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CD48056 - CAS F-16 Vipers


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Thanks - if only gathering references for every project were this easy. If any one you has the TB sheet, please send me a PM - I have some questions. Unless I hit any snags in getting the details right, I should be able to do this pretty quickly.

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The original "Charcoal Vipers" were two early production jets, F-16A 78-0008 and F-16B 78-0096, both with HL tails. The Two Bobs sheet covered only -0096, not -0008.

The "CAS Vipers" were early Block 25 F-16Cs plus GD's FSD F-16B 75-0752. All wore WA tailcodes during the trials. It is my understanding all the Cs came from Shaw, and I have photo documentation of at least one of the jets (83-1144) in CAS paint with a SW tail - I don't know if this (SW tail) was before or after the CAS trials, I suspect after. The Two Bobs sheet did not include the SW markings, which included the 33 TFS Falcons tail flash, gold(?) text on a blue stripe. The WA CAS scheme had no fin flash markings.

After the CAS trials GD continued to use 75-0752 as a demonstrator, still in "Charcoal/CAS" paint but with GD (General Dynamics) on the tail. -0752 now sits down the street from me at Frontiers of Flight Museum, still wearing the CAS paint, but engine-less and and severely faded from the Texas sun.

Many years ago Revell released their 1/48 kit (#4517) with markings for -0008, and both Testors/Italeri (#680) and ESCI (#9028) released 1/72 kits with markings for -0096.

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..I have photo documentation of at least one of the jets (83-1144) in CAS paint with a SW tail - I don't know if this (SW tail) was before or after the CAS trials, I suspect after. The Two Bobs sheet did not include the SW markings, which included the 33 TFS Falcons tail flash, gold(?) text on a blue stripe.

That one caught my attention as well; I will try to include markings for it on my sheet if I can.

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I've only ever seen one image of the Shaw jet, as Habu said the only difference between the Nellis "WA" jets was the "SW" code and dark blue fin band with the word Falcons in gold.

No Wing/Sqn badges,no Crew Names.

It only flew from Shaw for around a month in the Lizard paint,before it was repainted in the standard grey colours

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Good idea - I will start looking around for more references. Meanwhile, contact me if you can contribute any reference material so I can get these done quickly.

Yes, yes, yes and yes again!

Euro1 Vipers? I'm all over this :)

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I assigned the item number CD48056 to this project, and changed the name of the thread - it is now planned to be part of the November releases if I can finish it sometime this weekend.

Kursad - I presume you will be doing this in 1/72 as well? HINT!!! :)

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Folks, I am about to finish this sheet. Before I wrap it up, though: Did the GD company demonstrator F-16B 75-0752 ever really fly in the markings that it currently wears at the museum? Or were these applied later when the aircraft was put to display? I am thinking about including these, but it would probably be a waste of time if all this is a museum decoration.

0000000117.jpg

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Whether it really flew in these markings or not, adding these was not a big deal and would have added some visual interest to a sheet that is otherwise mostly numbers and letters - so I added markings for 75-0752 as it currently is. I think the sheet includes markings for every F-16 that ever wore the green camouflage scheme: I added markings for 78-008, and fixed several issues that were on previous sheets.

Now I need some input on what the blue tail band of the Shaw aircraft looked like at that time period, and we can call this sheet complete.

cd48056draft.jpg

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