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Kinetic 1/48 F 16 Block 52+ & Block 52M HAF Dual Build (WIP)


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Hellow fellow models!!!

My name is Thanos, I am a mechanics student from Athens, Greece. One of my passions are airplanes. I spend the most of my day in home, due to the corona virus outbreak. So, I started scrolling in YouTube and I found lots of aircraft modeling videos. I didn’t waste any time and I bought my first kits, (2 Eduard Spitfires (1/72) and a Kinetic F 16 Block 52+ HAF (1/48), which are actually my favorite aircrafts), paints and an H&S Ultra 2 in 1 airbrush. I had almost no experience in scale modeling (only a Revell A320 and a Revell Leopard 2A6, almost 5 years ago), but I have a lot of experience in general manufacturing, as I used to spend the most of my day in my university’s laboratories, prior to virus outbreak.

I had already made a thread about this project in jet modeling sector, but I decide to post also some pictures here. Anfortunately I don't have many pictures from the first stages of the manufacturing.

 

For this project I am using the following

  • Kinetic 48028 F-16C Block 52+ Hellenic Air Force  
  • Eduard 648013 F-16 seat for KINETIC
  • Eduard 648011 F-16 late wheels for KINETIC

 

I started with the cockpit, its construction was very easy. I used reference photos from a book called "Vipers under the skin". I used AK's 3rd gen acrylics for as base colors (Intense black as priming and then I sprayed 80% sky gray + 20% england grey as base color). For the details I also used some AKs 3rd gen, some TAMIYA acrylics and Humbrol Enamels. 

For the airbrushing I used the 0.2mm nozzle and for the detailing I used DaVinci NOVA 10/0 and Winsor and Newton 111 3/0 synthetic brushes.

 

49803637767_0d64f9a86c_k_d.jpg49803332086_647736f667_k_d.jpg49802779973_0df9d469a5_k_d.jpg

 

Then I worked with the inlet and the exhaust.

 

  • Inlet

I made some fitting testing und I painted it inside. I used white with very little sky gray, also I used Mr.Surfacer 1200 in order to fill some gaps. The overall fitting of the outer part was good but I used some puty to fill the gaps.

 

49802784738_7c3e916548_k_d.jpg49803331331_d0643a37af_k_d.jpg49803329371_0412e80620_k_d.jpg

 

  • Afterburner chamber and middle part:

 

As you can see in the pictures I tried to fill some flaws caused by the mould. At first I painted with AK's 3rd gen Intense White mixed with only a little of Sky Grey. Then I sprayed some smoke lines (following my referense pictures and my experience with the engine) with Intense Black, in the end I further weathered it with a mix (using again the refernce pictures) of Winsor & Newton Wintor Ivory Black and Abteilung Dark Rust oil paints (I used a No 8 Synthetic Flat Brush). I didn't thin the mix prior to the application (as this oils have relatively low viscosity), but I only used AK's odorless enamel thinner to remove the excess paint. I used the same processes for the afterburner chamber and the exhaust nozzle connector but I tried to make a heavier weathering, using two tones of the weathering mix (a blacker and a browner one).

 

49803303341_9dadea0fac_k_d.jpg49803302956_eae38ed3e1_k_d.jpg49803605817_bebba39526_k_d.jpg

 

  • Exhaust nozzle:

For the inside part of the exhaust nozzle I used a mix of White and Medium Grey mix, trying to replicate the ceramic material. And I weathered it using different tones of the weathering mixture. The most difficult part was the exterior painting. As a base I painted it black and then with natural steel metalic color. I made a mix using black and medium grey to paint the smoke and then I tried to shade every fin using the previous weathering mix (Ivory Black and Dark rust). 

 

49854011973_bc7ce9ea47_k_d.jpg49803301466_505a378642_k_d.jpg

 

  • Wheel Bay:

 

The assembly of the main wheel bay was relatively easy, also I made some parts of the electrical harness using copper cables. I made preshadowing using black colour and then I painted white. I used AK's paneliner for grey camo and Winsor & Newton Wintor Ivory Black & Raw Umber oil colours.

