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


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20 hours ago, Mike J. Idacavage said:

I just emailed a scan of the Hasegawa 1/72 decals to you using your Caracal email address. If you don't get them soon, let me know and we will go to Plan B. 🙂

 

 

Hi Mike,

 

I received the scans and they were helpful in checking my work - thanks! Habu2 kindly sent me scans of the 1/48 scale Kiddyland decals as well. Many thanks for helping me with this!

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Almost done - this is shaping to be a pretty comprehensive sheet as I was able to add markings for both prototypes in the rollout scheme, the "cloud" scheme, CCV, F-16/79, F-16/101 and AFTI F-16. Profiles coming soon after New Year.

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The "101" on the tail of the F-16/101 clearly was not black. There are not that many clear color photos of this jet, probably because the configuration and the scheme was rather short-lived. I have seen the color of "101" interpreted as some tone of blue, but I am not sure I readily agree to this - I think it might even be gunship gray. Any thoughts? Did anyone see this jet up close?

 

F-16/101 75-0745 parked next to F-16A block 10 production aircraft 79-0346 for comparison, signed by test pilot Dave Palmer

 

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GD covered fin flash artwork in a couple of issues of Code One, they also made a poster with fin flashes. I will try to find my copy. 
 

edit: found it but the depiction is inconclusive other than it’s a shade of grey, definitely not blue or black. I would go with the closest of the three greys used in the early production scheme. 

Edited by habu2
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Paul, I would say Dark Ghost Gray for two reasons. Firstly, the "101" lettering is against a insignia white background, hence the "warmer" tone as you poinr out. Secondly, I would assume that the GD paint shop would have ample amounts of Dark Ghost Gray to hand, while Dark Gull Gray was a Navy color,  and perhaps not readily available at the Fort Worth plant paint shop. K/r, Dutch 

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The GD paintshop would have access to Dark Gull Gray to paint the cockpits, would they not?  To my eyes, the grey in the 101 looks darker than the Dark Ghost Gray of the aircraft in the background, but not as dark (or even "blue") as the Gunship Gray.  The background does affect our perception of colours however, so I just played with the pipette tool in MS Paint to "airbrush" some patches of the colour in the 101.  Not ultra-scientific, I know, but makes for a more direct comparison.

 

Just noticed that the fuselage roundel appears to be cut off at the bottom where it is intersected by the panel line.

 

Jens

Colour-comparison-light.jpg

Edited by jenshb
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33 minutes ago, BuzzUkka said:

Has anyone published a step by step guide of what is needed for a successful 1/48 YF-16 build? Many people say to start with the Arri kit. But where to go from there. That is not a great kit. 

 

I will soon launch the Caracal Models blog and there will be a few entries there - we can probably get started here, I will create a new thread in a couple of days.

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3 hours ago, BuzzUkka said:

Has anyone published a step by step guide of what is needed for a successful 1/48 YF-16 build? Many people say to start with the Arri kit. But where to go from there. That is not a great kit. 

 

It is not a "great" kit but they (and the Entex & Otaki, all the same) are the only kits that capture the YF-unique shapes and details.

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3 hours ago, Dutch said:

Which begs the question, Kursad, which kit are you using for your master?

 

The decals are not designed to fit any specific kit - there are no elements on this sheet that are remotely near being kit-dependent. The tail markings were checked against the Tamiya, Hasegawa, Academy and Monogram F-16 tails that I keep around for designing decal sheets, and all of these are dimensionally identical around the mid-chord section where most of the tail markings go. Any dimensionally accurate F-16 kit should work.

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This is what the final draft looks like - please let me know what you think.

 

I believe it ended up an accurate rendering of the markings on the first prototypes, CCV, AFTI/F-16, and even the rare birds F-16/79 and F-16/101. After refining a few elements and addressing your suggestions/concerns, it is off to print. After that, I will consider organizing some sort of contest / group build (with prizes) for "Early Years" builds using the F-15, F-16 and F-18 sheets.

 

cd48160draft.jpg

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