The
Lockheed F-104 “Starfighter” is one the most famous jets and served in many
air forces around the world. It
played many roles during its service life which started in the 1950-60s, with high-altitude
fighter to the recce to the ground attack role to the tactical nuclear
bomber. With not a luckily career in the USAF, it became the NATO’s air
force backbone during the Cold War. Military aviation as the
“Aeronautica Militare Italiana” used this aircraft for mainly the interceptor
role until a few years ago. Talking
about the Luftwaffe use, the F-104 was the first muti-role warplane. Main
role for five squadrons was the nuclear strike, acting in conventional ground
attack as secondary role. Two squadron used the F-104G for air defense.
The other two squadrons were tasked for reconnaissance. The two-seater variant
was used for training duty. The F-104G served also in the West Germany
Marine Aviation in anti-ship role with the Kormoran missile.
For
my model I chose the Luftwaffe F-104G “26+30” from the JBG-34
fighter-bomber unit. The F-104G served in the JBG-34 from the 1964 to the
1987. The aircraft was painted in the “Lizard” camouflage used during the
last period of service.
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Until
some years ago, there were a couple “decent” F-104s kits in 1/48th scale,
form ESCI, Monogram, Testor. Hasegawa
has recently produced some F104 models in 1/48th scale: F-104J, F-104C, F-104G
and F-104S. It’s a news for 2006 the replica in 1/48th scale of two-seater
version. The kit is at the top of Hasegawa production with recessed panel
lines, fine details and also the fitting is really good. The only
“strange” feature of the kit is the rivets all around the rear fuselage
section and on wing and tail surfaces. Maybe the rivets are a little bit
over scaled, but if you don’t like them are easy to fix as I did for the
wings. If you want to add extra details on the F-104s the aftermarket
offer a good range of sets: ejection seats and resin cockpits, wheel bays,
avionic bays, parachute vane, exhaust nozzle, conversions for specific
variants… and so on. Decal sheets in the Hasegawa kits are usually not
as good as the plastic parts… white is never white, film is too thick…
better to go with some extra sheets as from Aeromaster, Victory
Models, Tauro
Models, Cutting
Edge.
As
I said before the Hasegawa 1/48th scale F-104G is really easy to put together.
There
are a couple of areas where attention is needed, as the nose cone is split in
two separate parts, the front undercarriage wheel bay required some dry fitting
to aligning well with the fuselage and the cockpit.
To
improve my F-10G I got some extra parts from the aftermarket:
-
Cutting
Edge resin cockpit and Martin Baker Mk. Q7 ejection seat.
-
Aries
resin J-79 exhaust nozzle.
-
Cutting
Edge resin parachute vane.
Now
some information related to the assembly of the Hasegawa kit. Cockpit resin set
is almost ready from the box to be fitted in the plastic fuselage parts. No
sanded is needed… Great! I
applied some liquid filler into the rivets all over the wings. After a couple of
passes with fine sand paper they almost disappeared. Ten
grams of weight must be placed into the nose to avoid a tail sitting model.
Wings can be left separate from the fuselage for painting and decaling phases.
The joint with the fuselage is perfect!
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I
painted my model using my Aztek double-action airbrush. References
I used for the correct camouflage pattern can be found on the Victory Models
decal instruction sheet and on Wings of Fame issue number 2.
The
colours for the Lizard camouflage are:
-
Charcoal
Grey (RAL7021)
-
Dark
Green (FS34079)
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Medium
Green (RAL6003)
Nose
cone is gloss white with a black antiglare panel. I
painted the two tip wing tanks in the previous camouflage pattern used on the
German F-104, consisting of Dark Green over Natural Aluminium with a Day-Glo
Orange band. Undercarriage wheels, bays and legs are finished in Natural
Aluminium. I use acrylic paints from Gunze. Pre-shading and
post-shading as usual for my models.
I
got the decal sheets for “German F-104G by “Victory Models” printed by
Cartograph. That decal sheet is very good, thin and correct with a lot of
subject and a mass of different stencils.
A
wash of a well thinned mixture of black and red-tan Humbrol enamels was added all
over the panel lines and rivets.
CIAO!
Piero
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