After the last segment, the kit was ready for paint. There are three marking options included in the kit. I chose a tri-color screen from VF-17 aboard the USS Bunker Hill in 1943. To start painting, I wanted the bottom white to be hard and take some weathering. For this, I used decanted Tamiya lacquer from a spray can. This is just one of the many tricks I learned from Ed Kinney. I masked off the exhausts with Silly Putty and used a little red brown (just a couple drops) to tint the white away from pure white. This was sprayed in three coats and left to dry. The lacquer dried very quickly and very hard. At this time, the landing gear and the gear doors, the main flaps, and a bunch of miscellaneous parts were sprayed.

This is the second book to be released by Squadron Signal Publications under the "Historical Reference" series. As explained in the front of the book, this series is written by using in-depth research of primary documents, giving a very detailed look at the subject matter. It appears that there may other books in the works covering aircraft and vessels. As I have said before, in my opinion this book is like a Walk Around or In Action series book on steroids.

The book starts with the origins of the CCKW. This began in 1928 when the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps started developing its standard fleet. What came from this were two 2-1/2 ton 6x6 vehicles. One of the interesting names involved in its development is a major player – John D. Hertz. Yes, of the rental car company, but he first owned Yellow Cab, and then Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company, which ended up merging with GM. They were instrumental in the development of the CCKW.

The maiden flight of the F-104 was in 1954, and its final variant was the S (first flown in 1966) model, which was a licensed-production Italian version of the 104. The Italian Air Force and Turkish Air force flew the S model, with the Italians using them until 2004! (Pretty good service, I’d say.)

The Kit

Upon opening the box, you will find 16 (some have just one part on them) light grey and 1 clear sprues of injected molded plastic, a nice decal sheet with markings for one aircraft (a 104S from the 5th Stormo, 23 Gruppo, in memorial paint scheme), and an 8-page instruction sheet. The plastic is cleanly molded with nice detail and is flash free, but there are a few pin marks throughout the parts.