Pilot for F-104G Starfighter
by 48 Special Models
in 1/18 scale | 48
Special Models is proud to present its new designed 1/18 scale pilot
figure for the F-104 Starfighter of German Luftwaffe in 1970's-80's version. These kit consits of
resin cast parts for one pilot, fitting exactly the cockpit of the F-104 Starfighter. So the manufacturer of these aircraft models don't
provide pilots for them until now, this gap is closed now on demand
by our customers.
These pilot is made to fit the F-104 Starfighter cockpit only and shows the late 1980's suits and helmets.
Made
from grey resin with polystyren characterisics. Consisting of lower
body, upper body, head, helmet, mask and arms.
Can be glued with cynoacrylate only. The armes can be fixed in varying
prositions, but are optimized for a lift off situation. Due to the
limited space in the cockpit it is helpful to assemble them partically
and fit them together in the cockpit later. If removeing of the figures
is wanted, they should not be glued, but fixed by bolts at the hip.
Before
assembly test fit the figure to the cockpit to see how to get it in and
to place it correctly. Especially the backseat is quite tight and needs
a test before finally assembly to see how to manage assembly here.
Before painting clean the figures with thinner to remove the
release agent. Don't use aceton, because it may attack the resin! Sand
them with a sanding cloth then and paint with a primer. Final finish
can be done with any modelling paint in the usual way. It
showed that painting the parts before assembly is much easier.
Especially the head!
In
general the suit is olive green and the boots are black. The helmets
color vary. In the first years they mostly were white or decorated by
the pilots in their special way. During the 90's the Luftwaffe helmets
became
grey. The visor is gloss black or smoke, but almost hidden in the
protection cover. At both sides of it the knobs for adjusting the
visors show. So these helmets had two visors, one clear and one
sunprotective, there are two knobs. These knobs are dark grey or black.
The mask and its hose are green in the 70's and light grey with
dark grey areas in the 80's. The belts are mostly dark green.
| In Stock!
This model is a limited edition of 888 piece in total and will be abailable only in small numbers at all!
 |  | | Helmet and mask are seperate pieces! | The figure in assembled position. |  |  | The parachute pack is a seperate part and should be attched to the upper body when asslembled
| The arms can be fixed in varying positions, but are made fo the regular in-fligth position.
|  |  | To make the pilot fit in hight to its seat his back needed some adjustment.
| Sitting this way looks uncomfortable and probably was. But is is the only way the pilot fits to the cockpit of the model!
|  | | | The kit parts. | |
| | Making of F-104G Boelke Pilot |
 |  | During
the 70's and beginning 80's all BW pilots wore brigt orange suits
during traning flights. All Helmets have been white mostly.
| The
respiration mask was dark grey and had a mid grey hose and green
buckles. The Com cable was black, as well as the boots.
|  |  | Good to be seen here is the pilots back needs to be adjusted to the seat shape.
| The shape may be more attached to the seat back, then shown here.
|  |  | By routing the bottom and back of the pilot with a sanding drum on a drill the shape can be made to fit easy.
Having more than one test seat is necessary here.
| The pilots position varies from the former versions clearly.
Therefore a view to the pure cockpit for orientation.
|  |  | The
new seat is a resin cast piece consisting of two parts. By pushing it
carefully from one side to the other it can be shaken lose and removed
easy.
This makes fitting in the figure much easier!
| The seat consists of two parts, the seat and the savety system.
After being removed the poor panit job can be touched up easy.
|  |  | To
get hold of the dash board needs to disassemble the whole jet! It
consists oftwo parts to and gives opportunity to put in a photo foil of
the instruments. A chance missed by the manufacturer!
| The finished pilots figure in the cockpit.
It could still be placed a bit lower!
The top of the seat should be at the same hight
as the helmet top!
|  |  | Before
rempoving the seat the canopy hood should be removed carefully. This is
acomplished by opening it and pushing it back while carefully removeing
the front hinge from the hold.
Placeing it back in again works the reverse way! | Looks like the real one almost!
pictures from the internet help finding the right colors. Just check it out!
|  |  | Painting the figure needs some skills, but isn't hard at all.
| The mask can be mounted in lose position too if the face of the pilot is wanted to be seen.
|
| Building and Painting Hints
To
paint the pilot like shown above all parts need to be cleaned from
release agent by use of thinner. The release agent is wax based and a
bit hard to remove! Although the parts should be sanded with a smooth
sanding felt, to make the surface slightly rougher.
First the
correct sitting position needs to be found and shape to the figure. The
figure can be placed in in individual poses. Here I will only explain
the regular flight position.
Yo-u may remove the seat from the
model, but don't have to. If you don't want to damage the model you may
as well take a pattern from the seat shape, by use of cardboard. Making
the figure fit in will only take a bit longer then.
The parachute back pack is not needed here. It belonges to the previous seat version!
The
legs fit to the seat without problems, if the buttom is sanded to fit
the seatpad. o the seat is a bit longer and has a thicker seat pad than
the previos version, the figure needs some surgery. So this isn't
visible later it doesn't matter much!
Cement the upper body to
the lower body first. If you removed the seat, you may use it to find
the correct angle. In the other case use the cardboard pattern instead.
Then
cut out the back an buttom area like on the picture above. I mrked the
area with a pencil and sanded it with a rough drumsander on my
minidrill. Have a vaccumcleaner aside to get control of the dust and
wearing glasses and mouth protection is recommended!
Altough it
hurts a bit cutting to the pilot that hard, it is much easier than
shaping the seat and eventually damaging the model.
