F-16A RNoAF Block 1, Tamiya C conversion.

[mirageiv]

1. Hi guys, here my latest build, the first RNoAF F-16 '272' modelled as on delivery from the Fokker plant to the RNoAF in 1980.

 

I originally wanted to do this for the F-16 GB early next year but a combo of impatience  and the realisation modelling time will be little next year meant I've ploughed ahead with it these last few months, below is a catch up of the work so far, trying to get is done before the year end.

 

Here are some pictures/inspriation to show what I'm going for, a brand new example:

 

F-16A '272' on the delivery flight from Fokker. Photos from 'F-16.net'. 

 

 

 

 

 

F-16 '280', not my exact jet but the condition I'm going for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

'272' a few months after delivery.

 

 

 

 

I used the Tamiya F-16C Block 25/30 kit for the conversion, with hindsight it would have been far easier to just use the older Hasegawa kit and improve it but this has been very useful as a trial run for a similar attempt that I'll do one day on the 1/32 Tamiya kit, a long while off yet however. 

 

There are quite a few differences, most rather minor and quite detail obsessive however important for an accurate A model. I've probably missed still one or two things and other bits have been slightly compromised but I'm happy so far, AFAIK most of the differences have been corrected.

 

First thing to show is the decals. Vingtor decals had an 'early' RNoAF F-16 sheet but unfortunately is is OOP and virtually impossible to find after searching for about 2 years. So I combined the 'late' sheet for the stencils, The Polish Tech-mod sheet for the early Gunship grey walkways and the early Fokker roundels (seemingly like gold dust in the scale!) have been very kindly sent by fellow member Neil (Foghorn Leghorn) from the Zotz sheets, without them this build wouldn't have got going so thanks so much again Neil!

 

 

 

So we are at this stage atm. Most of the airframe has been painted with slightly lightened FS26270 from Gunze and gloss coated with Tamiya X-22, both thinned with levelling thinners. Great finish but long drying times in these temperatures. The leading edges were painted Dark Gull grey as I do believe they were simply lined with RAM at this stage, not the yellow protective tape applied circa 1988. The nose, as particular to Block 1 machines, has been painted gloss black with FS26270 mixed in to tone the contrast down. 

 

 

Below is a list of all the mods done so far.

 

IFF/UHF antennae location between ventral fins removed, also only 2 under fuselage chaff/flare dispensers.

 

 

New mounting plate for where the UFF antenna will go. Also the early Threat Warning antennae will go as shown. This is from the Wolfpack set and was reshaped for a more accurate go.

In fact the whole Wolfpack set is pretty poor tbh, warped resin and mosts bit have errors/inaccuracies all over them.

 

 

Antennae under nose removed, I've forgot what they were for though!

 

 

GPS antennae removed

 

 

The small RAM plates were added with very thin plasticard around the nose threat warning antennae, they have a barely noticeable thickness in real life. This whole nose area I found pretty tricky to put together and get a nice smooth finish whilst trying to keep the static dischargers on the nose. I ended up masking them off with thick insulation tape and then filling all the seams with super glue and rescribing everything in the area. 

 

 

The nose ID light as on all single seat RNoAF jets was made from sanding clear spruce into a bulb shape and polishing, then bright foil places behind and slightly tilted it at an angle projection roughly to 10 o'clock from the pitot. 

 

 

The early gun muzzle was from a Hasegawa kit, after some shaping and filling it goes in quite nicely.

 

 

I did make the gun face in there but this picture doesn't really show it too well,

 

 

 

The small bulges on the upper and lower wings were sanded off and the 3 notches for the inboard LE slats were reduced to 2. The paint has slightly filled the lines but they are there in person.

 

 

The intake lights had the mount plates removed leaving just the light. I also elected to fill some of the circumference panel lines around the very front of the intake as they are just invisible on my refs of brand new machines. The intake edge RAM coating is raised anyway.

