ESCI – 9007 – F-104 G/S Starfighter

Description:

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a U.S. Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, and air-superiority and fighter-bomber aircraft developed in the late 50s that saw limited service in the U.S. Air Force but which was widely exported and kept in service up to 80s by some country and flying with almost every NATO member if not all.

This original ESCI kit was tooled and released for first time in 1981. Later the kit would follow a path similar to many other ESCI kits, reissued in the ESCI/Ertl times and also issued under AMT, Revell/ESCI or Italeri. This reference was the first in the F-104 kits series by ESCI and the only issued under Ertl label too.

The kit included a super decal sheet with 6 markings, including two Italian markings, Spanish, Dutch, German or Belgium options, and options for G or S variant. (Only one of the Italian markings is for the S version, all the other are for the more common G variant). Worth it to mention that kit is much more accurate for a G variant the S one. The S variant was the last produced version of the F-104, an Italian licensed production variant, Aeritalia F-104S, which upgraded avionics as well as hardpoints up to 9, designed for interceptor role well entered the 80s.

Kit is considered a not bad kit in the community, though sharing many of the common simplifications of the time, as an spartan cockpit and only closed option for canopy, as well as some other “inaccuracies” that expert modelers want to take care of. Note that at 1981 aftermarket products were not so common as nowadays and be skilled on scratch build was your only option then.

Mr. Rob de Bie has an excellent review of the building process of this kit and is a must read article if you still has this kit in the stash and plan to build it. For more or less contemporary competitors, the ESCI version of the F-104 stands out as the best one, a kit that stills worth it to build and by far was the best one in the 80s. The main problems of the kit, as Rob mentions, are the canopy and the drop tanks in the wing’s tip and under wings.

All the later Italeri F-104 kits are based in this ESCI kit.