Landlubber Mike

I've been making slow but steady progress on this kit.  Part of the slow crawl is my fault in using the very nice CMK aftermarket set.  But the main reason is that there are a lot of fit issues and other things like lack of connection points for important parts like the struts holding up the tail section and the main wing.  For some examples:
 
- Main wing tips are separate parts (in halves) that you have to glue together and then do some cleanup.  I ended up adding brass rod to help secure them:
 

 
- Engine cowlings are too small, so I added thin plastic strip between the halves to fit the engines.  Figured that was much easier than filing down the engines:
 

 
- CMK tail isn't quite right, needing extra plastic on the fixed part of the tail:
 

 
At the moment, I'm mostly done with the wing.  The CMK set is nice in that it gives you the control surfaces, but still quite a bit of work to add them.  I have a few bits of PE to add along with the exhausts, and then of course the pontoons:
 

 
The body is close to being done as well.  I have a few more pieces of PE to add, along with the cockpit and landing gear and some other odds and ends that I'm waiting to add as they are fragile and will likely bust off.  But, I think so far it's looking pretty good:
 

 
I'm still debating how to go about staging the painting sessions.  I might end up painting the wing separately, then adding it to the body and painting the body once the wing is installed.  Because the wing struts don't have attachment points, I'm a bit worried about glue getting where it shouldn't be.  Still a bit to go before I get to that stage so I can think on it a little more.
 
Thanks for looking in!

Wow, just found out you finished this one Craig - amazing job!  That Mr. Color silver paint job looks fantastic - love it!

Looking great!  Nice paint job.

Dan, somehow I missed that you completed this one.  Another stellar build!  Well done!

Looks really great Dave.  Must be an interesting experience dealing with well-made kits that have tight clearances.  Most of the ones I've worked on recently have had big gaps to fill!

Hey Craig, great subject!  The kit looks really nice - I have the Tamiya one but this Miniart kit looks amazing.  Not sure if you saw, but Plasmo recently built this kit:
 
 

Nice job Jack!  Looks like it was a fun project.

Hey Craig, great subject!  The kit looks really nice - I have the Tamiya one but this Miniart kit looks amazing.  Not sure if you saw, but Plasmo recently built this kit:
 
 

Nice job Jack!  Looks like it was a fun project.

Hey Craig, great subject!  The kit looks really nice - I have the Tamiya one but this Miniart kit looks amazing.  Not sure if you saw, but Plasmo recently built this kit:
 
 

Hey Craig, great subject!  The kit looks really nice - I have the Tamiya one but this Miniart kit looks amazing.  Not sure if you saw, but Plasmo recently built this kit:
 
 

The right wing is now skinned. I will not be showing any close-ups of the finished wing tip -- if there is a pro technique for doing those neatly, I have yet to discover what it is!
 

The wing is all done. Landing gear are next!
 

Okay, wheels weren't actually next!  The instructions called for mating the wing and fuselage, followed by adding the wing fillets. Here's the left side done, with the parts for the right side for comparison.
 

On a roll now with natural metal finish. Will build the 1:48 scale Trumpeter F-100C Super Sabre.
i have no plans for aftermarket pieces at this time but I may reevaluate and adjust along the build process.
 
 

Most of the build is done now so I've been priming. The PE parts supplied by Airfix went on well and so far the fit has been excellent. 
 
I'm really enjoying this build. Tanks are fun!

When I first saw this model was coming out, I thought I could do without it. The price tag was north of $50 and the venerable (though long in the tooth, fabulous, 1:48 scale Tamiya Thunderbolt kit was already in my stash. But then I saw one of these MiniArt kits built and I knew I wanted one. MiniArt have produced some nice kits, but this may be their best offering yet. I found this one on sale at an online hobby shop and ordered it up. While I won't be starting the build for a while, I thought you might want to see what's inside the box. Two very nice decal sheets with markings for three different aircraft, a photo etch sheet, a beautiful instruction booklet and a ton of styrene plastic sprues/parts. Every ordnance used by the 'bolt is included to choose from for your specific build. I'm looking forward to building and detailing mine with all the panels open to expose the fine details. The big radial engine is a kit all by itself and rivals any aftermarket resin engine kit. About the only thing I may add will be fabric belts and harness in the cockpit and some lead wire for details.
 
 

Looks  like a  nice  sharp kit.
 
OC.

Looks like a lot of details there.
 
And I thought I recognized the "Tarheel Hal" livery.  The first picture below is from the 2011 Wings over Houston air show.  The other three are from an air show in 2006 in San Antonio, Tx, I believe it was at Lackland Air Force Base.  Back then they had an air show every fall that alternated between Lackland and Randolph AFB, so it was one of those two.
 

 

 

 

And unmasked.
 
There's a dark sea grey stripe to do between the grey and orange next but he's looking good.

A most enjoyable, challenging model for those who want to go beyond the norm. I added a seven man crew, internal, navigation and formation lights, sound for engines, sequential starting engines with rotating propellors. 500 wonderful hours to build. Fully weathered to replicate 460 Sqn 'G for George' which undertook 90 operations over Europe. Length 66cm Wingspan 98cm

First coat of Vallejo Dark Green, airbrushed on.
 
⁸
 
Now to find where I stashed my Badger fine needles/tips from my previous years of modeling armor so I can do some shading, etc. I just hope I can remember how I used to do it  😉🤔🤫. Some parts will be hand painted and/or dry brushed. Still have the 3 figures that were included to do. 

Assembly complete.  Applied a coat of Tamiya Fine Scale grey primer.
 

She's standing on her own legs now.
 
 

LOCKHEED F-104 S STARFIGHTER
Kit Hasegawa 1:48 scale
 
These are some of the final pictures of my finished model which depicts a Starfighter in Italian service.
My F-104 carries the insignias of one of the interceptors of the 51st Stormo, based at Istrana, North of Italy as it appeared in 1981. This version started to be built by Aeritalia in Turin (former FIAT) in the late '60. It was powered by a more powerful J79-GE-19 and was armed with the version B or L of the Sidewinder missiles and with Sparrow missiles (from which the letter 'S' in the designation).

The kit is the old 1:48 Hasegawa of the F-104 S which is by now outdated by the newer 'state-of-the-art' Kinetic one. Nevertheless, I found that the plastic is still very nice with crisp and finely engraved surface details, thin and clear transparent parts and it well reproduces the distinctive forms of this aircraft. The build log can be found in the previous pages.


To improve the model, I sourced the following after market items:
-    Aires resin jet exhaust;
-    Master brass pitot probe;
-    Eduard resin ejection seat MB Mk7 and harness;
-    Eduard resin Sidewinder;
-    Aires resin Sparrow;
-    Skymodels decals.




The colors that I used for the Italian NATO camouflage were Gunze H-69 (dark sea grey), Gunze H-309 (dark green) and Vallejo Metallic 'white aluminum' for the underside.





Beside the positive points, I am also listing what are, in my view, its few negative points:
-    Overstated rivets on the wings which shouldn't be there;
-    Incomplete range of details for the 'S' version;
-    Absence of external loads and pylons;
-    Decals with yellow/cream color in place of white for codes. I replaced them with after market decals.


The grey paint of the camouflage was slightly post-shaded to reproduce the typical discoloration of this paint. The final finish was obtained by a coat of Tamiya flat clear XF-86 with some clear added to obtain a satin finish.
 

Little rivet trails and discolorations on the undersurface were obtained by oil colors.

I hope you like my model, thanks for the provided feedback and comments and suggestions are as always welcome.
Best regards,
Dan