 

 

The intake was a nightmare entirely of my own doing. I sanded and filled it just fine then proceeded to do the 'pour and dump' method, however I stupidly chose decanted Halfords white, this then crazed the whole interior because of the aggressive thinner in the type, really don't recommend that to anyone! After many choice words and making an intake cover I went back and filled/sanded it again and repeated the 'pour and dump' method this time with thick white radiator paint, this was then over coated with a thin layer of off white paint. The heated intake strut was white on these very early jets for which I used thin, shaped plasticard. The compressor face was painted with various Alclads but I forgot to take a photo and is quite hard to see now.

 

 

The biggest mod to backdate the C is the early fin and parachute tail base. This involved filling the C tail footprint and rescribing the different shaped panel lines in this area. It took many attempts of filling/recribing to get something I was happy with,

 

 

I then cut off the fin from the Hasegawa piece, only using the parabrake base and modified the Tamiya fin on top of that. The base was sharpened and re profiled in shape. 

 

 

Next the fin top of the Tamiya C tail had to be modified to the early A type. I cut off the light plate then thinned the tip ECM section and rescribed the correct lines in that area. The light plate was then thinned and the little other bums added. 

 

 

 

The early square light will be added later. Some rivets were added the the fin to keep in check with all the lovely surface detail of the kit.

 

 

 

Hopefully I haven't bored you to death  but nearly there on the airframe mods ! The rear of the Hasegawa parabrake base was reshaped and sanded to a better profile around the parachute. The ECM antennae mounts were made either side of the parachute opening as IIRC the kit ones were not too accurate, not that mine are perfect either. The early smaller stabs were made from the kit ones, thinned a lot, cut to shape, new 'V" rivet pattern, small circular plates at pivots and new static discharger mounts added. The tails are universal so the static mounts appear above the tail one side and below on the other. I also choose to use Eduard Brassin airbrakes, man they were an absolute PITA to attach as they give you maybe half a mm between where you make the cut on the kit and the very delicate resin details, filling and blending them in I found nearly impossible to do 100% and broke the lower clamshell bits off, to be re-attached later. Anyone who has used them maybe knows what I'm on about! Also I'll be using an Aires nozzle, painting in progress, the kit part is decent for sure but this Aires piece really adds that bit more.  One last thing the little notch opening at the rudder base only appears on the Port side, the Starboard one was filled with plasticard. Also on these very early machines there was no saw-tooth RAM layer around the very end of the parabrake tail.

 

 

 

 

For the cockpit I went mainly OOB with some details added. The Aires set looks great but it is too small for the Tamiya kit, the IP cover has some weird extension going on to compensate. I added wires, side wall details and other bits. Unfortunately the rear decking area was detailed using a C cockpit pic and I've found out one or two bits aren't correct for an early A, oh well the seat will hide most of it anyways! I will be using an Eduard 'A' etch set modified to fit the C kit for the IP, more on that in the next update though as basically that is being scratched too. 

 

 

I knocked off the padded bit of the arm rest, will be added back later on.

 

 

The canopies have been tinted accordingly. I managed to destroy both my kit pieces in failed attempts  but was fortunatley rescued by fellow member Simon (Madhatter) sending me a spare one all the way from Australia, really big thank you Simon! The canopy interior frame has details made for it waiting to be attached later on.

 

 

 

 

And finally the static dischargers on the nose were painted a dark metallic colour, on these early machines they are quite noticeable to me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loads of other things in the works but will be in the next update. Thanks for looking and any comments/questions/suggestions/improvements very welcome,

 

Cheers,

 

David 

Edited September 29, 2018 by mirageiv

[Flyingdutchman]

David,

 

You put in a lot of effort to share your knowledge on the F-16 and this particular RNoAF version. I enjoyed reading, especially to read it was build by Fokker. Good old times when Holland had their very own aircraft industry.

 

Looking forward to your progress, judging the pictures this will be just fine!

 

Evert

[Crossofiron1971]

Lovely work sir and a great reference source as well!!

