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Now shipping is this big guy, sporting options for 18 F-16s from United States Air Forces Europe. This is a rather sad walk down memory lane, with jets depicted from long-gone squadrons. Both new sheets are now available at www.reidairpublishing.com

Options include

1) F-16C 84-1250, 50th TFW, Hahn AB, Germany, November 1989

2) F-16D 84-1325 "Cat's Meow" 496TFS, 50TFW, Hahn AB, Germany, July 1988

3) F-16C 84-1315 "In the Mood", 496TFS, 50TFW, Hahn AB, Germany, July 1988

4)F-16C 85-1426, 526TFS, 86TFW, Ramstein AB, Germany, April 1987

5) F-16C 85-1464, 512TFS, 86TFW flagship, Ramstein AB, Germany, August 1987

6) F-16C 85-1546, 480TFS, 52TFW, 1st F-16 assigned to the 52TFW, Spangdahlem AB, Germany, April 23, 1987

7) F-16C 87-0270, 480TFS, 52TFW flagship, Spangdahlem AB, Germany, July 1991

8) F-16C 85-1552, 480TFS, 52TFW flagship, Spangdahlem AB, Germany, September 1988

9) F-16C 91-0361, 480FS, 52FW, Operation Enduring Freedom, Kandahar AB, Afghanistan, July 2013

10) F-16C 91-0366, 480FS flagship, 52FW, Operation Enduring Freedom, Kandahar AB, Afghanistan, July 2013

11) F-16C 87-0228, 614TFS, 401TFW (P), Operation Desert Storm, January 19, 1991 *shot down during 'Package Q' mission over Baghdad*

12) F-16C 86-0366, 612TFS, 401TFW, 16th Air Force flagship, Torrejon AB, Spain, July 1989

13) F-16C 88-0443, 510FS, 31FW, Aviano AB, Italy, Operation Odyssey Dawn, March 2011

14) F-16C 89-2016, 555FS, 31FW, Aviano AB, Italy, July 2002

15) F-16C 89-2137, 555FS, 31FW, 31st Operations Group flagship, triple Galeb-killer, Aviano AB, Italy, June 2014

16) F-16C 88-0435, 555FS, 31FW, Operation Allied Force, Aviano AB, Italy, April 1999

17) F-16C 87-0351, 555FS, 31FW, Aviano AB, Italy, June 2000

18) F-16C 89-2001, 510FS, 31FW flagship, Aviano AB, Italy, March 2000

48010_instructions_main.jpg

48010_USAFE_Viper.jpg

Edited by jmel
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Ooops.. I drooled on my keyboard.

BTW: there is only one pair of stars'n bars. I suppose it is meant to be completed with some of the kit's decals?

No, there is a 2nd sheet not shown that has the walkways and other stencils.

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It's getting even better! So how many models can be done with one set of decals?

I knew someone was going to ask that! :D

The easy answer is four, but only if you do specific jets and/or squadrons. For example, there is only one set of SP tailcodes for the early Spang jets, only one set of falcons for the Hahn jets, and only one set of falcons for either of the Torrejon jets.

There are four full sets of stencils included (two early and two modern). You can easily do two early jets and two late jets, again depending on which jets and/or squadrons. Does that help at all? I hope that makes sense.

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Woohooo! Sharkmouth F-16s! Wasn't there a two-seater with a sharkmouth too? I seem to recall the Hasegawa F-16D kit having that option?

Any chance of seeing these sharkmouthed ones in 1:32 as well?

Jens

Edited by jenshb
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Hey, Jens, you are correct. 546 showed up at Spang with D-model 85-1572. Aside from a multi-colored tailflash, its markings were exactly the same as those on 546. You could easily build 572 from this sheet, but I just ran out of real estate to include specific markings for it--or any other--aircraft on this sheet.

Edited by jmel
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Hey, Jens, you are correct. 546 showed up at Spang with D-model 85-1572. Aside from a multi-colored tailflash, its markings were exactly the same as those on 546. You could easily build 572 from this sheet, but I just ran out of real estate to include specific markings for it--or any other--aircraft on this sheet.

Jake,

I can understand that, but you can easily include it on Part II together with A- and B-models from Hahn and Torrejon, the 512th TFS boss bird 85-1412 (link) and line birds with the dragon tail marking (link), some line birds from Spang from the 23rd and 81st TFS and Hahn and Spang C-models with ODS mission markings. :D/>/>/>/>

For my part, I will do my very best to make sure Part I sells good so you will follow my chain of thought and I think a lot of modelers here in Europe have waited for a sheet like this long enough to make it sell very fast.

Cheers,

Joerg

PS: I just noticed the shadows of the tail numbers and the lightning bolt on the Ramstein aircraft are shown yellow on the sheet. They should be printed in gold. Also the 496th TFS used golden tail bands (sometimes but not always) and crew name stripes as on 84-1315 (link)

PPS: Or you could always do the plane you and Steffi Graf flew in 85-1511 (link) :thumbsup:

Edited by Joerg
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I like your way of thinking Joerg!

If you look carefully at close-ups of the markings on the two Ramstein jets, you'll see the markings aren't true gold. At least they weren't on the dates of the pics sent to me by Christian Gerard from 1987. They are a goldish-yellow, but not true gold. Likewise the HR tailflash and canopy blocks.

