Jump to content

1/48 F-16AM RNLAF Demo Jet (Tamiya Conversion)


Recommended Posts

Hi Folks,

 

I finally began to tackle a kit, which is on my todo list for some time now.

 

It will be the F-16AM of the Solo Display Team of the Netherland Air Force in its stunning orange/black livery.

I will build it as an in-flight model, using the Syhart decals.

 

As I didn't want to wrestle with the Kinetic kit, I decide to go the route of using the Tamiya kit and the Kasl Hobby conversion kit, which includes a rear fuselage sectian and a tail apropriate for an AM Viper.

Further aftermarket accessoirs I intend to use:

  • Tamiya stiffener plates and probes
  • Aires resin nozzle
  • Royal Resin nose cone (I am not sure yet, If I really use it or go just with the kit parts.)
  • KT Model Resin Works Smokewinders

 

F16_J015_001.jpg

 

I started with the most intimidating step: the surgery of the upper fuselage, but everything went well:

 

F16_J015_002.jpg

 

F16_J015_003.jpg

 

And here, the rear parts in their place on the lower fuselage:

 

F16_J015_004.jpg

 

The fit is quite good, but of course a little bit of filler is still required. The shape and dimension match perfectly, panel line appearance fits to the Tamiya kit.

 

The fuselage parts are not glued together yet, I will do this when I attach the upper fuselage to the lower fuselage, to avoid any alignment issues.

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Work continues in amsall steps.

here is another picture of a dry fit, with the forward fuselage attached and dry fitted to the lower fuselage:

 

F16_J015_005.jpg

 

The next step was the air intake. to get a seamless intake, I used the proven method of mating the forward and rear parts of the intake, getting rid of the lateral seams, and then gluing upper and lower halfes together.

 

F16_J015_006.jpg

 

I glued a piece of styrene to the rear wall of the front wheel well on which the gear door will rest.

 

F16_J015_007.jpg

 

Here a dry fit to see if it will work:

 

F16_J015_008.jpg

 

F16_J015_009.jpg

 

Yep, looks good, even without glue.

 

Its hard to take pictures of white plastic ;-)

 

Cheers,

Markus

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

I made some slow but steady progress over the last weeks: Capt. Stefan "Stitch" Hutton - or at least the model of him - is ready toboard the plane:

 

F16_J015_010.jpg

 

F16_J015_011.jpg

 

F16_J015_012.jpg

 

F16_J015_013.jpg

 

 

It is the Thunderbirds pilot figure with the standard helmet. The helmet was sanded smooth.

The helmet is painted using Mr. Paint colors specifically for this jet, and the markings are self printed decals, as are the shoulder patches

 

The original helmet has a pinstriped lion on the orange part, but that is too delicate to replicate.

 

I also painted the intake and the lower fuselage in light metallic orange, using the two layered Mr. Paint MRP-207.

 

F16_J015_014.jpg

 

The first layer is more ore less the orange base color, the second layer adds the metallic effect. White is the perfect base color for these paint.

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

The pilot also received kneeboards:

 

F16_J015_020.jpg

 

The black areas on the underside of the forward fuselage were painted, and then the intake was attached and the gear doors were glued in. Again, everything fit without hassle.

 

F16_J015_015.jpg

 

Next I glued in the cockpit and attached the upper fuselage. In the first step just the kit parts without the resin spine.

 

F16_J015_016.jpg

 

F16_J015_017.jpg

 

This allows me to check the position of the in-flight mounting socket.

 

The plane will be mounted on a 15mm acrylic rod, which will be inserted through the exhaust. 15mm is also the inner diameter on the smallest piece of the Aires exhaust.

If I just mounted the rod into the resin exhaust, it would not be very stable. I therfore glued a 15mm copper fitting to the back of the compressor fan with epoxy. It will carry the weight of the aircraft, the exhaust only acts as a guide.

 

F16_J015_018.jpg

 

When the epoxy was dry, I glued in the conversion spine. It was necessary to remove any excess epoxy from the outside of the fan part, since the resin part rests upon it.

 

F16_J015_019.jpg

 

Only a small gap on the back remains to be filled. The resin part shapewise fits perfectly, if some care is used during the gluing process.

 

Cheers,

Markus

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

Hi folks,

 

A few detail were added or removed to make an AM out of a C model.

 

F16_J015_021.jpg

 

Apart from the added stiffener plates, the RWR antennas on the leading edge of the wings were removed.

Also, the inboard LEF hinges lost one finger. On the underside, the forward chaff/flare buckets were filled.

 

Another thing is the vertical tail.

 

F16_J015_022.jpg

 

Although marketed as a tail for an AM, the tip is in fact the tip of a C tail.

For a Netherlands aircraft, RAM panels and sensors have to be added to the parabrake housing.

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

Hi folks,

 

I continued the build, starting with the change of the tail.