 

[mirageiv]

Thanks guys! Evert, the early European F-16s are my favourite versions, I think a Fokker KLU Block 1 will be my 1/32 conversion.  I forgot to mention one last mod, the early low profile  ECS exhaust port, I'll take a pic for the next update. Hopefully do the decals this weekend

 

Cheers,

 

David.

[HOUSTON]

David,

 

A very comprehensive   opening post and SPLENDID start to your build.

 

looking forward to seeing more. 

 

keep us posted. 

 

[Gary West]

Love your work David and subject matter

[Marcus.Q1000859]

Great work thus far. I am liking it. 

Great subject. Looking forward to your treatment of the IP. Before today I have chopped an Eduard etch piece and mated it into the Tamiya dash. Happy to copy off you for my next build.  

 

Marcus 

[mirageiv]

23 hours ago, HOUSTON said:

David,

 

A very comprehensive   opening post and SPLENDID start to your build.

 

looking forward to seeing more. 

 

keep us posted. 

 

 

Thank you and glad you like the messing around so far Houston! 

 

17 hours ago, Gary West said:

Love your work David and subject matter

 

Thanks a lot Gary, I share the same feelings with your models, whenever you comment I always go take a look at your signature link, simply awesome collection. 

 

13 hours ago, Marcus.Q1000859 said:

Great work thus far. I am liking it. 

Great subject. Looking forward to your treatment of the IP. Before today I have chopped an Eduard etch piece and mated it into the Tamiya dash. Happy to copy off you for my next build.  

 

Marcus 

 

Hi Marcus, thank you and good to know someone else has done something similar. I made a base IP from plasticard, which I was planning to stick the modified Hasegawa etch onto in a similar fashion. Though fortuitously I've found in the spares a Black Box F-16C IP and coaming (no idea where the rest of the cockpit is, think maybe from an eBay buy) that I'm thinking I can modify it with the etch to make a Blk 1 'A' IP, after test fitting the etch it could work and it has some nice details. If it works I may go about this way in the future combining the Black box pit and the Eduard A etch set. Really wish Tamiya would release an A already!

 

cheers,

 

David.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2016 by mirageiv

[Shaun]

26 minutes ago, mirageiv said:

 

 Really wish Tamiya would release an A already!

 

cheers,

 

David.

 

 

Very nice work, great attention to detail.I'm still holding my breath for the D twin seater, so I think an A will be a long way down the line?

 

 

Shaun.

[mirageiv]

Thanks Shaun. I know, it has been sooo long now for Tamiya to release the rest of the F-16 family, Kinetic probably has something to do with that for better or worse. If you can get a Hasegawa/Kinetic twin stick for decent value, converting the Tamiya kit is an option with not too much work. I'm hoping they release earlier Blocks for their 1/32 series also, they really don't have any decent competition in that scale and would have the market, missing a solid opportunity for both scales imho. 

 

David.

Edited December 18, 2016 by mirageiv

[Antoine]

Well done Dave, nice to see you're back over here.

[Cookenbacher]

As always, it's a true pleasure to see you work David - wonderful details and craftsmanship. 

[mirageiv]

Thank you Antoine and cookie for your kind words, glad to have you along. I haven't done too much more progress yet, I have some weeks off now so hopefully will get it done before the years end. Also I decided to make a base for this just like the one outside the Fokker factory at Schiphol, like this picture:

 

 

 

 

First time I've made one but hopefully should do a job. I won't do a full diorama but it should help bring some more life to the overall model, trying to make a completely new aircraft appear not toy like is going to be tricky as technically I shouldn't do any weathering on it at all! hmm, still not sure how I'm going to solve that...

 

cheers,

 

David.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2016 by mirageiv

[jrlx]

Impressive work! 

 

Cheers

 

Jaime 

[Iceman11]

Wow! Fantastic work on my fav aircraft! Was happy to get 12 years flying them - best air-to-air aircraft for it`s time. Had a blast with all RAF "fighters" - could fly circles around them! #280 was the first loss in RNoAF service - took a Crane through the canopy at 550 kts+. Pilot punched out o.k. - still flying for an airline. #272 is still flying (to the best of my knowledge).

