Lockheed F-104 G Starfighter – JaBo 33

Hi to all ARC modellers! 

This Luftwaffe F-104G JaBo 33 is my last kit made from an Italeri/ESCI box after I read an article about the same model built in 1/48 scale on an Italian modeller's site last year (the complete article can be viewed at this link. 

I decided to make the same identical aircraft, but in 1/72!

I built the kit using some aftermarket and scratchbuilt parts, ejection seat, wheels, cockpit console, fuel tanks and the SUU exercise bomb dispenser came all from the spare parts, or from Eduard, the SUU internal bomblets are from an old Hasegawa external loads kit.

I cut the wings in order to obtain flaps and slats, assembled in lowered position, while the cockpit was reworked using an aftermarket ejection seat typical of the first examples delivered to the German Luftwaffe (not the Martin Baker mounted later on AMI and Luftwaffe examples), the control panels were heavily modified, so I could use some Revell decals for the Starfighter cockpit, the final result is not very realistic, but while the canopy is closed, I was satisfied enough with the final result.

The painting process was rather long and accurate, most part of the job was done looking at the article made by the Italian modeller who made the 104 in 1/48 starting from an Hasegawa kit, I just followed his suggestions using Alclad silver paint instead of the Chrome silver Tamiya.

Upper wings were painted in white, lower wings in light gray as the pylons, wing tanks painted with a different silver paint, as well as the parts close to the exhaust cone and the tail, that were darkened a bit in order to simulate the smoke and heat effects on those parts.

Post shading effect on most parts of the panels after the silver was dry.

After all, I polished for several times the whole model with an antistatic cloth, then I applied a thin layer of transparent varnish, waited for a couple of days, and finally applied the decals.

Decals are a mix of Italeri (stencils) Hasegawa (Crosses and fin flash) Heller (JaboG 33 tail insigna) while the individual numbers (DA+101) and the little white "bat-phantom" nose insignia were printed using a blank decals foil, and a professional ink printer. 

Click on images below to see larger images

This (together with the spare Hasegawa tanks) was made possible by the super-skilled French modeller Fabien Antonietti, who send me via mail a detailed series of profiles with individual numbers and insignia of the early German Zippers.

The aircraft was finally assembled with the SUU exercise bomblet dispenser under the fuselage, painted in white and added with some stencils, while the bomblets were painted in USN midnight blue, dispenser assembled with bombs bay opened.

The pictures show an aircraft on the tarmac, ready to take off for a fighter-bombing exercise mission.

The final pics show tail details, and the aircraft in clean configuration.

I want to thank the expertise of Fabien Antonietti and Massimo “pitchup” De Luca (http://www.modelingtime.com) for their precious help and suggestions. 

Happy modelling to everyone!

Alex Cimenti

Click on images below to see larger images