Tamiya F-16CJ 55th FS "Operation Unified Protector" 2011 (1/32)

[Delayar]

After the engine was finished, I glued in the intake and the engine bay. It needed some fiddling, and I some trimming of the tubes (and reattaching them afterwards) in the engine compartment.
But everything went in well, without cutting off anything important.
 
I slid in the Intake part, then attached the top of the engine part. Then I put both parts together in place and glued /screwed them in place.
 

 

 
Taking a break from the wheel wells (the main gears will be a major challenge for me), I finally attached the resin pit to the upper fuselage.
The sidewalls were glued into the fuselage first, and then the pit itself followed.
 

 
The white areas are the areas where a little bit of filler was needed. After painting the filled areas, it looks like this:
 

 
Compared to the Aires pit, this was not too much work. ;-)
 
When the IP is fitted, a small area in front of it remains to be covered, otherwise one can see into the tub.
 

 
Markus 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar

[wanthony]

That cockpit almost makes me want to climb right in! Nice work!

[Delayar]

Thank you!

[mirageiv]

Wonderful work and great to see a big F-16 on here! 

[phildagreek]

[Delayar]

Finally, after another break, I started with the main wheel wells. They are far from finished, but I am not very good at such detailing, therefore it takes some time.
 

 

 
And I found something on eBay:
 

 
Cheers,
Markus 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar

[Delayar]

Finally the wheel bays are done!
 
It took some time, since this is a part of modelling I am not very fond of. 
But since I don't do many large scale planes, the ones I build should be nice models, therefore i do it anyway. ;-)
 

 



 

 


Ok, ok, i have seen more detailed wheel bays, but it is ok for me.
The gear door actuators and the hydraulic lines to the actuator will be added later

By the way, I have question.
I have two pictures from the aircraft during the operation Unified protector, i think even from the same day. But i am not sure, if the canopy is tinted or not, since it looks a little bit different on both pictures:
 
http://43yxx62a4d7x3iyru1r648gr.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Aviano-August-31-2011-OUP801-F-16CM-91-0389.jpg
and
http://www.31atsg.it/F-16/SW/F-16CM_91-0389.jpg
 
Which canopy would you choose? The untinted or the tinted one?

Cheers,
Markus

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar

[Parabat]

I'm thinking the untinted one, when you compare this F-16's canopy.

 

[Delayar]

I also tend to the untinted one. 

Thank you for the pic.

 

Markus

 

 

[Delayar]

After the wheel bays were complete, I assembled the wings and the fuselage.
 

 
The tinted canopy in this shot is a dust cover for the cockpit ;-)
 

 
The wheeliant wheels are also attached.
 
According to Jakes suggestion, I tinted the canopy with Tamiya smoke.
 

 
The top one is the one I will use, on the bottom ist the tinted canopy out of the box.
 
I also hollowed out the end of the tailhook.
 

 
And now, it is masked and ready for the paint:
 

 

 
Cheers,
Markus 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar

[Parabat]

Good use of tinfoil, hadn't thought of that.

[wanthony]

9 hours ago, Parabat said:

Good use of tinfoil, hadn't thought of that.

Ditto!

 

Looking great Markus, especially those wheel wells! Does the kit come with two canopies?

[Delayar]

39 minutes ago, wanthony said:

Looking great Markus, especially those wheel wells! Does the kit come with two canopies?

 

yes, the kit comes with two canopies, one clear, and one tinted.

 

Cheers,

Markus

[Delayar]

Nest step was the painting of the airframe.
 First, I preshaded the whole airframe.
 

 
Then it was time for some color. I used Gunze acrylics. I added a little bit of black to the gunship grey, since the Gunze color seemed a little bit too light to me.
For the radome I made my own mix, according to the reference pics. I can't remember, which colors I used, since I painted the radome a few months ago, but I think the base color was gunze H317 (FS36231) ;-)



 
The stabs, flaps, missile launchers and radome are just dry fitted, I wanted to see how it looks so far.
By now everything (except the stores, which are not yet finished) is gloss coated and awaiting the decals.
 
Cheers,
Markus 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar

[Delayar]

Started with decaling.
 

