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1/48 F-16C Block 40 / Aviano / Kosovo


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I'm doing up the old 1/48 Hasegawa kit because frankly, it still looks just as good as the newer and better Tamiya offering if you paint and weather it right.  You have to work harder of course, so all the more impressive to see a built up Hasegawa than a Tamiya.  I took inspiration from this ancient post by Piero De Santis, who did an excellent F-16CG Block 40.  I basically wanted my own copy so I splurged on an overpriced Hasegawa F-16CG on ebay and also got every relevant resin details and decals available to make my own example.  It's been a slow build (almost a year) due to other hobbies, and I almost wanted to give up because of all that resin giving me a headache, but alas it is coming together nicely.  The markings and armament will be from the Kosovo conflict.  Personally I have no affiliation with the air force, my interest in this particular unit is a combination of nostalgia playing Falcon 4.0 as a teenager, and watching the Kosovo events unfold on the CNN website where they had 30 second realplayer clips of the air war as it happened.  I also happened to stumble upon some air force magazines from '96 or '97 that featured details on the Aviano unit.  Interesting how that all came together...

 

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For the static electricity dissipators i used toothbrush bristles.  At first I thought it would be a good idea to use tape to hold up the bristle and apply superglue and accelerator at the joint but this didn't work as well as i thought it would.  My shakey hands kept pulling the bristle off before the superglue took hold.  The tape method risks pulling off the bristle and leaving too much excess glue to cut off.  Then I thought of something I never tried before, applying superglue on one part and brushing superglue accelerator the other part so that it bonds almost immediately.  I also held the bristle with some poster tack like so.  As soon as they contact I pushed the poster tack forward toward the other part to apply pressure and so that it doesn't pull off.  It should bond in about 2-3 seconds.  Optionally you can make a small hole or notch, and be sure to sand it flat and make sure the bristle is cut perpendicular.  If you make a mistake or it doesn't hold just sand it off and try again.

 

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Some more progress shots

 

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Ty Thadeus.  I tried the Italeri once, not sure why I gave up on it.  I read somewhere here that the number of engine petals on it is wrong or something.  I ended up taking the AN/ALQ-131 from it and sticking on a Hasegawa F-16CJ.

 

Also, for anyone that can help, I tried airbrushing Tamiya smoke/green tints on the canopy but it turned out matt.  I dipped it in future again but it only improved it by 50%.  I'm thinking I either need to dip it again or try all over with future and food coloring.  I'm thinking the microscopic textured layer simply wont go away with another layer of wax.  Does anyone know what the safest solvent to strip the future/tamiya tint is?  Also I tried mixing tamiya smoke with future but they seem to repel each other.

 

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Ty crackerjazz, I went right to the grocery store's baking section for food coloring and found something called McCormick assorted food dye and egg coloring.  I stripped with windex like you said and it worked great.  I used about 5FL Oz of future in a pallete dish mixed with 5 drops of red/green/blue to get a neutral smoke color.  Mixing those colors in equal parts comes out exactly like smoke with slightly more on the green side.  Added 2 more drops of yellow and half a drop of more green.  Mixed it well before dipping.  Came out a little weak so I let it dry 2 hours in my food dehydrator (which I use exclusively for drying paint).  Dipped it again, came out perfect!  It's got that subtle smoke color with a smidge of yellow/green that my eye sees in the reference photos.  The back canopy piece will be clear.  The CG's seem to have this pattern which is different than the CJ's that have a deeper gold color canopy.

 

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22 hours ago, Jessirelli said:

Ty crackerjazz, I went right to the grocery store's baking section for food coloring and found something called McCormick assorted food dye and egg coloring.  I stripped with windex like you said and it worked great.  I used about 5FL Oz of future in a pallete dish mixed with 5 drops of red/green/blue to get a neutral smoke color.  Mixing those colors in equal parts comes out exactly like smoke with slightly more on the green side.  Added 2 more drops of yellow and half a drop of more green.  Mixed it well before dipping.  Came out a little weak so I let it dry 2 hours in my food dehydrator (which I use exclusively for drying paint).  Dipped it again, came out perfect!  It's got that subtle smoke color with a smidge of yellow/green that my eye sees in the reference photos.  The back canopy piece will be clear.  The CG's seem to have this pattern which is different than the CJ's that have a deeper gold color canopy.

