Thadeus Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Frankly, F-16 is not my favourite aircraft. However, ever since Polish AF bought F-16's it started to grow on me. For some time now, I've been wanting to build Polish F-16. Academy KF-16 boxing would be great for this, but the radome and intake area are wrongly shaped - I can't get over it :( CMK resin intake doesn't help with this :( So right now I'm waiting for Tamiya to release the block 52 :) So right now, I'm going to attempt to convert this kit, into block 52+ F-16C. Since I hate Hasegawa F-16 cockpit, I bought Aires resin pit. To update this bird I've gathered some parts from my part stash. I'm hoping spare Revell exhaust pipe will fit the Hasegawa kit. I managed to find some spare Hasegawa CFT's from F-16I. I'm hoping on using the Model Maker Decals for the F-16C # 4055. I also have new Techmod stencils. With a little bit of luck, I might just pull this one off :) It's been too long since I've built a Polish AF bird. Thanks for watching fellas Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crazy Snap Captain Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Sweet! I love this scheme. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 I like it too :) I hope I'll manage not to screw it up. I've not yet decided if I'm going to put decals on the CFT's though. Frankly, when I started to assemble this kit, I almost forgot to take pics! I attempted to add bird slicers by cutting them one by one from the plastic part from Revell. I've done it before, and it was pretty easy. But this was then :) Now I've had to cut out the piece of plastic in front of the canopy and replace it with the Revell part. It fitted pretty good! I've had a lot of work trying to fit the Aires pit in there. I'm not happy how it came out. I'm going to have to do a lot of puttying. I've stripped the cft's of their previous IAF camo. Initially I wanted to add a piece of Revell parabrake housing to the Hasegawa part, but it turned out, that Revell piece was just too different in terms of width and height. Luckilly, I've had some from Academy kit in my spares, from my whif Polish F-16D block 42 I scrapped in January. And I've managed to close the fuselage, build, and attach the intake and add the wings. That Revell exhaust fits pretty good, only on the underside it requires some reshaping. I guess I'll have to rescribe part of the upper fuselage. I hate rescribing and I'm not too good at it. But I guess if I won't do it I will never learn. I should've gone with Revell kit ;) Thanks for stopping by! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SARguy Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 (edited) Looking good so far. I have the decals for both the 2013 and 2014 schemes have done the dual using the Kinetic block 52 kit so far am planning on doing the others but prob won't have time during this go Gordon Edited May 8, 2015 by SARguy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted May 9, 2015 Author Share Posted May 9, 2015 Very nice Viper buddy! I'm going to have to get myself one of those spined Kinetic F-16's :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 Assembly is pretty much complete. I've puttied all the joints that needed filling. There's still some sanding in the cockpit area left. I guess I failed to put it properly in place. Seriously guyst, that Revell exhaust fit was awesome! I believe I'm going to have an extended painting session this weekend ;) Thanks for stopping by! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tobiK Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Happy painting! So your paint must be dry already? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted May 17, 2015 Author Share Posted May 17, 2015 Heh, I guess that was the plan, right? ;) My plans unfortunatly are very unreliable. I've had a blast painting and decaling my Canadian Hornet. It just took one day more than anticipated... My next painting session window is on wednsday :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 Yeeeey! The paint is on! :D I'm currently in the process of decaling :) Techmod stencils are awesome, super thin, but it makes applying walkway stencils a bit hard, and troublesome to move. Still, luckily for me there were two sets of all markings on the sheet ;) Next time will be better :) Thanks for looking folks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted May 24, 2015 Author Share Posted May 24, 2015 It has been a rather long while since I've built an F-16. I guess this was supposed to go this way. I really dig the Polish Air Force schemes, and this one is no exception. Yup, it's done! In the hindsight I should've gone with the Revell kit ;) But this one came out not bad. There are some minor errors in the exhaust paiting and some cockpit painting but I can live with them :) This is by far my best attempt at Polish Viper ever! I guess any Viper ;) Since Aires cockpit included WAR Hud I glued the kit one instead :) You can hardly see anything, right? :lol: My biggest FUP was that rear canopy... I fogged it :( Those CFT decals were smaller than Hasegawa CFT's, and I've had to touch up the paint a lot. If You ever use them, dry fit them to the surface and cut them up - it's better this way :) Damn, this was a fun build :) I'll have to repeat it some time soon :) Thanks for stopping by by my Viper Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SARguy Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 Looks really great, very nice build, paint and decal Gordon Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted May 24, 2015 Author Share Posted May 24, 2015 Thanks buddy, I apreciate it :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crazy Snap Captain Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Thadeus, That looks stunning mate. Really great effort. Loving your work! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 Thanks mate! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Great work Thadeus! :thumbsup:/> I was not sure about this scheme, but when I saw your finished model, I decided to add this to my list. It looks great! Did you decal the conformal tanks separately and then attached the tanks as a final step? Also, you mentioned that the tanks were a bit too big for the decals. Did the decal sheet list what kit the tank decals were designed for? If I am going to add this scheme to my future build list, I might as well get the correct kit to start with! Have fun modeling! Mike :cheers:/> Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted May 27, 2015 Author Share Posted May 27, 2015 Frankly, the Model Maker decal sheet didn't specify which decal should go where. Not really a problem with just a few of them ;) There was no indication of which model they were scaled to. Just in case, I've decaled the CFT's separately. They were from Hasegawa F-16I, so they fit the model well :) In fact, I was expecting some problems with decals fit, just didn't realise they would be too small. The upper cft decal fitted better than side cft decal. Hope this helps. Have fun building Your Viper :) And save me a seat in the audience ;) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sebastijan Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Nice looking Viper! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.