 

49854854127_43977bfd5e_k_d.jpg49854009778_1eaa2a3e36_k_d.jpg

 

  • Fuselage and CFTs

 

There weren't many fitting issues, but before the final assembly, I made lots of dry fittings. The biggest issue I had was with the gun cover, which had a slightly smaller curvature, after extensive use of putty and sanding, I think that I manage to fix it. The CFTs dry fitting was also really good, I didn't open holes and I positioned them using their silhouette. For the side nose parts I used some blu tack in order to adjust them, I haven't glued them since I am not sure if I must fix the nose first. (just to be sure I will add some bolts as counter-weight).

 

49854011143_b58e7fa155_k_d.jpg49854019968_da2cb597aa_k_d.jpg

 

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The only major problems where those marked on the picture but I managed to repair them.

 

rsz_11inkeddsc_0496_li.jpg.9a652993e5e12cd0e1fe9f48be1d9029.jpg

 

49854848197_98a6560fb5_k_d.jpg

 

49854546571_0f28f9c026_k_d.jpg

 

Since I am new to the hobby, I would like to hear your opinion about my project. 

 

 

 

Edited by iceman98
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Nice. I'm curious how will You rate the kit, after it's done.  I'm building a Kinetic Polish F-16C, but I've not yet painted the intake, or anything else for that matter. Gun insert isn't the best part of this kit. Perhaps You could post some slightly bigger pictures? I've read the nose panels fit is horrible, but You've seem to managed them nicely.

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I would fit the radome before fitting the side inserts, this will allow you get a better profile all round. You may need to add some packing under the inserts to stop them sinking below the surrounding areas(does that make sense?).

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Makes perfect sense. I often used blue tack when when closing the gear covers on in-flight build. But it's easier to just cut out gear well and glue them from inside. Can't really apply this technique to the F-16 nose though.

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2 hours ago, Thadeus said:

Makes perfect sense. I often used blue tack when when closing the gear covers on in-flight build. But it's easier to just cut out gear well and glue them from inside. Can't really apply this technique to the F-16 nose though.

 

You can also use it in this case. I added some and then I positioned the part. I will post some pictures tomorrow. 

Also, I will try to change the images with the ones from Flickr. 

I don't have the experience to rate this kit, I am sure that I will build more Kinetic F 16s in the future. (I have already ordered one)

 

Of course, it has some fitting issues (from the biggest one):

Nose: you must use something to prevent sinking like @scotthldr said, blu tack seems like working fine, but I haven't glued them yet

Fuselage: Near the wing slats and flaps and also near the horizontal stabilizers’ attachment point, with a lot of putty and sanding everything was solved

Exhaust Nozzle: The nozzle consists of four major parts: the nozzle itself, the afterburner chamber (I know that consists of 4 parts itself), a connection part for the nozzle and the afterburner chamber and an outer part. In my kit for an unknown reason there is a 1mm gap between the nozzle and the outer part (I don't feel the need to change the nozzle with a resin kit since its well detailed but I must find a way to solve it).

Inlet: It has some issues with the outer part, but nothing serious you can fill it with putty

Worth mention

The fitting between the CFTs (You will probably use them since Polish air force uses Block 52s equipped with them) and fuselage: I didn't use the holes designed for it, but I used reference pictures and also their actual silhouette, everything came up nicely, but only after a lot of tries and some sanding on the CFTs, there are no large gaps, but you should be careful.

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Today I started the assembly of the nose section.

 

I used blu tack to position the side parts. With the addition of blu tack I prevented the sinking of the parts.

 

49854349208_ae36f49223_c_d.jpg

 

Then I placed the parts and I prepared them for putty application using masking tape. I tried to have a smooth transition on the sides and I left a large gap on the bottom.

 

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I used an old blade on my hobby knife to apply the putty. In order to properly fill the gaps I applied putty 4 times.

 

49854348073_326eed2627_k_d.jpg49854347873_7516600d55_k_d.jpg 

 

Much better than before....

 

49854884746_4684673795_k_d.jpg

 

Then I started sanding them, I used grit 600, 1500, 3000 wet sandpapers soaked with AK Odourless Thinner (I believe that you can use also white spirit or turpentine), thinner helped me to achieve a smooth result really fast.

 

49855187622_ff242f35dc_k_d.jpg49854884156_31d8475063_k_d.jpg

 

Finally I reopened the filled holes and rescribed the panel lines

 

49854346533_12bfc388d1_k_d.jpg

 

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  • 8 months later...

