This is the 1/72 Hasegawa kit, very nice with good panel lines, but a bit complicated for the assembly, as the fuselage is split into two parts which make it a bit difficult to align correctly. The parts in my kit were a bit damaged and there were several flashes and damaged areas which required thorough cleaning and filling. I chose to paint it in a low visibility livery, typical of the last F-104s in service in Italy. I will use Skymodels decals, very good but with incomplete stencils.
Hope you like it!
Pre-shading


Painted and weathered. It's the first time I achieve such a result! Comments welcome!

Looking good, love to see the final pics.

I like it a lot Giacomo! I saw them flying when I stayed at an Agriturismo in Grosetto in 2001, I am very happy that I have actually seen flying Starfighters!

If you want more stencilling Tauro does a very (horrendously ) complete sheet. I have used it on my F-104S, it took ages to place all decals...



Magnus

Hi Giacomo
Lovely Starfighter so far. Your pre-shading has been very effective under the grey. Excellent work, keep us all posted.
tim

looking very good like the different shaded panels.



Build On,
Justin

Thanks for your kind comments!
Although being very satisfied, I must say that the pre-shading is not that visible, I covered it too much. The most of the weathering ob has been done by shading the panels, some working freehand with the airbrush and three or four with masking tape, as if they have been replaced during maintenance, but I'm rather happy with the result.
Magnus, I was seriously thinking about getting the Tauro sheet (and maybe an Aires seat) as well, as after a close inspection I noticed that most the stencils provided in the Skymodels one are usable only on the high-viz camo, though some are included for the grey aircrafts, and it also seems that the placement of some is wrong in the instructions.
Also missing is the vertical line aft of the wing for both liveries.
On the other side, the squadron markings and numbers provided are excellent and in good register, allowing you to depict almost any Starfighter that serviced with the Italian AF, both G and S, single and twin seater, grey or camo.
I can post a review of it if you're interested.
Also included in the sheet are 5 stickers celebrating the 75th anniversary (1998) of the Italian AF, which were used on a limited number of aircraft. I do want to use them as I have one of them I got at an airshow some years ago and I'll use it as a "display base"!
Here are the two potential choices, both wearing the forementioned sticker (right side only, aft of the squadron numbers)
5. Stormo (MM6935)


4. Stormo (MM6842) - Definitely more elegant with that prancing horse badge... Magnus, the aircrafts you spotted definitely belonged to this squadron, which is based just at Grosseto and is currently flying Typhoons!

G'morning guys,
the flying needle is masked and waiting for the paint to be sprayed!
I just have a question: I used Tamiya's tape to mask the model. I noticed that the tape left some glue on a couple of panels. I used some kitchen paper to remove it, but it seems to have melt with the paint... any advice?

Here we are. Gunze H333 (Extra Dark Sea Grey) for the anti-reflections panel, the windshield and the stripes on the tail, H27 (Tan) for the panels aft of and underneath the cockpit, Tamiya X-18 for the air intake lips.
I'm quite glad about the result, especially for the tail stripes, although some fix is still needed!




It's all about masking!




Small fixes needed all around the fuselage in order to restore some areas I didn't mask very well...


Here you can see the tape glue marks. I checked them carefully, and you can see only with the light hitting the model in some positions. Sincerely, it seems a difference in the shine of the colours, I guess some gloss paint will fix it. The transparencies are not glued of course. Now the big question: Future wax is not available in Italy, except for some inaccessible places (US/NATO military installations), so the only gloss I can spray is Tamiya's X-22. How should I thin it? Which paint/thinner ratio, and which pressure?

Ok, fixes done! Now I just need to touch up just a small part on the air intake lips, but I don't feel like loading the airbrush and cleaning it up. Luckily it's so small that it will be easily done by brush.
I also faded the dark grey lines a bit.
I decided I won't use the wingtip tanks as one of them opened up in halves!
Tomorrow you'll be able to see the photos!

Looks good (even after you pointed out the warts)!

Thank you!

I fixed most of the mistakes, now I just have to repaint some small areas of the air intake lips, but I'll use a brush to do it.
Here how it finally looks. Now gloss on and decals, as son as I have the time. I'll use Tamiya's X-22. How shall I thin and spray it?

Ok, gloss on and decals applied.
I chose 5-30. Unfortunately the decals are not that good, but better than nothing...
Photos to come soon!

Giacomo, this is really looking nice. I can not believe that it is 1/72, the detail is just too good. Great job so far, can't wait for the final pictures.

Bob

Thanks!
I'll take the photos as soon as I have the time. I must say that this kit is very good, despite being a little complicated to assembly (the fuselage is divided in two parts in order to allow one to depict both the single and twin-seater F-104).
The decals I used don't look that great, I expected more: the stencils dedicated to the low-viz aircrafts are not as dark as they should be, as well as the squadron numbers and patches, and you have to use black stencils all around. So the next thing I'll do will be fading the decals a bit, then another coat of gloss, Promodeller dark grey wash and clear flat...

Bad news: I applied the decals and while fading them I messed up the nose... so I need repainting it!
In the meantime, I ruined the most of the panel on my Tamiya Zero while trying to fix the wing gun covers, so I need to learn rescribing...