Rebuilding the 21st Century Toys 1:18 F-104G Starfighter - Part 3

By Dr Menelaos Skourtopoulos

Painting

As I wrote before, the first Starfighters arrived in Greece in March-April 1964. The (then Royal) Hellenic Air Force (RoHAF) received through the Military Assistance Program (MAP) 38 F-104Gs and 4 TF-104Gs.

They were all in overall natural metal finish with white wings (a grey primer was often used for the underside of the wing) and carried a big "buzz number" (FG- plus the last three digits of the serial number) on the rear part of the fuselage just ahead of the fin.

In 1971 all F/RF-104 were painted in the standard USAF-SEA camouflage and the good old silver glory days were over! The FG-buzz numbers still carried on the fuselage and the radom was also still painted in black (or olive drab) and light grey. You can easy found out, if the F-104 was a MAP or used aircraft from Germany or from the Netherlands: MAP 104s carried 5 digit numbers on the tail. Former Luftwaffe or Bundes-MARINE 104s carried only 4 numbers. The TF-104 carried also buzz numbers (last 3 or 4 digits of the serial nr.) on the fuselage not "FG-" but "TF-". This was the same for the recon version with "RF-" on their fuselage.

Used Starfighters were flown to Greece in their original colour scheme but with Greek roundels. After they arrived in Greece, they repainted with the SEA camo relatively soon. This is not apparent by the colour variations of the wing tip tanks. There are some in natural metal, in SEA-camo, in the Luftwaffe-look with the orange band or in NATO grey.

I want to represent the "FG-609" a MAP-Starfighter (serial nr. 61-2609) back in 1970, because I have a very good picture of it in the "in action" book of the F-104 (Aircraft Nr. 27). The other reason was that this particular F-104G even thought already painted in the SEA-scheme, still carried the C2-seat inside (the year was round about 1970).

One major detail work, I forgot to mention, was the building of the inside life of the LOX/electronic bay. It was made from scratch. I used some plastic sheet, heated plastic styrene and some thin wire to make it looking right. The LOX was made by cutting the front part of two bombs glue it together and painting it bright green! The rest is painted in white and light grey. On the red stencil you can read: "DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE"

The basic colour of the cockpit is Humbrol 127 FS 36375. I sealed the front canopy frame with putty and sand it smooth. Some small parts were added on the fuselage frame of the cockpit (the two bottles for the canopy's explosive separation and some hooks).

I used enamels from Humbrol for the painting job. The standard SEA combination was used:

Under surfaces: 28 light grey 36622
Upper surfaces: 117 light green FS 34102, 116 dark green FS 34079, 118 tan FS 30219

You have to sand off the kit's original stencils, before you apply the paint you chose. Otherwise their contours will be visible after you sprayed the colours over them. I used a double action airbrush for the painting job and various brushes for fine paint work and weathering. I mixed the green and tan basic colours with 10% white to compensate the darker tone that would be generated through the clear cotes. The pattern of the three major colours is not the same for all aircraft, so I used the picture of the "FG-609" I had to paint the model.

I went through all panel lines with a thin (0.3mm) pencil and I also washed them with a thinned mixture of black and brown. Some of the panel lines were then dry brushed with a darker tone of the basic colour. The engine exhaust was dry brushed too with a mixture of silver and black.

Extensive weathering is made with wash and dry brushing on the undersides and the 20mm canon region. The Starfighter is famous (the F-4 too!) for losing a lot of liquids and this is visible on many pictures (the first thing the ground crews had to do after the 104 was stopped, was to put an oil collector between the main gear legs!). Landing gear legs and bays are in silver (Humbrol 11).

The radome is painted ADC-grey and matt black. Take a look at the picture below to see the dimension of the model beside Revell's 1:32 F-104G model!

Decals

There are some painting details that you must have in mind if you want to build an accurate HAF Starfighter.

The early natural metal aircraft had all stencils on them written in English. Later aircraft already painted in the SEA-scheme had some stencils written in Greek! So you have to reproduce those stencils, because there are no such decals in the big 1:32 or 1:18 scales in the market.

The colour of the Greek roundels (in six positions) and the national pennant on the fin were painted in more than one blue variation. Early planes (in the 60es and 70es) had often light blue roundels carried on them. Later they carried the dark blue roundels that they are standard today (take a look at the photo bellow; this is a former KLu F-104G at the National War Museum in Athens).

For the FG-609 I chose the light blue ones (after a lot of investigation and carefully examination of a black & white picture of the real FG-609). One might say that the blue tone is a bit too light. But the point is that those roundels got soon a much lighter tone after some… experience with high mach numbers and the tremendous Greek sun!

I decided first to print the roundels with my own photo printer (Epson R300). But the result was not as good as I wished to. Then help came unexpected from Greece….:
I would like to thank Mr Alex Kontiveis from Greece for printing the roundels on a thin self adhesive vinyl membrane. These high quality decals really rescued the whole project.

The rest of the stencils were drawn with Microsoft PowerPoint program and printed on transparent decal with my ink jet photo printer.

The only after work that has to be done, is to spray the decals with a cote of clear matt.

The RESCUE arrows (written one in English and one in Greek) were in low visibility black at that time. Later on, these stencils were changed in black over yellow backround. Early HAF F-104s painted with the SEA-camo had only basic stencils and not as many as the later aircraft had. The Numbers on the fin and the big "FG-609" was drawn in the PC (Font is: Amarillo USAF).

I also made some REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT and hanged them on various places on the 104. The famous razor leading edges of the Starfighter had to be covered on the ground to protect the ground crews for not losing their….scalp! I just cut some stripes of paper painted red and glue them on the wing.

The angle of attack sensors were normally covered on the ground, so I closed that points with two resin pieces painted red. The pitot tube was painted light grey (FS 36622; white would be too bright) with red stripes.

The wing tip tanks, as they were at that time, were painted silver (Humbrol metal cote polished aluminium).

Conclusion

That was my first BIG 1:18 (re)building and I would say I had a lot of fun (except some serious headache!). The huge dimensions of the model are a nirvana for my eyes and brain!

I recommend that kit for all those, which have the proper space (1m long!) and love the big scale modelling! It's BIG, accurate and offers many good details to make an eye catcher out of it.

Acknowledgements. Beside Mr Kontiveis I would like to thank the whole stuff and members of the modelclub in Greece (www.modelclub.gr) for their encouragement, advices and help. This is one of the most professional, serious and friendly modelling sites I ever seen in the web.

Also many thanks for Mr Chris Kirchhoff. He displayed the Model at the Model-EXPO 2007 in Friedrichshafen-Germany. Thanks a lot guys!

This model is dedicated to the Hellenic F-104 pilots and the ground crews for their proud effort in defending freedom, peace and democracy.

References

F-104 Starfighter in action Squadron signal Publ. (Nr. 27)
F-104 Starfighter in action Squadron signal Publ. (Nr. 135)
F-104 In Detail & Scale Vol. 38
Lock on F-104 G/J Verlinden Publ.
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter (Aerodata International No 15)
Aeroskafi Polemikis Aeroporias (Combat Aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force) (Kostandinidis Publ.)
Ptisi & Diastima July-August 1988 Vol. 54
Century series Squadron signal Publ.
Various internet sites

Part 1 | Part 2

Menelaos Skourtopoulos 2008