As I am sure you know, the left panels on the engine intake on Block 1-5 are very different from later blocks. However, I like the parapack from Wolfpack - its got RAM and to my eyes has the right dimensions. No RAM for an early RNoAF though. Kasl also does a MLU update set for the aft fuselage of the Tamiya kit. Looks nice! Will try it for my next build.

Vingtor has some beautiful sheets!! A new sheet covers the two MLU test aircraft # 299 and 666 (Devils child).

 

Keep updates flowing - and again excellent modelling and choice of subject!

 

Merry Christmas to all!

 

D-Ice

[mirageiv]

On 12/25/2016 at 7:49 AM, Iceman11 said:

Wow! Fantastic work on my fav aircraft! Was happy to get 12 years flying them - best air-to-air aircraft for it`s time. Had a blast with all RAF "fighters" - could fly circles around them! #280 was the first loss in RNoAF service - took a Crane through the canopy at 550 kts+. Pilot punched out o.k. - still flying for an airline. #272 is still flying (to the best of my knowledge).

As I am sure you know, the left panels on the engine intake on Block 1-5 are very different from later blocks. However, I like the parapack from Wolfpack - its got RAM and to my eyes has the right dimensions. No RAM for an early RNoAF though. Kasl also does a MLU update set for the aft fuselage of the Tamiya kit. Looks nice! Will try it for my next build.

Vingtor has some beautiful sheets!! A new sheet covers the two MLU test aircraft # 299 and 666 (Devils child).

 

Keep updates flowing - and again excellent modelling and choice of subject!

 

Merry Christmas to all!

 

D-Ice

 

Thank you Jamie and D-Ice, much appreciated. 

 

D-Ice, wow, absolutely awesome! Very happy to have a real RNoAF pilot comment on my build, totally jealous and in awe of your flying career . I have a good friend who was a Tornado F3 pilot and naturally I've heard many stories of his flying days, some of which echo your experience, not too wise for an F3 to merge with an F-16 that is for sure! 

 

I have to state I'm no F-16 expert, just interested in early F-16s, so I had no idea really about the different left side intake panels and just go by looking at pictures to see what needs changing to backdate the kit, so I have probably missed a few things! Finding close up pictures of very early F-16 Blks 1-5 is pretty tricky, but if it looks somewhat overall like the real deal I am happy :). Hopefully it will appear mostly like how you know it should be!

 

I think the Wolfpack parapack is ok (I think it is just a resin copy of the Hasegawa part with added RAM), just the rear end seemed a bit too square,

 

 

 

 

and the slightly sanded rear of my one with the slight budge underneath, parachute is just lose,

 

 

I know it is only a tiny difference but thought what the heck might as well try make it a littler better to my eyes at least. I plan on making F-16AM 686 in the 100 years special scheme for which I'll use my Wolfpack tail sometime in the future. I saw the Kasl conversion too, looks great, and much easier for the early tail conversion than the path I did. Yep the Vingtor decals I have to say are probably the best decals I have used yet, they simply look painted on, will show them in the next update. hmm having a real F-16 pilot viewing this thread, I better make sure I get things right , Merry Christmas!

 

cheers,

 

David.

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2016 by mirageiv

[Iceman11]

Hi, again! You`re absolutely spot on with the parapack! #686 has had 3 crashes during it`s career Nobody got hurt, first one at Red Flag 86, one i Kirigistan the last one I cannot remember. Nickname among crews are rumoured to be six crash six .

#272 spent almost all it`s career with No.332 Sqd, first at Rygge AFB, then Bodø AFB until 332 Sqd. was disbanded, waiting for F-35 and moving to Ørlandet AFB. To my knowledge it`s still operational with No.331 Sqd. at Bodø.

Before MLU it was very common only with the centerline tank, plus AIM-9J/ P/ L/ M or AMA, but I`m sure you got that covered as well.

