Reviewed by Rodger Kelly
 

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FirstLook

The Cutting Edge Modelworks sheet CED48042 provides complete markings for "Tiger" and "Strega", two specially painted and striking F-104 Starfighters of the Italian Air Force. 

F-104S ASA MM6716 of the 21 Stormo, 53 Gruppo.  The machine was painted for the 1996 Tiger Meet in Portugal.  The Last Starfighter or "Tiger" is painted in overall high Gloss aluminium paint with a glossy blue empennage and nose.  The separation between the blue and the aluminium pant is soft edged.  The tip tanks also got attention of the man with the blue paint and sport blue noses and tails. 

The supplied markings comprise: 

• The tiger himself.  This is a six-part decal that is applied to the fuselage over the top of the aluminium paint to give the appearance that the tiger is ripping through the fuselage – the head on the starboard side and the left foreleg, rump and tail on the port side.  An extra tail decal is also provided.

• 21sq in yellow for the fin

• 55-21 in black

• MM6716 serial in white

• Red turbine warning stripes

• Rescue stencil data (data block and arrow as well as ejection seat triangles and canopy release instructions)

• Pilot's name for the starboard side of the fuselage

• The Last Starfighter titles for the tip tanks

"Stega" (witch) is RF-104G MM6579.  Strega was painted up especially for first air-to-air meet of 28 Gruppo at Villafranco, Italy in November 1989.  The machine is bright to say the least!  The first third of the fuselage (and the tip tanks) is bright yellow, the next third of the fuselage and the forward half of the wings are white whist the final third of the fuselage and the wings are black.  The tail wears large artwork comprising of the squadron insignia of a witch riding a broom with a camera attached to the broom's handle.  If that is not enough, there are white and yellow stars liberally sprinkled over the entire airframe.  The supplied markings comprise: 

• Red 28 for the intakes

• The witch artwork for the tail.

• Stars, lots of em!

The placement guide is A-4 in size and shows left hand side profiles for both aircraft.  The first option also gets a right hand side profile so I can only guess that the placement of the stars on Strega is the same on both sides.  Strega also gets a plan view of the port wing to show the placement of the stars with the comment "both sides are similar".  The artwork for Strega shows the stars with a coloured outline.  Don’t be disturbed by this as it has only been done this way to show that the stars are of a different size to aid in placement.  The placement guide contains a legend to identify each star by size and colour.  The actual stars are either yellow or white. 

As per Cutting Edge's normal manner, there is also a smaller sheet that provides notes on each aircraft as well as an explanation as to why they were painted this way.  This sheet also names each of the shades of paint in the correct Italian names and gives the equivalents in FS595.  These FS595 shades are then matched to readily available model paints. 

The decals themselves look to have been printed by Microscale.  Enough said, you know they are good and will work well. 

The decal sheet, placement guide and instruction sheet are packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag. 

The recommended kit is the Hasegawa F-104G with the Cutting Edge F-104S conversion.  A quick look at the Hobby Link Japan Website http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljlist.cgi shows that Hasegawa will be releasing an F-104S this month.

This is a very nice sheet from the guys at Cutting Edge.  If you want to add a bright and colourful F-104 to your collection, but have been put off by the thought of doing a natural metal finish aircraft then this is the sheet for you. 

Recommended.

Thanks to Cutting Edge Modelworks for the review samples..

Review Copyright © 2004 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 03 November, 2004
Last updated 03 November, 2004

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