This is the first in this scale of a planned series of 4, to complement the larger one (1:32) I already built in the overall green camo scheme.  Hasegawa's 1:48 F-104 series of kits is superb.  So much so, that I actually felt honour-bound to put in an extra effort to do it justice.  This is the variegated green colour scheme, which the aircraft wore for the end of its service life in Germany.  The decals come from Belcher Bits.

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I learned a lot about masking off complex camouflage patterns from this.  I had some leaking under the tape in some areas, so I did the canopy rails by hand and it shows.  On recent builds, I discovered that using Bare Metal Foil to mask off canopy rails is very effective.

CF-104 experts will note that the ejection seat is wrong.  I used the F-104G version of the kit, and realized that the seat was wrong.  Not being someone who invests heavily in after-market items, I decided to ignore the small error and use the kit seat.  This series of 104 kits is my tribute to my
late father (who loved these aircraft - he accumulated more than 1,000 hours in the "aluminum death tube").  Pic 02.jpg shows my father's favourite painting, which I inherited from him.  Note the tail number and colour scheme is the same as the aircraft in the background of the painting.  Pic
06 shows 3 generations of front-line fighters flown by 439 Tiger Squadron (my father's squadron on the CF-104):  Sabre, Starfighter, and Hornet.

Dan