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YF-16 prototype


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There’s also no Halon bottle or aircraft battery in the YF-16 main wheel wells.

Thanks for the information. I will see if I can remove these, without spoiling the wheel wells.

Nils

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I will use the Hasegawa F-16A kit as base for the cockpit interior, with additional aftermarket stuff. As Mike say, the YF-16 used the ESCAPAC seat, thus this will come from an Aires A-7D cockpit set.

The Hasegawa cockpit has the side "rails" for the ACES seat moulded integral with the side consoles. I would have to remove these.

However, as the cockpit is too wide, and the Aires ESCAPAC seat easily fits between the ACES side rail, I rather decided to fill in the side consoles to level with the seat parts. I have also expanded the forwart cockpit floor.

Mike, thanks for your interest in this project. I plan to do an F-16/79 in 1/48 scale at a later stage, thus any information on the air intake would be welcome. In fact, any information on all subjects on the decal sheet is of great interest.

Nils

Are both these builds 72nd? If so, at least you can get away with more than in 72nd than the larger scales. Yep, looks like the Aires seat will fill the bill.

I used the "original" True Details ESCAPAC Seat in my 48th YF-16 builds. In 48th scale, it still is the best ESCAPAC for a YF-16.

I Have some info on these subjects. Contact me direct and we can talk some more.

Cheers

Mike V

Edited by Mike V
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The best book source that I have on the YF-16 is Aero Series No.26, "General Dynamics F-16" by William G. Holder and William D. Siuru.

51WmxTismJL.jpg

This book was first published in 1976, too early to cover FSD and production models. It is still available on the net. The book has since been reprinted, possibly with less YF-16 stuff and more on production models.

Nils

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First the Harrier prototypes, now the F-16 prototypes - seems like a good idea to follow up with F/A-18 and Cobra decals?

Nice work on the YF-16. Following this with interest as have plans to do this one day myself too.

Regards,

Craig Sargent.

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There’s also no Halon bottle or aircraft battery in the YF-16 main wheel wells.

Thanks for the information. I will see if I can remove these, without spoiling the wheel wells.

I removed the halon bottle and battery from the wheel wells, byt this caused some damage to the skin part between the wells.

YF-16_26_800.jpg

This was quite easily repaired with strip styrene and sanded down.

YF-16_27_800.jpg

Nils

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Nils, you're really doing a great job on this !

Mike, is there any website or book that has pictures of the YF-16 various details ? I've seen some cockpit shots on F-16.net, but nothing about the wheel wells.

Nope, nothing on the net for the main wheel wells. I've seen black and white photos of the nose and main wheel wells from a GD archive a few years ago. Unfortunately these were not for release, but I got enough to tell the main differences from the early F-16A. They were fairly bare comapared.

I agree the Aero Book is one of the best YF-16 references, though there was a couple of mid-70s Koku Fans that were well covered as well. I've been trying to track these down recently.

Thanks for the information. I will see if I can remove these, without spoiling the wheel wells.

I removed the halon bottle and battery from the wheel wells, but this caused some damage to the skin part between the wells.

This was quite easily repaired with strip styrene and sanded down.

Nils

Well done surgery in the wells Nils.

I recall the outboard return filter/delta P (post looking thing) was not present on the YFs. The webbing structure on the 341 bulkhead was slightly differenet (and less populated) than the early A production version as well; though I would not worry about that.

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I can't tell off hand, but is the Iranian flag included on the flag strip? It was on the original flag layout, but later removed after the Iranian revolution when the order of F-16 to that country was canceled.

There are two variants of the flag strips on the decal sheet, Mike. One with the US and EPAF flags only (EPAF = European Participating Air Forces, i.e. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway), and another with the Iranian in addition. From photos it seems that the length of the strip is the same with either 5 or 6 flags.

I think that originally the US and EPAF flags were applied to 50745 (as decals) and that the Iranian flag was added later. These (6) flags were also applied to 01568 at some stage. When the Iranian order was cancelled I believe that it was replaced by the Israeli flag, vaguely remember seeing a photo of 01568 with this, but I am not able to find any reference photo now.

Nils

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I agree the Aero Book is one of the best YF-16 references, though there was a couple of mid-70s Koku Fans that were well covered as well. I've been trying to track these down recently.

I have the Koku-Fan Illustrated No. 10 which covers the F-16. It has some information on the YF-16, but mostly covers early production F-16A/Bs.

Other good good sources are the Japanese (I think) book is Great Aircraft Series No.1 and the Aerograph book by Jay Miller (which has included a vinyl single record with engine sound).