Hello and happy new year!!!

 

Hope you are safe during these very difficult circumstances. Unfortunately last months were difficult for me and my time was limited, that's why I haven't posted for a while. 

 

During Christmas holidays I was able to buy the camo colours and continue my project, by finishing the new resin (Aires) PW F100 Nozzle (Maybe I will add some weathering). I purchased because the stock nose had a huge gap, that couldn't get fixed, but turned to be a very nice upgrade. 

 

50822213786_59300e61ed_o_d.jpg50822309932_2794dc894b_o_d.jpghaf-f-16d-608-603-602

 

DSC00201.jpg

 

I used AK Xtreme Metal Jet Aluminum and Jet Exhaust for the exterior and a Combination of AK 3rd gen White and Grimy Grey for the interior's ceramic coating. Finally I weathered it using Raw Umber oil colour.

 

But from now on I call this project as a double build, because I got as a present the Kinetic F 16 C/D Block 52+ Polish Air Force Tiger Meet kit (48076), alongside with some decals and resin partse (nozzle and seats). So as the F 16C is almost ready for priming and painting, I decided to start the second one and paint them together. The second kit will eventually become a 335sq F 16D Block 52+adv, caring the (Spoiler ALERT) 023 serial number. I found out that the most parts needed for the conversion are included in the kit and with some minor modifications will look like a Greek F 16 Block 52+adv.

 

The second build is until now really straight forward, as I now the kit's problematic parts and the progress during a few hours is huge. Until now the biggest task was to find clear pictures and modify the dorsal spine. I started by sanding down the small outlet on the starboard side of the spine. Then I glued the correct inlets, outlets and antennas. Finally I placed the flair dispensers and filled some gaps with putty.

 

 

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50822310572_09644397ec_o_d.jpg

 

When I opened the second kit I was surpised be the differently coloured upper back fuselage part. I don't know why Kinetic made this change for this kit, but the connection between the front and the rear fuselage parts seems much better than the one in the first kit.

 

My work on the F 16D continued with the cockpit. During it' painting I experimented with different types of colours. I used acrylic Tamiya XF 1 as a base and XF 19 as interior colour, I found that airbrushing with Tamiya acrylics was really easy and the result much better, than the first cockpit in which I used AK's 3rd gen acrylics. But I had problems, while painting with a brush, Tamiya XF 1 dried really fast and when I used thinner the coverage was low, so I ended using AK's 3rd gen Intense Black colour, which offered much better coverage and drying time. I painted the cockpit details using various enamel and arcylic colours, as well as some really good referense pictures. Finally I used a new technique to make the displays more realistic, after I painted them Black I used Tamiya X 19 smoke, which made the black colour more vivid and offered a glossy finish, Tamiya X 22 was used in the other instrument gauges.

 

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The current progress on both vipers.

 

20210110_213126

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hallo,

 

Small update after a while.

 

Finally I received the decals for the F16D and figure out that Kinetic didn't provide decals for the IRIS T. So I decided to use 4 AIM 120Cs and 2 AGM 88s on the 343sq. F 16 and 2 AIM 120Cs on the other one. Both aircrafts will also carry 2 370gal drop tanks. 

 

50950797746_797d005a88_k_d.jpg

 

50950890042_b074fd475d_k_d.jpg

 

As I said, I plan to finish them together, so I am mainly working on F16D, in which the nose section and the aft engine cover were mounted. The classic nose fitting issues was occured once again, but this time I manage to position the side parts a little bit better, so it would be easier to fill the gaps.

 

50950090023_745c00a4f1_k_d.jpg

 

50950890447_f229f0a6be_k_d.jpg

 

50950090073_c6aad0ab0f_k_d.jpg

 

Since I am relatively new in hobby (I have finished only 4 models), I am still testing new techniques. In this build I used primer to fill some gaps formed between the two fuselage parts, the final result was great. (I don't know if I should rescribe the panel line, if anyone knows please help me).

 

50950798466_2d0b2f6f10_k_d.jpg

 

At next, I will paint the second jet exhaust, the missiles and the landing gear system for the Block 52M.

