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A couple of 1/48 Tamiya F-16s in FMS colors

Those CFT's just make the F-16 more sleek and give it that "yeah, I'm fast, I'm cool and I will shoot you down now!" look. Kudos to Kinetic for the beans out of the fire save. :good:

Looking forward to more progress! :popcorn

Tim

Worked seam clean up this evening. I have a few details toad,then off to primer and paint this weekend, should have more soon!
 
I think your efforts to fare those tanks so well might be for unfounded .

Internet pictures seem to show some clearances to the fuselage.

thanks for stopping by Christian! Yes I totally agree that based on all my references the CFTs are not flush to the fuselage. The problem is that if this ever gets to a contest table, then I'll likely get dinged for the gaps because judges won't have reference material to compare to. Also, I didn't have consistent gaps between the two tanks so puttying it up was a better solution overall.

Mike
 
I think your efforts to fare those tanks so well might be for unfounded .

Internet pictures seem to show some clearances to the fuselage.

thanks for stopping by Christian! Yes I totally agree that based on all my references the CFTs are not flush to the fuselage. The problem is that if this ever gets to a contest table, then I'll likely get dinged for the gaps because judges won't have reference material to compare to. Also, I didn't have consistent gaps between the two tanks so puttying it up was a better solution overall.

Mike


That's exactly why I don't like contests Mike. You have to build down to the judges inexpertise .

I just read a pilot's experiene with the F-16N . Very interesting read.

Cheers,Christian B)
 
That's exactly why I don't like contests Mike. You have to build down to the judges inexpertise .

I just read a pilot's experiene with the F-16N . Very interesting read.

Cheers,Christian B)

I do understand that Christian, I don't live and die by contests like some, but it is nice to see where you rank among your peers from time to time. :geek
 
Hi folks! I am still plodding along on this build. Unfortunately I lost a week while I was out of town for work I was hoping to have this done by the end of June in an effort to finish the group build over on ARC, but also because I need to get started on my He177 for Bomber Command 2 and I am trying to give myself 6 months for that build and the Tanker Tangle build. Anyway, end of June is looking less and less likely, especially as I want to take my time and now is the point where I have a habit of rushing the finish. Must fight the temptation!

Enough rambling, onto the progress! The last little bits needed to be worked before I moved onto paint. The Greek F-16s have a unique antenna located on the sides of the intakes where the navigation lights are located, as shown in the photo below. I borrowed this from a Google search, its not my photo. The antenna is highlighted in the cut out.


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Fortunately the Wolfpack para-brake tail included these unique antennas, as well as a couple others that are used on other FMS customer F-16s. I painted the back of the kit position lights chrome silver, and the fronts in a transparent green and red using MIGs crystal colors. Once dry, I attached them to the resin antennas while they were still on the pour stub. This made working with the sub assembly much easier.


heaae9bd.jpg



Once everything was cured I cleanup the assemblies and masked the lights with Bare Metal Foil, cut the antennas off and mounted them to the airframe.


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Here I found that I made a bit of a mistake. The method I used for painting the position lights works fine for most versions of the F-16. But I happened to check my reference material trying to make sure I placed the antennas correctly and I discovered that on the Block52+ and the Block52M variants, these lights are not a bulb behind a colored cover, they are colored LEDs behind a clear cover. Most people won’t know, but I do and all I can say is Oops! Remember, especially when doing any modifications to a basic kit – always check your reference material!

Moving on! I cleaned up the seam between the radome and the fuselage. I used miliput for the seam, sanded smooth and re-scribed the panel line. I also cleaned up the blending of the pitot tube on the nose.


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And here is our Viper, ready for paint.


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First step was to put down a good primer coat, using Alclad Gray Primer. I cleaned up any gaps or other issues I found, then re-primed those areas. Once the primer had dried, I ran some 1500 grit sand paper over it to lightly remove any imperfections. In all of the pictures I have seen of Greek F-16s, they are absolutely filthy, with the exception of the Block52M which are immaculately clean, although those photos could been from very early in their service life, I don’t know. To replicate the dirtiness I started with a pre-shade, using flat black on all the seams and the panel lines.


h2a0b16f.jpg



Next up the camouflage. I used Model Master Paints for the main colors, thinned with the model master thinner in a nearly 1:1 ratio. The compressor was set to about 12psi and sprayed the pattern freehand, using the following as a guide. I matched the FS color codes for the paints, I’m not sure they exactly match a brand new Greek F-16, but they do convey an older faded machine IMHO.


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First color on was FS36307, Light Sea Gray. The radome was also painted, but I used Lifecolor FS36173, Neutral Gray.


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Next color was FS36251, Navy Aggressor Gray


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And lastly was FS35237 Medium Gray.


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Its not perfect, but I think it came out pretty well, and I am pleased with what was my first successful attempt at a freehanded camo pattern.

Next steps are to touch up some areas, paint all the antennas and some other details then on to the gloss coat.

I've also worked a little bit on Diana, but not enough to show any progress just yet. Thought it was way better to do that then try to watch the paint dry! :tomato

Thanks for watching!
Mike
 
Hey guys - Well I hoped to have photos up tonight of a fully decaled viper, but alas... the stupid thing slipped out of my hands and landed on the nose, yep you guessed it - breaking off the pitot tube. :bang head

After much cussing, I set her aside for the day. Its actually a pretty easy fix, but I know how these things end up going, my frustration will just compound the issues!

See you all soon!

Mike
 
Eh, accidents happen. I'm sure you'll make a full recovery on the pitot tube. I was working on my build the other night and I accidently knocked over my microset decal softener spilling about 3/4 off it on my table. Good thing it didn't get on anything.

Tim
 
Mike,
When I near the end of a build I sometimes get ''go fever'' and rush to finish it and that's when I tend to have accidents. :bang head
The best thing you did after the accident was to step away from it and cool down, when you return to the model it the problem won't be as bad as after it first happened.


Matrixone
 
Oof. Sounds like you dodged a bullet if it was only the pitot tube.

I did the same thing this weekend...dropped the Jaguar as I was setting up for the glosscote and watched it bounce off the dryer enroute to the floor. Nothing broke off fortunately...but I did have to tweak the pitot back into shape. Still cursed at myself for a few minutes. :laugh:

On the upside, you know it's put together solidly. ;)
 
Hi guys! Thanks everyone for the encouragement after my latest blunder, I can assure you its all fixed up (after fixing it AND then dropping again! :bandhead2: ), the decals are down and I have moved on to weathering and the final sub-assemblies. I'm starting to see the light at the end of this tunnel. :yipee

I don't have much of an update today, but I need a second opinion. I am working on withering the centerline tank and trying to replicate the staining that seems to occur on the bottoms of the tanks. For those of you with the Viper Under the Skin book, there is a great reference photo on page 2 showing the effect i am going for on the tank itself. I am going to have to settle with posting this photo that I found in a google search that shows the effect on some wing tanks.

F_16_522B_adv_15.jpg


Here is how mine turned out.

Post_HAF_7_2.jpg


I think its pretty good. Not super messy like the reference photo, but I think I'm pretty close on the effect. Just wanted a second opinion from the larger group, before I lock it in with a flat coat. So, what do we think?

Thanks all for the help! Should have a real update for you guys in a couple of days!

Mike
 
Hi Mike, really nice on the drop tanks. Speaking of drops, I dropped a 1/48th scale F4B by Classic Airframes on the wood floor on the way out the door. Another time I tossed some books into my car right on top of a F3F biplane. Gary
 
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