Hasegawa 1/32 F-16A

[kg4kpg]

So I normally build 1/72, but picked this kit up at a yard sale super cheap so I think I’d like to give it a go, really big compared to the 1/72. The kit decals, except for the Thunderbird set, don’t look too good. Found an aftermarket set only I’m going to get instead. 
I don’t want to spend a lot on aftermarket, but what are the must-haves to get a more accuracy? Thought I saw something talking about external fuel tanks. 
 

Thanks

[Quixote74]

The Hasegawa 1/32 F-16A is based on the Full-Scale Development (FSD) airframe, so there are several detail differences from a production F-16A.

 

The shape of both the wing and centerline fuel tanks are radically different from the versions used in service. It might be possible to modify the wing tanks to the new style, but the centerline tank has a completely different shape from the early variant.

 

The other most notable difference is the ejection seat, which in the FSD airframes was the Stencel, whereas production aircraft had the ACES II.

 

The web archive version of the late, lamented Habu F-16 database describes the various updates made to each Hasegawa release over the years:

Habu site (archive) - Hasegawa 1/32

 

Aftermarket ACES II seats are fairly common, you may also try finding a full cockpit set (though one for the Hasegawa A may be hard to find).  I'm not sure of an aftermarket source for the tanks, but if you need them you might look for spares from F-16C kits from Tamiya, Academy, or even the later tooling of Revell's F-16C/N.

 

What decals are you planning to use? Depending on the operator and the timeframe, there were several minor changes made to the airframes over time that you may want to include in your build.

[kg4kpg]

Well heck, I guess I don’t have a lot of options. I was going to grab a sheet from Superscale. 32-205 F-16A Falcon 482nd FW Cdr. (Makos). Never was a fan of the red, white and blue schemes. 
 

Happen to know if there is a sheet out there for the gray FSD aircraft?

 

i wish it was a B model kit as I like to build 2-seaters, but beggars can’t be choosers. 😬

Edited March 24, 2020 by kg4kpg

[weirich1]

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[Quixote74]

42 minutes ago, kg4kpg said:

Well heck, I guess I don’t have a lot of options. I was going to grab a sheet from Superscale. 32-205 F-16A Falcon 482nd FW Cdr. (Makos). Never was a fan of the red, white and blue schemes. 
 

Happen to know if there is a sheet out there for the gray FSD aircraft?

 

i wish it was a B model kit as I like to build 2-seaters, but beggars can’t be choosers. 😬

I doubt anyone's ever done a dedicated aftermarket sheet for the FSD birds, but several of the early gray schemes had only basic serial numbers on the tail and basic stencils you could probably use from the kit sheet. There are some interesting variations on the gray schemes before they settled on the "Hill Gray" pattern, take a browse through F-16.net and see if something grabs you:

 

YF-16 and FSD photo album