Jump to content

(2022 F-16 Group Build) The Vipers who say NI!


Recommended Posts

I'm having a blast going back and forth with my current builds, of which there are currently 12 (3 of them being 1/48 builds, including one Viper).

 

So I really wanted to build an F-16N for a while now. Adversary Vipers are just so cool. I get excited whenever I see one being built, but that doesn't cut it anymore. I have one kit in my stash ad my moms but the entire closet is so blocked by other stuff I simply can't reach it.

I also really wanted to build something else than Hasegawa. It's been a long while since I build an 1/72 Viper not by Hasegawa. Perhaps even a decade! And I never built a Kinetic F-16I - I did a Polish F-16D. I watched some Youtube videos, and saw one of a very nice Hasegawa Sufa. Somehow one thing led to another, and I got myself both the Hasegawa F-16N and F-16I.

 

For what it's worth, the F-16N is just an F-16C with GE engine. Small mouth, light undercarriage and such, with some additional bumps on the intake. Plus an awesome camouflage. I'd love to do the splintered gray/green one, but for this time, the "regular" Viper will do.

 

bkuNgBaVeXCpB6jA2Xy15Dt7HkfDA9yIEYdnwcVG

 

I did some cutting and suddenly I'm left with this:

 

KCgC4vOU2nojrUX_r_6kaexQlVyNVBFddUvb8xnj

 

All the parts I need to build an F-16N in a zip bag, save for the fuselage halves.

 

One thing I'm going with on this build is to open the intake. Few minutes of work will grant You this:

 

XipHUrmZ5bpPWa70xVwO-wStxRUxMQ_T4Kv4CNGN

 

Gotta figure out where I'm going to go from here. I'm quite excited though. I've never built the F-16N.

 

 

The Hasegawa Sufa is an interesting model. There are a lot of additional parts in the box, including an entire MSIP intake (large mouth). With some proper stash management, You can save a few PLN's and get yourself some regular C's, mix parts, and Viola, You got a Block40 or 50 Viper. Save for beercan atennae on the wing leading egde.No targeting pods are provided, neither are the large 600 gal. fuel tanks and pylons for it. Word is, the ones in F-2 are compatibile, Don't quote me on that though.

The lack of targeting pods is a shame, as Hasegawa has some nice pods available from the weapons sets. This would however most likelly make this kit much more expensive, as proper AN-AAQ-28 Litening is in one set, while the AN-AAQ13 is in the other (along with An-AAQ-14). Still, a Soufa without the pods is kind of incomplete.

 

W9iFf16RihMDOR9BZrEo_YomBPezr8fhXPhjl53j

 

Again, after just a couple of minutes, everything You need to build this beast is in the bag, save for one sprue. In the end, all my 4 Vipers, along with some spare, old parts, are contained in a single box (the one from Soufa). The gods of stash space optimisations are contempt. This time however, I managed to track down all of my spare ACESII ejection seats. I'm not going to use the kit ones this time. I wonder though, if anyone of them will fit!

 

B075viRnw8RIgDVlLr_zQp_J-o8eVlB1CkwdoB-K

 

Well. So I kind of got to the point, where the Vipers are saying I have to build one more. Because while the Knights of Ni were six, the Vipers of Ni are five. And so the Kinetic kit was included, and so it will be completed.

 

This is the beauty that actually started my ponderings:

 

CNurDFDcxBkcTGgOB90xMINkoJzIJPtYWsFeKj_j

 

And while I'd love to finally build a Kinetic Sufa, and I do love a good comparison build, my heart belongs to this one:

 

CBQ9vmbYrGSfwrz6f-EWDwFeKdeNwTthH4AniwiE

 

What would be funny is to build it as a Greek bird. I've never built a Greek Viper before. And building one would save me some colour headaches, as apparently, the Greek ghost scheme is similar/the same as F-16N. But since I'm not going to build another Sufa right now, I'm going for the Polish AF bird. Besides, all the building of Polish Sukhois really got me a bit patriotic themed.

 

Kinetic Viper is really packed with plastic. Again, the choice of what's in the box is... interesting.

 

cb_1962H1Ok0tXI1xWcRsZuH_AYAC1Wsb3fiLfoI

 

First, there is no centerline fuel tank. And the pylon is there. Weird choice.

Second, the underwing tanks are provided, yet they are the 600 gal. type. Nice for the Sufa, also apparently operated by Hellenic Air Force. However, they mostly fly with the 370 gal tanks. Frankly, I'm having hard time finding a picture of Greek operational Viper with these tanks. Still, I'm yet to see them carried by Polish Vipers.

The kit contains either complete, or part of the Kinetic Nato weapon set (Sufa has the Israeli set). This is kind of nice. There are some GBU-10's and GBU-38's, an Sniper ATP, there are also some small diameter GBU's, and a GBU-24 with BLU-24 warhead. There are also two IRIS-T missiles. So for a Polish AF bird, all You get are the AMRAAM's for the wingtips, as Poles don't use the IRIS-T's. AFAIK, the GBU-10's are game too. The rest, I don't know. The -24's and SDB's are a no go. Sniper pods are a must. There is also an An/AAq-13 and an -14 pod (i believe) on the kit sprues. I don't mind getting so much hardware in the spares box, but a couple of AIM-9X's would be nice. All this is kind of minor though.

