1:48 Attic F-16XL Parts Preview

[Trigger]

There's been some discussion going on in a nearby thread on the F-16XL weapons options that turned towards the 1:48 Attic conversions. For those that don't know what I'm talking about, there are only three (that I know of) injection molded F-16XL kits; a horrible 1:32 kit that's totally FUBARd (short fuselage, wrong wing size), the 1:72 Monogram kit (accuracy issues, but still not a bad kit) and a 1:144 offering (manufacturer unknown; Heller?). However there's been no 1:48 injection molded XL, but Attic Aircraft has released three 1:48 conversions for the Hasegawa kits to turn them into either the F-16XL Single Seater, Two Seater or the Two Seater in NASA colors.

For the purposes of this post, I'll refer the the single and double-seaters by the respective designations they would have received had they entered service with the USAF - F-16E and F-16F. Just shorter to type those out. and besides, that's how I'll build mine someday.

F-16F

Instructions

Parts Overview

Wing Details

Tail base and Two AMRAAMs

You'd probably be better off with the CE F-16A/B or C/D with parapack resin tail

Wings

Cockpit (Outside)

Cockpit (Inside)

[Trigger]

F-16F (Continued)

Main Landing Gear Bay and Intake

Lower Fuselage (Forward)

Decals

[Andre]

(manufacturer unknown; Heller?)

It's an LS mold, also repopped by Airfix, Hobbycraft and Heller. The only accurate mainstream F-16XL kit - see http://www.habu2.net/vipers/viperkits/144/kits144.1.html.

That Attic resin looks workable, tho' - a pity I don't do 1/48th.

HTH,

Andre

[Matt_S]

Thanks for the review.

Matt :blink:

[sbc3133r]

Well since this topic on ATTIC F-16XL resin is raised here...i like to share my experience(s) to all.

i bought the single seater F-16XL and man, this must be the worst resin casting i ever seen!

here's my story...

bottom fuselage -

overall shape's ok but way too thick & many bubbles! impossible to add wheel bay into it unless you grind the whole resin part out (4hours). i had to remove the thick resin block at the intake area to make way for a full intake access (another 2hours).

top fuselage -

shape ok, simplified panel lines. the molded cockpit is poorly detailed, so another round of cutting & sanding (4hours). in the end, i decided to cut off the whole front portion of the resin & add academy F-16C into place instead...way too thick to grind!

wings -

a measurement with the micrometer indicates the left side is much thicker than the right. so another round of solid sanding (4hours). also, shape of the wings required attention. simplified panel lines to speak of, rescribing required here again.

tail piece -

this is the best part of the whole resin set...minimum cleanup & filling of bubble holes.

weapons -

this is another section that's ok.

decals -

this is the worst of all! it would be an insult to called this decal...i stick it to my son's bicycle! it basically a piece of white sticker uncut. printing out, cannot be used at all! this explains why my F-16XL was shelfed, after completing the hell job of conversion.

sorry, i cannot called this a conversion...a better word for this resin set is modeling at its worst!

(p/s - if someone can show me how to upload images here, i'll be glad to take photos of my 'plague'!)

[Trigger]

And now the second half of my preview - the F-16E

F-16XL References

The F-16XL/F-16E Conversion came with instructions (same as the F, but for a single seater which is why I didn't shoot those) and it came with a really cool set of references on the XL program and prototypes. The best of which are diagrams that illustrate weapons loads.

Parts Overview

Sometimes I hate my camera.

Lower Fuselage/Intake

You're seeing that right; that's solid resin at the intake. No seamless sucker on this one.

Upper Fuselage/Cockpit

Cockpit Interior

Resin AMRAAM

---------------------------------------------------

_Resin is thick and tough. You'll probably want a Dremel to help trim down the major parts (fuselage, wings) Be sure to have plenty of sandpaper and dusk masks handy when you start on this.

_Tail assembly requires you to cut the Hasegawa tail off at the base, assemble the two resin base halves and then glue the Hasegawa tail on top of that. Or you can order an F-16 tail with parapack from Meteor. They have it for the A/B model or C/D model and it's designed for the Hasegawa kit, so it ought to fit into the aft fuselage fine.

