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1/32 NSAWC F-16A Block 15 OCU


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Update.

I have the base of the camo colours down on the jet now. As I kept changing my mind and making them lighter, I have all but covered the pre-shading. But thank goodness for post shading.

My intention is to have these base colours nicely faded and then do the spot/patch ups that the Navy painters have done to weather the aircraft. Hopefully I can pull it off, but lets see.

The limiting factor at the moment seems to be the Australia (world?) wide shortage of Gunze H308 FS36375! I cant find it anywhere and used my last precious drops to lighten the 36118 darkest shade.

I have masks being cut as we speak by Scale Precision Masks, whose customer service and attention to detail have been great.

Anyway here it is.

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FEED BACK APPRECIATED

I am in the most difficult portion of this build, which is the weathering. I am pretty happy with the darkest grey patched, but I am unconvinced that the medium grey (lightened 36231) is working.

Some of the weathering just seems to come out like a post shade, which may look ok, but not necessarily representative of the jet.

But please, let me know what you think.

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This is the area I am most unhappy with. They darker grey used seems to in the wrong shade.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Nice work! As someone who's just started cutting plastic to do this plane in 1/48 this thread is both a reference and an inspiration. Getting the paint scheme right is what worries me most due to the difficulty of realistically weathering without it looking like a bad paint job by the modeller!

Regarding the medium grey, looking at photos there seem to be 2 or even 3 shades of it on some planes, I think its very hard to get the shade "wrong".

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very close to finishing now. I was spraying some flat coat, with the cap off the airbrush (first mistake) when I spilled some on the right elevator, which is back in the paint shop to be completely resprayed!!!

It could have been worse though. Just the AIM-9 to attach and maybe another flat coat.

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I used the end of the Two Bobs ACMI pod, but scratch my own body from Evergreen and metal foil.

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Model looks great! Did you use masks for the camo or just freehand it?

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the comments gents.

As for the airbrushing, I used paper masks roughly blu-tacked down, then just a very fine mist of paint on the model/mask to see where to paint up to, then remove the mask. This combined with heavily thinned paint, I can get a feathered edge.

Thanks again for the interest.

I have a base from 3Wire in the post with the NSAWC logo printed on it, should make a neat little dio.

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Thanks for the comments gents.

As for the airbrushing, I used paper masks roughly blu-tacked down, then just a very fine mist of paint on the model/mask to see where to paint up to, then remove the mask. This combined with heavily thinned paint, I can get a feathered edge.

So how mouch (roughly) do you thin your paints? I tried the same technique on my Ta-152 but I left the masks on during the painting. I got quite a bit of overspray. My paint was way to thick too, so I'm trying to learn!

Thanks for the help!

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Quick question (more for my own benefit :P). Are the stiffener plates at the wing/fuselage join the only ones on these aircraft? I've struggled to get a really good topside picture showing them.

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Quick question (more for my own benefit :P/>). Are the stiffener plates at the wing/fuselage join the only ones on these aircraft? I've struggled to get a really good topside picture showing them.

From my research yes. The Block 15 OCU had most of the C model fuselage refinements, not requiring most of the fuselage plates.

Happy to be corrected though.

Another small detail I don't recall placing in the thread is the square/rectangular GPS antenna behind the canopy on the spine, instead of the round kit supplied example.

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