 

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Handy advice!

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Thanks for the comments!  I made a decision to get a small hobby table vice and it's worked wonders when it comes to cutting resin straight.  Then I wondered if I really wanted to clamp the whole model to this vice and I was like, ehhhh... probably not.  I came up with cutting up a foam block with slits for the wing tips so I can work on the underside tid bits without damaging the vertical stabilizer.  Very easy to make with a standard razor saw.  I had to temporarily remove the pitot probe because the glue didn't really bond.  Going to have to rough it up with sandpaper and clean the joint with Tamiya lacquer thinner.

 

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Next I opened up the package for the AN/ALQ-131.  There are long and shallow versions, a quick google check says the F-16 uses the shallow version.

 

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Only a couple stub parts to remove, but a lot of stencil data decals!  This kit for a kit packs a punch with detail.

 

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After a quick assembly of the pod, I noticed the pylon connections in the kit doesn't line up where it should.  Going to have to do my best guess to eye-ball it based on reference photos.  Also planning on scratchbuilding the anti-sway braces or whatever those are called.  I ordered some assorted evergreen styrene plastic and assorted fly tie wire for scratchbuilding this and a few other areas I'm interested in detailing.  Book is The Modern Viper Guide by Jake Melampy.

 

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Going to load her up with GBU-12s which I believe should be accurate for the 1999 conflict.  For the intake chin, just the single older type of targeting pod in the kit will do, no Sniper or navigation pod.  I looked at 1/48 TERs replacements on ebay but they appear to be Vietnam era.  Not sure how much I want to spruce up the kit TERs in terms of scratchbuilding extra detail, we'll have to see.

 

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Edited by Jessirelli
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Thank you Mark.  I did look at the F2 part, this time it's too short.  I looked at every photo I could find of an F-16 carrying this pod, this one having the best angle.  So what I did was modify the regular pylon to match this photo as close as I can get.

 

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For comparison here is the F2 part versus the modified F1 part.

 

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Made a better jig.  I get a lot of foam from the refrigerated medicine I get every few months.  I took a makita reciprosaw to it and reassembled into a box jig with a hot glue gun.  Almost ready to paint!  Just need to inspect for surface flaws.

 

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I also added lead wire for the canopy seal around the cockpit.  For some reason both the kit and the Aires resin doesn't have this.  First time working with lead fly tie wire, it worked well with superglue and easy to work with.  I flattened it slightly with a file.  I'll definitely try some more lead wire on the landing gear for the hydraulic lines.

 

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Great work mate!

I used the same technic for my F-16 ( and othre planes) to do the canopy seal and hydraulic lines, the lead wire work way better than electrical's, and now you can find many diameters fortunately!

I've programmed a Spang bird for the same conflict i the future, but not so near...

Keep up the good work

 

 

Gianni

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Thanks Gianni!

 

More progress shots.

 

Center pylon cut to size and added anti swing braces.

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Secret Tamiya recipe for Light Ghost Gray.

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Bombs away!

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Seeker heads

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I came this far, might as well go all out on the resin accessories.

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Always test your paint contrast on a spare F-15 wing before painting for real.

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Canopy

 

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Meanwhile, took a little break from the model to do some landscape painting.

 

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"Why?"

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Ah, so that's what this is for...

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Honestly could not find a perfect photo with a creative commons license that I could use for a background, so I made my own.  I looked at many photos of Aviano AFB and italian hills to get an idea of what to make.  It's all made up.  I'll be sure to use it for the finished photos I'll post in the display case subforum.

 

 

Finally, added some Alclad gloss klear kote.  Paint drying up in the food dehydrator.  Anyone want viper jerky?

 

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