 

P4eNwWAlQxhj-oaw-P4oLQ9u3u0PKwGXUo_N0Vax

 

Kit itself is kind of early Kinetic. An ok-ish fitting beast, some missalignment and gaps beware. Some soapy details, some trench panel lines. But if You take a real F-16, You can see that somebody actually tried to copy the features.

 

9HdBZ3GQpl-egHrQ5eF4Kc2hhw5wxjh8NyPFzTNS

 

This is really visible in the cockpit tub  which is kind of nice. Instrument panels are slightly too little pronounced, but more or less acurate.

 

FhfVypVLbIQo4s8fZ6OGvoAmjtDCip7LG6XXJuZy

 

Comparing this one to Hasegawa, is kind of unfair, really.  Hase is much much older kit. But that ejection seat moulded partially in the tub still amazes me.

 

IUokYI5afugsDnqA0SqSluTjKk1PCMmRxhcDZjng

 

And check the IP covers. From left to right, Hasegawa, Kinetic, Revell. Can You see who tried to mould the canopy seal?

 

dx3jmTMc7w64pUzhSaohlQHqdAwMjzdAR3fEa3dd

 

Underwing details are nice too. Shame for the ejection pin marks. It's fillable luckilly.

 

a37x7cdZfbmwPGuExGqzzDO3CxkzdLRu-zlwembF

 

The only real complaint, is, every Kinetic 1/72 Viper has weird upwards stance on the wings. This is kind of hard to bend back.

 

nC0BYk6P6EHxi7HClSmseiTK0oTnUi7IYKFyv1mW

 

Well, I'm gonna have a blast, though I don't expect to finish these three in the deadline. With these three, I've 15 unfinished kits on the bench. I've already had the itch for the MiG-17, 29 and a TS-11 Iskra. I've managed to hold my ground for awhile. Now there is also a F/A-18 Group Build on the horizon, and I've at least 20 ideas, what I could (try to) build. Despite having kind of let go on restrictions on amount of started kits, I really shouldn't go too far...

 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend! Go and build an F-16!

Edited by Thadeus
added scale info, checked the photo links
Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks!

 

So, the theme of my weekend is "i'm not happy with colour". I'm faaar from painting the camo on any of these babies. However I did paint the cockpits.

I mean, the F-16N i just treated like every other F-16C - gray cockpit and stuff. The Sufa I read somewhere has entirely black cockpit. So both my double seaters got a lot of nato black.

 

AM-JKLXD3cz8REpXM5JmQodbD47kK95qjWTIjWXb

 

I remember reading an article on details on Polish F-16's stating the cockpits were black. I even remember seeing some photos to support this. There might have been some info on gray floor, or from the floor up. The key word being of course "i remember". I took to research again, and apparently Polish F-16D's have gray cockpits. Ah well... At least I blackbased the cockpit, right?

 

Just for the kicks, I assembled both spines on the double seaters. They are slightly different, panelwise, and the Kinetic one is slightly wider. Mind You - Kinetic seems longer as it's a full part, beggining on the cockpit bulkhead. Hasegawa part goes on top of the aft fairing on the F-16D. I built the Hasegawa Sufa two times already, and each time I had slight trouble with fit on the top of the spine.

 

AM-JKLXgaSRLZVOhmcDyQ0WPytBOiwdenWV_pI8x

 

Here the spines are dry fitted on the fuselage parts.

 

AM-JKLX4m1b_pN2Nq1aSdysKQHzYL0_O6A86ek4V

 

While we're on the Kinetic kit, I was quite surprised how nice the decals are currently (or were past the initial release). The original decals were thickish, but behave nicelly. And for Polish version a bit too dark. I used up that option - I remember I had to use the checkerboards from aftermarket set. After that I got four kits (2 D's and 2 I's) on a sale for 10 bucks each. I'm slightly suspicious of the Polish decals, as they seem a bit too light, but I'll check them once I get to that bridge. If they're good - and they might be - the deal was even better than I thought all these years ago.

Kinetic re-released the 1/72 kits a while ago, perhaps the decals are even better this time.

 

AM-JKLVL4NLirWlhgV9YKl9dtFiFH2Uj3KOZWXcZ

 

AM-JKLWEvTghEX6QlsHYzg8y-A_-dALmHqR28Mbe

 

That got me kind of nostalgic. Here are my previous attempts. They are all scrapped at this point. I hope I can do better this time.

