1/72 Italeri F-104G 6° Stormo Part 1

“Guardian of Italian skies”

Gallery Article by Alex Cimenti on Mar 12 2012

 

 

Also this time, speaking about the F-104 Starfighter I will be too much nostalgic. 
I am a bit overwhelmed by my infinite love for the F-104 Starfighter and do not weave the praise, saying it has been, and will always remain, the most beautiful flying machine that man has ever built. 

I will confine my lifelong passion for the legendary “Spillone” or "Hatpin", as he was affectionately called by everyone here in Italy! Operators, pilots or amateurs who had the opportunity to fly, maintain or simply see it, and hear her unique howling when it was flying over our country for over 40 years... 

The Kit:
The choice of the kit could only fall back on the classic Italeri (ex-ESCI), among the best scale models in 1/72 (except of course the Hasegawa kit the remains the best of all) again on the market despite its age (Molded in 1981 !). 

A mold with well-made panels in fine and precise negative, which suffers, however, of a particular decomposition of the tail section, the air intakes and the canopy (that must be assembled only closed), the ejection seat that had to be replaced, as well as the tip and underwing tanks (that are of wrong section, too thin) landing gear and more, but these things you already know rather well (I suppose you already have done this kit).

 

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The cockpit:
Before listing all the operations performed on the cockpit, I make a little example: what provided by the kit has a quality that is “far from honest” for the reduced scale of 1/72.

The lid panel instruments is incorrect in form and very spartan, and the area behind the seat a bit scarce (no details), but with some intervention of scracthbuilt, simple and economical I succeeded to obtain undoubtedly a rather good result. 

On the contrary, the seat had to be trashed without delay, and to be replaced with an Hasegawa spare C-2 seat heavily modified adding some scratchbuilt details (and saving several €s from resin Aires, CMK and other detail sets). 

Now speaking about the colors: for the entire cockpit I chose the FS 36375, slightly lightened with two drops of white in order to respect the scale effect. The console side is matt black, with some parts and light gray; the cockpit lid, being made for the most part of cloth, has been painted in Green with the exception of the adjustable visor in Green Gunze H-64.

The whole area has been subjected to a black oil wash, and later to an accurate
Dry Brush FS36375 still to give more depth to it; sadly a useless work while I used the kit decals for instrument panel, while the canopy is a bit too thick don't allow to appreciate too much once closed. 

At this point we must open a parenthesis on the ejection seat: the one I chose, is an F-104G of the first part of the initial batch of ninety-nine planes built by Fiat Avio of Turin - Caselle. 
The aircraft was then assigned to 6 ° Stormo Caccia-Bombardieri (6th Fighter Bombers wing) of Brescia - Ghedi in 1964. 

Until the end of 1967, the Lockheed C-2 seat was still installed on our “Hatpins”, but the year after the AMI and the Luftwaffe embarked on a program of upgrading which included the replacement of the old seat with a Martin Baker I/GQ7-A (the suffixes I and G were, respectively, for Italy and Germany). The IQ7 had higher performance with ability to launch even at zero level.

To confirm the actual presence of the C-2 on my '104, I made up the documents in my possession: fortunately the "6-12" is quite a specimen and well photographed, images are published both on the volume “Starfighters Colours” of Nicola Malizia, both on yhe small booklet F/TF-104G Lockheed Starfighter of Stefano Cosci.

To recover the duplicate to the scale of C-2 I did not have to go far, in fact I received a gift from the French modeller Fabien Antonietti in the form of some Hasegawa C-2 seats as well as some tip and underwing tanks, I have to say that the original seat of the Japanese mark had to be heavily modified and correct with several self made details, after it was painted in FS36375, with the exception of the safety belts in Green Gunze H-330. The cushions were two: one for the lower back (in Olive Drab FS 34088) and one for the real seat Green Gunze H-330. 

The headrest is in Red FS11136, particularly that gives a touch of more color in the pilot compartment. 

Assembly of the fuselage and wings:
The installation only needs small attentions, necessary as preliminary to those who, like me, decides to make a Starfighter in Natural Metal livery. 

The criticism is working especially the union of the two sections (fuselage and tail section) that make up the fuselage, and fitting the air intakes, operation that (after several ex ESCI kits) I learned to make pretty well. 

On my model the Vulcan gun muzzle was closed (the cannon was only later installed), so I used a piece already provided from Hasegawa in a kit for the F-104S. 
Another thing to do, is the complete removal of the two small blade antennas just before the nose gear well, also does not installed on our "Starfigther".  

For the rest, assembly flows fast and without any particular criticality; the wings grafted rather precisely within the locks, but remember to be careful mounting them with the proper angle!

Painting and Weathering:
Sure, the paint is the most challenging part of the whole model. The special natural finish metal has always been the "bogeyman" of every modeller... But not for me !

Despite this I could find in every modeller' shop an infinitive set of ALCLAD, GUNZE or TAMIYA metal paints, I opted for the good old, immortal and very economical Humbrol Duralluminium 2002, that once lightened, or darkened in an appropriate manner, depending on the area to be painted, was my best choice.

Upper wings were painted in gloss TAMIYA white, lower wings and radome were instead in ADC grey, a standard for many early Starfighters. 

Decals:
For the decals, the choice is almost inevitable, the sheet number 72-572 of Turin' Tauromodel. 
The set is almost entirely devoted to the most recent versions of ASA and ASA-M '104 (gray livery with Lo-Vis), but there are also a set of insignia to make our own copy 6 -12 (M.M. 6520) proposed on this article. The product of the firm of Carmagnola was printed some ten years ago, so has a new printing method and a quality clearly higher than the previous sets. Stencils are properly supplied, information and emergency exit markings for the cockpit, in the first style only in english language, with a yellow background and not with orange background and bilingual characteristic of the camouflaged and gray livery versions. 

Final assembly and conclusions:
The final assembly is very fast, thanks also to the few pieces to add, after installed main and nose gear, the tires, the retainer hook, wing tip tanks (the only external load selected to be lighter on the beautiful sleek shape of the F-104) and the gear doors, I finally glued in place the engine exhaust from the kit.  It was painted entirely in Humbrol gun metal, and highlighted with a Dry Brushed aluminum to bring out all the mechanisms of initiation of the flaps. I have not lost much time on this piece since, even from the truth, it was always very dark because of characteristic (and heavy) fumes that left behind the GE J-79-3. 

What can I say more? The legendary F-104 Starfighter was a great airplane, full of contradictions and little inclined to forgive the mistakes of those who wanted to tame her with too much bravado, but equipped with an unbelievable powerful engine.
Yet, with contrasting moods, nobody has succeeded in staying indifferent! 
There are no feelings in-between, or love or hate ... but I say, with so beautiful a livery that highlights its fantastic forms, how can you despise a similar flying machine? 
The Starfighter or affectionately known as “Spillone” (Hatpin) defended successfully for over 40 years the skies of that beautiful but troubled (now very, very troubled) country, Italy.  (Thanks to Starfighter84 D'amadio and Fabien Antonietti for their precious help, pictures bibliography and infos)

Happy modelling to everyone

Alex Cimenti

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Photos and text © by Alex Cimenti