F-104 Starfighter skins by jocko417

[jocko417]

LATEST VERSION HISTORY

*NEW*

March 25/2025:

New bare metal skins for F-104C of the 479th FIW uploaded to ED User Files. See link at end of this post.

 

Jan 30/2025:

New/updated camo F-104C (Vietnam) skins.

Updated Shared textures folder (Link below in post) to include updated textures for F-104C skins.

 

Oct 22/2021:

PSD Template available here

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3318995/

Oct 20/2021:

Shared file updated with new textures.

Oct 15/2021:

"Starfighter Skins 2.0" for the re-release of the VSN F-104G mod

 

Please delete any of my previously released F-104 skins from your hard drive before installing the new versions listed below!

FIRST THING: GET THE NEW F-104 MOD

To use the skins you will need the 3rd party add-on VSN F-104G model, located here:

https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZskhnZwioeCmgDRQuieiKYUdSfC84HFmhV

 

SECOND THING: HOW TO INSTALL SKINS

Very important: Skins should be placed in your Saved Games folder. Install path should look like this:

C:\Users\<your user name here>\Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\VSN_F104G

or

C:\Users\<your user name here>\Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\VSN_F104C

depending on model.

 

STEP ONE: INSTALL THE SHARED FILE

There is a "Shared" file that must be installed into the same directory path, like so:

This file contains textures that are shared by all my skins. Stuff like pilot textures, pylons, tanks, normal maps, etc that don't need to be included with each new skin file. This will save a fair amount of storage space, as my skins are 4K resolution.

Please install the Shared file first:

Latest Shared version as of Jan 30/2025

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3314166/

You only have to install the Shared file once and it will serve all skins.

 

STEP TWO: GET THE SKINS

 

Newly updated skins can be downloaded with the links below (as they become available):

CF-104 12701, RCAF Station Cold Lake, early 1960s

Get it here:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3314053/

 

F-104G FX47, Belgian Air Force

Available here:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3318812/

 

F-104 FG-914, George AFB, USAF

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3318816/

 

 

F-104G 13690, Luke AFB

Download here:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3318856/

 

Couple of overall green (late version) schemes with symmetrical markings as seen during the late 1970s in Europe:

CF-104 #733 of No. 439 Squadron

Download here

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3318857/

 

CF-104 #762, 1 Canadian Air Group

Download here

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3318858/

 

Couple more Greens on the way (421, 441)...

 

421 Sqn 104779 available here:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3318864/

 

441 Sqn 104706 available here:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3318866/

 

CF-104 62-751, Turkish Air Force

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3331852/

 

Royal Norwegian Air Force olive drab camo scheme here:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3337479/

*NEW* F-104C camo skins:

F-104C 56-0892 "My Darlin' Dorothy" USAF

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3343045/
 

F-104C 56-0898 "Sex Machine" USAF

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3343046/

F-104C 56-0910 "Pussycat" USAF

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3343047/
 

F-104C 56-0938 "Show Me" USAF
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3343048/

F-104C 56-0891 "Snoopy Sniper" USAF

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3343049/
 

F-104C 57-0927 "Debbie Sue" USAF
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3343050/

F-104C 56-0929 Puerto Rico ANG

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3343051/
 

F-104C 57-0925 "Smoke II" USAF
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3343052/

F-104C 57-0923 "Hellooo Dolly" USAF

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3343053/

 

*NEW*

 

Natural Metal finish F-104C skins now available, 479th TFW. Four stateside individual squadron markings, and fifth is as they appeared while stationed at Da Nang AB, South Vietnam.

 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/filter/user-is-jocko417/apply/

*NOTE* Please make sure you also have the latest Shared file, as mentioned above.

Edited March 25 by jocko417
restructure

[71st_AH Rob]

Excellent! Looking forward to seeing these.

 

I'm certain that you will do a 439 Sqn skin and ask for a 441 Sqn skin to go with it!

 

 

Edited April 18, 2019 by 71st_AH Rob

[gianlu320]

Beautiful

Can't wait to see it finished

[gianlu320]

Very nice indeed!

Just a heads up

Yesterday they updated the f104 version once again

I don’t really understand what changed but may be it’s worth checking before you do all this work to find out everything needs to be redone for the next version

[m0j0NL]

Wow! that 104 looks amazing!, love the variations in metal shading, exactly something i have been trying to as well.. but not as good as above :)

 

Would you mind sharing how you got the baremetal finish?..thats still a mystery to me and some of the skins i`m working on really need at least parts to be that way.

Edited April 21, 2019 by m0j0NL

[m0j0NL]

This one for example, the 3 colors of the engine compartment really should have a metallic shine to them, the colors game of a really well done weathered plastic model, but IG they just does not..have the correct feel being a gloss paint.

