Robert Arts has done a full review of the liveries for the Greg Hofer’s Classic Jet Simulations CF-104 Starfighter – If you have this Aircraft or are thinking of buy the CF-104 then this article is right up you alley – Gun alley that is..
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CF-104 Starfighter Livery Review By Robert Arts
As mentioned earlier on this blog Greg Hofer’s Classic Jet Simulations CF-104 Starfighter was updated last month. The new model flies, looks and sounds even better than the first one. There were some bugs, especially with the Mac plug-in, but Greg jumped immediately on it and released several updates. Since the last one I don’t have any problem any more. The Starfighter is my most favorite X-plane aircraft at this moment.
For the first version there were around 25 liveries. Because of some lighting changes the previous paints don’t work correctly on the new model. One of the biggest contributors of CF-104 liveries, Amerrir, was the first one to update his liveries. Besides his four we look at two new liveries made by Greg Hofer and one file of a new livery-maker.
Turkish CF-104 by Amerrir
From Wikipedia:
Turkey received 48 new-build F-104Gs and six TF-104Gs from Lockheed and Canadair production, funded under the Military Assistance Program, which were delivered from 1963, and directly purchased 40 new F-104S interceptors from Fiat in 1974–75. In addition, like Greece, Turkey received large numbers of surplus Starfighters from several NATO nations in the 1970s and 1980s, including 170 ex-German aircraft, 53 aircraft from the Netherlands and 52 from Canada. In total, Turkey received over 400 Starfighters from various sources, although many of these aircraft were broken up for spares without having been flown. The F-104 was finally retired from Turkish service in 1995.
The first updated paint uploaded by Amerrir is the Turkish Air Force F-104. This livery has the US Air Force South East Asia camouflage scheme. In Europe the F-104 was mainly used as a low-flying fighter-bomber, so this camouflage suited perfectly for the Turkish landscape.
Amerrir made a weathered paint, which often suits the dry South Eastern European countries. However in X-plane it doesn’t look good while flying in bright sunlight, because the CF-104 has a shiny surface. Dirty and gloss doesn’t often match. For the rest the livery looks perfect, so either you have to turn off the shininess in Planemaker or you only fly it low level under the clouds.
Canadian CF-104 Tiger Meet by Amerrir
From Wikipedia:
The RCAF, and later the unified Canadian Forces, operated 200 Canadian-built CF-104s and 38 dual-control trainer CF-104Ds (built by Lockheed) between 1962 and 1986. CF-104s were equipped with additional electronic equipment, with a Radar warning receiver function, in the tail and under the nose. Losses were high, with around 110 crashes in Europe. Its heavy usage, mainly at low-level for bombing and reconnaissance missions was a major factor, while bad weather conditions contributed to almost 50% of the accidental losses. The airframes had an average of 6,000 flying hours when phased-out; triple that of Germany’s F-104s. Surplus CF-104s and CF-104Ds were later transferred to Denmark, Norway, and Turkey.
The Canadian CF-104’s were mainly based in Europe, first in France, later in Germany. Since 1961 NATO squadrons with a tiger in their badge organized Tiger Meets. For the full story see http://www.natotigers.org/tigerassociation/index.php. In 1983 Canadian 439 squadron hosted the Tiger Meet at their base Baden-Söllingen in Germany. One of the Tiger Meet rituals is that every attending member uses at least one aircraft with a special tiger painting. The Canadians decided to give again one of their Starfighters full tiger markings, which suit this aircraft very good! The Canadians started with this tiger livery at the Tiger Meet in Woodbridge in 1969. They continued this tradition at several Tiger Meets, with small differences between each livery, so the X-plane painters can be kept busy!
Amerrir’s second livery is this legendary CF-104 paint of 1983. This one is also a bit dirty, however it does look more natural with X-plane’s shiny surface than the Turkish version. A nice addition!
