F-16C 4070 1:48 Tamiya

[arekch]

I want to build a beauty like this one :

Base for a build comes from Tamiya

I'll use some add-ons:

Aires: landing gear bays, cockpit and exhaust.

Brassin: AMRAAMs, aero brakes and wheels/

Chute container I will copy from Hase F-16D

Reco pod will be build from scratch.

Painting from PAF Airbase Łask - home of polish recon F-16 pilots :mrgreen:

As for today I have spend a "little" time reworking landing gear bays. Aires has f**** up it completely, they are too short and impossible to use as a producer want to. It looks like a replacement for Tamiya intake duct bottom part but it's ~2mm too short in length the same problem is with diameter of the inlet pipe it's narrower than Tamiya's one. One have to rebuild it it's not useable OOB.

When I have finished my desktop looks like this:

In short:

In main gear bay I cut off front wall, lengthened bay with PS sheet 0,8 mm thick and finally glued reversed front of the gear bay from Tamiya. I filled all grooves on this and scribed depression on the port side.

Hole between port and starboard halves where too big, so I filled it with plasticard, puttied, filed and made a narrower one. I have destroyed some detail in the bay with a Dremel so I have had to rebuild it. Details are visible as white parts on a photo. The bay was also too narrow so I had to wide it on the sides.

Back side view shows how terrible fit were and how serious were a surgery needed to fit it in. In some places I drilled through the resin and I have to blank it with 0,13mm plasticard.

I have glued Tamiya intake and filed all seams inside to get my own seamless sucker :D/>/>/>/>

Edited August 9, 2014 by arekch

[arekch]

Then I have dremelled out all Tamiya's detail from gear bays and thinned down walls for Aires bays. Than the fun starts again with front bay.

I had to cut front and back wall, lengthened the bay with evergreen square 0,75 rod on front and back and rebuild the walls. Then I detailed walls especially rear because of a lot of different hydraulic lines and some installations with pressure gauge. I have build pipes them from copper wire 0,2 mm and all gizmos turned on my dremel from 1mm PS rod.

Here one can find a view of intake duct from Tamiya with deleted/thinned walls to accommodate Aires resin bays.

Here is how it all looks dry-fitted with some tape:

Hope it looks acceptable :rolleyes:/>/> I'll have to wash it all out of dust and other residues.

Now it's time to start with the cockpit. It will be tough it looks like nothing fits so it will be a long story :whistle:/>/>

TBC

[Aigore]

Fun fun fun when the aftermarket replacements needs scratching to work :P

Great work on the tweaking! :D

[rom]

Nice work!!!

[christosxt]

I have no words! I'll follow you

[arekch]

Veery veeery slow progress but always forward 8-)
a little update with different things that  can not be find in japanese box but necessary to make a polish Falcon:

Final version of the braking chute container with all RAM plates, antennas and chute bag, visible from the back while a container is not empty  
 

I've trained a little bit of molding and casting due to a need of build up stock for a future builds of other polish Falcons:

No one of the sets available on the market is even close to a real thing, so it's necessary to scratch a proper one.

The last bat not least big difference of Block 52+ vs earlier Blocks are forward gear bay doors. It's made from some kind of laminates not pressed from dural like the one in the box. Not an piece of cake due to a sandwich construction, but finally I have made a master:

the key is to sandwich 4 layers of plastic - two very thin (0,05mm Tamiya PlaPlate for a top plate another  thick one for a body which is flat on the top and concave on a bottom glued smoothly to a sanded thin Tamiya's door from the box.

I'll have to prepare a two part mold for making some copies for a future use.

[DanW]

Very nice. I am glad you covered most of the specific details that usually the builders of the Polish Viper forget to include. Remember to add the bulge in the intake right above the nose gear bay and also the corresponding depression to accommodate the fork of the wider wheel.

[arekch]

17 minutes ago, DanW said:

Remember to add the bulge in the intake right above the nose gear bay and also the corresponding depression to accommodate the fork of the wider wheel.

It's already done 

I have updated this after my visit with a camera at Łask Air Force Base and after shooting ~ 500 photos of a real Falcons.

There are more visible differences of Block 52+ vs earlier ones: some changes in panels on a top due to internal stiffeners, new antennas and panels on and around  intake, some panel lines in the near of the gun and on the opposite side are different, ne should add intake to the air-conditioning system below the canopy, RAM add-ons over a spine  etc etc...

 

[Viper01]

Don't forget there's also a difference in the length of the turkey feathers of the nozzle..

 

Remy.