 

gFSYK4Sz65cjH09ugcS3KD_uU2xWTgAMArNJGC-8

 

1st Sufa (brushpainted)

KfEAlUHcdoTYNX3cIQlFrHNuNMZCk_J5gGj9k166

 

2nd Sufa

LXVNoCaYx1C59TAnWrRyGSWFuXD0Xj9iZ5bbTcAY

 

 

 

Well, that was then. Now, the N got some proper love. I quickly filled all the underwing pylon holes, decaled the cockpit and assembled the fuselage halves. I hate the way Hasegawa molded the main landing gear attachment points. They are quite crucial to the finished model look. More than one of my previous builds was tinted to the one side. I know of no way to make the assembly easier and foolproof - which is kind of what I need.

 

AM-JKLVJ_4cUgGfm6YKiZ17fPcwYXUdqfChBnmWN

 

The second major subassembly is the intake. It's quite natural to compare Hasegawa and Kinetic kits.

Kinetic has totally different intake assembly style from Hasegawa. The intake is however deep enough for 1/72. The left one is Kinetic - the pront part is dryfitted since I didn't finish sanding that is required. The right one is Hasegawa. I added a bit of plastic to the end of the intake. Hopefully this will make it ok-ish.

 

AM-JKLVvWVgB5gWK1mWQqVgZvmmy_O2jlZlVG2oa

 

As You can see, I didn't bother thinning the intake lip part. I hoped this will not show that much.

 

AM-JKLXoSzsebeBAoBgUFN3Ad6DY8dMHtiv6SgOT

 

So far - so good. But it's hard to take a photo down the intake.

 

AM-JKLXbZ5fSsZgaYlfeWq9ReY-tiOliwmvNYh0t

 

This too looks ok.

 

AM-JKLX2Tf9HeWx6D04xzZ48Ss-WBnEwrZdePfIg

 

This kind of looks worse.

 

AM-JKLUiA1DZlsAeJ5cxwOBvNv2GK3o9qfGv2oN0

 

And this is the worst angle. I don't want to sand the intake anymore, as it will just create a weird angle inside. So I'll have to live with this. That saying, I guess I like it better this way, than doing the 1/12 depth intake.

 

AM-JKLVjjV6XQYdQuhpZmYDdzFeXlW1oiG9htTDA

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

A micro update. Sufa intake is more or less done - I opted for a slightly different approach - other than adding the intake extension to the underside of the intake, I tried to blend it. I sanded underside of the intake, then added a piece of plastic to the underside, extending aft, and just after that I added another piece of plastic, that will be wisible looking in the intake. Once I'll sand the joint a bit I'll shoot some paint and hopefully take a photo.

 

AM-JKLV24GLQdPji6SA5ZKgry7Lj7C6rcZfrU9-J

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Will remember the intake trick for my Kinetic Sufa in the future...

Like you painted the pit in NATO black, is more in scale for 1/72 build. I often started with an even light tone, like German Grey and working out the shadow with black oils

Any plan for the bended wings of the Kinetic 's?

( Also started think if build also a Hornet for the GB...)

 

Gianni

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 3/16/2022 at 8:48 AM, kurnass77 said:

Will remember the intake trick for my Kinetic Sufa in the future...

Like you painted the pit in NATO black, is more in scale for 1/72 build. I often started with an even light tone, like German Grey and working out the shadow with black oils

Any plan for the bended wings of the Kinetic 's?

( Also started think if build also a Hornet for the GB...)

 

Gianni

 

The intake on the Kinetic kit is the best of all the F-16's kit I've ever built. I requires some filler, but with minimal work can come out very nice.

I've sanded it a bit, painted it with H316 white and this is absolutelly the worst angle I could photograph. I might still go in and redo it, but for the most part I'm pretty happy with it. The lower seamline was never sanded.

 

AM-JKLVSzl3aOCrZa4Rz_c4QLt7fHd9qtfq-cJMf

 

 

As for the bent wings, I just tried to unbend them 😉 It was pretty easy, but a bit scarry, as I had to bend the plastic untill the white stress lines appeared.

 

AM-JKLUFIF1Ud0vLkPHpoehimoweGkxNnQqy1Z8V

 

The lines on the wings are the way plastic is. I bent the wing at the root, where the white stress line appears.

 

AM-JKLUSVUbt_p7hFqnRhlOBc0ajgwoaLPfpOsiH

 

The main progress for this weekend was doing some work on the assembly of Sufa, The N and painting the cockpit of the D. Kinetic cockpit is pretty nice. The detailing really reminds me of the revell F-16's. The Instrument panel raised detail are all there, just not too pronounced. Of course this makes it hard to paint. The buttons on side consoles are just drybrushed - detail here is more pronounced. Separate throttle is a nice touch. Yikes. I reeally feel like building a Revell Viper now...

