1:48 Tiger Meet F-16

[Els]

I actually started building this kit yesterday but I could not get Flickr to play along.  I have had this kit for a long time, I bought it when it first came out.  The problem was that every time I would think about building it I would look at the decals and then put it back in the box.  It has a huge decal sheet but that is not the problem.

The problem is that the decals are very pixilated.  Hopefully this will show up in the pictures.

They are not as bad when you look at them as they are in the pictures but they are not good either.  They are also very thick but I am going to give them a try,  If they don't look good I may try to touch them up with the airbrush or since I seem to have become a decal hoarder at some point I will just use some after market decals.

Els

[tobiK]

In the box is the old and bad (poor detail and wrong shape) Italeri F-16 kit. But that black-yellow scheme is stunning! My friend did taht kit many years ago, he reported that the nose gear is wrong and the decals made some problems, too. If you want to know details, I have to ask him.

[phantom]

Nice, welcome aboard to the GB.

[Els]

This kit is going together very fast.  I guess this kit was originally produced so that it could be sold as a dual or single seat version.  It has a large hole that needs to be covered where the second seat could have been.

The problem is that the one piece spine that is supposed to cover this is not tall enough or wide enough.  If you line up the left side you get the following gaps.

It also sits to low for the canopy to fit correctly.  I added some sprue to the bottom of the spine to lift it.

You can see that the back end is now level and the canopy fits.  A little putty and it should be fine after sanding.

Intake needed some help.

Same problem with the tail as the spine.  Left side fit fine but the right side needed a spacer.

Since the decals are old and thick I did not want to fill in the panel lines with paint and future so I decided to try them out over pretty much bare plastic.  I am hoping that they will be able to settle down with the panel lines showing.  Either they were going to work or I was going to pull them off and use some aftermarket decals so I started with the tops of the wings.

There has been a little cracking and a little rolling but nothing that I cannot fix, not bad really for 18 year old Revell decals.  I am going to go ahead with these decals.

Els

[Kurt H.]

nice work getting everything to fit. That filler piece looked like a real challenge to get it to fit. 

 

I am not sure I understand what you did, did you paint the fuselage before adding the decals?

[Els]

Kurt,

I did not paint the fuselage prior to adding the decals.  There are some places where I had to put a little black paint to cover up areas where I used putty.  This is the first time that I ever tried putting decals on bare plastic (kit plastic is black) and I hope they stay on for the long run.  The Revell decals were so thick that I thought a coat of paint and a coat or two of future would have filled in the panels to the point that the decals would have just sat on the surface and no detail would show through.  I have since put two coats of future over the wing and tail decals and everything seems fine.  I guess we will all see how it turns out.

Els

[Els]

Its been a while but I had a little time to work on the kit.  A little masking tape and bit of styrene were used to make some belts for the seat.  They are not great but good enough to indicate that there are some.

 

I was about to glue the canopy on when I noticed I had not put the HUD in.  Here is how I get the iridescent look for my HUDS.  I bought a roll of this wrapping paper from Michaels.  It should be enough to last me about 30 life times.

Then I cut off a piece big enough to cover the clear plastic HUD.  It doesn't have to be exact because it is easy to trim off later with a sharp blade.

I then use Future to adhere it to the HUD.

After it is dry I put another coat of Future over the whole thing and then trim it to fit.  If you look at it from different angles you get different shades of color.

It usually looks pretty good through the canopy.

Els

[airmechaja]

I really like the HUD technique. I will try that on my next build.

[CaptainObvious]

Gosh, you're a brave soul for tackling those decals! They turned out great too.
Those scratched seatbelts are very convincing. Nice tip on the HUD!
-co

Edited November 10, 2018 by CaptainObvious

[Els]

I am calling this one done.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, it is good enough to be in my 2 foot airforce.  The decals went on a lot better than I expected.  I will post a couple of more pics in the completed section.

[phantom]

That turned out great!!!

[admiralcag]

Nice work!

 

Vern

[Els]

Thank you.  I am pretty happy with it.

[Kurt H.]

Nice work

Edited November 24, 2018 by Kurt H.