_Aft fuselage, exhaust, radome, cockpit, canopy, landing gear, wingtip launch rails, drop tanks, pilot, any sensors or weapons and intake assembly comes from your donor Hasegawa kit and weapon sets/stashes.

_There's no painting guide, but Habu2's excellent site has a lot of good information on the XL, including color guides for the prototypes.

_Decals leave much to be desired. If you're planning on building your E/F as one of the XL demonstrators, you'll probably be better off masking, painting and getting some markings custom printed on an ALPS. If you're like me and plan on building these as in-service aircraft, then you're fine. Any decal printed for the Hasegawa Viper kit should work on here.

Between the conversion parts and donor kit alone, these aren't inexpensive nor are they for the faint of heart (I'm going to work on my F-8E to F-8C to build up experience with resign conversions before tackling these), but they are the only option out there in 1:48 scale (Happy 1:72ers? :blink: ). The front cover of the instructions page recommends these for experienced builders and they're not kidding. I would only recommend this conversion to experienced Viper builders looking to build something other than the usual Shaw Viper (Sorry Keith - I've got that sheet too, but you know they're almost as overexposed as a Jolly Rogers Tomcat), or builders interested in experimental aircraft. Turnaround time from order placed to delivery is 2-3 weeks and they can be purchased on eBay or direct from Attic: F-16E F-16F F-16XL (NASA)

Potential AM Parts:

F-16A/B Tail with Parapack

F-16C/D Tail with Parapack

Seamless "Big Mouth" Intake for GE-Powered Aircraft

Seamless "Small Mouth" intake for PW-Powered Aircraft

(Again, due to the solid resin nature of the F-16E's lower fuselage, unless you're hell-bent on carving out all that resin, you're not going to fit a seamless sucker on it and will have to stick with the donor kit intake options)

PW Exhaust Nozzle

CCIP Upgrade

Corrected Intake Pylon

Snyper XR Pod

GBU-31 JDAM

CBU-103/-104/-105 WCMD

CBU-87/-89/-94/-97 Cluster Bombs

AM Decals

Afterburner

TwoBobs

Zotz Decals (Great source of decals for non-U.S. Viper operators)

Edited July 3, 2007 by Trigger

[sbc3133r]

(Again, due to the solid resin nature of the F-16E's lower fuselage, unless you're hell-bent on carving out all that resin, you're not going to fit a seamless sucker on it and will have to stick with the donor kit intake options)

well documented description of the said conversion kits...

pity it came too late to rescue me from my plague...

guess i'm the type mentioned...'hell-bent' modelor!!

hehe...thankx!

marc

ok, here's some photos on that 'hell-bent' piece...

Edited July 12, 2007 by sbc3133r

[ravensfan6711]

Hey that doesn't look half bad. Any other progress pics? I have one of these conversions from Attic, but I don't know if I have the nerve to start.

[Midnight Storm]

I've always wanted to do Nasa's Black and White XL or the nice camo version with a full load. I'll be watching this thread carefully.

[Trigger]

Nice job on that build! I like how you've grafted the hasegawa forward fuselage to the Attic parts. Very clever.

Edited July 15, 2007 by Trigger

[Keith Diamond]

Thanks for taking the time to review the Attic products. Based on this and the HH-3 conversion sets, it looks like the conversion kits leave a lot to be desired.

a horrible 1:32 kit that's totally FUBARd (short fuselage, wrong wing size),

Yeah, what everyone says about the 1/32 kit is true. You only need to have one reference photo to see that this kit has a lot of issues. Originally (before my kit arrived) I was thinking that I'll leave it as is becuase I didn't want to risk screwing up the wings if I wanted to reshape them, and I wanted to preserve the intake trunking so I didn't want to make too many modifications to the body. But after it arrived... this kit needs some SERIOUS surgery to make it look decent. Not only are the wings blatantly wrong, but some of the "details" are toy like. Thick and heavy panel lines, especially on the tail section, some thick pieces of plastic supposed to represent static dischargers (definitely have to cut those off) and basically a bad rip off of a combo of the Hasegawa and Revell kits. To sum it up, if I had to choose a few words: thick, toylike, major surgery.

