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Tamiya 1/48 F-16C Block 52 Swamp Fox Jet


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Time for a quick update.  I finally have paint on all the main parts, but since the model is still covered in masking tape and I’m in the middle of mottling the gunship gray areas on top, I couldn’t get photos of the other areas that are already painted.  For the gunship gray on the top, I took Mr. Color 305 and added roughly 25% Mr. Color C5 Gloss blue, as most photos of F-16’s show a distinctive blue hue in the photos.  This color also seems to look worn and patchy in many photos, so I used lightened and darkened variations of the base color and sprayed it through some texture stencils to add visual interest.  Link to what I used is below:

https://www.migjimenez.com/en/accessories/2205-airbrush-stencils-8432074080350.html

 

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After I had enough mottling, I oversprayed the whole area with a few mist coats of the base color to tone it down and blend everything.  I think I may have toned it down too much though.  I’m afraid that after oil washes and the final clear coat, it won’t be visible enough, so I’ll probably redo some of the areas.  To match photos, I’m not mottling the area near the cockpit, but I should go heavier with it around the tail fin and engine.  Once I’m finished with the mottling, I can remove most of the masking tape and show the final paint job.   

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Great job, I really like the effect!

 

Maybe you can re-apply the effect once everything is done with highly diluted paint so you can control the effect exactly, without worrying about the next layers removing it?

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On 12/10/2020 at 10:48 AM, arnobiz said:

Great job, I really like the effect!

 

Maybe you can re-apply the effect once everything is done with highly diluted paint so you can control the effect exactly, without worrying about the next layers removing it?

 

Thanks Arnobiz!  Your suggestion is basically what I ended up doing.  I went back and added more mottling with thinned down lightened and darkened variations on the base color.  I’m pretty happy with how it came out and seems to match the sun faded look F-16’s get on the top side.

The painting on the airframe is finally complete now.  The nose, air intake lip, and AIFF antenna between the cokpit and nose have a special coating that can’t be repainted.  I sprayed them Mr. Color C317, as that seemed like a good match to my reference photos.  I sprayed the HTM pod and Sniper pod pylon Mr. Color C308, as they appeared to be the same color as the FS 36375 of the missiles.  I sprayed the BLOS radio mod panel Mr. Color C306 lightened with white to replicate the fresher paint on this added panel. 

 

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The reference photos of the particular jet I’m depicting shows the right drop tank as being a lighter gray than the neutral gray of the underside.  It also has what appears to be some dark gray strips on the side.  To replicate this, I sprayed the tank with Mr. Color 308 and masked off the dark areas and sprayed those Mr. Color C317.

 

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I’m just about ready for decals now, but I need to get the missiles assembled and painted first.  I’m finally starting to see the finish line!

 

Drew

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Very nice, clean work.

I really enjoy this part of the build because everything starts to come together and all those little details you toil over start to shine thru and you can see it was all worth it.

Steve

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Thanks Steve and Jake!  I'm looking forward to doing the oil washes and weathering.  Right now, I'm building the missiles so I can decal and weather them with the rest of the model.

 

Drew

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  • 1 month later...
On 2/8/2021 at 4:10 PM, Thadeus said:

Some very nice work going on in here. Very attentive to detail. Love the paintjob.

Thanks Thadeus!  Appreciate the kind words!

44 minutes ago, crackerjazz said:

Love the mottling.  Looks so realistic and makes the model look so much bigger.   I really have to hit that buy button and get myself some of those stencils.

Thanks Crackerjazz!  I would recommend the stencils.  It lets you spray a pattern that you just can't achieve freehand with a small nozzle in the airbrush.  

 

I've been trying to post an update, but I keep getting an internal service error.  I'll have to contact Steve if it keeps up.

 

Drew

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Finally have an update!  I finally got painting and decaling completed.  I also ended up taking the plunge on using a stencil cutter to mask and paint some of the markings to replace a few decals that were inaccurate.   The font and color of the South Carolina tail fin banner decal was slightly different from what my reference photos showed.  Since it looked like a stencil cutter could be used to cut the letters, I bought a Silhouette Portrait cutter and Oramask 813 vinyl stencil film.  I found a matching font for the tail fin banner in Microsoft Word and used Microsoft Paint to manipulate the text into the correct slant for both sides.  Then I transferred the lettering into Silhouette Studio to make the toolpath to cut the lettering.  It took a few tries, but I finally got it to look right.  The order of masking I used was this:

1. I painted the entire area of the tail fin banner FS 36622.  Then I applied the mask and removed the portions that I wanted to paint dark blue-gray.