 

AM-JKLX5UiCdZLU7AD7ZDx9EWw84UC8UOONyNcbq

 

Cockpit was the only thing that prevented me from closing the main fuselage parts. The lower part was severely bent, which required some clamping. The fact there is a large opening where the intake will go is probably to blame. It also makes it relativelly easy to straighten out. This morning I removed all clamps and added glue where it didn't catch on the first time(underside of the the lerx). It's looking very Vipery 😉

 

AM-JKLXshOx6Q_sv1_v0zWDtg_Kb87aawf8Llc-F

 

What I also did, I assembled and attached intakes and exhausts to both Hasegawa Vipers. Well, the Sufa was ok. The N however has the GE engine. This means the exhaust has petals in two colours - the main colour and the colour of the area that slides under the petal right next to it. There is also the thin silver line. Much thinner than I made it to be, really. When I painted the nozzle it became obvious that 1) I hate masking. 2) I'cant mask 12 similar pieces right next to one another, 3) the Hasegawa part is wrong. there should be notches by the end of each petals on both sides, while Hasegawa gives only on one side. This makes the petal look weird, especially once painted up. The dark area should end with a cutout, just like on the F-14B/D nozzles. Had I not bothered with this detail i would not notice. Or had I not built the F-14B recently...
I'm not replacing the nozzle for that so it stays that way. It'sjust something I'm going to have to figure out next time.

 

AM-JKLWkeJ42p6ImHEkZx-_1GlCZ9K3az4XmUWNP

 

I also tinted all of the canopies. Something I'm having trouble with recently. I test tried it on couple of Italeri double seater canopies and determined I like it better when I tint it from the underside. The N and D came out Ok-ish (or passable actually). The Sufa I funked up which I only realised right now...

This side is Ok...

AM-JKLXoV8x8EmyAuImLVjxuVG_AnruyPdfccstF

 

this one is not ok.

 

AM-JKLVVmpp9Y73KP_dvLAzDVYeiwQZoRNj9n6m8

 

I'll have to either polish it out with paste, or remove it with thinner and reapply. Perhaps polishing out will also remove the smudge?

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

Funny thing. I'm like 90% ready to paint these three beuties. I however did not take any pictures of the assembly process.

 

The fit on the intake of the Kinetic kit is horrible. I had to adjust most of the mating surfaces, added a lot of clamps for this assembly and still did not manage to achieve smooth fit. Not fun.

 

Fun was actually the word that came out of y mouth once I took the N to the bench. I did not attach the vertical stab, and had it next to the model. It must have fallen in the meantime. I suppose I could fix that.

 

AM-JKLVm7CYzmSkc_sN4dI4ZP6-vmG-OjUJMO4qa

 

But I won't. I just took out another tail from my spares. It's reallu good to have scrapped so many models. Right?

 

AM-JKLXiEiVUx8LQSYFhRjBS1YjQdbhqggytt3Oc

 

Voila!

 

AM-JKLXSi3e3PUHqPlzctxSttY8T05-YYwuk5sF9

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh boy, do I have a sore finger today... Really need to think about getting a better airbrush. Well. Great things require great sacrifices. Small things require small sacrifices. So this is a small, but very important update for me.

 

All remaining Vipers are ready to paint!  One important thing differentiating these builds is I started to paint the exhaust nozzles before the main colour. Not after. I'm not 100% convinced this is the way to go, but I will certainly know by the end of my two Viper projects.

 

AM-JKLXbcaMm8KUwxfZ-FztxiDk0Ko87TQMwkCAL

 

The 36375 was first. Gunze H308 is actually more like 26375 but whatever. It goes on pretty nicelly. After much deliberation I chose not to install the CFTs on the D. Polish AF Vipers are seen without CFTs and with a centerline fuel tank only. This is what I'll be going for. So in this project I'll have a kind of three distinct configurations. Basic, clean - vanilla F-16 in the N, a spined D with a a/a intercept config and a bombloaded, beast I. Just have to choose the bombs on the Sufa.

 

AM-JKLXQL-nyNbetMXCNkXyDIbzCw285CQNgJe98

 

Gotta say, the camo for the N is the one I was most anxious to paint. I previously did a Kfir is similar colours, but in the hindsight the contrast on the colours is a bit off. The 36307 is tiniest bit too dark and the 36251 is a bit too dark. I used Model Master acrylics for the dark gray and blue gray (35237) and a Hataka for the 36251.

 

AM-JKLWEzID2ySJ72HcR22CE_0wnQhxU6-RcMC_x

 

As it turned out, my Model Master 36307 dried out. So I had to dust off some DJ skils, and mix the paint. I hate mixing paints. Always make too little, the next mix is totally different... So this time I mixed a little bit too much. Hasegawa would have You paint the 36307 as one of the british colurs - the H334 (or 324 as it's written in the instructions too). Rubbish, right? I took however some H332 and H334, being Barley Gray and Light Aircraft Gray respectivelly, and mixed that with a bit of Tamiya Royal light gray... Wonder how that will turn out. The 36251 I eventually gambled on being a Gunze 36270 with a few drops of black.

 

AM-JKLWrda3dHz2D2xSgsazIztFu0KiVAFMyE_he

 

The easiest colur, the 35237 is on. This time MM paint sprayed like a dream. Frankly, this paint / colour is the biggest mistery for me. As a topside for an F-14 and CF-188 it looks totally different. In such scheme it looks just blue. Weird.

