Kinetic's 1/48 scale
F-104G Starfighter

by Brett Green

F-104G Starfighter

Meng's 1/48 scale F-35A Lightning II is available online from Squadron for USD$59.99

Here is my Kinetic 1/48 scale F-104G Luftwaffe Starfighter, finished yesterday afternoon, the last of four models completed in a very busy month of October.

Kinetic's Starfighter was a delight to build with excellent fit. I was also very impressed with the level of detail and its crisp, fine surface textures.

I replaced the kit seat with an old resin item from Cutting Edge (Martin Baker GQ7 Ejection Seat, Item No. CEC48256), although I think next time I would just detail up the kit seat with straps and extra hardware.

Camouflage was painted with the assistance of Aero Masks precut camouflage patterns. This was designed for the Hasegawa kit but it worked well with the new Kinetic release.

Paint was applied using the Harder & Steenbeck Infinity and Eclipse airbrushes.

Markings are from the Victory Productions Item No. VPD48003 - West German Luftwaffe and Marine F-104 Starfighters sheet. This dates back to 2001 but the decals performed perfectly. I used generic markings from the kit decal sheet, which were also flawless in application.

Everything else was straight from the box. 

Just about my only nit-pick is that it would have been nice to have included a decal for the instrument panel dials. 

If this is the standard that we can expect from future new tool Kinetic kits, I can’t wait to see what’s next!

I'll be writing this one up in detail for Issue 105 of Military Illustrated Modeller magazine.

Thanks to Eduard for the sample.

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2019 by Brett Green
Page Created 31 October, 2019
Last Updated 31 October, 2019

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