Babylon 5 Starfury

A gift for my son for his birthday. This is what he picked when he was asked what he would like me to build for him. Only he requested that it be the Starfury belonging to Michael Garabaldi a character in the show Babylon 5. The kit comes with decals for Garabaldi's craft, but it is missing a very important one. In the show Garabaldi worships "Daffy Duck" who is referred to as a "household god of frustration" by Garibaldi. He even painted the image of Daffy on his Starfury. So, I custom made a Daffy decal. My son was tickled pink.

I purchased an upgrade kit for this model. Made of photo-etched brass and 3d printed parts. This was another first for me. Really difficult to do but it worked. The upgrades make things look much better. They include the guns, engines, the parts that stick off the back (called tines), the cockpit and the canopy. They make a major difference in the appearance of the model. There are some major problems with the fitment of the original parts. Leaving some major gaps, they even tell you where to put filler and putty at in the instructions. I filled them with putty, and they came out looking good. I actually painted this with an airbrush I got for Christmas. With decanted spray paint and it went on kind of flat. After paint, I clear coated it (you would think I would learn). The clear coat made the paint bubble all up and I had to strip it. The stripper dissolved the putty and so the gaps are back. Couldn't fix them without breaking things apart. Having to do this caused me to be several weeks late in giving it to him. Turned out OK, for he really likes it and has it on his desk at work. I did clear coat it again, to seal the decals to the model (It worked that time).

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On the Bench - There are discriptions on the images in the slideshow.

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