Canadian CF-104 Red Indian by Amerrir
During the 1983 Tiger Meet the resident based 421 (Red Indian) squadron painted also one of their Starfighters. According to Amerrir the red fuselage with the white arrows earned the nickname ‘The Toothbrush’. This paint really shines in X-plane, and I don’t mean the dirt-gloss conflict, but the red color explodes from your screen, what a beauty!
Norwegian CF-104 by Amerrir
From Wikipedia:
Norway received 18 surplus CF-104s and four CF-104Ds from Canada in 1974, the country had initially received 19 Canadair built F-104G and four TF-104G in 1963 under the Military Assistance Program. The F-104 was phased out of Norwegian service in winter 1982.
The Norwegian (and Danish) Starfighters are painted in a dark green color. Amerrir’s forth update is again a very good looking one. Flying at low-level this livery blends with X-plane 10’s default grass texture. Norwegian planes are often very clean, so the shiny textures suit this one perfectly!
U.S. Air Force F-104G by Classic Jet Simulations
From Wikipedia:
Germany received 916 F-104s, comprising 749 F/RF-104Gs, 137 TF-104Gs and 30 F-104Fs forming the major combat equipment of both the Luftwaffe and Marineflieger. At its peak in the mid-1970s, the Luftwaffe operated five F-104 -equipped fighter bomber wings, two interceptor wings and two tactical reconnaissance wings. The Marineflieger operated a further two wings of F-104s in the maritime strike and reconnaissance roles.
The Starfighter entered service with the Luftwaffe in July 1960, with deliveries continuing until March 1973, remaining in operational service until 16 October 1987, and continuing in use for test purposes until 22 May 1991.
In German service, 292 of 916 Starfighters crashed, claiming the lives of 115 pilots.
Why am I citing about German Starfighters, as this is an U.S. Air Force livery? Greg Hofer made a livery of a Starfighter with a very interesting career. Although it carries USAF markings, this livery is of an aircraft of the German Air Force. It started life at Schiphol, as it was assembled by Fokker for the Luftwaffe. The Germans sent the aircraft to Luke in the United States, to act as an operational conversion Starfighter. This livery is from that time, when it was used as the commander’s aircraft. In 1982 this aircraft was used for the movie ‘The Right Stuff’, but they removed the big red ‘69’ and text from it’s tail. After the movie was made this Starfighter was sold to Taiwan, where it remained in service till 1996.
This livery has to be flown above the clouds. The polished skin comes alive in sunlight because of X-plane’s shiny surface. What a joy for the eye! Yes, this is the right stuff!
Japanese Air Self Defense Force F-104J by Classic Jet Simulations
Japanese Air Self Defense Force F-104J
From Wikipedia:
The JASDF operated 210 F-104J air-superiority fighters and 20 dual-control trainer F-104DJs. Called Eiko (“Glory”), they served from October 1962 to 1986, losing only 36 airplanes in this time. Seven air-superiority squadrons used them: 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207. Japanese F-104s faced intrusive Soviet airplanes during this long service. Many of the Japanese F-104s were eventually converted to drones for aerial target practise.
Although this livery looks polished, the aircraft has a light grey two-tone camouflage. However it’s a clean paint, so the shiny look in bright sunlight is realistic. This one is my favorite of the six examined liveries, because of the nice colors and the many small details. A must have if you have this aircraft!
Belgian F-104G Tiger Meet by Belga12345
From Wikipedia:
Belgium operated F-104G and TF-104Gs. They served with four squadrons: 23 and 31 (fighter-bombers), 349 and 350 (interceptors), and finally an OCU unit. In total 101 SABCA-built F-104Gs and 12 TF-104G built by Lockheed were purchased (one F-104G crashed before delivery). The Belgian Air Force operated the type from 14 February 1963 to 19 September 1983; some survivors were sent to Taiwan (23 aircraft) and Turkey (18 aircraft). Thirty-eight F-104G and three TF-104Gs were lost in accidents.