 

AM-JKLWCnszWNW3sGv23OEPMqKflkxVY0BPufjtm

 

And all three, as freshly painted as I could photograph. The light gray looks just the way I wanted. The dark gray however was weird. See, the first batches of paint came out much darker than the latter. I painted the tail and the wings first with the nose being last. There is a noticable decrese in darkness.

 

AM-JKLVyU1ineSYhyKwHhLzbROHSYnb8VTUjF3iM

 

And so I tried to daken the colour a bit. It came out so-so. And so i figured I should drink up the beverage acompanying me in this task, and just call it a day. I mean, night. I chose to revisit the matter in a morning.

 

As You can see, I painted the D too. I really screwed up the right wing and had to come in with 36375 to fix it. You can also see the contrast on the 36270 and the mixed 36251.

 

AM-JKLX7htQemLD7BOvrguXcVtZY8_Hu4t-WJlU-

 

And here's most of the stuff fixed.

 

AM-JKLV_XjWwtFocr-yX4BXYEG_-2IqP5Y-dgXXW

 

By morning both models looked a bit better. So all that remains is to paint the tape on the N and the tapelines on the D. While I'm at it, I'll probably add some colour variation to the 35237 as it looks a bit too uniform. Plus there's almost an entire Sufa to paint.  Oh... and the walkways on the N. Dang. I forgot about that. There are apparently walkways with oposite colours to the camo. So no decals for me this time... only paint. I never painted walkways before... Oh well...

 

AM-JKLUnT5hAM46ej5m-851yMrozP4wUG9EtigwW

 

Ok, so not bad for a night of work, eh? Once I woke up I got thinking... what about the decal colour on the N.... I'd be very unhappy if I had to fix the light gray. Luckilly, it's all good. The decals will be a bit darker.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Link to post
Share on other sites

You're right about 35237. When I first sprayed in on my N, over 36495, it looked green more than gray, but then when I added the blue 35109 to the scheme, it turned into dark gray. Lots of strange effect going on with that one.

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 4/8/2022 at 3:21 PM, Geoff M said:

Very ambitious project and it looks like you are doing very well.  Can't wait to see the final product.

 

Geoff M

 

Thanks! I generally don't have a lot of complicated, extensive and time consuming modelling. So I kind of make up by building more of a bit diverse models.

 

On 4/11/2022 at 3:02 PM, Camus272 said:

You're right about 35237. When I first sprayed in on my N, over 36495, it looked green more than gray, but then when I added the blue 35109 to the scheme, it turned into dark gray. Lots of strange effect going on with that one.

 It is a bit greenish, blueish, grayish colour. I'd love to keep the current effect.

 

I'm currentyly done with painting the N and D, so the focus is at I. I tried masking the walkways, but frankly that is beyon my patience. Besides I could not see the actual colour I'd spray, I should mask and spray the IFR markings too, to match the walkways.

 

I've pulled off quite a bit of IAF camo over the years. It seems it's generally the same colours, spots are in generally the same places, with the tail being an exception. The sand colour is the first one to go, as it's the easiest.

 

AM-JKLWMP9mRORIRiItRruocjmjeLEKaULyX-OG2

 

Now, the Gunze sand is fully curing, as I'm planning on spots location. The brown (actually a dark tan - 30219) is going to be Model Master acrylic, which cracks if painted over uncured Gunze or Tamiya paints. I'd love for Hasegawa to provide different colours for the sand and green. Really. I mean, I keep looking at sand as the white, and the green as the light gray camouflage spots.

 

AM-JKLUjTrQmWzmU4pz1everqPCUtaSzyf5TT4Ox

 

Luckilly I have an Armycast decal sheet that shows the spots in colour.

 

I wanted to build the 253 - the first aircraft in Negev (253rd) squadron. There is a nice walkaround on the net: https://www.primeportal.net/hangar/isaac_gershman/f-16i_sufa_253/

However it seems as if the aircraft was placed in a sort of museum. Although on the F-16.net it shows the AC as operational. https://www.f-16.net/aircraft-database/F-16/airframe-profile/4686/

 

Hopefully today I'll have the brown painted. I'm slightly scared as the 30219 I have is a pretty old paint. I might have trouble with diluting and overspray. The walkaround shows some massive overspray - especially on the nevralgic points as the CFT's.

 

Keep fingers crossed for me 😉

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh YEAH! I got the paintjob finished!! Well, not 100%, but in reality, like 95%, some details are left to be painted such as the intake leading edge.

 

I was quite afraid of the overspray. Well, I was right. I tried thinning the paint, overthinning, underthinning and I generally came to the conclusion, it's no good. So I went with the mixture I had in my airbrush, it was probably the overthinned one.

