Well, Albatros has done it again. Yet another superb decal sheet. This time, it covers a number of F-104 Starfighter operators.  In fact, you could probably go through a case of Hasegawa F-104s on this sheet without any trouble! In fact, there are 20 different schemes portrayed in the instruction sheet and doubtless several more could be made by switching around numbers.

The sheet covers the F-104A/C/G and J versions. You get US F-104Cs, Taiwanese F-104As, Gs, and Js, Pakistani As, Jordanian As and Spanish Gs. This leaves a TON of other nations for future sheets if the need presents itself. In addition to a lot of different aircraft, you get three full decal sheets and five 'mini' sheets. The full sheets include insignia and color unit markings (which is shown), and two sheets of appropriately fonted letter/numbers and data markings. The smaller sheets include some items in color that wouldn't fit on the larger sheet and probably just made sense to do in smaller sections.

The instruction sheets are very well done. Particularly handy is that data placement sheet that has each small data decal numbered to ensure that you get it in the right place. The color and markings drawings are quite well done and are shaded just like the current trend in modeling. It is the color artwork that I have my only concern about. They are truly beautifully done, but are so busy with shading that I have trouble discerning colors of similar shades. This is most noticeable on the bare metal drawings. I cannot tell what parts are supposed to be aluminum and what parts white. If I can toss in my two cents, we really don't need meticulously shaded artwork for decal placement and colors. To me, the shaded panel lines add an unnecessary 'business' to the artwork, and the heavy shading confuses what colors are what in some instances.

I have only shown one of the four pages of artwork and the most colorful of the decal pages to keep things from being too busy. Here is a brief rundown of what is available:

USAF: two aircraft. The ever popular "Really George" from the 479 TFW, and a camouflaged plane from the 435 TFS based in Vietnam. Both are F-104Cs.

Royal Jordanian AF. Two F-104As, one in natural metal and one camouflaged as a decoy.

Pakistani AF. An F-104A from the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965.

Spanish AF: three different natural metal F-104Gs. These are basically the same except for codes, serials and unit badges.

Taiwanese AF. These are 4 F-104As, 6 F-104Gs and an F-104J. These planes run the gamut from natural metal to SEA camouflage to an air superiority camo similar to that carried by the F-15. The listing also includes a MiG killer, something not often found in Starfighters!

The decals themselves are as superbly printed as what one expects from Albatros. There is no misregistration and several of the decals are given in sections to prevent that from occurring. If they are like previous sheets I have used from Albatros, they are opaque and fit like a charm.

This sheet is also available in 1/72 and should be in stores at this time.

Review sheet courtesy of Albatros Modelworks. Thanks for your support.

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