Nils

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Returning to the model, I have the Eduard Zoom set for the F-16A cockpit.

YF-16_28_800.jpg

However, the YF has a different instrument panel layout than the F-16A. Also note that the Eduard instrument panel is much larger than the Hasegawa (F-16A) part. I might possibly use the side consoles and other parts though.

Nils

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  • 2 weeks later...

For the cockpit I am using much of the F-16A kit interior. The tub is that from the F-16A kit, with the floor widened in front of the consoles so that it extends to the fuselage walls. The panels are from the Eduard pre-painted fret. Some structure has also been added to the fuselage walls.

YF-16_29_800.jpg

As the prototype's instrument panel is different from the production models I made a new one by using computer graphics and printed this on transparent film. The back side of the instruments were painted white while the rest was painted interior grey. Unfortunately the camera autofocus was not co-operative on this photo.

YF-16_30_800.jpg

The two YF-16 aircraft were fitted with Escapac ejection seats (while the FSD aircraft had Stencel seats and the production models have ACES seats). A "correct" seat is included in the kit, although not very accurate and with no deatils whatsoever. My replacement seat came from an Aires cockpit set for A-4D. So far it has been assembled and painted grey. Seat belts will be added after painting the details.

YF-16_31_800.jpg

Nils

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With the cockpit tub in place, there is a rather visible joint behind the seat between the cockpit rear wall and the top decking. Furthermore, the missing cannon barrel is too obvious.

YF-16_32_800.jpg

Both were easily corrected.

YF-16_33_800.jpg

Nils

Edited by Vingtor
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Not easy to see here, but the YF-16 had different canopy hinge mechanism than the later models. I thus had to modify this part of the fuselage. The canopy itself will be dealt with later.

YF-16_35_800.jpg

Nils

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Time to start with the wings. Studying phots it comes clear that the YF-16 had both the leading edge flaps and the trailing edge flaperons fell down with the power switched off. This is different from the later variants which have the leading edge flaps in a slightly (2o) upwards position when at rest. I thus decided to rearrange the control surfaces on the model.

The wings are moulded in one piece each.

YF-16_36_800.jpg

The control surfaces were easily separated using a razor saw and a scalpel.

YF-16_37_800.jpg

Finally, the hinge edges of the control surfaces were sanded to an angle, and the items were re-attached to the wings.

YF-16_38_800.jpg

The grooves along the hinge lines look bigger than they are. These will be dealt with later.

Nils

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  • 2 weeks later...

Strangely, most of the profile drawings of the YF-16, and kits of "early" F-16s, show the large ventral fins that were fitted to the FSD aircraft and later. The two YF-16s had smaller ventral fins, though. However, the Hasegawa YF-16 kit have the larger fins.

YF-16_39_800.jpg

It was rather easy to cut down the fins to the correct size though.

YF-16_40_800.jpg

However, seing this photo I realized that the sanding stick job was not done properly, so I had to do a second round.

With the ventral fins done, it was time to attach wings, tail fin, stabilazors and ventral fins.

YF-16_41_800.jpg

YF-16_42_800.jpg

Nils

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A bit more work in the cockpit. Rails for the ejection seat have been made from strip styrene.

YF-16_43_800.jpg

Turning over, the undercarriage has been assembled. The main wheel legs come from the F-16A kit while the nose wheel id from the YF-16. Most of the struts are from the Aires detail set.

YF-16_44_800.jpg

Nils

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Having "lived" with the nose wheel for a few days, I was not really satisfied with the way it appeared. It is narrower than the original, and slightly larger in diameter. When this also was commented by Jens, I realized that there was no other way than replacing it with something better. I would not use the item from the Hasegawa F-16A kit, although the wheel itself has more correct size, the leg is too thick and lacks detail. To my rescue comes the nose wheel undercarriage from the old ESCI F-16 kit. This was the first correct shaped F-16A kit, I think. As opposed to the Hasegawa kits, it also has the leg and wheel moulded as seprate items. I kept the torque link scissors from the YF-16 part though, as these are nice and crisp.

YF-16_45_800.jpg

YF-16_46_800.jpg

Back to the cockpit. I have painted the rear part black (Citadel Chaos Black from a spray can) and attached the rear cockpit glazing. On my first attempt I used too much glue, which showed up on the inside. I had to remove the part, sand down the joint line and paint black one more time. I found a replacement glazing part in my F-16 spare parts box. This time the result was much better.

YF-16_47_800.jpg

Nils

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