 

Also I would like to ask for some help regarding the AIM 120Cs. I have read that there are two versions of them, one for training (blue stripes) and one for combat (yellow/orange strips) use. So I would like to use the combat version on the single seater and the training version on the two seater.

  • Does anyone have a picture of a 335sq F16D carrying training missiles?
  • Does anyone know which are the differences between the training and combat versions (apart from the stripes)?

 

 

 

 

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Hey Thanos, great to see you back👍🏻

How are you coping with all that snow? It was weird seeing pictures from Athens today with the Acropolis and Filopappou Hill covered in it, not often that happens.

 

The only difference from a modelling perspective on the AIM -120C is the colour of bands on the missile body( training round 3 Blue bands, Live round 1 Yellow 2 Brown). Remember to use the short finned AMRAAMs with the fairing on the side of the body.

 

As for pictures, there was a F-16D 52M at the A-7 retirement event loaded up with AIM-120/AIM-7 and GBU. Unfortunately my pictures are in print form so can’t upload them , but if you scroll down the link below you will see the a/c.

 

http://www.flying-wings.com/araxos-corsair-retirement

 

Regards

 

Scott

 

Edited by scotthldr
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7 hours ago, scotthldr said:

Hey Thanos, great to see you back👍🏻

How are you coping with all that snow? It was weird seeing pictures from Athens today with the Acropolis and Filopappou Hill covered in it, not often that happens.

 

The only difference from a modelling perspective on the AIM -120C is the colour of bands on the missile body( training round 3 Blue bands, Live round 1 Yellow 2 Brown). Remember to use the short finned AMRAAMs with the fairing on the side of the body.

 

As for pictures, there was a F-16D 52M at the A-7 retirement event loaded up with AIM-120/AIM-7 and GBU. Unfortunately my pictures are in print form so can’t upload them , but if you scroll down the link below you will see the a/c.

 

http://www.flying-wings.com/araxos-corsair-retirement

 

Regards

 

Scott

 

Hi Scott,

 

It was really strange to see all that snow covering Athens, we had some difficulties due to the scale of the snowstorm. Personally I was excited since I am a mountain guy.

 

Thank you very much for your responce, also I kept looking for AIM 120 training missile photos (and photos from an Eduard AIM 120C kit) and I found that the engine's outlet is closed on them, so I decided to fill this gap.

 

040716-F-0000C-001.JPG

 

I know that it's early to talk about decals, but I don't know which markings should use. The markings on the Modelmaker decalsheet (bottom) seem more accurate, but as you can see in the following pictures 343sq. F 16s have brighter and not so blue markings. Also the numbers have huge colour difference, but I believe that this difference corresponds with real life difference. I am thinking of painting markings using masks, but since I haven't done it before I am scared of it.

 

50952155938_841d9d5a7c_o_d.png 2014-05-27_jawtex14_01.jpg 015_001.jpg

 

This is a picture of the decalsheets I am going to use.

 

50952955217_d7bb47c895_o_d.jpg

 

Kinetic's HAF marking decalsheet is relatively simply and doesn't include walkout zones and other decals used on fuselage panels, as well as rescue and injection seat warning decals have wrong colours. I am going to use the second version which is included in Modelmaker's sheet as well as some from the Polish decalsheet (which is designed by Modelmaker).

 

50952155778_96d7f3a253_o_d.jpg

 

 

eb387099f7103a4d5ad1096cedefff5f.jpg

015.jpg?m=1371923834

 

Correct me if I am wrong but I think that the panel decals (10, 11, 12, 13....) on the Block 52+ have orange colour, while those on the Block 52M have black colour (53, 54, 50, 51....).

 

50953028932_ae6984023e_o_d.jpg

 

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The Dark Blue roundels are only found on F-16 Blk 30's of 330 Mira.

 

For the 343 Mira jet you might get off with using the Light Blue roundels from the Kinetic sheet, however the Blue on the unit band is too light, although it might be passable. I used the Two Bobs sheet for mine, but that is probably too dark.

 

I'm pretty sure the serial numbers on all jets are the same Grey, just that it blends in more against the Have Glass finish of the 340/343M jets(some 330M jets have Black serials). From memory the Kinetic serials are too light and more or less disappear once applied. Only once the model is painted and you start to apply the decals will you be able to decide on what Grey looks correct(remembering that the final flat coat of varnish will further lighten the contrast).