 

 

p.s. I know where to look, the VSN_F104G-01_RoughMet.dds, but i have no clue how to work with this.

Edited April 21, 2019 by m0j0NL

[jocko417]

I'm certainly no expert but I've had good results so far with remembering rule #1 for natural metal finish... "Pink is your friend!" :D

 

 

Here's a screen of the number 1 template. Painted surfaces are all about "Orange", as you probably know from using the default RoughMets. I've turned these layers off so we can focus on the metal finish. I use white, black and brown layers, with opacities from 5 to 20%, to give the tail section (and other panels) those different colours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, the RoughMet files seem to work like this for metal finish: Pink is a good start, you can lighten or darken certain areas to add or take away shine and reflectivity. Green and yellow are good colours for matte surfaces, like the fiberglass antenna areas on the forward fuselage. I'm still experimenting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Put them together and you get this (working on tip tanks now, compare with earlier shot above):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally got around to doing the pitot tube stripes. In reality they were painted in a spiral, I'll see if I can do that later. This is how the airplane would have looked like during the early 1960s in Europe, only thing missing is a Mk.28 nuke on the center line pylon...

 

BTW, I really like the model, but someone with a nasty sense of humour decided the Diffuse and RoughMet files should be different resolutions :huh: so have fun resizing various layers if you want to move them from one file to another to... "save time". :P I resized the RoughMet pictured above from the native 4096 down to 2048 to save space and make it easier to compare the two texture files.

 

I vote to have the diffuse files upped to 4096 resolution to match the Roughmets. Would be really nice when working with small text like the maintenance stencils.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited April 22, 2019 by jocko417

[m0j0NL]

Thank you very much for the easy to understand tips! :)

 

After playing around with pink for 30 minutes or so:

 

 

 

Thank you! :worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy:

 

 

Now to apply this.. second paintjob to the entire plane :) double the work, but double the result!

[jocko417]

Beautiful! Sometimes the work can be tedious but it’s always worth it! :)

[m0j0NL]

Any idea how to pack the whole thing, write the .lua so its just a question of unpacking the skin for someone that wants to use it?.

 

Or will they have to manually move Roughmet files to the texture folder/zip?.

[cdpkobra]

description.lua

livery = {
   {"VSN_F104G-01", 0, "VSN_F104G-01AL",false},
   {"VSN_F104G-02", 0, "VSN_F104G-02AL",false},
   {"VSN_F104G-03", 0, "VSN_F104G-03AL",false},
   {"VSN_F104G-04", 0, "VSN_F104G-04AL",false},
   {"VSN_F104G-05", 0, "VSN_F104G-05AL",false},
   {"VSN_F104G-06", 0, "VSN_F104G-06",true},
   {"VSN_F104G-07", 0, "VSN_F104G-05AL",false},
   {"VSN_F104G_Pilot", 0, "VSN_F104G_Pilot",true},
   
   {"VSN_F104G-01", ROUGHNESS_METALLIC, "VSN_F104G-01AL_RoughMet",false},
   {"VSN_F104G-02", ROUGHNESS_METALLIC, "VSN_F104G-02AL_RoughMet",false},
   {"VSN_F104G-03", ROUGHNESS_METALLIC, "VSN_F104G-03AL_RoughMet",false},
   {"VSN_F104G-04", ROUGHNESS_METALLIC, "VSN_F104G-04AL_RoughMet",false},
   {"VSN_F104G-05", ROUGHNESS_METALLIC, "VSN_F104G-05AL_RoughMet",false},
   {"VSN_F104G-06", ROUGHNESS_METALLIC, "VSN_F104G-06_RoughMet",true},
   {"VSN_F104G-07", ROUGHNESS_METALLIC, "VSN_F104G-05AL_RoughMet",false},
   {"VSN_F104G_Pilot", ROUGHNESS_METALLIC, "VSN_F104G_Pilot_RoughMet",true},
}
name = "example"

copy all textures into the Liveris folder

VSN_F104G\Liveries\VSN_F104G\example\

and customize the description.lua in this folder

Edited April 22, 2019 by cdpkobra

[m0j0NL]

description.lua

 

copy all textures into the Liveris folder

VSN_F104G\Liveries\VSN_F104G\example\

and customize the description.lua in this folder

 

Hmm but won`t DCS look for the roughmets in the rar file located in Textures?, because looking at your lua I don`t see it refer to roughmets located in the livery folder... but I could be looking at it the wrong way.

 

Btw, the Japanese skin is done and uploaded (with instructions to manually add the roughmets to the rar file), after which my plan is to start work on one of those Chrome Lawn Darts like yours, but one for the JASDF.