The figure has
the correct hight as soon as it levels with the helmet top and the seat
top. Even better would be to have the pilot sit a little lower.
During
flight the back of the pilot is pressed to the seatback. No gaps! So
match the pilots back to the seat back in total. Not as shown here half
way only.
Does the pilot fit to the seat this chapter is
finished. The arms will be put in place after painting them as well as
the head and helmet!
Painting the figure is quite simple and can
be acomplished with the usual techniques. After priming the parts with
a resin primer or model primer a first layer of dark orange is
applied.On top of it several layers of orange are dry brusched,
becoming lighter each layer. This can be done several times until you
like it. The final result is a bright orange suit with darker shadow
areas.
After drying the details are finished like the black
boots. The boots at that time were black and shiny. So they are gloss
black! Mor detail painting isn't necessary due to the fact you will not
ess them at all after placeing the pilot into the cockpit.
To
paint arms and head I pinned them to a handle. This was made from a
long brush handle whos end was cut off . You may use a rounf stick
as well and drill a small hole in the top. Then glue a nail to it and
ready is your handle. It is a very usefull tool to hold small
figure parts while painting them.
To pin the head and armes to
the handle drill a slightly smaller hole into the part at a hidden
area. I usually drill through the later cementing area. This way the
hole isn't to be seen later. Now you can eather airbrush or paint the
parts with a brush.ö After that you just place the handel in a tin or
glas for letting the parts dry.
At the shoulders the pilot has
the German flag and the rank markings attached. Painting the flag that
size is a nightmare, so have a look at you decals box and see if you
find a German military number plate in 1/35 scale! Cut it to fit and
put it on the shoulder. The rank marking is a field green rectangle as
wide as the flag and tripple as long almost. The rank can be choosen
from Leutnant upwards. Best are Leutnant or Oberleutnant. They need
only one or two silver stars. Painting Eichenlaub gets a bit
tricky then.
Paint the head flesh first incomplete. After that
it gets eyes and a mouth. Doing the eyes is a bit complicated, because
it needs the right technique and a fine brush as well as a steady
hand. Also the paint has to have ther right consistence. So thin it to
the consistence needed by testing. For mixing small amounts of paint
our Special Mix pallets
are best. They are made fron vacuumformed plastic and have a lot of
small cups. These are best for mixing just a very little amount of the
tone you need. Although they are not thinner resistant they work with
enamels perfect and even van be reused if cleaned or letting dry.
To
paint the eyes a white dot is placed first. It is much smaller than a
drop and you have to take care to fill only the eye. After having dryed
a black dot is added to the center of the eye, about half or
third the size of the eye. Useing a lighter brownor thinned down black
a lid line is applied now.It is just a tiny line, but of great effect!
Making
both eyes look in the same direction is the hardest to do. This is why
it is important the dot sit in the middle of the eye! The eyeline makes
the eye look realistic then. Additional a fine line below the eye is
set to let them look bigger.
Now the eye brows are paintet and
the lips in pale resd too. If the mask is applied the lips aren't
necessary at all. But the eyes are a must!
After having dryed
completely a wash of shepia brown is applied to give him a healthy
teint and a bit contrast and life. But attention! Take care to remove
the wash from the eyes instantly .
Hair of the pilots head isn't
seen at all except if the helmet is off. Therefore it doesn't have to
be painted at all. If you show the bare head paint the hair with a
darker tone first and apply lighter tones after that by drybrushing.
Pay attention to the direction of applying. Also use several different
tones, because hair has many colors and some are much darker or lighter!
All
ho kee the pilots helmet on may proceed here. Fix the helmet to a
shaslik rod with a dot of superglue. Cement it at a hidden place inside
the helmet! So the inside is still coverd with a bit of release agent
it will release later easy. Now spraypaint the helmet with white
2 or 3 times to cover it good. All useing a brush may do the same, but
with thinned paint that will run into easy and having any layer dryed
inbetween. This will give an almost like spraypainted look too.
The
helmet interior is mid grey and only needs to be applied the
inside edges, where it may be seen still later. The visor glasses look
oút only a few and should be painted with silver first. After taht
apply smoke ore thinned black to acomplish the righ darkness.
At the right and left side of the visor protection cover are two handles, which are rectangular and grey.
Pilots
belts color depends on the seat belts and are mostly green or olive.
The parachute belts are always green and have silver buckles. See
pictures from the internet for details! If you redress the ejection
seat too you may fit the pilots dress as well.
The mask is dark
grey and has a mid grey hose with a black wire wrapped around. The
buckle belts at the mask are bluish green. After painting the mask a
wash should be applied to add more contrast. Apply the mask after
mounting head and helmet first!
After the figure painting the
connecting points for arms and head are cleand from paint. Attach the
head first and make sure to cut the neck to fit the hight first. It is
too long to give the possibility of multiple poseing. Therfore it needs
to be shortened to fit correctly. The helmet and seattop should be the
same hight! So take tests before finally cementing the head.
Does
the head fit then the helmet is next. Use thick superglue and put it
inside the helmet. Don't use too much so it won't squish out at the
sides. Hold the helmet head down and place the head into it that way.
This prevents the glue to flow out. Adjust firmly and wait until
it sets in this position!
Now the pilot ma have a seat in the
cockpit for the first time and gets his armes. Cement them in the
position you want them to be. After drying take him out again and touch
up the connetingpoints with paint.
Now the mask can be
attached too. By heating the hose careful with a hair dryer or torch,
it will get weak and can be bend into position. After cooling it will
stay that way and can be cemeted in place. That's it!
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