 

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2. After painting the dark blue-gray, I removed the rest of the masks and re-masked over the tail fin banner to respray the Neutral Gray on the top and bottom

 

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Since the decals for the fox head logo behind the canopy were also inaccurate, I found a good image of the logo with a Google search and was easily able to put that in the Studio program to cut a stencil.  I’m impressed with what the Silhouette cutter can do.  It had a hard time cutting the eyes for the fox head logo, so I had to cut several copies until I got a couple of usable ones.  The light gray stencil decals that go over the Gunship Gray areas of the plane were darker than the Mr. Color neutral gray paint, so I used some extra decals from a Two Bobs decal sheet that were a lighter shade of gray.  The walkway lines were masked and painted, and since I now had the stencil cutter, I used it to cut the lines around the air-to-air refueling port.  

 

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My original plan for the Sniper pod was to use the one in the Hasegawa weapons set.  However, I noticed it was missing the small box located on the top rear of the pod.  Since Eduard also makes a Sniper pod that includes the box and is better detailed, I decided to use it instead.  Unfortunately, I noticed it was about 2mm shorter than Hasegawa’s pod, so it didn’t sit correctly on the Hasegawa pod pylon.  To fix it, I cut it in half at the middle and added some sheet styrene to get it to the correct length. 

 

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For the AIM-120’s, I was planning to use the ones in the Tamiya kit, but then I noticed that most F-16’s carry an AIM-120B on the left side and an AIM-120C on the right side.  I wanted to replicate this for visual interest, but the Tamiya kit only includes AIM-120C’s.  I didn’t have any AIM-120B’s laying around, so I bought a set of Eduard AIM-120B’s and C’s so they would both be well detailed.  This is the first time I have used Eduard’s resin weapons, and I’m impressed with the detail.  I couldn’t help myself from thinning the missile fins, though.  That was an extremely tedious job, but it drastically improves their appearance when viewing from head on or directly behind.  

 

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I also thinned the fins of the Eduard HARM missiles.  Since most photos of these missiles show the fins rotated up at about a 30 degree angle, I did the same when assembling the fins to the body.  

 

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For the exhaust nozzle, I used Scale Motorsport’s 1/48 carbon fiber weave decal to replicate the carbon fiber pattern that the F100-PW-229 engine has.  

 

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At this point, I’m ready for weathering.  My plan is to apply a clear gloss for a panel line wash, then a flat coat for oil paint weathering.  Then, final assembly, and I’ll be done!  

 

Drew

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Spectacular job with the masking/painting! Also, when you use the scale motor sports decals, how do you apply them? Are you cutting them to the rough size of each petal? Or are you applying differently? I would imagine you tried to apply them in a manner which results in the least amount of trimming after they dry.

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20 hours ago, Mr Matt Foley said:

Spectacular job with the masking/painting! Also, when you use the scale motor sports decals, how do you apply them? Are you cutting them to the rough size of each petal? Or are you applying differently? I would imagine you tried to apply them in a manner which results in the least amount of trimming after they dry.

 

Thanks Mr Matt Foley!  When I got around to applying the carbon fiber decals to the exhaust, I first considered wrapping one piece around the entire exhaust, but then thought that would be too much trouble getting it to wrap around without any wrinkles.  So I did cut an oversized separate piece for each pedal and applied them separately.  Before the decal dried, I trimmed each side so it wouldn't overlap to the adjacent pedal.  Otherwise, it would be impossible to remove the excess decal without damaging the decal below.  I did final trimming to length once it was dried.  Also, these decals seemed pretty tough, and I used a couple of applications of Solvaset to get them to settle down completely. 

13 hours ago, Mr.Happy said:

Just blown away by your awesome masking and other work on this 16.:jaw-dropping:

 

Mr.Happy

 

Thanks Mr. Happy!  The silhouette cutter worked pretty well, I'll definitely find uses for it in future projects.

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Very nice work and, well executed. She's now starting to look like something. This stage of the build is my favorite, the subject starts to take on it's personality. Keep up the great work and looking forward to the next update.

Steve

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On 2/11/2021 at 11:46 AM, AlienFrogModeller said:

Impressive.

 

Cheers

 

AFM

 

Thanks Alien Frog Modeller!

 

On 2/11/2021 at 1:49 PM, A-10 LOADER said:

Very nice work and, well executed. She's now starting to look like something. This stage of the build is my favorite, the subject starts to take on it's personality. Keep up the great work and looking forward to the next update.

Steve

Thanks Steve!  Getting close, I'm finally to the weathering stage, which might be by favorite part of the process.

 

Drew

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  • 4 weeks later...
Hey guys, finally finished the weathering, now it's time for final assembly.  The only hurtle I have now is adding all the hydraulic hoses to the landing gear and bay doors. It's a fiddly job that's kind of a chore to me.  Here's some photos of where everything stands now.

 

 

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That's all for now.  Hopefully next time, I'll be done!

 

Drew

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