 

Again thanks for your help.

[jocko417]

When the lines in the lua end with “false” it tells the game to look for textures outside of the rar file. If the line ends with “true”, it uses the default textures in the rar file.

 

So in Kobra’s example above, the game will use the default texture 6, the ejection seat, and the pilot texture from the rar file but everything else used would be your modified textures for the aircraft, located within your specific livery folder.

Edited April 23, 2019 by jocko417

[m0j0NL]

When the lines in the lua end with “false” it tells the game to look for textures outside of the rar file. If the line ends with “true”, it uses the default textures in the rar file.

 

So in Kobra’s example above, the game will use the default texture 6, the ejection seat, and the pilot texture from the rar file but everything else used would be your modified textures for the aircraft, located within your specific livery folder.

 

Damn.. such a small line of text, will make, making the skin easier again, since I was constantly updating the texture rar :) so again Thanks!

 

Have you found any good source websites for future F-104 skins?.

 

I have been using:

 

http://www.916-starfighter.de/main.htm

 

http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww3/f/60/94/0#11 (link to the Canadian F-104`s)

 

And google, and for me the most help has been searching for model kit end result photo`s at 2k resolution, because smaller its just to hard to get the detail`s i`m looking for.

[m0j0NL]

p.s. here is the finished Japanese skin you helped me with:

 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3304518/

[jocko417]

Damn.. such a small line of text, will make, making the skin easier again, since I was constantly updating the texture rar :) so again Thanks!

 

Have you found any good source websites for future F-104 skins?.

 

I have been using:

 

http://www.916-starfighter.de/main.htm

 

http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww3/f/60/94/0#11 (link to the Canadian F-104`s)

 

And google, and for me the most help has been searching for model kit end result photo`s at 2k resolution, because smaller its just to hard to get the detail`s i`m looking for.

 

That 916-starfighter site is a great resource, I prefer period photos over profiles like in the second link, artist renditions can sometimes be inaccurate. My CF-104 references, while not as extensive as my F-86 ones, include these books:

 

Starfighter by David Bashow

 

https://www.biblio.com/starfighter-by-bashow-david-l/work/2509204

 

RCAF Aircraft Finish and Markings books by Patrick Martin:

 

http://www3.telus.net/m1729/books.htm

 

Canadian Starfighters, also by Patrick Martin:

 

https://www.amazon.com/ARDB003-AirDoc-Publications-Starfighters-1961-1968/dp/3935687982

 

Great book, has lots of high rez colour photos and some colour aircraft profiles by Richard J. Caruana that ARE accurate :)

 

Also, 417 Squadron History book, out of print but you can find it on eBay. 417 was the CF-104 training squadron in Canada for a while.

 

Your skin looks very nice and I almost had a heart attack when I saw the screenshot with those T-33s parked in the background (T-33s?! We have a T-33 model?!!?). Then I realized it was an actual photo! :)

[m0j0NL]

Thanks for your links, and hehe no, we don`t have the T-33 :D

[==Wiggy==]

As a big time metal enthusiast, these are great Jocko!

[m0j0NL]

Goodmorning Jocko,

 

Found a nice challenging CF-104 for your next project :D

 

 

http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/Stars/wC785.htm

 

 

Trying to match all those squares over the three skin files... :cry:

[jocko417]

Hi rick, yeah the PBR stuff sure gives easier results than the old spec files! :) Will be nice when the Sabre gets the upgrade too.

 

Mojo, I just KNEW somebody was going to bring up that “checkerbird”...

[m0j0NL]

:D

[71st_AH Rob]

Mojo, I just KNEW somebody was going to bring up that “checkerbird”...

 

Yay! And it wasn't me!

 

Go 441!

[71st_AH Rob]

Besides, it can't be much more difficult than this 439 lawn dart that I built a 1/48 scale model of when I was a kid.

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/BDg3CAUnxGgdSs1T8

 

Or this one from 441

 

http://images.app.goo.gl/DtQqf3FdJVGLZyp47

 

But what I really want is more like this:

 

http://images.app.goo.gl/ubqA9RqsjMMfaKVk7

 

A frontline aircraft in squadron service with 1 (F) Wing

Edited April 26, 2019 by 71st_AH Rob

[cdpkobra]

See, advice from the expert! :)

 

Kobra, can you confirm for everyone that we should be able to use 4096 resolution in future for the diffuse 1, 2, 3 textures and 2048 for the pylons and tanks diffuse textures, to match the existing RoughMet files?

 

Yes this resolution should work

[jocko417]

Detail level one can expect with 4096 resolution...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Started working on a 4K template, progress should be leaps and bounds as of next week, got a stretch of days off coming. :)

Edited May 16, 2019 by jocko417