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CD48160 - 1/48 F-16 "Viper" - The Early Years


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Very nice!

 

Although, someone had posted a photo (I think it was in the F-15 Early Years thread, which has vanished into oblivion) of an F-16 which had the Israeli flag in the lineup below the cockpit. You seemed to be all excited about that, and I wonder what became of that variant?

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Is that an extra "F-16" for the port side of the vertical tail?  or is an extra stbd side missing?

 

also, I only recall seeing the airshow "kill" markings on the port side of the inlet, never the stbd side.  Do you have pics of them on the stbd side of the inlet?

 

.

 

Edited by habu2
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Decal layout and subjects look great and I am very excited about this sheet.    As for building a YF-16, here is the approach I took.  It's far from perfect but it looks the part.   I started out with three F-16 kits in 48th scale.   1:  Otaki YF-16.  Really a basic kit, and it has a hump back that is difficult to deal with.    2: Tamiya first release F-16 (issued in the late 1970's) and lastly 3: Early Hasegawa F-16A block 10 I think.     Using the Hasegawa fuselage, I removed the nose at the panel line right at the forward windscreen edge.  I cut the Otaki F-16 nose at the same panel and glued it to the Hasegawa fuselage.  I used the Instrument panel and seat from the Tamiya F-16.  I used the Hasegawa fin and removed all the ECM bumps.   Intake I shortened by 1/4 inch to move.    Wings, I used the Hasegawa wings, removing 1mm from leading edge and reshaping.  I removed if I remember correctly 1/8 inch from each wing tip.  I used the Tamiya early stabilizers.  The sub fins came from the Otaki kit.   Nose wheel doors (split) I used the Tamiya doors.  Early wheels, I used the Tamiya parts.   Pidot tube on nose came from Tamiya kit.   The reason I did not use the nose from the Tamiya kit is that the kit was modeled from the early FSD aircraft and includes some details from the YF and later details found on the FSD such as the radar nose.  What I did not do.  The gun location on the Hasegawa kit is further back by about 1/8 inch and I just did not have the motivation to move it.  The rear fuselage on the YF has different panel lines but I did not change these.   I used the Hasegawa kit as the basic kit as it has good wheel wells and details.  As I said my conversion or what I call my frankenviper is not perfect but it looks the part, especially sitting next to a current Tamiya F-16.  I am still decaling the beast, those walkways are time consuming.  I am using the Vintigor sheet.  The Caracal decal will be an outstanding back up and also inspiration to build several more early F-16's.   One suggestion on the Caracal decal is to double print the white under the insignia as the red on the wings shows through a little.      

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1 hour ago, habu2 said:

Is that an extra "F-16" for the port side of the vertical tail?  or is an extra stbd side missing?

 

also, I only recall seeing the airshow "kill" markings on the port side of the inlet, never the stbd side.  Do you have pics of them on the stbd side of the inlet?

 

01568 wore the left-slanted F-16 on the starboard side for a while - which seems to be corrected later to the right-slanted one. The extra left-slanted marking allows you to build 01568 accurately for this time period. Compare the tail markings in the first photo below with the next one.

 

The second photo also happens to show the 1975 European tour mission markings on the starboard side of the inlet.

 

earlyf16tail1.jpg

 

earlyf16tail2.jpg

 

 

 

Edited by KursadA
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46 minutes ago, habu2 said:

Did you ever receive your copy of the Aerofax book?  If so check out the shark mouth on '568 on p.34

 

I have it; and yes, it's cool. Unfortunately there was no place left for it - something else had to go. In the end, I think I captured the most widely photographed variations of the prototype markings.

 

One thing I would like to add is a white marking to simulate the prominent rectangular strobe light at the top of the vertical stabilizer on the first two prototypes - this one is not featured on any kit, and it's a structural detail that would be hard to scratchbuild otherwise. I will add it sometime tonight; and move on to finalizing the EF-111 artwork.

 

Edited by KursadA
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They changed the order of flags on 50745 at some point when they added the Egyptian flag, fairly late in the life of this scheme. The order of the flags is correct for any time before that. I just can't cater for every possible variation. I sold a total of 1 (one) sheet to Egypt in 9 years of operating this business. With all due respect to this lonesome customer, we will have to make do without the Egyptian flag and this variation.

 

I deliberately did not use a white background on any of the flags, in  case the decals yellow with age or the white tone used by the modeler does not match the white on the decals. I think it is safer this way - this marking will always go on a white background.

