1/48 Hasegawa F-104G by Patrick Spitaels

Well, that's always the most difficult part to do, as this was the second time I did it...I learned from the mistakes I made the first time around!

I made a section of the engine, ok it doesn't look like the real one.....if you can't find where the hydraulic pump is....don't worry! I think I forgot it, but it is good looking! The only think I expect is for it to look good!

About the panel, well it's the same. I just sanded the panel I cut from the kit, added plasticard to it, some resins parts, wires...it's looks like a road map!

From Aires, also a wonderful job, but not easy to install. Ok, my problem came in that I opened the electronic bay and gun bay, so the front wheel well has to be cut, to be part of the back of each bay.....after a entire box of TYLENOL...(In Belgium we say Aspirine) the job was done!

The other problem was the main wheel well, in fact it was not easy to install, one thing I understand after, is that if you don't put it right......the wings of the model won't sit level when the model is finally standing on it's landing gear. So, as the model has a wing little lower than the other one...the only solution was to sand a wheel. Ok, don't throw rocks...it happened. So, don't forget to try it " blank" several times.

The closing of the fuselage was not something that was easy accomplished, with all the parts I added, but with the used of Cyanochrilate glue it works well. At this stage, I didn't assemble the exhaust. Why?.....just to be able to handle the plane for the rest of the job.

From Aires, wonderful job, so fine....too fine....specially when you let drop some TESTORs bottles on it! It was broken in 7 parts, all the parts were lost on the ground! 20 minutes of searching, with my nose on the ground and with the help of a big search lamp. Ok, I forgot the precious help of my dog.....So, after this heroic fact, I rebuild all the exhaust and put it Wayyyy off my workbench. It was painted with TESTOR METALIZER, a wash of TAMIYA smoke, and a coat of matt varnish.

From BB, but as the guy from the base told me, they are WRONG!, in size (too thin), the fins are wrong too ( too large) and you'll have to delete the ventral fin too.

I used the pylon from the CE set, and only glued them at the end of the building stage......you know why huuuhhh !

The tip tanks are from the kit. I put a coat of TAMIYA white primer on, then a coat of yellow, then I made the Tiger stripes. Thankfully, a guy from the Century series (discussion list ) told me that I was wrong in the stripes scheme....NO problems, as the black was Humbrol, I used a spray to clean hooven. As the base was acrylics, it didn't move, but the Humbrol was washed !

The bottom received a coat of TAMIYA spary, AS 16 ( light gray), then some coat of HUMBROL light grey with white in it.

The top, Tan is from DACO paint, the dark green too. The light green is from TESTOR.

About the DACO paints, a friend of the model club told me ( later when the job was done !) that I've to used the thinner from DACO. Why...because it need hours to dry, and you know why... I didn't have this thinner when starting the job, so I weathered the paint directly, adding yellow into the green and white into the tan. With every mixed I airbrushed each panels, one by one. With this, I have 3 coats of each colour!