Preamble: A presentation I’ve had in mind for a couple of years now. Not sure how many more of these I’ll be doing, at least the aviation related ones, so thought I’d go out with a bang.

Although I stopped building models decades ago, a hobby that remains near and dear to my heart. Now, happy to live the hobby vicariously through the work of others, I belong to several aviation and model groups on Facebook, sharing my own experiences, and photos of my past builds, when possible.



At some point in the early 1980s, through reading various model and airplane magazines, I was reminded of a slightly older aircraft; the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.

The F-104 was part of the American Century Series of third generation jet fighters, designed in the 1950s. As shown in the below photo, clockwise from the bottom: the F-104 Starfighter, F-100 Super Sabre, F-102 Delta Dagger, F-101 Voodoo, and F-105 Thunderchief. Century refers to the fact that the plane types were numbered as -100 to -105.



Nicknamed the manned missile, and more dubiously, the widow maker, due to several fatal accidents, the leading edges of the 104’s wings were so narrow, they were razor sharp, requiring special coverings while on the ground, so no one would get injured.

I had always thought it was an attractive aircraft, and like so many others, was on my wish list of future builds. What suddenly sparked my interest, and bumped it to the top of the list, was a cool camouflage scheme I came across in a magazine; an F-104 completely covered in tiger stripes, and it was Canadian!



As I discovered, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) holds what’s called the annual Tiger Meet, in which various air forces engage in a range of operations, from air-to-air refueling, dog fighting, and air-to-ground tactical. Each year some of the aircraft are decorated in colorful variations of tiger stripes. Here are a couple of my favorites:

A screen capture from the early days of the Net of an American F-4 Phantom:



A more recent discovery, German Luftwaffe ‘Arctic Tiger’ Tornado, Tiger Meet-June 2013. NATO photo by Ulrich ‘Fürst’ Metternich:




The CF-104 Starfighter was in service with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) from 1962-65. Although designed as a supersonic air-to air fighter, it was mainly used by the RCAF for ground attack (including potential nuclear) and reconnaissance. The 104G had a special camera pod under the fuselage for reconnaissance.

As any modeler soon learns, each construction presents its own unique set of challenges. The builder’s experience and willingness to learn, coupled with the quality/shortcomings of design/molding of the kit, then finally how he/she wishes to finish the model, in terms of accessories, painting and decals.

In the early 1980s, I was ready for a new challenge. Although one of my favorite companies, Monogram, had an F-104 (with Canadian decals included) on the market in 1/48 scale, it was a rare bird to find. What was available, and in stock at my favorite hobby store, was Hasegawa’s 1/32 scale F-104. And so, as Christmas was approaching, I put it on my wish list to mom and dad, and come Christmas day, it was under the tree.



I had never built a Hasegawa kit before, a Japanese company, who along with Tamiya and Fujimi, had a reputation for quality, but were more expensive, due to having to be imported all the way from Japan. My only experience with 1/32 scale models up to that point had been as a young teenager, when I built Revell’s German Messerschmitt BF-109G, and their American F4U Corsair:






1/32 models are quite large, and take up a lot more space, which is why I preferred 1/48 for WWII fighter planes and small jets, and 1/72 for larger aircraft such as bombers and other multi-engine types.

As had become part of the ritual, before I’d start building a new kit, I would gather up/purchase as much reference material as possible/necessary; this was of course in the pre-Internet days.

Squadron/signal has an excellent series of books on military aircraft, armour, and warships for modellers. It became a custom for me then to buy the corresponding book for whatever model I was working on:



Although the Hasegawa kit was an F-104C, and the Canadian version was a 104G, the only visible difference being a camera pod fitted to the bottom of the Canadian aircraft. As it was for my own collection, I decided to build the kit as is, however would have to buy Canadian decals separately, as Hasegawa only provided markings for the United States Air Force. Fortunately, the hobby had progressed far enough by this stage of the game, there were a number of companies, some of them Canadian, where one could buy decals for just about any aircraft, outside of those provided with a kit. As with all parts and decals not required for a build, they were stored away in what else but old model boxes for future needs.

As far as construction was concerned, the model went together without any problems, confirming what I had read up to that point about Hasegawa kits.

The largest part of the assembly was final painting, requiring ample amounts of the main colors, Trainer Yellow and Flat Black, due to the large surface area. The model was first spray painted with two coats of the yellow, then by carefully cutting pieces of masking tape to create the tiger pattern, these were then applied to both the upper and lower surfaces of the aircraft, according to my reference material:



Once the masking had been applied, it was just a simple matter of spraying the black over the entire model. Later, with paint dried, the masking tape was slowly peeled away to reveal the actual pattern. The cockpit had been hand painted in advance, and covered up for protection. The nosecone, painted Sky Grey with Flat Black ant-glare panel, was added afterward, along with the landing gear. The model wasn’t finished of course until those Canadian markings had been added:










Presentation and model photos © 2026 by author
All other photos unless specifically identified, courtesy of the Net and/or © companies responsible for publishing them

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01/08/2026

Posted on 01/09/2026
Copyright © 2026 Chris Sorrenti