 

But in case anyone is looking for a good puzzle to solve, there are two omissions that I would like to rectify. 

 

1. The warning text on the aft fuselage of CCV F-16:

 

XG2ePPp.jpg

 

2. The text (crew name?) on the ventral fins of F-16/101:

 

s9N23Dr.jpg

 

 

 

These two are the only things that I could not figure out - the first one to figure out any of them gets a free sheet as soon as it is released.

 

 

Edited by KursadA
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Not an Early Viper but ooooooo baby......

 

edit: I now see this has been done by another Baby Seal but only in 72nd, would love to see this in 48th!

 

81-0817 f-16ctf 19860800 ferris a cr

 

Edited by habu2
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IMG_4435-ARC.thumb.jpg.14704ff0ce9cc7f22e6ffc96b5689097.jpgKursad,

 

I've been out of the hobby for a while but still maintain a stash that I'll get to someday.  I also want to build a Viper collection to represent each Block and country.  After seeing the F-15 Early Years sheet I was hoping an F-16 would follow.  Though some are not early F-16s, I always thought a sheet of the "th" F-16s would be cool- 1,500th F-16, 2,000th...etc.  Did I send you reference photos years ago Kursad?

 

I built YF-16 No. 1 15 or so years ago...custom SIIIS seat and a modified resin cockpit.  Oh...and exhaust can from a Hasegawa kit.

 

Chappie

Edited by Chappie
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2 hours ago, cag_200 said:

Nice detail of the exhaust cover there (see previous picture posted).

 

Also the wheel hubs are white there instead of solid black.

 

 

Thanks CAG.  I hadn't been on here in a while and when I posted the first picture I couldn't see it.  

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On 12/28/2019 at 2:39 PM, KursadA said:

They changed the order of flags on 50745 at some point when they added the Egyptian flag, fairly late in the life of this scheme. The order of the flags is correct for any time before that. I just can't cater for every possible variation. I sold a total of 1 (one) sheet to Egypt in 9 years of operating this business. With all due respect to this lonesome customer, we will have to make do without the Egyptian flag and this variation.

 

I deliberately did not use a white background on any of the flags, in  case the decals yellow with age or the white tone used by the modeler does not match the white on the decals. I think it is safer this way - this marking will always go on a white background.

 

But in case anyone is looking for a good puzzle to solve, there are two omissions that I would like to rectify. 

 

1. The warning text on the aft fuselage of CCV F-16:

 

XG2ePPp.jpg

 

2. The text (crew name?) on the ventral fins of F-16/101:

 

s9N23Dr.jpg

 

 

 

These two are the only things that I could not figure out - the first one to figure out any of them gets a free sheet as soon as it is released.

 

 

The top photo says: "EVERYTHING DUCT RETURN", at least that's what it looks like! 😉  The bottom photo says, top line: "USAF F-16 F101". Still can't make out the bottom line.  Maybe I should clean my glasses as Tom suggests.  Seriously,  I looked through my leftover Minicraft 1/32 F-16A decals and couldn't find anything close. I will keep looking.  R/ Dutch 

Edited by Dutch
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I checked what leftover Minicraft 1/32 F-16A decals I have,  but could find nothing close. Seriously,  I  believe the upper photo words are "WARNING HOOK RELEASE" or "DOOR RELEASE."  I base this on a photo of the F-16CCV, with zoom included below.  See Squadron / Signal F-16 Fighting Falcon in Action, No1053, page 9, lower photo. 

Caracal.JPG.30d2b8f02e5db921570d14dac1a1ef73.JPG

Edited by Dutch
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On 12/28/2019 at 1:39 PM, KursadA said:

 

1. The warning text on the aft fuselage of CCV F-16:

 

XG2ePPp.jpg

 

 
Reviewing references this only seems to be present on YF #1 in the CCV configuration.  Same for the text on the inlet divider, only seen on CCV. 
 

My guess would be something referring to the arresting hook but I haven’t found anything legible. 

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On 12/28/2019 at 5:12 PM, habu2 said:

Not an Early Viper but ooooooo baby......

 

edit: I now see this has been done by another Baby Seal but only in 72nd, would love to see this in 48th!

 

 

 

Interesting, I haven't seen that before, for a second I thought I was looking at the XL #2

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What is so special about this aircraft, markings-wise? I don’t see anything other than generic gray stencils and serials. If the excitement is over, let’s get back to early F-16s and I promise I will consider it for a future sheet on later test and eval F-16s.

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