Academy 1/72 KF-16 - Finished !

[Giorgio N]

Last few bits on: the HUD was glued in the cockpit and its frame painted, the AoA probe was replaced with a bit of shaped sprue and the pitot tube was glued on the right side. Then while I was gluing the outer pylons I realised two things: I had totally forgotten the underwing roundel and the ventral pylon !

The roundel required a gloss coat first, followed by the decal and then another satin coat. As the area affected was small enough I simply used a brush.

The pylon was primed, quickly painted and then glued in place. The paint is unfortunately slightly different but hopefully this is not too noticeable.. in any case pylons with slightly different paint can be seen on real aircrafts too

With the missing bits sorted and the tanks glued on the inner pylons, it was time to call this one finished ! So it is that with a day and a few hours before the end of the GB I managed to complete the Korean F-16 !

Actually it's not completely finished as I couldn't glue the Sidewinders... but tomorrow I have to be away from home and I know I wouldn't be able to finish the missiles in time. Besides, I realised I don't have stencils for all 4 so I have to first find the stencils. As the missiles are not crucial, here's my model:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I struggled with the pictures, for some reason they all had a very strong blue cast and I had to resort to some software trick to try and reproduce the correct colours. I'm not sure I've succeeded in all of them, in any case I hope you like them and like the model.

 

Final comments: I love this camouflage scheme and it's a pity that the paint reacted badly and the finish is not the best. In any case the model looks good from a few feet away. I made a few small mistakes in the assembley but fortunately these didn't have too much of an impact on the finished model.

Did I enjoy this kit ? Well, yes and no... the Academy kit could have been so much better! Accuracy apart, that is not its strong point, this kit is well detailed but the fit can be fiddly. The instructions are also not the clearest, particularly when it comes to the landing gear doors and their actuators. Some parts really need work to fit properly and I wasn't very happy with the problems in the landing gear alignment.

On the plus side the box includes several options and I'm now left with a a few spare parts that can be used on other F-16s.

Now after these comments it may sound strange that I just ordered another Academy KF-16 from an Ebay shop that had this kit for sale. Sure, there are better F-16 kits out there, but for less than a tenner delivery included I couldn't pass this on Will build this one as a Polish aircraft while the decals will be kept for a future build of another ROKAF machine in the newer markings with AG ordnance

 

Thanks to everyone who looked at this thread and to those who left their comments, much appreciated. Thanks in particular to the hosts for making this STGB such a great success ! I have to apologise to all the other modellers taking part as I couldn't really look at all threads with the attention they deserved, let me say that I've seen a lot of great looking F-16 models here !

 

[Knight_Flyer]

Still a great finish in spite of the problems. The camo scheme is quite different from the usual ones and a Polish viper will be a good follow up.

[trickyrich]

Well done Giorgio, she looks great in the "Smog Grey" scheme , you've managed to get a lovely finish on her, again well done!.

 

Lighting can sometimes play havoc with photos, especially with digital cameras, so there's nothing wrong with a little photo retouching.

 

You produced a fine looking model and it was great to have you along as usual, look forward to seeing you in the next GB.