 

The Grey stencil/data only applies to the Blk52M's of 335/336Mira, all the other units use the Orange/Pink.

 

You mentioned earlier on about the lack of decals for the IRIS-T. In reality there is very little in the way of markings on them anyway that would legible in 1/48, and the training rounds within the HAF don't even appear to have a Blue band on them.

 

Here's a picture of AIM120/AIM-7M, to give you some idea for those.

 

 

IMG_1133.JPG

Edited by scotthldr
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After a lot of hours of masking, painting and waiting the missiles are finally painted.

 

I painted them using Tamiya and AK Real colours, it was the first time I painted for so much time with them and I am really happy with the result. Sometimes I really struggled with AK 3rd gen acrylics.

 

I thought that, I had bought FS 36375 grey, but I was wrong. I used instead lightened FS 36320 (Dark Ghost Grey) and a lot of reference pictures. The white nose of the AIM 120s and the AGM 88 missiles were painted using AK RC222 (Insignia White), which is a little bit dirty white, while AIM 120s' fins were painted with stainless steel metalic colour.

 

50959037392_87480233cb_o_d.jpg

 

For the stripes I used:

  • Yellow: Tamiya X-8 and X-27 (2 drops of X-27 in 1ml of X-8)
  • Brown: AK11107 
  • Blue: AK11182 and AK11013 (4 drops of grey in 1ml of blue approx.)

AIM 120c Training

50959037667_d8f3f2ee78_o_d.jpg

 

AIM 120c Tactical

50958935136_5c4839d1e5_k_d.jpg

 

Tactical and Training comparison. (I will paint the engine outlet on the tactical version)

50958231433_ea2a04d21a_k_d.jpg 50958935171_88eb3ce32f_o_d.jpg

 

AGM 88

50959037947_74bccde403_k_d.jpg

 

50958935046_5449f3c580_o_d.jpg

 

While varnishing the missiles I varnished an A-7E Corsair II, which I bought to practice my airbrushing skills and I would like to share a photo of it.

 

50959214932_e85c59b3de_o_d.jpg

 

Today I want to finish painting the second F100 exhaust outlet and start applying decals on the missiles.

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20 hours ago, Kasatka said:

Looking very good!

 

 

14 hours ago, scotthldr said:

Nice work on the missiles, hard to believe that you're a recent newcomer to the hobby👍. A-7 looks good as well, you kept that one quiet.

 

Thank you very much!!!!

I had very limited time to upload A-7's progress, but I will make a thread with pictures of finished aircraft.

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Yesterday, I finished decaling AIM 120's. 

 

Cartograf decals provided by Kinetic were used. The decals were really thin and their application straight forward. Since Kinetic's instructions wasn't clear I used reference pictures as an instruction sheet from Two Boss.

 

50961986821_f9eb49f9c2_o_d.jpg 50961986816_eb77120132_o_d.jpg

 

50961278983_b1279deb63_o_d.jpg

 

At next I must finish dealing with the gaps and fitting issues on both models, the biggest of them are found on the nose and on the dorsal spine.

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Hallo to all of you!

 

After I found some pictures of AIM120C's I decided to darken their fins. In order to do that I sprayed RLM74 colour over the stainless steel, which had brown finish and provided the desired darkness.

 

50965890513_f11d4d86e5_o_d.jpg

 

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned with the HARM missiles, since cracks were found on them. At least I hadn't applied decals on them. So I had to clear the paint and fill the gaps, then I was able to prime and repaint them.

 

50966703182_d1dedc804c_o_d.jpg

 

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Also I painted the nozzle for the second F 16. The processes were the same with the previous nozzle, but this time I used RC222 Insignia White instead of combination of White and Grimy Grey, for ceramic surfaces.

 

50969314917_010a75b296_o_d.jpg

 

The error on AIM120 missiles gave me the idea to apply this filter on the nozzle in order to give a brown finish. Here you can see the difference between the clear nozzle (left) and the filtered one (right). I am going to make the second nozzle clearer than the first one, because it's going to be used on the Block52M, which is a newer airplane.

 

50969207971_ae66e65ac3_o_d.jpg

 

50968505073_a8553be207_o_d.jpg

 

Thanos

Edited by iceman98
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Hallo to all of you!!!

