1/48 Esci F-104G

of the Hellenic Air Force

by Thanos Mentzelopoulos

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  Greece National Day 2007 

 

Hello again!  This is my latest build and has to do with a very old kit, completed though a few days ago.  The Esci kit is very old but still comprises adequate amounts of detail; it is not as good as the Hasegawa kit though.  I needed a lot of filler in nearly every joint and unfortunately had to destroy many of the raised panel lines at certain points.  The cockpit was improved with plastic sheet and brass wire.  The avionics bay behind the cockpit, as well as the gun and landing gear compartment were improved in the same way. 

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I chose to paint my model in probably the rarest camouflage scheme of the Hellenic Air Force, since the existing official photos are really extremely rare and sometimes confusing.  The model depicts an F-104G in "Aegean Blue" uppersides and natural aluminium on the undersides, reminding the H.A.F. Mirage F1 camouflage scheme.  This particular Starfighter is a target-towing aircraft, meaning that I had to scratchbuild the target as well!  The model was airbrushed exclusively with Tamiya and Gunze acrylics and weathered mainly with lighter and darker shades of the basic colours.  The same applies to the target, as well.  All the Greek decals come from "Ikarus Decals" and are really excellent   

Many thanks to my dear friends Gabriel Kalfopoulos for providing the reference material and Alex Kontiveis  - as always - for the magnificent artwork. 

I hope you like this extraordinary F-104G of the Hellenic Air Force.

Thanos

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Photos and text © by Thanos Mentzelopoulos