But I will still tackle it sometime in the future. I plan to throw in a Black Box cockpit, redo some panel lines, cut and add sections to try to get to the appropirate length, move the intake, and fix the wings. Like Grant, I'll use in service markings. A pure Whif. I've already ordered the 1/32 Black Widow decals from Afterburner since I figure that an XL combined with those markings will look pretty good on my shelf. I'll build it to Block 40 standards, meaning WAR HUD, bulged gear and GE engine. It'll also have a C/D style tail, but without the parabrake extension. I'll also make an attempt to scratchbuild some CFTs. This kit will be a beast whenever I get to it, but it should look real good one day.

the 1:72 Monogram kit (accuracy issues, but still not a bad kit)

I was lucky to pick one up on ebay for 3.99 which is pretty good compared to what I've been seeing them go for lately. As for this one, sorry Grant, I'm putty on the Shaw Viper decals. That was actually the first 1/72nd sheet I've ever bought.

Viper builders looking to build something other than the usual Shaw Viper (Sorry Keith - I've got that sheet too, but you know they're almost as overexposed as a Jolly Rogers Tomcat)

Well, Shaw AFB F-16s, as a collection of different F-16 squadrons has been overdone. There are plenty of decals for Block 25s and Block 50s. But if you break it down, it's not really that overdone. While DS Block 25 jet decals are pretty easy to find, and the 79th FS has been done in decal form a billion times, there are some that haven't been as exposed. The 55th FS was neglected for years until Afterburner came around, 92-3920 was dying to be represented for years, and like the 55th was finally done by Afterburner, the 78th FS only is represented once on the Twobobs sheet, and one demo jet on the Afterburner demo sheet, and the only Block 42 decals out there are for North's MiG killer. Not to mention it'd be nice to see 363rd Block 50s, and the Block 40s of the 309th FS. Of course, Afterburner will probably fill in some of these gaps soon. I know Scott has expressed interest in 363rd Block 50s, and he's also mentioned doing North's MiG killer in time of kill markings, meaning the 19th FS will finally have some 1/48 Vipers decals for them.

[Blennidae]

Looking at the pics its a bit hard to tell, but is the 2 seater as bad as the single seat as far as detail and casting go? I'd love to have a 2 seat in the Ferris scheme, but not sure if I'd enjoy the amount of work required to have one if its that bad.

[Trigger]

Well, Shaw AFB F-16s, as a collection of different F-16 squadrons has been overdone. There are plenty of decals for Block 25s and Block 50s. But if you break it down, it's not really that overdone. While DS Block 25 jet decals are pretty easy to find, and the 79th FS has been done in decal form a billion times, there are some that haven't been as exposed. The 55th FS was neglected for years until Afterburner came around, 92-3920 was dying to be represented for years, and like the 55th was finally done by Afterburner, the 78th FS only is represented once on the Twobobs sheet, and one demo jet on the Afterburner demo sheet, and the only Block 42 decals out there are for North's MiG killer. Not to mention it'd be nice to see 363rd Block 50s, and the Block 40s of the 309th FS. Of course, Afterburner will probably fill in some of these gaps soon. I know Scott has expressed interest in 363rd Block 50s, and he's also mentioned doing North's MiG killer in time of kill markings, meaning the 19th FS will finally have some 1/48 Vipers decals for them.

Sounds like a good argument for a wing super-sheet, something that offers the buyer the option to build as wide of a variety as possible of aircraft from their favorite squadron.

Looking at the pics its a bit hard to tell, but is the 2 seater as bad as the single seat as far as detail and casting go? I'd love to have a 2 seat in the Ferris scheme, but not sure if I'd enjoy the amount of work required to have one if its that bad.

They're about the same.

[Netz]

Here's some more stuff about Attic's XL I guess you need to be careful which offering you get.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/mess...+it%27s+worse+%

Curt

Edited November 25, 2007 by Netz

[Chappie]

Thanks for the review Trigger. I've been on the fence for a long time about this kit. I may wait and see what Meteor does, I recall Kalus hinting at a 1/48th XL conversion after he get the 1/32 version released. But if does not, then I'm going to go with the Attic kit, since it IS the only offering in 1/48th. Plus an F-16 collection would not be complete without an XL.

Chappie