 

The base paint for the nozzles is done. I used RLM74 over Stainless Steel to create this result.

 

The top nozzle it's going to be used on the Block 52M, while the bottom one on the Block 52+.

My goal was to create a cleaner finish on the top nozzle, due to the fact that Block 52M is a newer aircraft.

 

50970546141_bd3b690d56_o_d.jpg

 

Block 52+

50969846968_4a1bb9194b_o_d.jpg

 

Block 52M (The weathering is not finished)

50970545991_d4cbf5cbd1_o_d.jpg

 

 

After their repainting AGM 88 missiles are finished.

 

The mix I used to paint the yellow stripe (1 ml of X-8 + 2 drops of X-27)

50974655252_240eb14023_o_d.jpg

 

50974655127_1d01b81c3b_o_d.jpg

 

I created some slots on the decals in order to make them fit better between the fins.

50974655032_99cb544acd_o_d.jpg

 

Unfortunately Kinetic forgot to print some decals, so I used similar decals from spares.

 

50973857808_8098a09108_o_d.jpg

 

Also I painted missiles' exhausts. I used a combination of yellow, red and silver colours to paint AIM120 and black for the AGM 88.

 

50973857923_90e6d3006e_o_d.jpg

 

Also I repaired a wrongly positioned cover.

 

50976546661_bd93a32e89_o_d.jpg

 

50976658567_4724c822d9_o_d.jpg

 

As I started working on the landing gear system, I realized that I must install it prior to the aircraft painting, mainly because of the problematic fitment.

 

Also I started preparing the aircrafts for priming, I filled a lot of gaps with Tamiya putty or Mr.Surfacer. Larger gaps (Nose), will be filled next week, since I want to buy milliput.

 50976659132_594e9d2f21_o_d.jpg

 

50976659147_519fa5eafe_o_d.jpg

 

50976547366_d942a171a6_o_d.jpg

 

50976547476_4e78316805_o_d.jpg

 

On 5/3/2020 at 7:55 PM, Thadeus said:

Nice. I'm curious how will You rate the kit, after it's done.  I'm building a Kinetic Polish F-16C, but I've not yet painted the intake, or anything else for that matter. Gun insert isn't the best part of this kit. Perhaps You could post some slightly bigger pictures? I've read the nose panels fit is horrible, but You've seem to managed them nicely.

 

Kinetic F-16 is a really nicely detailed and good equiped kit, but with a lot of fitting issues. During the assembly of the first aircraft I was thinking that fitting issues were caused by my faults. In the second one I was really cautious, but again I had to deal with the same issues.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

 

I primed the launchers and the 2 drop tanks with Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black (023 Drop tanks were primed with Mr. Surfacer 1200 Grey).

 

62216_md.jpg

 

Also I received a pair of Iris T missiles, I painted them with lightened FS36320, because I don't have the FS36375 colour.

 

62218_md.jpg

 

62220_md.jpg

 

The paint on the second one was ripped of while applying decals. I am using X 22 as varnish (24h cure) and TAMIYA Mark Fit Strong. Fortunately I have spare decals to repair it. 

 

62318_md.jpg

 

I tried to modify decals in order to look like the actual drop tanks, since some of them are relatively weathered, for the same reason I paint one of the drop tanks with darker color.

 

62313_md.jpg

 

62314_md.jpg

 

Also I saw that the rear part of the drop tank's pylon is not painted and features bare prime color.

 

62316_md.jpg

 

Currently I am trying to mask 023's drop tanks. 

 

62317_md.png

 

Do you know how to position correctly the masking tape in order to apply orange decals without problem?

Edited by iceman98
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Looking good, 

 

For masking the drop tanks, two ways come to mind.

 

photocopy decals 52 and 58 and make some sort of template from them.

 

or

 

Cut off the forward White part(TigerClaw?)of decals 52/58, paint entire drop tank White, apply all the Black and Orange decals, then give a good coat of clear gloss varnish to seal them, let varnish to cure for a week, then mask off applied decals from the area to be painted Black, spray Black, then apply the White part of decal 52/58, reseal with clear gloss.

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12 minutes ago, scotthldr said:

Looking good, 

 

For masking the drop tanks, two ways come to mind.

