Author Topic: QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange  (Read 2365 times)

Offline Robomog

  • ...had a very bad experience with [an] orange...
  • Would you buy a used kit from this man?
QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange
« on: January 11, 2021, 04:30:41 AM »
Hi all
The following is a sad story as to why I am now adverse to using Day-Glo orange paint, except in small areas.

It started off quite innocently when I purchased a cheap spray can of Day-Glo orange (151 brand i think) in my local pound store to try out. Experiments on test pieces seemed promising and as a result Mrs Lady Mog challenged me to make an orange coloured model.  After some research I settled on making a QF-104 Starfighter drone which was bright  orange, white, gray and silver. Easy-peasy or so I thought. :smiley:

I had a Matchbox F-104 in the stash which was typical of its day, two coloured sprues (light blue/white), minimal detail but generally good in shape. The Sidewinder missiles were missing but that wasn’t a problem because I was fitting some wing tip tanks from the spares box.

The fit of the parts wasn’t brilliant but nothing a bit of filler wouldn’t sort out, up to the primer stage everything went fine and then it came to the final coat.

The first coat went on OK but it didn’t cover very well, second and third coats were no better and it was beginning to discolour at certain edges, the colour appearing to darken. I stopped at this point as alarm bells were beginning to ring in my head. :o

Now I had put no more paint on the model than I would with any other paint but it took more than 3 days to dry properly and the results were not good. This paint has no “cover” and every little fault/anomaly/shade difference shows through, woe betide if any particles were picked up during the spraying process as they just screamed  “dust!”. :(

My normal fix of careful sanding was useless here. Sanding would reduce some of the blemishes but that then caused the colour to lighten and I could not spray this out because the paint wouldn’t cover!  :o

I found this out two cans down the line.

Fortunately some of the faults were covered by the white, silver and light gray elements of the paint scheme.
In desperation I purchased some acrylic Day-Glo orange (Revell) but that had no cover either and resulted in a patchy finish.  :-\

It is at this point I hit the “Soddit Barrier”. :icon_twisted:

If I had not promised Mrs Lady Mog an orange aircraft the whole lot would have been tossed into the Box of Doom.
Also the chap I bought the model from was genuinely interested in how his ex kits turned out which would have made me feel a bit guilty if I had binned it.

Instead I adopted a “just get the bloody thing done" attitude  ::)

The tip tanks were badly blotched and were sanded back and re-primed. By this time I had had enough of the rattle can so I painted these with a brush. It took eight to ten thin coats to get an acceptable finish. :smiley:

The orange could not be painted directly onto the canopy that had to be framed in white first, as was the touching up around the canopy and wheel doors. The doors are way too thick but by now I couldn’t be bothered to correct this. ::)

Eventually I did get it finished.  :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr


by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr


It doesn’t look too bad in the photos. In fact the colour had its last laugh because I found it very difficult to photograph the faults. I can see lots of paint faults with my eyes but the camera makes it look pristine (nevertheless  I know they are there !).  ???

by Robomog, on Flickr

You can see in the above a fine ridge and discolouration around the canopy, had to really play with the light to show this

by Robomog, on Flickr

In this close up you can see the mess around the undercarriage doors

In retrospect I could have hidden a lot of the faults under “weathering” They didn’t look after the QF-104's much and they faded quite badly in the sun, but it didn’t occur to me at the time. :icon_sueno:

And that is why I’m now wary of Day-Glo orange finishes.

On the upside Mrs Lady Mog thought it had come out great so it will appear on the Wall of Joy  ;) :smiley: ;D :D :D :D

In conclusion,  Some advice to the uninitiated :-

-    make sure your primer coat is pristine before applying the finish coat.

-   Apply the finish coat in many thin layers

-   Let each layer dry thoroughly

-   Make the spraying environment as dust free as possible

Or

Choose an alternative colour scheme !  ;D ;D ;D ;D


You have been warned............ ::)

Thanks for looking....

Mog
>^-.-^<





 
« Last Edit: January 31, 2021, 04:21:12 AM by Robomog »
Mostly Harmless...............

Offline Frank3k

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Re: QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2021, 05:36:20 AM »
Day-Glo seems to suck regardless of the formulation, but your F-104 came out pretty nice, despite all the paint disasters.

I would only add that a white primer coat first helps the Day-glo layer be more even.

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2021, 12:04:50 PM »
Day-glo on F-104s, you say?  :o We should start a self-help group! Hi, I'm Moritz and I have a problem with day-glo on Starfighters. I once trashed a 1/72 F-104G because I laid down too much day-glo colour on the four drop tanks. It wouldn't cover - what? near-translucent paint doesn't cover on dark green plastic? - , so I kept piling on more. Next day, the tip tanks had melted and were warped to heck. Paints were Revell enamels "thinned" with nitro thinners. -X Result? Yeah.... let's just say the glide ratio of plastic Starfighters is no better than that of real ones.  :icon_twisted:

For all the trouble you had, your Starfighter came out great!  :smiley:
Cheers,
Moritz

"The appropriate response to reality is to go insane!"

Offline Old Wombat

  • "We'll see when I've finished whether I'm showing off or simply embarrassing myself."
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Re: QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2021, 03:23:27 PM »
Excellent job, 'Mog, issues or no! :smiley: :smiley: 8)
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2021, 04:03:14 PM »
Striking scheme. Sure it will look great on the shelf

Offline Robomog

  • ...had a very bad experience with [an] orange...
  • Would you buy a used kit from this man?
Re: QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2021, 10:44:19 AM »
 Thanks for the kind comments guys, its comforting to know i'm not the only one having problems with That colour.

Mog
>^-.-^<
Mostly Harmless...............

Offline Old Wombat

  • "We'll see when I've finished whether I'm showing off or simply embarrassing myself."
  • "Define 'interesting'?"
Re: QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2021, 03:53:14 PM »
Yellow, orange, red & (until I started using Tamiya Fine White Primer rattle-cans for all my white surfaces) white are all painfully difficult to get looking right, even when airbrushing. :-\
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline Story

  • Nicht mein Zirkus, nicht meine Affen...
Re: QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2021, 09:54:58 PM »
Mog,
You're too damned hard on yourself.
That looks cool.

Offline Robomog

  • ...had a very bad experience with [an] orange...
  • Would you buy a used kit from this man?
Re: QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2021, 11:08:47 PM »
Thanks guys,

OW despite its cost I will try Tamiya primer, up to now I have used Humbrol but it has let me down a couple of times lately, agree absolutely on other problematic colours  ;D

Mog
>^-.-^<
Mostly Harmless...............

Offline robunos

  • Can't afford the top wing of his biplanes...
Re: QF-104 Starfighter A Co*ked up Orange
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2021, 11:55:37 PM »

As a Devotee of the Hairy Stick, I've found using a beige/pale brown undercoat helps with red ,white and orange. I've also read that a silver undercoat works too, and it seemed to with this red paint job . . .







cheers,
Robin.
By the pricking of my thumbs, Something Whiff-y this way comes . . .