Hello everyone,

Here is the progress so far on the STARFIGHTER for the Vietnam Campaign (435th TFW at Udorn Royal Air Base, Thailand 1967-68). The kit is the 1/48th Monogram and I am doing OOB only.
The model has been straight forward so far. The fit has been good and seams have been minimal. I have applied a primer coat and added BB's to the nose cone so it wants to sit on its nose now.



After spending the last week with myself and the entire family ill from the flu I started on the cockpit. The detail is sparse for a Monogram kit but with some paint it suggests someting is there. The pilot however will hide most of it anyway.









I hope to have the panel lines shaded by tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Brian

Hi Brian,

Kudos for building a Zipper in 'Nam. Do a good job on her!

Looks good! Progress is swift and deadly with the Starfighter

Please keep us updated

Looking good so far. Interesting painting the pilot on the sprue won't it ruin the nice paint job when you cut it off?

Hello Chris,

When I'm ready to place the pilot. I will trim the sprue flush and apply Olive Drab with a small tip brush and it should be fine.

Sincerely,
Brian

Brian,
The 104 looks outstanding so far!
I've noticed, you have an uncanny ability for picking and building the very same models I "almost decided" to build. The Starfighter was my second choice for the Vietnam campaign if I hadn't found a suitable F-5.
BTW, what will the overall paint scheme be?

Hermon

Hello Hermon,

You mean "We sorta have a connection?" Wow! that's scary :-)
The 435th TFW aircraft were in standard US Air Force SEA Camouflage scheme. Here is the decal sheet I have.



I have not decided which specific aircraft yet. I may toss a coin between "Pussycat" or "Snoopy Sniper"

Sincerely,
Brian

See it in color at Udorn F-104s

Great link Fred.
After seeing them in color I'd have to go with "Sex Machine". The one with the goat is really cool...........but there's just something.......BEAUTIFUL about a plane or jet with a naked chick painted on the side. Sort of like peanut butter and jelly.....naked chicks and planes just fit. :-) :-)

[quote]After seeing them in color I'd have to go with "Sex Machine".[quote]

Hello Hermon,

I agree with your thinking however, I'm not ready to have the "Sex Machine" conversation with my three year old son if you know what I mean Anyway, I made more progress tonight with preshading the panel lines I know it looks awful but it will all be better soon!



Sincerely,
Brian

Brian,
are you using a Sharpie to preshade with or is that gloss black paint? The reason I ask is, I've used a Sharpie to preshade on a couple of test models I have and depending on the final colors of paint used, it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

ps: I understand about haveing kids around. I have two of my own and I can't use some of the decals I have with my kits either. :-) That being said, you should go with "Show Me". That ol' goat is Baaaaaaaaaaaad! (imitation of goat)

Hello Hermon,

I thought I would try something different for pre-shading. The ink pen I used is called a ZIG Writer, it's suppose to be archival quality (whatever that means) If it works, good. If not, well back to the drawing board
Since I had not made up my mind on the particular aircraft, in your honor I will use "Show Me" for the decals Have a good day!

Sincerely,
Brian

Looking good so far. Keep us posted!

Looking good Brian!
Be good to see it come together.
Let us know how the new preshading method works out.
Nige

Hi everyone,

I wanted to let you know I'm still going on the Starfighter. I had to clear the wifes clutter away from my paint booth to get to it. Sorry the pictures are not much but at least it is getting camo.









Sincerely,
Brian

Hello Everyone,

The kids are in bed and the wife is out of town so I was able to work more on the Starfighter. Maybe if I am lucky tomorrow I can apply the Dark Green.





So far, The only quirks about the kit is the belly missile rails have weak attachment pointsand I think the refueling probe is shaped wrong as well.

Sincerely,
Brian

Hello everyone,

I was able to get some more camo painted tonight. One thing I did not think about but was obvious after I started painting was the preshading would dissapear under the built up layers from each previous color. I was thinking the best way to show contrast would be to give the model a wash when appropriate and either draw the panel lines or use weathering pastels to highlight everything.







Sincerely,
Brian

Hi Brian

Looks good. I have exactly the same problem as you with the preshading disappearing. I am trying to use post-shading as well.

Really nice camouflage scheme. It looks like you sprayed it freehand?

Looking forward to see more - thanks for sharing

Hello Jesper,

Thank you for the comlpiment. I actually used a combination of freehand and liquid masking for the really small intricate patterns. Sometimes I can get everything dialed in on my airbrush and have a wondeful experience and other time I fiddle and fart around with it and nothing works right. I experienced both situations with the different camo colors.

I'm glad you mentioned the post shading. The model does not look right up close so I'm going to give it try "Another first for me at Aeroscale" combined with panel lightening and wash and weathering I think this old Monogram will come out respectable and honor a spot in my home.

Something off topic but would make the SCI-FI guys happy. I wonder if the Starfighter was George Lucas inspiration to create the Naboo fighter for Star Wars episode "Whatever" (The last three movies or is that the first three did not captivate me like the original three) Both seem oddly similar in some respects. Okay enough with the philisophical, wew! big word......

Sincerely,
Brian

Hello everyone,

Its been awhile but I made some more progress this weekend. The Udorn based F-104C "Show Me"









Sincerely,
Brian

Hello Everyone,

It took awhile since my last posting but I finally finished "Show Me" I think it looks better in person than the pictures sorry about the quality. Sometimes pictures come out great but most of the time there mediocre.

Sincerely,
Brian

Hey brian.

that looks really good finished mate.

In some of your pictures i could see thats you had a pencil line for the cammo. did you just follow the lines when you sprayed or did you put something over the parts you serent spraying?

James

Hello James,

Welcome to Aeroscale and thanks for the compliment. I built this for the Vietnam Campaign. I started going free hand but I used liquid mask for the really tight loops on the tail plane. I was having problems with overspray in general so I applied Parafilm M as masking (this is great stuff) To get the sharper edge between colors.

Maybe you would like to participate in a group campaign build ? we have several going right now and several new ones are starting in the next month or two. go to the black banner at the top of the screen and click "CAMPAIGNS"

Sincerely,
Brian

Hi Brian
Good looking starfighter youve got there, it makes a change from the more usual Vietnam aircraft ,not knocking them, its just different.

Not up on starfighters but i thought they were basically straightline interceptors, what were they used for in Vietnam

cheers
peter

Hello Peter,

The F-104's originally were to escort strike and command and Control aircraft in areas that Mig-21 were known to reach. NV Mig's never challenged the Starfighters (at least nothing has ever been admitted to) so they were also assigned to ground support as well. Here is an article worth reading about them.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/524427/starfighter_in_vietnam/index.html

Here is a picture of Two Starfighters inbound for airstrike; It figures, my "Zipper" is lacking two wing pylons.


Sincerely,
Brian