FortyEighter

This was finally finished at the start of this week but I've been a bit slow getting it into the Gallery - here are a few more photos: Mike

F-16C 86-0314 18th Aggressor Squadron Alaska Built from the Tamiya 1/48 F-16C/N boxing build thread here

Looking good, strange how the grey by nose and on fin contrasts with that on the wings area. Mike

Time for some gloss varnish and then the decals: and yes, there were enough spare static wicks! Mike

Time for a double update as I forgot to post the first photo 😒 This was the state of play on 21st Feb with most of the airframe finished and undercarriage temporarily in position: I also managed to find some unused DACO reinforcement plates. And after almost a week of recent work (Blu tac worms and lots of masking tape) the camouflage is done but needs a little tidying up in places: The "Light Arctic Grey" is actually MRP004 White applied over the grey primer, the grey is MRP094 "US Med Mod Grey" and the black is MRP077 NATO Black. At the moment the tail section is still removable but most of the undercarriage has been fixed in place since painting. Also visible are Model Master static discharge wicks - I've "pinged" a couple but I think there are enough spares left over but if not some fine brass wire will come to the rescue. Mike

Just the metallic to paint now: The supplied (deep) yellow masks are an exact copy of the decals and are used as a masking guide - the decals are not opaque, so care needs to be taken! The white between the grey lower fuselage and cheat line (ie supplied mask in this photo) should be about 2.5mm (scaling from prints I could find) but in the end I decided to make the white / grey demarcation along an obvious panel line. The mask on the tail is simply to get the leading metallic edge in the correct place, so the actual decal will butt up rather than overlap. Mike @vintageflyerdecals has been very helpful in post purchase questions about how to use his masks. Unfortunately, the Braniff livery just clips the lower rear cockpit window and at the moment I'm struggling to get it in the correct position relative to cockpit, forward entry door and emergency exit - will update that thread when I'm happy with its placement. Mike

Looking great Neil, the painted light blue cheat line is excellent. Like you I find it difficult to get a good fit of complex decals around the nose - your solution has worked well. Mike

This was started in the NATO 75th Anniversary GB (original build thread) but didn't get too far, so with approval from @Col. I'm hoping to get it over the line in this GB. Some progress since then has got to this stage: Mike

Hi Ray, Thanks for your detailed photo suggestions of where there might be an issue. Part R5 was certainly in the correct way round, so not sure what was wrong but as I said a few strokes with a file got the divider (J13) to fit. Next I looked at the fit of the "vee" - thinking I must have got something slightly out of line I "mocked up" the narrow intake with tape for comparison and no issues with it fitting the lower fuselage😕 Then I looked carefully at the front end of the narrow version, where the two casing halves are a good fit on the actual intake tube: and at my wide version - where there is a noticeable gap at the bottom: Obviously the front lip (H11) would not fit correctly as things stood (but again I can't see how this happened given the way the outer covers (H4, HH10) fit onto the completed tube). My solution was to cut open the joint between H4 / H10 in front of the nose wheel bay and remove a small slice off their edges until they met and looked like the "narrow" photo. Having done that, the whole assembly was a much better fit to the lower fuselage and with a little more sanding was permanently fitted in place: So to summarise: I must have got some part of the assembly slightly wrong but it fits now. BTW Kinetic score over Tamiya for the design of how their front lip fits to the intake - the intake tube is slightly shorter than the two outer casings and the back of the lip is stepped, giving a very positive location. Mike

Good progress Ray; a pity I didn't see this before my post yesterday - thanks for your suggestions in the same. I've got a better fit on mine now and will update my thread later when I've taken some photos. Mike

Time to prove that this build is underway: So far the fit of Tamiya versus Kinetic is going in favour of this kit - the joint on the top two fuselage halves is much better and more thought appears to have gone into how the modeller will assemble the kit. However I've run into an issue in the main gear bay: The central divider (J13) was too long to fit and needed trimming at the front. Also the three slots on the bottom edge (as seen in photo) of the same were too small and did not line up with J31, J32, R5 - though that was easy to fix with a file. Not sure why J13 was too long - given that the two end bulkheads (J15, J18) locate by tabs onto the bay ceiling (J24) one shouldn't really be able to go wrong! Anyway problems solved but mentioned so that anyone else building this kit knows that care is needed at this stage. I'm also not certain that the forward "vee" on top of the intake (H8) is going to meet the lower fuselage properly - there is a gap which can be got rid off by flexing the fuselage but will it then fit the upper half correctly?? The cockpit needs doing before I get to thinking about this. Mike

Luckily I've got one unopened tin of the above but after that..... Capri Blue (as opposed to Fiat's version) is RAL 5019, which is in the Ammo by Mig range (086). The BA corporate guidelines give the current blue as RAL 5002 (available as Revell gloss 51) and also state Midnight Blue (Landor?) Is RAL 5013. Guess we all might need to experiment with colour matches at some time (BTW I can supply Hex / RGB / Pantone values for the above colours if anyone needs them). Mike

Good progress so far and a nice choice; GE engine with small intake. (well, that's what my instructions say).

I think those scalloped back edges give the game away!

Hopefully the next update won't take so long but there are some BAC 1-11s and F-16s in current GBs