Hasegawa 1/48 F-16N, Top Gun Adversary

[Charlie Cheetah]

Here's a sitrep on my GB entry, a 1/48 Hasegawa F-16N.

Im building mine as the sand schemed Miramar F-16N. Contruction began about 2 weeks ago. I hope to have it done in time for the Shearwater Spring Classic hobby show, April 4th in Dartmouth NS.

I was planning on using an Aires cockpit set or my build, it will be my last Aires set, way too much fiddly little pe bits for my old eyes and shaky fingers. Ill stick to Eduards PE and resin cockpit sets for the near future. The Aires cockpits are absolutely beautiful however. So mine is there minus a few pe and acetate parts. I ordered myself a Quickboost ACES 2 seat from Sprue Brothers to replace the Aires seat. BAsed on the same masters, the QB seat has molded on harness detail.

I mated up the tub to the upper fuselage half then trimmed it down till I could snuggly dry fit the lower half.

I now have the fuselage nearly complete. Just some putty to sand down and a few bits to place before I start painting. Once I get all the putty sanded, I snap a few pics.

Cheers,

Edited April 6, 2009 by Charlie Cheetah

[Charlie Cheetah]

Well, Time to post some pics I suppose.

First up. The cockpit tub, This is the best looking 1/48 cockpit I have ever seen. It's molded in grey resin, even without paint, the detail just popped right out.

Now the seat... I had a terrible time with the Aires seat however, not so much the seat, but the photoetch belts... far too fine for my clumsy fingers. Ill save the seat for a future build with a seated pilot. I orded a Quickboost seat to replace the Aires, QB being a part of Aires. The seats were oviously based on the same master, except the QB seat had molded on belts. Here it is after I attached the pull ring and canopy breakers.

For some stupid reason, I forgot to take pictures of the completed cockpit before closing the fuelage. I was more concerned with making that nice resin set fit. After a few hours sanding and grinding, it finally was in place.

The fuselage is mostly assembled now, working on smoothing the seams. I managed to sacrifice the triangular antenna at the base of the vertical stab to the carpet monster so I had to make another one. I used one of the tail fins off an unused Sidewinder, cut it to shape and sanded the contour, it may not be perfect, but at least its there.

Now, I dont know if this is my error or someones oversight at Aires... But the hud frame is too tall to fit under the closed Hasegawa canopy. I used the clear canopy as a sheild, cutting out a hole to clear the hud frame, then covering it with tape. I plan on having the canopy open so that wont be too much of an issue. Id still like to know where I went wrong though.

And last pic for toinight, are my scratch built static dischargers... made from fishing line, super glued in place.

Well I didnt finish it in time for the Shearwater hobby show, I still have time to finish it for CAMS a tthe end of May.

Edited April 6, 2009 by Charlie Cheetah

[Charlie Cheetah]

Got some paint on this one now... Camo was applied freehand with Model Master enamels. I know I missed a few spots but they were touched up after the pictues were taken. Gonna let the paint cure a few days then Ill gloss coat it for the decals.

Edited April 16, 2009 by Charlie Cheetah

[speedlimit]

Nice work. keep it up!

Eric