Again a Tiger Meet livery, this time a Belgian one. 31 Squadron, the Belgian NATO Tiger Association member, hosted the Tiger Meet at their home base Kleine Brogel in 1978. For this occasion they gave one of their aircraft the Canadian tiger treatment. This first livery of Belga12345 is a very thorough one. Besides the standard paint he also gave the pilot helmet tiger colors and the fuel truck a Belgian look. However to get this to work you seem to move the correspondent files from the liveries folder into the main objects directory. One thing you don’t want when you use multiple liveries (imagine a Japanese F-104 with inside a tiger helmet). Strangely this doesn’t work automatically from the liveries objects folder, maybe Greg can correct this?
The screenshots were made without changing the main objects files. You won’t say this is Belga12345’s first livery effort; it’s of a high standard! The only thing missing is the badge of Kleine Brogel at the right side of the tail. But for the rest every detail is covered and everything is sharp and clear. I like Belga’s Tiger Meet livery even more than Amerrir’s, but that’s because I think the Belgian design looks better than the Canadian one.
Like Amerrir’s Tiger Meet livery this is a dirty one. The paints for a Tiger Meet are normally applied only for the exercise, so the chance that they become dirty is rare. During the meet the flag-ship will be kept in a perfect state. So I recommend supplementing these Tiger Meet liveries with a clean version.
CF-104 Paint-kit by Classic Jet Simulations
I think it’s the first time we review a paint-kit. I was triggered by the liveries above to see how difficult it was to make one. Soon after I opened the paint-kit I discovered Greg has made an excellent one and within a couple of hours I had made my own livery. Like every good paint-kit it’s a Photoshop file with multiple layers. In this case around 20 and he has made separate files for the bare metal and the camouflaged ones.
I tried the later. For each of the three camouflage colors is a separate layer, so within a few minutes you have the Starfighter in the right colors (if you know beforehand which color to use). The non-painted materials, like the radar-radome, have separate color-layers. Next part is the markings. You can apply your own and erase the existing ones. After that you can tweak the look of your model by turning the other layers on or off. You can let some access-panels look like they have been replaced recently, add shadows, some reflections and weathering. The last two triggered my attention, because of the contrast between dirty and glossy mentioned earlier. When you turn of the reflections layer the aircraft will look a bit less glossy in X-plane, but it will still shine, as can be seen in the following screenshots. The first one is a clean look with reflections but without weathering. The second one has enabled both reflections and weathering and the third one has the weathering without the reflections option.
When you have done the fuselage you ain’t finished yet. After you have saved your fuselage file, you have to turn on the afterburner layer and save that file also. This will give you the appropriate lighting on the fuselage when the afterburner is engaged. Next step is the canopy, which has a separate paint-kit, in which you have to copy some parts of your finished fuselage file. This was a strange step with not much information included about how to do it. I hope I have done this properly, but have to check it in game. When the whole aircraft is done, you can perform the finishing touch by painting the drop-tanks and weapons, which have also separate Photoshop files.
Experienced X-plane painters can quickly make a nice livery with this paint-kit. For newcomers this paint-kit can be a bit overwhelming when they first see the files and all the layers. But if they take a closer look at the files and at other liveries made for this plane, they will soon discover how easy it is to make a good-looking paint.
I reckon that with the excellent paint-kit we will see a lot of new beauties on the ramps! As mentioned at the start of this review there are many liveries for the first version of the CF-104. I’m looking forward to updates of these files, so we can also use Danish, Dutch, German and Italian looking Starfighters and extent the collection of Canadian special paintings, like the third Canadian ’83 Tiger Meet scheme! And what to think of Greek, Jordanian, Pakistani, Spanish or Taiwanese liveries, or a real USAF one?
However besides the three standard liveries we have seven good-looking new ones. I like them all, but my top three consist of the Red Indian, the F-104J and the Belgian Tiger Meet Starfighter. There is much to enjoy till the next liveries arise!
You can get the CF-104 Starfighter here -> ORGStore-Classic Jet Simulations CF-104 Starfighter
Price US$29.95
RobertArts©2012
