Vietnam F-104 Starfighters

Little harder than I thought.

I did find a pic here :

Puerto Rico Air National Guard ( PRANG - LOL ! )

You might want to get a copy of F-104 Starfighter in Action - Aircraft No. 135.

It's available at Amazon.

Chris

Go here for the basic pattern:

or

The first link you provided was for the Asia Minor scheme. I've never seen a Starfighter in that, although it _IS_ in the TO... It's kinda like the B-58 SEA Camo scheme, no one's ever seen one in person, but it's in the TO. Anyway, here's the correct F-104 SEA scheme from the same general web page:

I actually love doing the manned missile in Camo. It looks pretty awesome when done. All of the pics that I've ever run across of Camo starfighters had just the small blue USAF and the five digit serial number on the vertical tail, I know that they exist, but i just haven't seen any pics of the starfighters with white or black tail codes.

Have fun doing it!

Hey ... just to let you know. The markings on that PRANG F-104 are a little non-standard for Vietnam. The nose cone on the F-104 in the link I provided has obviously been changed and not repainted SEA style.

AND ... the markings on the tail are in white ... in Vietnam they were all black.

The 476th TFS was the only fighter squadron to take the F-104 into combat.

Here is a link of a photo of 476th F-104's on the flight line ... Da Nang ... 1965 :

Notice the painted nose cones and markings on the tail.

Chris

Let me correct myself ... there were three squadrons who flew the F-104 in Vietnam ... all were from the 479th TFW ( Tactical Fighter Wing ), George AFB, Victorville, California.

These were the 435th, 436th and 476th Tactical Fighter Squadrons.

Chris

Biggest rumor or lie or whatever I've ever heard was a B-58 in Da Nang in camo that SAC supposedly sent out. Supposedly a photo of one is the Holy Grail. Heard lots of tales about it, but its never been proven.

When I was at Edwards, we heard the same thing about the flag on the bottom of the F-117, that was finally declassified and a photo came out on it in one of the big F-117 books I bought a year or so ago. One of those, 'damn the bastards lied to us..' moments.

If you can't find decent photos, slop tan and green on it. Most official stuff wasn't followed most of the time anyway. Black or white numbers, they didn't go to the low viz for a long time as far as national insignia. It didn't last long. I seem to recall they deployed an F-102 or F-106 to Vietnam once but it didn't last long their either. Way back in the dark ages, and its been nearly 50 years, it was the only game in town.

Squadron is pretty much the best bet for aircraft specific references, pretty inexpensive to build up a decent library.They tend to keep them in print and occasionally update them. Some of those huge Vietnam books on sale at the bookstores like Borders or Barnes and Noble are also good bets. We all buy books for the pictures anyway, right?

As a side note here ... I remember a little while back Wal-Mart stocked the shelves with a 1/18 scale plastic toy/model of an F-104 in the SEA color scheme.

Here is a link:

Dang ... I should have picked one up ... but I was telling myself at the time " Your not a kid anymore ! "

=3D]

Still ... it would have looked neat up on the wall or something. It was nicely done ... and hey ... would have been a good reference for the paint scheme.

I just thought it was an odd subject for a plastic toy for kids. Probably 99.9% of kids AND adults wouldn't even know what an F-104 was ... let alone an F-104 in SEA colors.

Just a rare bird that had a rare stint in the USAF and in Vietnam.

Chris

oh baby, a walrus goin' off it's catapult. way sexy!

The best I've found is International Air Power Review Volume 12, "Starfighter in Vietnam" by Warren Thompson. Pretty in-depth with many photos including nose art. Wings/Airpower also did a good article with color pics in late 2003, early 2004.

