Flight Metal 104 Not 101 :-)

These 3 tools are called blunts I think and are available at most craft stores.
Different sizes for different jobs. 

Here  is a section of the rear lower half of the fuse. I thought I
would do the bottom first which is not so visible to hone my skills!

Once the flight metal has been put on and burnished there are still rivets 

that need to be brought back up so it is back to the little rivet tool and patience. 

It is good to have  some of your favorite music or a TV show on when 

doing this mind numbing task. :-)

You see in this photo that the rivets in this picture are proud requiring a 

bit of extra care. Not sure why Lockheed did this but  I suspect that this section

 needs to be replaced frequently so it is easier to remove these type of rivets. 

My A-10 has similar riveting on the aft end of it as well.

Next picture shows the finished sections together. They still need
to be lightly sanded to get that aluminum finish instead of chrome look.

This picture shows the rudder that I experimented with sanding to give it
 more of an aluminum finish. Unfortunately I went too far and I will have to redo it. 

Glad you could stop by to check out the progress. It's time to head back to the shop ..... more pictures later!

Rivets, Panel Lines And Vents

Before applying the flight metal to the F-104, the primed fuselage needs to be wet sanded using 320 grit paper. 

The process begins of detailing the F-104. Before I can do any flight metal I must re-establish the lost rivets and panel lines that were destroyed when the molds were bonded together.

To do this I have taken some small brass tubes that are the size of the rivets and made a tool with them by adding a wooden handle. It is a matter of sharpening them and then pressing and rotating them on the surface to make or repair a rivet. 

The next step is to re-establish any missing panel lines. I use a Zona saw and carefully cut through the gel coat and just into the fiberglass surface where the panel line should be.  

The Zona saw works great to fix any panel lines that need better definition. 

Nice crisp panels! Note the rivets that need to be "tweaked"? All these nodes
 must be removed from inside the panel lines as the flight coat will not look correct 
when placed over top.

This model has in excess of 75 vents. Each one has to be cut open. I like to use a sharp Xacto blade #11 to do this. Although it can be mind numbing it is necessary for them to be opened to give the model its true scale look.

There are also many large vents that need to be opened up as well and I will get to them next. When looking at this long jet on the bench and deciding to flight metal entire model I then realized what I got myself in for. It should look great when completed!