I removed the position light on top and reshaped the tip to match an A(M) tail. I then added the bas for the position lieght from the kit part.

For the RAM(?) panels on the parabrake, I traced the outline on a piece of masking tape, removed it, scanned it and made some fine adjustmenst in a graphics software. I printed this out on self adhesive paper, cut it with a x-acto blade and put it in place. Afterwards, I made the sesnors from round styrene rods.

 

F16_J015_023.jpg

 

The static wicks are from Master Models (I know, the middle one is missing)

The position light itself will be cut from clear plastic, since the kit parts have the wrong shape for an AM.

 

I Then glued the reinforment plates in front of the tail, added the last tiny pieces and masked the canopy to be ready for some paint.

I still have to cut small groves into the sockets for the static wicks so that the brass ones can be fitted.

 

F16_J015_024.jpg

 

I also painted the exhaust, using Tamiya xf-66 for the grey parts of the petals, and various Alclads for the rest:

 

F16_J015_025.jpg

 

Also, there should be the NO PUSH stencils on the petals. Does anybody know which size they should be?

And finally, I decided to use the kit nose (with the metal pitot tube). After I painted it flat black, I carefully scraped the lightning stripes free from color.

 

F16_J015_026.jpg

 

So, the only thing left to do are the static wicks, then it is ready for the paint booth.

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

 

Edited by delayar
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

Here she is in vallejo white primer:


F16_J015_027.jpg

 

This is also proof that the KASL spine fits really well.

For the Mr. Paint orange, the aircraft should be primed in white, since it isn't very opaque, and you would need very thick layers to cover up color variations or darker colors.

 

After the primer was cured, I sprayed the first layer, the light orange without any metallic particles (on the rear near the exhaust I already sprayed a little bit of the metallic top coat) :

 

F16_J015_028.jpg

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

Edited by delayar
Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you!

 

After the base orange was dry, I shot the metallic orange.

 

F16_J015_029.jpg

 

the darker orange fits perfectly to the color of the Syhart decals. I sprayed the arresting hook area and the inside of the ventral strakes in this color.

 

F16_J015_030.jpg

 

After that, I carfully masked the orange parts to paint the black parts. In most areas, the boundaries of the black areas are marked by decals, so the outline don't have to be masked exactly.

 

F16_J015_031.jpg

 

The grey IFF antenas have been painted by brush.

Now it is ready to receive the black decals.

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

With all those aftermarket accessories you've got there, the whole build must have cost you more than 100 Euros! Man, where our hobby has come to!!!

 

It used to be: kit, glue, paints, brushes, copper wire and thin plastic sheets.

 

Anyhow, the orange color looks spot on!!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks.

Yes, it is not a cheap kit, but there are many build around with way more (and mor expensive) aftermarket than this one.

 

Anyway, the decals are on at last.

This was by no means easy, as the decals are very fragile and need a lot of decal softener to conform to the surface details. Also, they seem to be not specifically sized to the Tamiya kit. But thankfully, there is enough sheet decal material in the darker orange to compensate for too small areas. The only issue is that the decals are not completely opaque, so if they overlap, the overlap areas are darker than the rest.

 

F16_J015_033.jpg

 

Now a gloss clearcoat will follow.

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

Hi!

 

Some other projects in the last weeks prevented me from working on any models.

In the meanwhile, the gloss coat over the decals had anough time to dry, so I could do some detail painting, like the metal doors and mesh areas on the belly.

 

F16_J015_034.jpg

 

The position light on top of the vertical tail was made from a clear sprue. For the A, it is more rectangular than for the C.

 

F16_J015_035.jpg

 

The smokewinders were fitted with little ram air intakes on the bottom between the fins.

 

F16_J015_036.jpg

 

Also, I did coat the black areas with a semi-gloss coat.

 

I would have finished the aircraft yesterday, but when attaching the jet nozzle, I messed up with the CA glue. The glue settled while the nozzle wasn't pushed in the whole way. Luckily, during the process of extracting the nozzle, only the painting of the exhaust got messed up, the airframe itself remined undamaged.

 

F16_J015_037.jpg

 

This is a review of how it will be mounted. The base in the picture is just a provisional base, and also the length of the acrylic rod probably will be shorter. I will determine the final length once the exhaust is repainted and fitted.

 

Cheers,

Markus

Link to post
Share on other sites

Really awesome looking Viper Markus. I just came across some photos of this aircraft yesterday and sparked my interest in it, and finally took a look here at your build. I've been keen on picking up some of KASL's stuff for the kits and it seems they worked out quite well for you. Nice job!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you!

 

In fact, I was surprised how well the KASL set fit. I expected some more blending work, but there was hardly any need for that. The only thing is that they messed up the tip of ther vertical tail, since it has a C shaped tip. But that can be easily rectified with a little sanding and scribing.

 

Cheers,

Markus

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...