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Kinetic Israeli F-16I "Sufa" (Storm) Finished

Greg Kimsey

Greg Kimsey

Well-known member
My local IPMS group, Georgia Mountain Modelers, is doing a group build. It is a pretty broad subject matter to choose from as it can be "Anything Israeli" armor, aircraft, or any other genre, from 1947 to present.

I chose the Kinetic 1:48 Israeli F-16I "Sufa", which evidently means "Storm". An initial order of 102 aircraft was placed in 1997 and was delivered in 2003 and first flown under Israeli colors in February 2004.

The kit has 28 sprue, 5 of which are clear, plus one clear canopy. Oddly enough, several of the sprue are lettered the same, but are different. That alone will make for some confusion for me. I have already started on the build before remembering to take pictures. Sorry about that. What jogged my memory was when the instructions called for parts "MM4" and "MM5". The pieces shown in the instructions look nothing like those on the sprue, so I began going through the other sprue and found the parts as "P4" and "P5". I still haven't found part "Z7". Then, I thought, "I should tell the guys about this in my thread", then thought...oops. So, here it is, even if it is late.
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That is it so far. I hope I don't hame much more trouble with mislabeled parts.
 
Greg Kimsey said:
I will look. Also, I think this plane is 1/72 scale, despite what the box says. Everything is teeny! I have a little pilot that I was sure is 1/48 and he is too big for the seat!
Click to expand...
That would be odd. Kinetic (Hong Kong) hasn't typically been known for 1/72 aircraft.
They do produce 2 IAF F-16I's in 1/72. Interesting.

1/72 F-16I IDF

www.kineticmodel.com www.kineticmodel.com
How do you say "packing goof" in Mandarin, I wunda?
 
Instructions are a weakness with Kinetic
I built a couple of Kinetic Harriers this year and several parts were not even mentioned on the instructions. Others mysteriously appeared in later steps already attached in the pictures with no previous mention by which time it was too late to fit them :)

Only advice i can give is dont just build step by step, Always look at least 3-4 steps ahead and combine these steps into one larger step.
 
So, I have continued on with the project. I found some cool photos of the landing gear on what is evidently a large scale model, complete with wiring, lines, and looks completely real. I used colored fly tying wire to make the wires and lines. I have found a ot of the parts are very fragile or already broken when removed from the sprue and have had to remake a couple of pieces.
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There was one piece that I glued together, and it held for a while but broke again while installing the wires, which I did after assembly and painting. I still have weathering to do, but I think I am done with wiring even though it is a bit sparse. I took some artistic license with the red wire just to add some more colors.
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The teeny weeny seats are assembled. One of the little pull levers between the pilots legs went flying out of my tweezers and I never found it, so I made better ones. I cut off the molded cylinder bottle and replaced with styrene rod. I made seatbelts from ultra thin metal sheet cut into tiny straps. I may do one more coat of primer after tidying up some edges.
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This is looking Great Greg. I spent 3yrs supporting Block 50 Wild Weasels ("WW" 95th FW).
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It will be interesting to see if the I models sport the gold canopy. The "gold" laminate was to defuse dazzling from lasing either from the ground or airborne.

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Based on the below photo I say they are gold tented...at least the pilot area is...
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Hope you find this helpful a little
:victory:
 

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That is extremely helpful Eric! I had no idea about the tinted canopy. I may need some advice on how to do that!
 
I got the seats painted and inserted into the cockpit. I will get pictures tonight. I got the seam sanded out of the canopy, dipped in Gauzy and dried, and glued the ...uhh...black interior edge along the bottom of the canopy...onto the canopy. Dry brushing is done on the cockpit as well. All in all I am happy with it. I am going to model with the canopy open but need to tape it off and paint the body with the canopy down. Still not sure how to protect the landing gear from paint without breaking it. It is pretty fragile stuff! Any ol' who, we are marching along. I have decided that it is indeed a 1/48 scale plane but is just a little plane in reality which makes for microscopic parts. I can't imagine how difficult a 1/72 would be to build! Pics later...
 
What I was getting at about the size is that I have ordered a 1/32 scale for the actual group build challenge. The 1/24 Spitfire has spoiled me I guess. I am getting the Academy kit, along with some aftermarket cockpit and wheel bay kits. I am going to cheat!
 
Greg, I like the large scale stuff as well. I have plans for finishing a couple of kits that have been on back burner for a while once I get all the mess my house is in finally sorted, weeded, and put away. It is getting there slowly. I am not as young as I used to be, and have years of crap to weed through.
 
OK, as promised, some photos of the cockpit:
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The white balance is a little screwy, but you get the idea.

Also, I am going to tint the front half of the canopy. I would rather do from the inside, but I have already installed said "stuff along the bottom", so I am going to do on the outside. I am practicing on a spare Spitfire canopy. I used Tamiya Clear Yellow X24 (5 drops) and three drops of X20a thinner. I was afraid to use lacquer thinner on the clear. I sprayed a couple of layers of the yellow, then used Tamiya X19 Smoke, same ratios, to darken the yellow to gold. The before image is right after spraying the paints:
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You can see it is pretty cloudy. Now to pour some Future on it, on the outside and not on the inside...
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It cleared up very nicely. Experiment successful! On to the F-16 canopy...

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On the experiment, I used a hair dryer to speed up drying. I am going to let this dry naturally. I am covering with a tupperware container to keep dust off of it. Tomorrow I will pour the clear Future and see what happens. Hopefully, the inner black rail will stay matte.
 
Wow Greg that was fast and it looks good. I was going to suggest a light coat from the golden paints we saw at your shop but the Tamiya seems to have worked out great. :vgood:

@moon puppy; As the front is the pilot you don't want him blinded, of course but that would hold just as true for the back seater...they get no respect. It could boil down to nothing more then cost saving...Not 100% sure why. :bm: BTW The 35th FW had three, two seaters. Two for Fam flights and training and one for parts. None of them had the tinted canopy cause they where not FMC (Full Mission Capable) aircraft.
 
Brilliant work so far! I also built a Sufa in 1/72 scale some years back. One technique for masking the landing gear is to wrap them in aluminum foil with enough to cover some of the gear bay. Then seal it all around the base with Silly Putty or some equivalent material.

Keep it coming man! You got this!
 
Thanks Duke! I never thought of aluminum foil. You guys know so many tricks. I started to tape and putty off the wheel wells but decided quickly that wasn't going to work, so I decided to use my airbrush very carefully and spray closely to the edges, then fix any overspray that may occur. None did! Pics tonight of what I have done so far. I think the camo painting starts tonight. The canopy turned out" OK". I should have taken the tape off immediately after pouring the future on, because some bled under the tape, which should have occurred to me but didn't. It came off easy enough, but it was a little nerve racking for a moment.
 
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