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1/72 Hasegawa F-104S Starfighter

Reparto Sperimantale Volo 

by Craig Sargent 

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The Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militaire Italiana or AMI) is one of the few countries still using the F-104, with the last few not far from retirement now. One of the AMI units flying the Starfighter until recently was the Reparto Sperimentale Volo (literally "Experimental Flight Unit"). This Starfighter was painted in special markings for the unit's 50th anniversary (incorrectly labelled by Hasegawa as "NATO 50th Anniversary"). The Hasegawa 1/72 model of the F-104S is a beautiful kit and builds into a very nice representation of the "manned missile" straight out of the box. However, I like to add some of the more prominent missing detail.

Note: There has always been a lot of conjecture over a larger diameter rear fuselage, as these aircraft had an uprated General Electric J79-GE-19 engine fitted, but the F-104S DID NOT have a larger diameter rear fuselage.

Click on images below to see larger images

To dress up the cockpit, a Verlinden resin ejection seat was used to replace the kit seat, and a scratch-built throttle and some photo-etched mirrors were added. The leading and trailing edge control surfaces on the main wings were cut off and repositioned down. Angle of attack vanes were cut off and replaced with more in scale items made from scrap etched brass. The F-104S has the front of the ventral fin sloping rearward at an angle of almost 45 degrees, whereas the front of the fin on the kit is perpendicular to the fuselage. The extra part of the kit fin was easily removed. Construction was very straightforward and I didn't have to use filler anywhere.

Once construction was complete, the canopy and windshield were masked and the entire model was painted Gunze Sangyo H2 Gloss Black, followed by a coat of Gunze gloss acrylic. Wheel wells and gear doors were masked off and painted Tamiya silver enamel. The upper and lower access panels were masked and painted tan, and the nose airbrushed white freehand to get the feathered edge.

Decals for this scheme, are included in the kit, and are printed by Aeromaster. Unfortunately, there are some errors with the decals ("What, no surprise there?!"):

  •  Each of the gold 50s should have a gold star above and to the right of it, but the gold star on the starboard fuselage side is missing - I hand painted a white star gold.
  • There are not enough white stars to complete the decalling, I had to pinch some suitably sized ones from my spares box.
  • The large decals for the left and right sides of the nose are simply mirrored. On the real aircraft, the patterns are completely different. It took a lot of cutting and repositioning of stars to sort that one out.
  • The instructions show some of the individual stars in the wrong places. I was able to track down good all-round views of the aircraft (including the underside), and get them in the right places (mostly, not 100%, but it will be hard to tell otherwise).
  • The winged figures on the tail are too big and don't fit as they should according to my photos. I can live with it though.
  • The white "REPARTO SPERIMENTALE VOLO" decals for down the fuselage sides is too long. I had to cut and apply each letter individually.
  • It is worth noting the two stars actually applied to the clear perspex of the canopy also, which are not mentioned in the instructions.

I also created the candy stripe pitot marking on my ALPS printer (including the "HANDS OFF" stencilling). The decals were sealed with another coat of gloss acrylic. The panel lines were picked out using a wash of 10% Titanium White oil paint, 5% Paynes Grey oil paint, 5% Raw Umber oil paint and 80% turps. The entire model was then sealed with a 50/50 mix of Gunze flat and Gunze gloss to give an overall satin finish. Navigation lights, which had been drilled out prior to painting, were filled with 5-minute clear epoxy tinted with Gunze Sangyo clear acrylics. Last act was to glue on the painted main wheels and exhaust nozzle.

This is the second Hasegawa 1/72 Italian Starfighter I have finished and still have 3 more to go.

Reference

  • Verlinden Lock On No. 1: F-104G/J Starfighter. ISBN 9070932016.

  • Various images found around the net.

 Craig

Click on images below to see larger images

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Photos and text © by Craig Sargent

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