 
The tailmarkings are from the Afterburner sheet "Shaw Shooters". I spliced the airframe registration number from two of the included.
I used 91-0382 as a basis and the 9 came from 91-0346, with the six turned around.
 
Stencils will come from the Speed Hunter Graphics "Big Scale Vipers" sheet.
 
Cheers,
Markus

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar

[Delayar]

So, I finally finished the decals. Only the mission markings are missing, because I have not yet received the waterslide foil for printing them.
 

 
The walkways strips were a PITA, especially since the position of the Walkway/No Step lettering wasn't symmetrical and near the engine in the wrong position, too far inboard
It feels good to finally be on the finishing straight..
 
Cheers,
Markus

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar

[phildagreek]

Very smart!

[Delayar]

Thanks!

 

Markus

[Delayar]

I received the waterslide foil and printed the mission markings.
Jake was so kind to provide the artwork of the mission markings from his 1/48 sheet, where this bird is included. Of course, I also bought this sheet ;-)


 
I also painted and decaled the ordnance.
 
I didn't use the Wolfpack Sniper pod, since the clear part was too short and left a gap. So I ordered the Sniper pod from GT resin, but used the sensor part and decals from Wolfpack. The HTS pod is also from the GT set.
 

 
Cheers,
Markus 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar

[wanthony]

That metal probe on the nose looks super sleek. Nice work so far!

[Delayar]

Thanks.

The AOA probes are from master models, the pitot is from the kit.

 

Cheers,

Markus

[Delayar]

The JHMCS Sensor wasnt so hard. I just used some Evergreen plastics, a sharp hobby knife and some patience.
 

 
I left the part on the basic strip, so that it was easier to handle. When I was satisfied, I cut it from the strip and rounded off the bottom.
 

 
With some microtubes I made the round parts on the canopy sills.
 

 
I know, the hand holds on the canopy rails are too long and too far back. i corrected it in the meanwhile, but I forgot to take a picture before glueing the part to the canopy. I will make a detailed picture of the finished part, however.
 
I also applied an oil wash to all the parts, and after the oil color was dry, I applied a flat coat.
 
Then the final assembly started. I attached the gear doors and added the hydraulic lines to the actuators.
 

 

 
Also, the IP and ejection seat were glued into the cokpit.
 

 

 
And this is how it looks like now. The only major thing to do now is the BRU-57.
 

 
Cheers,
Markus

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar

[Delayar]

Here is a picture of the completed canopy:
 

 
Yesterday I started the conversion of the BRU-33 to a BRU-57. The basis is a BRU-33 from the Academy Hornet kit.
The first step is the basic shape of the BRU-46 launchers.
 

 

 
If I understood correctly, the launch units are canted slightly outward. Should the center section also be widened, or is it the same as in the BRU-33?
 
Cheers,
Markus 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar

[Delayar]

Work continues on the BRU-57. Progress is slow, because it always takes some time for the glue to set before continuing with the next step.

Once I was satisfied with the basic shape of the ejectors, I cut the fairings from the main body and attached them to the ejectors.
 

 
I then added the cartridges and bolts:
 

 
After this, the launchers were glued to the hardback at a small angle. I don't know how many degrees, I just eyeballed it according to some reference pictures.
Also, the transitions were smoothened.
 

 
Some fine detailing is yet to be done, and of course the sway braces have to be added.
 
Cheers,
Markus 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar
picture repair

[Delayar]

The BRU-57 is finished. It is not perfect, but for now, I call it done. 

Here it is with a coat of primer:
 

 


And with the final paint:
 



And with the GBUs attached:



As I found out, the center section should have been a little bit wider. the bombs are too close together. Also, the attachment part from the kit leaves a small gap between the pylon and the BRU, which isn't there on the real aircraft.
Maybe I will correct this sometime, but for now I leave it as it is. Or maybe an aftermarket company will release a BRU-57.

The last step was the attachment of all stores and the static wicks. I used the wicks from Master models.
 


And here is the finished aircraft.





I will provide images with a better background for the RFI soon.

Thanks for watching,
Markus 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Delayar