Hasegawa's 1/48 scale
F-104S Starfighter

by John Trueblood

My 1/48 Tiger Meet Starfighter was created from the old but still excellent Hasegawa F-104S kit #07340. Hasegawa provides the extras needed to model the Italian S variant; including the 2 lower fuselage strakes, proper exhaust and ejection seat along with a resin plug for the gun port.

The dramatic paint scheme features a GROWLING TIGER busting through the aircrafts aluminum skin. This “bursting” Tiger Meet motif has been copied numerous times since 1996 but I think the Italians thought of it first. 

The Hasegawa kit was drama free and no putty or filler was required. Just be careful to get the proper alignment on the wings and T-tail. 

Although, the Starfighter is silver in color, it is not natural metal but instead was painted silver for the 1996 Tiger Meet. I used AK Interactive to match the numerous color photos available on line. The blue accents (soft edge) were Tamiya TS-44 decanted and airbrushed with my Harder Steenbeck Infinity CR.  I kept weathering to a minimum since the actual AC was pristine. 

I substituted the kit cockpit parts with the excellent Aires #4107 cockpit set and the True Details TD48427 MB GQ-7 ejection seat. As to be expected, the Aires set required significant thinning along with the fuselage interior to ensure a good fit.  

I used Eduard PE for the seat belts and Instrument panel along with Aires #4328 F-104S Exhaust Nozzle and Quick Boost #48 407 pitot tube. CMK Q 48030 provided the wheel bays which provided extra details and a perfect fit. 

The canopy was masked with Eduard EX 031 and the decals were sourced from Cutting Edge 48042 Starfighter Special #1. Prior to decaling the model was gloss coated with Tamiya X-22 Clear thinned with Gunze Leveling Thinner.  

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2022 by John Trueblood
Page Created 8 April, 2022
Last Updated 8 April, 2022

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