 

D-Ice

 

[mirageiv]

On 12/25/2016 at 5:37 PM, Iceman11 said:

Hi, again! You`re absolutely spot on with the parapack! #686 has had 3 crashes during it`s career Nobody got hurt, first one at Red Flag 86, one i Kirigistan the last one I cannot remember. Nickname among crews are rumoured to be six crash six .

#272 spent almost all it`s career with No.332 Sqd, first at Rygge AFB, then Bodø AFB until 332 Sqd. was disbanded, waiting for F-35 and moving to Ørlandet AFB. To my knowledge it`s still operational with No.331 Sqd. at Bodø.

Before MLU it was very common only with the centerline tank, plus AIM-9J/ P/ L/ M or AMA, but I`m sure you got that covered as well.

 

D-Ice

 

 

Yep 272 is still flying, crazy to me that it is approaching 40 years old! I will not add the fuel tank or any weapons as my theme for this build is a brand new machine ready for delivery to the RNoAF waiting at the Fokker plant, though a center fuel tank might be a nice addition

 

Ok here is the next update, still lots left to do!

 

First a word on the wheels. The early wheel hubs are not present in the Tamiya kit but can be found IIRC in the Hasegawa or AM from Royal resin and Eduard Brassin. I elected for the Brassin ones as they come with some nice wheel chocks too which will be perfect for this build. One problem, the are noticeably too small, check this not ideal picture for the comparison of the correctly sized Tamiya wheels and the Brassin ones. Not sure if it is resin shrinkage but it is noticable,

 

 

Checking the Goodyear F-16 A/B sizes, https://www.goodyearaviation.com/resources/pdf/databook_7_2016.pdf , the Tamiya ones are bang on, the Brassin ones too small by slightly over a mm. I wasn't going to bother doing anything and go with the Brassin wheels anyways until I mocked up the undercarriage set up and it looked kinda obviously too small to me. 

A fellow BM member suggested swapping the hubs and I had a go at it as it gives the best of both worlds, the accurate early style hub (same hub size for the Brassin and Tamiya wheels convienitently) and the correct size tyre. 

 

The Brassin wheel was sawed in half, then the hub isolated and carefully sanded from the wheel. The centre of the Tamiya wheel was removed but not all the way where the rim meets the tyre, I left a little rim to ensure a nice clean meet of the rim/tyre joint, just placing the centre hub inside. Bit risky as  you only get one go at this but luckily it paid off, also I made the brake disc and drilled out the cooling holes for a more 3D feel.

 

 

And the result so far. Brassin for the left two, then the Tamiya/Brassin combo. I did add a little miliput to the bottom of the Tamiya tires and sanded to give a slight bulge appearance but its not really noticeable at all. Here is a good link showing the early wheels from originally a Block 1 jet (updated to Blk 10 I think), http://www.zim-pix.com/danish-f-16a-e-174.html

 

 

 

I need to weather the tyres now, also notice how off-centre the below Brassin (right) wheel is? It isn't weighted on the bottom so I guess it was weirdly cast off-centre. 

 

 

 

Here are the some of the landing gear legs that I added various wires to with references coming from the Squadron book. I'm not using AM wheel bays or properly bothering to detail the bay insides too much as they are decent enough oob for me, I have added some but will be shown later. I prefer to concentrate on the bits that will definitely be seen like the legs, really is a modelling hatred of mine adding wires to things, just takes forever! Kudos to the guys who have the patience to do full bays.

 

 

Only gloss white so far and need detail painting up yet,

 

 

The Aires PW exhaust is I think finished now, lots of exterior/interior masking and painting stages like so,

 

 

but I really like the end result. Contrasting to the new airframe, the engines going by pictures had a good few hours on the clock and suitably weathered. 

 

 

 

 

 

The inner nozzle portion is slightly too small for the outer petals so I will glue each pedal individually to the inner exhaust contact points when I get to the final assembly.

