1/72 Italeri F-104 G/S I.A.F. duo

Gallery Article by Alex Cimenti - CimaleX on June 2 2015

Italy National Day

 

      

Hi gents, here I am again after long time.

I recently finished a couple of old Italeri/Esci 1/72 Starfighters, with the purpose to celebrate Italy national day on 2nd June.

I did not use any aftermarket product except from external payloads and some extra decals, I had to replace some little parts of the kits with scratchbuilt details (eg. ejection seat parts and little more...) and used finally a mix of Italeri, Tauro and Hasegawa spare decals.

Humbrol enamels and handmade masks were used for painting.

The construction was quite easy, a lot has been written about this old but still good kit, obviously the external payloads like fuel tanks, PYLONS and AAM come from Hasegawa.

 

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The real aircraft: Both examples belong to Aeronautica militare italiana (Italian air force or IAF) during the first part of the 80's, the G version belongs to 6th wing (fighter bombers) based at Brescia/Ghedi in Lombardy, while the S version (and armed with a full payload of four AAMs) belongs to 53rd wing (interceptors) based at Cameri in Piedmont. Both sported old NATO style camouflage, large roundels and high viz markings, big white Id numbers for the G version while the fighter sported little white numbers (curiously painted only on the aircraft of this wing) and the tiger stripes on the tail. This because the aircraft participated at the 1985 NATO Tiger meet, an exercise made every year only by groups/wings of NATO that carry the Tiger emblem/crest. 53th Wing had a single group, the 21st whose emblem was a roaring tiger, for this reason it started to take part at these "tiger meetings" from 1968 to actual years. 

The G version is armed with a typical training payload, an SUU bomb dispenser on the central line, open and loaded with training bomblets painted in blue, while on the wing tips I mounted a couple of tip tanks; these tanks come from Hasegawa spare parts, this because the old ESCI tanks have a wrong diameter, despite the shape, length and other dimensions that are correct, their use should compromise the final result.

This particular wing (6th Stormo/Wing - 154th Gruppo/Group) has a red devil as a crest, painted on the vertical stabiliser together with a red chevron, emblem of the group. Its duty was conventional and nuclear strike, using "special ordnance" like B-48 or B-61 based at the same site, but maintained and guarded by USAF personnel, with the system of the "double-key", in case of full scale conflict with the Warsaw pact. 

The other example is an S version, different because it lacked of the M-61 Vulcan cannon that was replaced by the CW device for the AIM-7 Sparrow AAMs. It carries also extra stab winglets on the aft part of the fuselage, a different engine, and two extra underwing pylons.

This aircraft is loaded with an unconventional but fully tested load of 2 x AIM9B Sidewinder plus 2 x AIM-7 Sparrow AA missiles, this because the augmented drag and lack of tip tanks reduced sensibly the combat radius of the fighter.

The pic below shows the real thing: a group of 6th Wing F-104 Gs flying over the Alps during the first 80's.

The camo pattern of dark grey and dark green with undersurfaces in alluminium is typical of all AMI fighters in service during the 70's - 80's.

The two examples show not only very little differences in the pattern, but also different faded colors because of weather exposure. The two wings were based in northern Italy where the weather is poor during winter/autumn, so they are less weathered than Starfighters in service in south-central Italy, subject to "heavy sun baths".

Both models have Martin Baker ejection seats, built for 0-0 ejections and adopted only by German, Danish and Italian Air forces for their zippers.

Despite the relatively high rate of accidents suffered by the F-104 G/S Starfighers during their whole AMI service that lasted 40 years, these planes have left many good memories and nostalgia among the AMI staff and all aviation enthusiasts.

Here are some extra details on both models:

Happy modelling to everyone!

Alex Cimenti - CimaleX

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Photos and text © by Alex Cimenti - CimaleX