 

AM-JKLV6xTjwa34dZ4qQzS57Kq6jK49IZ8hm6GEZ

 

This also marked the first time I used Tamiya Sky as the green in IAF camo. Not 100% happy, but at least 90% happy with it. Could be paler. But then the picture kind of shows it slightly darker. Obviously, if You read any of my other threads, a good build is a build with colour problems! I'll think about going over it with a mist of lighter colour, or just try to do some white/sand highlits. I know You won't believe it, but the nosecone is 36320 - H308. I don't know whats up with this paint. I had one jar that was almost 36375 this one is much darker, but still not as dark as in this picture...

 

AM-JKLUnGlzb_3eGiob0JBTlCpnUN7QMuDGrPqgl

 

Of course it should also be noted, that I was painting the model with all the reference I could find, that walkaround of 253 was quite helpful. Today, as I was looking at some Sufa pics I noticed however something "new". Not all Sufas carry a sort of a dome on the spine, just fore of the vertical tail.

 

Yes. The one I want doesnt carry it.

 

the one with the dome, just fore of the tail... Both Images are from wikipedia commons. I wonder what other marvellous details I totally missed. Like that little bulge by the endcap of the spine on the 466, absent on the 415. Or the vent on the right side, by the cockpit.

 

253_Squadron_of_the_Israeli_Air_Force,_a

 

And the one without.

 

253_Squadron_of_the_Israeli_Air_Force,_a

 

So right now I'll have to figure out what tail numbers I can create for my Sufa. Kinetic Sufa comes with 408 and 422 tail numbers for the Negev sqn. Yup. Neither have the dome. I don't want to do the Bat sqn this time but I do have the 425 (no dome), 451 and 497/119 (both with domes). I suppose removing the dome will be quite easy. Kinetic Sufa comes with the part moulded to the spine insert. Well. At least I didn't spot it just after completion, right?

 

I know I keep yapping about some stuff that's quite obvious, but I keep revisiting these threads when I build another kit, and they do serve as a good note for future me.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Link to post
Share on other sites

So. I finished decalling the N. A Nice Viper it is.

 

I read somewhere, the early F-16N's had walkways in the "opposite" camouflage colours. This seems to be somewhat represented in the Hasegawa Kit decal sheet.

 

As You can see - the NAVY, the stars and bars, the refueling door stencil and the walkway lines on the left side are all one colour, while the walkways on the right side of the sheet are a different, lighter gray. A nice touch are the ejection seat triangles - also in two different colours. Is this correct? Well....

AM-JKLXZBYhA6aDWxyULDMy94YmTddegaP0_pxxq

 

I took some time to cut up the walkway decals to match the "opposite colours" as proposed by the Hasegawa, and under the assumption, they would be painted, just like the other stencil. On the light gray - medium gray, on the agressor gray - medium gray (as per the ejection seat triangles), and on the medium gray - light gray. I obviously run out of the light gray walkways. Still, the idea seemed legit. Walkways would be visible on all the colours, the jet was painted in LM factory, and there would really be no reason it wouldn't be carrying the walkways.

 

AM-JKLXE4aGKlW_yeO1e4Eh5a5_uWkKFktdiyvh8

 

I even tried to replace the light gray walkways with the Hasegawa F-16A/C walkways. That cream colour is really of no use ANYWHERE!

 

AM-JKLVvMNrWhtrlK1SIraDDRprwhJ16BeHGeikw

 

I figured, all the other walkways will have to be painted.

 

AM-JKLWciLZsTHCGHJbSQWbETGE-0ZMfIQlTsjeM

 

And I kind of finished all that - to a quite satisfactory result.

 

AM-JKLUQ0SXAKJ_eWjCglrBRNKZh6rdWSPBRXGw2

 

The trobule is, it really seems I had effed up. I was so busy checking the "opposite colour" idea, I didn't really check the validity of the claim.

 

If You look at the photo in this article on the F-16N, there are very thin dark lines, just where the walkways would be. They seem to be in the similar / same colour as the darker markings. Notice also the under canopy stencils. They are there, just barely visible in the photo.

 

https://www.f-16.net/f-16_versions_article22.html

 

Here is another shot, this time a little bit later in the career.

 

https://www.f-16.net/g3/f-16-photos/album38/album23/163272-1971830645

 

Or another shot - showing really nice the under canopy stencil colours. Just on the other jet.

 

https://www.f-16.net/g3/f-16-photos/album38/album23/163270-1412541948

 

Besides. On these shots, the agressor gray looks really very much like the neutral gray (36270).

 

Honestly, I don't see anything resembling a light gray walkway line. So right now I'm really contemplating, either stripping the decals and the painted walkways, and just rolling with dark gray walkways - which I don't have... Or leaving it as is. This would make the model with two distinct boo boos, as I've had to place the stars and bars by the vertical stab a little further to the aft, due to me screwing up the agressor gray spot demarcation line. The national insignia should be really aligned by the center, with the trailing edge of the wing (there is a panel line there too!).

