This may be another of my obscure questions nobody cares about but me. But as an avid F-104 fan, I've always wondered why so many of them, regardless of wing or squadron or use, had their stubby wings painted white. Was this a safety thing? I'm asking that because on the flying D model I was around most, one of the first things done upon parking the bird was to apply not only the FOD covers on the intakes, but long, flat strips of red plastic about 1.5 inches wide, with clip-on backs, that protected the sharp leading edge from damage and, even more, protected us from getting our heads creased on the almost invisible edge. The wafer thin wing -- 4 inches thick at its fattest point -- was, I've read, 1/16th of an inch in diameter on leading and trailing edges.
And, on the subject, since I had access to that airplane, I often went into the hangar and just inspected it for modeling and plain curiosity. The intake spikes on the 104, I was surprised to learn, are generally accurate on most models. They are simple teardrop shapes with the pointy edge out. Why are they always black (or almost always)? I found they were coated, along with the intake lips, with what looked and felt like common roof tar. It got soft when heated. The intake spikes themselves were made of fiberglass and sounded like hollow wood when you thumped them. Was this a pre-composite way to combat heat of air friction at high speed?
The F-104, as impractacle as it was -- which is why it doesn't have any stellar combat history -- has fascinated me since I was a small boy.