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!