 

I'm really starting to feel out of my game. I should've picked up these two things slightly earlier. Before decalling preferably. Especially, since I really was looking at these photos while painting and all... I guess I'll have to figure out what to do...

Link to post
Share on other sites

Gotta say, the Sufa decals were one of the nicest Hasegawa decals I've worked with. The jet is pretty much decalled all over, save for a tiny bit of (what else!) walkway trouble. I also have to say some good things about old Kinetic decals for the 600 gallon tanks. Whlie generally unreadable, they went on quite well. The newer batch, as in the Polish/Greek boxing is generally beter printed, but I wanted to have a test ride - old vs new. Old ones were slightly misprinted, and that is my only real complaint.

 

AM-JKLXKXlPg7NmhR8J_LqrSwwtPcApwMb4Fywut

 

What is extremely interesting, the Hasegawa walkways near the exhaust are too short! That is such a surprise! I also deviated from the instructions with chaff/flare decals. The thing is, Hasegawa Sufa uses, just like any other Hasegawa F-16 a lower fuselage from the basic A boxing. So there are only two openings for the chaff buckets. The block 52's have additional chaff buckets (4 apparently on Sufa) under the fuselage, and, add to that, 4 on the spine. That seems to be a lot of countermeasures. Polish Vipers seem to have only 4 buckets on the underside. Hasegawa part has a recessed opening for the 2 buckets, and the other 4 are represented in decal form.

I generally decided, the top side of my Sufa is more important, and the decals seemed quite nice, so as You can see, I put the decals on the spine.

I really like the 253rd sqn logo.

I keep getting the urge to build another MiG-29A, and it would look cool next to the Sufa in 253rd sqn markings.

 

AM-JKLUT1V4USkSDROHk-nN76DTXygUkvD9i9C0b

 

And the pods. I don't know about You, but I watch a lot of Youtube builds. There seems to be a lot of modellers that don't use airbrush for painting. When I re-started modelling I was very reluctant to airbrushing, as I've had trouble thinning paint, cleaning the airbrush, and all. OTOH airbrush gives me the smoothness of the paint, that the brush seemingly couldn't. I keep using brush in lo visibile areas, such as cockpit, or on small details. So when I watch these videos, and the entire model is painted by a brush I keep wondering about the smoothness of the paint, the panel linesl and all the stuff. On a video, wythout a close up You can't really see that stuff.

So I kind of figured, I could try to paint the pods with a brush. And I gotta say, I'm pretty happy with it. I both painted and gloss coated them with my MM acryl and I have to say, I got quite good results. I might need to thin the paint slightly better next time, wait a little more time before coats, but generally, it's quite nice. Gotta try this on something slightly bigger.

 

AM-JKLXqVeL3H2EscNZ8U4h_KAz_Pm0PWps5Ajlw

 

So now the pods await their decals, and I'm at a slight loss as to the loadout. I'm dead set on the 600 gallon tanks. But it seems the Sufa doesn't really carry them that often! I suppose there just isn't that much fuel required in the IAF area of operations. I tentativelly thought up a "top cover" SEAD mission, with AGM-88's, but apparently, the IAF don't use them. I guess I could use a Rafael Delilah that was supplied with Kinetic Sufa, but I don't want to part out that kit. So I kind of have to decide, either go with two GBU-31's or two Rafael Spice 2000's. I'd go with Spice, but I can't really tell if it needs the data pod, similar to the Poppeye (AGM-142). I still have some time to decide though.

 

Thanks for stopping by! Next episode - Polish Viper gets it's colours!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ok, that went quite neat.

Got some minor problem with kit decals unfortunatly.

 

See, the kit decals are just too light. Polish Vipers have stencils in a dark gray tone, either the 36118 or 36081. Fortunatly, I happen to have some remains of a Two Bobs sheet (left, upper one), and a Techmod decal sheet. The Kinetic decal sheet is the one under the Two Bobs. Already on the sheet decals look a little bit too light.

 

AM-JKLXqnVWOrEIuJXV2GXMuUScB6nXbIclJBrxw

 

On a direct comparison, the Kinetic decals (middle) are much lighter than Techmod (left) and TwoBobs (right). TwoBobs are very close to black, which is actually incorrect. So Techmod it is. I probably would've used them even if they were of incorrect colour.

 

AM-JKLXQQz6jGArE5M3VlGN1YxpML3GM3-ntECVV

 

Here You can see the Techmod refueling door stencil, along with the Kinetic Ejection seat triangle... A real shame, as the decal went on beutifully.

 

AM-JKLUlXnkeiAdnqvEITSbxnQBG1NqIqxSPVlJ3

 

And this lovelly beast is decalled. Checkerboards are from Kinetic, the side number is from TwoBobs and the rest of the decals are from Techmod. I have to say I hate putting down the walkway lines. And Techmod lines were just so thin, with decals being so thin too... However no decals tore. I remember them very fondly from my previous Polish Viper built, and the memory was indeed accurate.