Jake

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I like your way of thinking Joerg!

If you look carefully at close-ups of the markings on the two Ramstein jets, you'll see the markings aren't true gold. At least they weren't on the dates of the pics sent to me by Christian Gerard from 1987. They are a goldish-yellow, but not true gold. Likewise the HR tailflash and canopy blocks.

Jake

Jake,

do you have Ospreys Superbase #3 "Ramstein - Headquarters of the USAFE" published in 1988? There are some nice closeups of the tails of 85-1426 and 85-1464 in good weather and you can easily see that the color is definitely true gold. I think the problem with the walkarounds on Primeportal is that the weather was miserable on the day of the actual airshow and I am with you that on those pics it looks like golden yellow due to the tails being all wet. But it wasn't. If you do not have the book I can mail take shoot those pics and mail them to you. Here´s another pic of 85-1464, which shows how different the same jet looked depending on the light. But again it is gold to me. My link

For the Hahn birds I am not 100% certain, but they used gold on some of their jets.

Cheers,

Joerg

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Jake,

Joerg is correct - the text in the mentioned book even state the markings to be black on gold for the 86TFW Commanders bird and 526TFS Co's bird.

As for the Hahn Vipers, the C/D models only had Falcons on white background. I have checked all the 151 F-16C pictures ranging from 1986 until Conversion to the Block 40's, and all have black Falcon on white background exept during DS when the Falcon also went low-viz.

The Hahn A/B's on the other hand had golde background for the final year of A/B model operation. But this is back to 1986 and as mentioned only for the A/B models.

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As for the Hahn Vipers, the C/D models only had Falcons on white background. I have checked all the 151 F-16C pictures ranging from 1986 until Conversion to the Block 40's, and all have black Falcon on white background exept during DS when the Falcon also went low-viz.

Niels!

Hmmm, there seems to be always an exception to the rule.. golden backgrounds

I think the 50th TFW also liked the golden markings very much. If you search the net you´ll find lots of pics of F-16C/Ds with golden outlines to the tail band and golden backgrounds for the crew names. Seems gold was in in the late 80s as all 3 squadrons were into this.

Cheers,

Joerg

Edited by Joerg
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I think the problem with the walkarounds on Primeportal is that the weather was miserable on the day of the actual airshow and I am with you that on those pics it looks like golden yellow due to the tails being all wet.

Which Prime portal walkarounds, Joerg? I'm going from photos Christian sent me, and they don't appear to have been taken during an airshow. I do not have the Ramstein book.

If the markings are indeed gold, I'll certainly make that quick switch. I'd sure rather be wrong now than later. Thanks for the heads-up and advice before it's too late! The funny thing is that I initially drew them as gold but changed them after looking more closely at the pics.

Jake

Edited by jmel
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You are not doing anything wrong by going With gold for the 86TFW and 526TFS Commanders birds, Jake.

As for the Hahn birds, the markings and timeframe you depict above for the Vipers did have white background for the Falon on the tail.

Jorge, I found a similar photo as you linked to - dated August 1987;

http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/General-Dynamics-F-16C/1299755/&sid=d4fd3d336f0b2ee98c6be6bcf2261bb9

Turns out the 10TFS (blue squadron) had yellow or gold outline to the tail band, sometimes also to the tail coding. This was also done during the last trip to Red Flag With the A/B-models in 1986. I think these markings are special markings for special occations rather than standard.

The 496TFS carried yellow markings all along, both with and without black outline to the tail band.

Edited by Niels
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Which Prime portal walkarounds, Joerg? I'm going from photos Christian sent me, and they don't appear to have been taken during an airshow. I do not have the Ramstein book.

If the markings are indeed gold, I'll certainly make that quick switch. I'd sure rather be wrong now than later. Thanks for the heads-up and advice before it's too late! The funny thing is that I initially drew them as gold but changed them after looking more closely at the pics.

Jake

These Walkarounds: http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/f-16_home.htm Look at all the links for the "Flagship Series" by Carl Dennis.

I am just scanning the pics from the book and will mail them ASAP. :cheers:

Cheers,

Joerg

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As for the Hahn birds, the markings and timeframe you depict above the Vipers did have white background for the Falon on the tail. They probably had gold at a later stage, but at different time to Yours.

Oh I never meant to say those Falcons would be wrong. They are correct with white background. I just posted the link to show that there were golden ones. Looking at that airframe, it was brand new, so it is likely they carried that over from some A-models.

That said, I am still not convinced regarding the name plate for 84-1315. To me the pic I linked looks golden.

Cheers,

Joerg

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That said, I am still not convinced regarding the name plate for 84-1315. To me the pic I linked looks golden.

Cheers,

Joerg

That one I'm sure of, Joerg. I have a hi-res pic of sent to me and it is not pure gold. It's the same golden yellow as the tailflash.

Jake

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You are not doing anything wrong by going With gold for the 86TFW and 526TFS Commanders birds, Jake.

It's looking like you guys are correct. I can hold off on sending these to Cartograf for a day or two until I'm 100% certain.

These Walkarounds: http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/f-16_home.htm Look at all the links for the "Flagship Series" by Carl Dennis.

Wow, those are awesome!!! I wish I'd seen these before. :doh:

Thanks for all of the help with these guys. By all means, I'd much rather have mistakes pointed out now before they are printed.

Jake

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