Republic of China Air Force (Taiwan) F-104G

This is the subject I am building. 

 

 

On inspection of the Italeri kit I found the canopy had a crack in it. Going to attempt a fix with some Testors clear parts cement. 

Camera on the phone is not the best, but I think you can see the crack is filled in. May take a couple more applications to make it look better. But, it will never be perfect. 

Here is the kit starting point for the Taiwanese Starfighter. Almost the same kit as the ERTL/ESCI but Italeri added a recon pod and Martin Baker seat and freshened up the molds. Will not be using the kit markings, waiting for Taiwanese markings to arrive 

Got the decals in for this build and started on fuselage assembly. 

Fuselage is together, gaps filled, and rescribed. Wings and tail are on. Still need to do some work on the wing roots and the wingtip sidewinder rails. 

Work is slowly progressing. All the rescribing done, cockpit done, canopy on. Still need to do some work on the areas where the canopy joins the fuselage. External fuel tanks and pylons from the kit. AIM-9B sidewinders from the Hasegawa weapon set. 

Yet again Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 black comes through without a hitch. Once it dries I will go in and fix any flaws I find 

Weather this is called pre-shading or something else, it is done. Many small squiggles painted on with Tamiya flat white. The overall colors will go over this in a very thinned coat, so the variance of color below will show a little.  

Paint is on. All free-hand with Gunze aqueous paints thinned with Mr Color Leveling Thinner. 

Pilot tube is on. Super glue to affix,then some Mr Surfacer 500 to fill in the area. Sanding to blend it all in. Masked off with Parafilm and ready for primer. 

All of the painting is done. Last bit was the Tamiya NATO black on the intakes and anti-glare panel. Letting it fully cure over the next couple of days, then a coat of clear gloss. 

Final paint on the fuselage is done. Other pieces and parts are coming along. Next up, some gloss coats 

Decals are coming along. The Bestfong brand decals behaved nicely and worked well with Solvaset. Unfortunately they are quite thick. I am going to use a different set of decals for all the data and stencils. 

Panel line washes drying and decals almost done. Going to try to finish this one before the new year 

Almost there! Finishing up the decals on the sidewinders. Once they are done and mounted the whole thing gets a coat of Tamiya XF-86 thinned with X-20A. Despite the thick decals I am liking the way this one is turning out. 

Dispite the thick decals, I really like how this one turned out. 

The 1/72 ESCI/ERTL kit in the latest Italeri boxing. 

Aftermarket used: Hasegawa AIM-9F sidewinders, Bestfong decals, and Master pilot tube.