 

 

 

Back to the airframe all the main decals are now on. I used a combo of Zotz/Vingtor/DACO (for gunship grey stencils)/ Hasegawa (some early stencils) and Techmod decals, the Vingtor ones were probably the best decals I have ever used, they really do melt onto the surface and look painted on like I've personally not seen before. I recommend only positioning them with water and adding softener later on once they are correctly placed as they stick and become permenant very quickly once you add microsol (I had to sand off and repaint one or two! )

 

 

 

Lots of things left to paint and detail up here but the my attempt at the early ECS exhaust is there near the MLG bay. Nothing is glued yet, just positioned to display.  

 

 

the ID spot light, the lighting isn't really doing justice here. The IP is still in the works and will be in the next update but the Black box Ip coaming will be used. The pitot is from Master and the AOA probes will be added later, they are very sharp!

 

 

Weathering wise I've added a very light wash, only slightly darker than the base colour, to only a few select panel lines. Covering the entire model with a wash with all the rivets just would not be right for this brand new jet imho, I tested it and it didn't look right. I did tone down the decals with a light overspray of the base colour which has helped make everything more scale. Fortunately the panel lines in the Tamiya kit are so crisp they stand out just fine without a wash

Edited December 27, 2016 by mirageiv

[modelling minion]

Absolutely superb work David, as usual.

Your attention to detail is fantastic.

I know who to turn to if I get stuck on my F-16 for the STGB!

 

Craig.

[exdraken]

superb work!!!!

[NontasB]

Very nice presentation of in progress photos David!!

Fantastic work!! Excellent weathering at the exhaust!! It looks like the real one!!

 

Regards,

 

Nontas

[Mountain goat]

Just stumbled onto this wonderful build. Not a fan of Vipers generally but the early versions, especially black nosed ones, always grab my attention. This A seems to progress very well indeed and as a reference this thread it's invaluable. I'm always amazed by how tidy your work is. I seem to be only able to improvise my way through a build while this one and others before it always look meticulously planned. Very inspiring. 

 

Jay  

[mirageiv]

On 12/27/2016 at 6:03 PM, modelling minion said:

Absolutely superb work David, as usual.

Your attention to detail is fantastic.

I know who to turn to if I get stuck on my F-16 for the STGB!

 

Craig.

 

Thank you Craig, for sure I'm no expert compared to many people on here but I look forward to your F-16. Do you know which one you will build yet? I assume it will be not a grey one!

 

23 hours ago, exdraken said:

superb work!!!!

 

Cheers Werner!

 

12 hours ago, NontasB said:

Very nice presentation of in progress photos David!!

Fantastic work!! Excellent weathering at the exhaust!! It looks like the real one!!

 

Regards,

 

Nontas

 

Thank you Nontas, I look forward to seeing your next project with your crazy scratch built details!

 

 

10 hours ago, Mountain goat said:

Just stumbled onto this wonderful build. Not a fan of Vipers generally but the early versions, especially black nosed ones, always grab my attention. This A seems to progress very well indeed and as a reference this thread it's invaluable. I'm always amazed by how tidy your work is. I seem to be only able to improvise my way through a build while this one and others before it always look meticulously planned. Very inspiring. 

 

Jay  

 

Cheers Jay! Bar the initial planning/borrowing/begging to make sure I can get the right bits to build a specific subject, the rest is well and truly winged and I just get stuck in as I go along, I assure you!  

 

Thanks guys!

 

David. 

[Plastikschrottler]

David,

 

absolutely fantastic build. Actually made me sign up, so I could post a reply. Really looking forward to the next post.

You may want to put some additional layers of clear on the fuselage roundels on then break the edges of the decal film with some fine steel wool to make the decal film disappear.

 

Cheers,

Joerg

[Vingtor]

Absolutely a very nice model. As everything else is absolutely perfect, I fell I must mention one issue. The fin numbers are not the right style. The numbers applied by Fokker were of the type with straight lines and 45^o "corners". The numbers used on the model is the later type with rounded corners. It is not too late to fix this, though.

 

Nils