawk oldie! I'm in!

Ben M
I do seem to build a lot of them.

Rui
Chrome!

Ben M
I built the plated f-104 when I was a kid I think a testors reissue.

John
At least those decals look fine, no issues with carrier film. 😳

Ben M
Haha John! I have occasionally tried to salvage decals this old but in this case I have a more modern decal set that will hopefully fit this ancient hawk kit.

John
I figured you did! Curious to see how it turns out. I vaguely remember these plated kits from back in the day but haven't seen one in years.

Maciej Bellos
Watching!

Oleg Smilyk
Very nice so far, I take a seat 🙂

Neil
Following 👀👍

Ben M
Working with the plated parts is a hassle. Need to decide if I'm going to try to scrape down the seams and cover up with a molotow pen. I guess since I have parts from two kits I can experiment…

Pierre Pierre
watching, are the sprues directly in chrome ?

Ben M
Yes, all sprues are chromed (actually aluminum plated)

Ben M
Uploaded a pic of the sprues. I ended up getting two copies of this kit as they both have imperfections in the plating, so I'm trying to use the best parts from both.

Pierre Pierre
thanks for the last pics I understand better. why not repainting all in gloss black and having a good chrome paint ? (just asking🙂

Ben M
My father built this kit when I was a kid, so I'm building it the way he did.

Dominik Weitzer
it is interesting to see, how the old decals work and coming out when attached. i think about the yellow film...is it dissapearing? thats the question i'm interested.

the full plated kit is awesome, never saw this.

Ben M
Im just going to try the instrument panel decals.

My experience with decals this old is often you have to glue them in place. I will cut away the carrier film so it doesn't matter that it's yellow.

Spanjaard
i have read in SCM that in order to remove the yellowing, you can place them with tape in one of your windows, and leave them for some time there. Depending on the amount of sun light available, the time required will be different.
I have not done it myself, and actually I have thought about using some UV light to do it faster, but have not tried yet.

Ben M
I tried that, left some decals in the window for a month, it didn't seem to make much difference.

Spanjaard
ok

Alex K
For the record: The sun & window thing worked for me... (ok, it took some time, even with a Mediterranean sun... - but it worked).

Ben M
I can't get them to soak off the backing sheet. I'll have to glue them in place!

Ben M
Reference photo:

abpic.co.uk/pictures/registration/53-5819

Wing marking references:
flickr.com/photos/dlberek/3667241672/

airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/001271083.html

Donald Dickson II
I did the plated Tamiya Tbirds F-84. That was a pain enough dealing with already chromed parts. On something this old and I'll fitting I would strip the plating and repaint with Alclad. Looks like far too much puttying and sanding is needed. Good luck!

Ben M
Yeah it's a challenge but I'm going to persist with the plating.

Ben M
I decided to try one of the cartograf decals I'm not using on a part I'm not using and see if the problems you had Donald were due to the plating or the tamiya decals (which I'm generally not a fan of)

Ben M
So far no issues with decal adhesion. These are caracal decals printed by cartograf and I cleaned the areas I applied them with tamiya X-20a

Ben M
Made a new nose anti-glare panel with a cricut. Worked out well.

Ben M
Done! Not sure I'll build another plated kit after this one. Might do the Hawk/Testors F-104.

Oliver Zwiener
Respekt for a kit from 1961 !

Neuling
All´s well that ends well. Well done.

Lawrence Landis
Very nice result.