The next obvious step is to prepare the aircraft of the NMF section, which is aft of the aircraft. lots of photos shows early Spanish F-104 having bare metal skin near the exhaust. Aside from that, are the two wing tip fuel tanks.
Its all about masking. The NMF will be Alclad ALC101. this will be the basic colour. paneling will be done using a mix of Alclad and Model Master Steel, Burnt Steel, Tamiya Titanium Silver. the whole area is pre-coated using Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black
One thing I hate about masking for Alclad or other natural finishes is that the surface prep must be utterly perfect. I will soon find out that I will fail through this exercise.
The image above shows you how the first layer of Alclad. Where is the shine? that is exactly the case, there is little shine because I FORGOT to prep up the plastic properly. Firstly, you cannot have a layer of flat paint (Sky Grey in this case) between the glossy plastic surface, gloss black foundation, and the Alclad. the surface must be kept clean and glossy at tall time.
So I thought.. Another layer of Alclad and other metallics will help.. wrong! the shine is still not there even though I have done extra masking for paneling purposes
After the masking has been lifted. I still have the same results… lacklustre shine
Here is another angle of the F-104G with the NMF completed and masking tape removed. what do you think?