 

AM-JKLUd0hrDz8rilLTL5IWndrsAlB69vTpEl5t4

 

I'm actually well into the weapons build. The jets are not really all armed to the teeth, but still, there is significant amout of sticks to be put on the jets.

Must refrain from starting Hornets already. Must refrain from starting Hornets already....

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

And that's it folks! My planned part of the F-16 Group Build is done! And probably all the possible Vipery for a while.

 

First, the Hasegawa F-16N.

I eventually decided to leave the weird looking walkways. Probably more from lazyness than anything else. I do kind of like them.

I swapped out the ejection seat for the one from Revell F-16. Looks better. I had to sand it a little bit from the underside to fit. I also changed my mind on the weapons load. It was going to be a full clean jet. Eventually though, as it came out so dirty I figured I really need to put something, so an ACMI pod and a training Sidewinder was used.

 

Fun fact, this is the only picture that I had no trouble with. All the others came out super yellow. Don't know why. I tried shooting these Vipers four times and that's the best I could come up with using my phone. My skill is probably to blame, but I'll go with modern phone intelligence not wanting me to post nice, good balanced photos of these Vipers. Yes, that must be it!

 

AM-JKLUkROJWg7vDmHqlVl2KXzJLfE6I0kHqTAaB

 

Warm and fuzzy....

 

AM-JKLVamTJgQLhHUYacGb4t_8IboSXA9pFJZb10

 

 

AM-JKLVjvkF4NTlZBL1bNU21KK2IyAZ4RDX1wayj

 

AM-JKLV19Qr_LeejeIb_vnlLWmP6cEg2iqeQg8oM

 

AM-JKLVMC9ckhSIfqpUJvKClx70s3gfwrLlMzI78

 

 

Then, the Sufa.

A definite improvement over my previous Sufa. So that's a plus. I'll stick with Tamiya Sky for the IAF Viper Green. Just add a bit of sand next time. Funny thing, my Revell ejection seats didn't fit. So I had to use some other. This time I took the ones from Kinetic F-16. Except for the Quickboost ones, they were the only ones that fit easilly. Next time I'll have to remove all the remains of ejection seat sides from the cockpit tub. The next F-16 I'll build will probably be a single seater IAF Viper.

 

AM-JKLVb0geA6XsmbHoAbCv7IURyuUcwdbDT_8-R

 

AM-JKLXcLoe9hDJWsizVDOaoVJUUa0EW9Pk0smPP

 

That front walkway decal is the only one that silvered. Honestly!

 

AM-JKLUhBWJoxNRsby1W-6XjWTLF33ll1_NgTS-s

 

AM-JKLWkWEfbobdY58YOED4clnayudXgIQlK0CWC

 

Kinetic seats would be quite ok, but they're too skinny. The width is quite ok, but the depth of the seat is off. They have this rectangular look, when observed from the top.

 

AM-JKLXYqQM5Bh45s-EDRvnMpgeE4umB7SSfsa4p

 

 

And finally, the Polish Viper. I really dig this camouflage. Simple, easy, eye catching. For this one I used spare Quickboost seats that I had. They fit nicelly and didn't require much modding, save for the instalation of the guide rails to the sides.

 

AM-JKLUd7dT-HPDVrjiipRHHiqA5EhuQmEDL2Fle

 

AM-JKLUti-yIoSo6z4XJilNWfv_llqkhbKgcXOEm

 

AM-JKLXbB8ByzCnlNk372PkVZhE5SeL0K0WOb2Wg

 

AM-JKLVovi1-bNIuQTdMF_Ppo7Qvi_8G8RsrOJ59

 

AM-JKLUeWHrKn91JNns4j0iC72G1anYKRNXhukee

 

I've no idea why the pics in the other Viper thread came out better. But I'm not doing a fifth session. Four is too much for me. Even the lighting was the same as then.

 

So, some more weird fugly shots of the Vipers, anone? No? Here You go! 😉

 

 

AM-JKLWj67JXKFstdqdmj1To9iHkT1vfhNv_vqcD

 

AM-JKLWzkN6D-zPtpXZx-dQhe1pLZ3GslmjCzwuO

This one probably shows the most accurate representation of the colours, their contrast, especially on the dark gray to blue gray for the N, the sand to green for the I and the grays on the D.

 

AM-JKLW5dnbdS1s-MwySqy22GydjoI9pUjfAMey0

 

Well, that was fun. I'll be doing more in the future, just not really anytime soon. In 2022 I've finished six Vipers already, so that is kind of enough. Besides, with my time off work coming to an end, I'll want to divert some modelling time to building Hornets.

 

Thank You very much for joining me on this journey, it sure was extremelly fun! Have fun building Vipers, or whatever catches Your fancy!

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, Kurt H. said:

They look great. Thank you for joining the group build!

 

Thanks! GB was fun Kurt!

 

6 hours ago, Mr.Happy said:

Amazing work on your ‘Falcon Family’ Thadeus!

 

Mr.Happy 

 

Thanks Mr. Happy!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...