The F-102 was sent to Vietnam and Thailand. Some were even equipped to fire air-to-ground rockets for ground attack duties. The SS In Action F-102 book was my Christmas gift to me this year. I waited until it was on sale for $4.99. ;)

Don't be dogmatic about gear bay colours. I remember articles in "The Airman" from that time mentioning that crew chiefs frequently used non-standard colours to repair chips if the standards weren't available.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

the main bases and training areas for C-130s. But back in the day there we= re several squadrons or groups or however they were desiginated of B-58s st= ationed there. It was December as I was driving on I-40 East bound to go ho= me for Christmas a B-58 came just over at about a thousand feet or so and t= urning as it headed south on take off from Jacksonville. It was ,I swear, in SEA camo with a flat black underside. Obviously, being a modeler and having an interest in military a/c, I thought that is really cool and I've never seen a Hustler in camo before. It so happened that a former high school and college (U of A) classmate was the base executive officer at Jacksonville after serving two hitches in Nam as a C-130 navigator. As our home towns were the same we got together over the holiday and I asked him about the camoflaged B-58. He didn't have much to say about it other than it spent most of the time in one of the hangers. I just assumed that it was an experimental paint scheme and never followed up on it. SO, I KNOW that at least one SEA schemed Hustler existed although it may have never left the states. Again, I swear that this is the truth although anytime I mention it to other modelers they roll their eyes and say, "Yeah, sure"! IPMS did a decal sheet with a camo schemed Hustler shown on the illustration sheet, I think I may still have one lying around in my decal file somewhere.

21st century toy has some real model people at the controls; witness the reviews of their kits on MM and Cybermodeller, or the finished Spitfires and their appropriate camo variations. About the only reason I go into WallyWorld these days.

My thanks to all that have contributed and answered my question.

Happy holidays and a good new your to you all

Gondor

Suddenly remembered that Esci had released an F-104C with SEA markings so I have ordered that to use instead of using the Italeri kit or converting the Hasegawa kit.

Gondor

I received my ESCI F-104 today. Imagine my surprise when I realized that the sprues are exactly the same as for the Italeri kit, only differences other than the packaging is the color of the plastic, silver Grey for the ESCI kit and a simple Grey for the Italeri kit. Of course the decals and relevant instructions are different with the Italeri covering an Air National Guard unit as well as a Pakistan aircraft as well as a Taiwanese aircraft. The ESCI decals cover only F-104 C's. First up is an all metal aircraft from the 479th TFW Vietnam in 1965, Second choice is an SEA camouflaged aircraft from the

198th TFS Portorico ANG. The third choice is for an all metal Tactical Air Command aircraft from an unspecified unit, lastly is an aircraft from the 479th TFW at Da Nang Vietnam in full SEA camouflage. Even if the decals are too old for me to use I will be able to use them as reference.

Thanks to everyone that has helped

Regards

Gondor

Depending upon the major emphasis of the Esci kit the mouldings came in silver, yellow or red. Been there, did one of each.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Several manufacturers have done the Starfighter in 1/72. IMHO the very best is the AMT/ERTL/ESCI/Italeri kit; it has the very best fit and has the extras that others don't have. Second up would be the older Heller kit. I haven't personally built the Monogram C kit, I'm told that it's better than the Heller. After that you've got the Hasegawa fol- lowed by the Matchbox and finally the Airfix. AVOID the Airfix kit unless you just want to throw something together quick and don't give a damn about accuracy or fit. As is typical with the Matchbox, it's got heavy trenching for panel lines and no weapons. The Hase- gawa just doesn't fit as good as thee others and shows its age.

I love doing the Starfighter and one of the best resources are the Wings/WAPJ articles. Some were combined into a single book on the Century Series fighters. EXCELLENT for the $60 price tag! Has tons of info on all of the century series. Of note are the entries on the Deuce (already mentioned previously) and its trip to Vietnam. At least one was shot down in air to air combat, and several sorties wer flown using the Falcon missiles as air to ground munitions! I suppose that the seaker head was good enough for the job of being able to pick out campires in the jungle, and they also had the 2.75" rockets in the bay doors as well.

Anyway, have a whale of a good time with your 104! It's a fun kit and I've got three of them in SEA camo on the shelf in the house back in Minn.

-ahill