 

photocopy decals 52 and 58 and make some sort of template from them.

 

or

 

Cut off the forward White part(TigerClaw?)of decals 52/58, paint entire drop tank White, apply all the Black and Orange decals, then give a good coat of clear gloss varnish to seal them, let varnish to cure for a week, then mask off applied decals from the area to be painted Black, spray Black, then apply the White part of decal 52/58, reseal with clear gloss.

 

Thank you very much, I have already done the first one, but I did for 58 and 63 decals and I realized that they have a lot of extra length. 

 

To tell you the truth I really want to paint the orange stripes, I know that it's very time consuming, but I really liked the result on the missiles.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hello to all,

 

After almost a month without time to upload, it's time for an update.

 

I solved the problem on the Iris T and finally all missiles are finished.

 

62355_md.jpg

 

62356_md.jpg

 

Then I faded a little the decals on the drop tanks.

 

62357_md.jpg

 

62358_md.jpg

 

And I started applying decals on the 023's drop tanks. I know that the placement is not the best, but I had difficulties dealing with the large decals (It was also the first time I applied too large and too many decals), but I am really happy with their integration with the surface.

 

62359_md.jpg63579_md.jpg63580_md.jpg

 

63581_md.jpg63582_md.jpg63583_md.jpg

 

63584_md.jpg

 

Alongside with fuselage's fitting issues I repaired the shape of the slats' antennas.

 

63585_md.jpg63588.jpg63587_md.jpg

 

Finally I primed the Fuselage with Mr Surfacer 1500 Black and contacted some colour experiments.

 

I made a test piece and painted with AK Real Colors. The first colour is the FS35237, the second is FS35164 (on bottle seemed closer to the actual colour). The third colour is the FS36307, the forth is the FS36251 and the fifth an attempt to make FS36251 darker and more blue by adding a small amound of Sea Blue (RC258). 

 

63622_md.jpg

 

63623_md.jpg

 

This is an attempt to recreate have glass look, by spraying thinned Jet Exhaust colour.

 

63624_md.jpg

 

63625_md.jpg

 

I really need your opinion regarding the colours.

 

Thanos

 

 

 

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Good work on the missiles and tanks, they’ve came out really well.

 

Regards the colours. FS35164 isn’t used on the Aegean Ghost scheme, so I would get rid of that straight away.  Looking at the pictures above I would use 35237, 36307 and 36251 straight out of the bottle. I’ve never used AK paints myself, but if you could spray all 3 colours on a test piece, I will give my honest opinion. FS35237 can be very deceiving in photographs and more often than not appears far more Blue than it actually is. I’m unable to upload pictures from my phone but I’ll get some up tonight when I can access my laptop👍🏻🇬🇷

 

As promised here are some photos that I believe show the true tones.....

 

These were taken under an overcast sky with no direct sunlight on the frame

 

 

IMG_1753.thumb.JPG.887cee8e47981f2263f63635caf1f20f.JPG

 

IMG_1738.thumb.JPG.f1e468db921128e585903c906a3af5fb.JPG

 

Same aircraft taken from roughly the same angle but 1hr earlier with November sun on the side, you can see how 35237 looks a lot more Blue is this shot.

 

IMG_1637.thumb.JPG.9c3bbca319e00c755eabe9af73b69233.JPG

 

Hope these may be of some help to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by scotthldr
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On 4/12/2021 at 3:22 AM, scotthldr said:

As promised here are some photos that I believe show the true tones.....

 

These were taken under an overcast sky with no direct sunlight on the frame

 

 

IMG_1753.thumb.JPG.887cee8e47981f2263f63635caf1f20f.JPG

 

IMG_1738.thumb.JPG.f1e468db921128e585903c906a3af5fb.JPG

 

Same aircraft taken from roughly the same angle but 1hr earlier with November sun on the side, you can see how 35237 looks a lot more Blue is this shot.

 

IMG_1637.thumb.JPG.9c3bbca319e00c755eabe9af73b69233.JPG

 

Hope these may be of some help to you.

Thank you very much Scott. Your photos were really helpful.

 

I will post tomorrow photos from the current progress.

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  • iceman98 changed the title to Kinetic 1/48 F 16 Block 52+ & Block 52M HAF Dual Build (WIP)

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