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Satan's Viper (RNoAF F-16A "666")


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"Woe to you, oh Earth and sea, for the Devil sends the Beast with wrath
Because he knows the time is short
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the Beast
For it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty six"

- Iron Maiden ("The Number of the Beast")

 

 

The Aircraft

I've always wanted to do a RNoAF viper since I find their uniform grey scheme to be quite interesting compared to the standard viper camouflage used by most countries. I noticed that a lot of their markings started with 6, some were 66x, and I thought... could there be a 666 around there? Being Norway, birthplace of black metal (which I happen to like), I knew there would! Indeed, the RNoAF's 666 is the original 80-3666. According to info from f-16.net, the prudish US engineers refused to work on this plane unless the 666 was covered up. It also happens to be a test bird. I decided to build this aircraft in its original form, an F-16A rather than the updated AM version. Alas, there are no markings out there to do this since Vingtor's "early F-16s" sheet is now OOP. Thankfully, it's "late F-16s" sheet worked well as there were enough 6s and 9s to do the fin numbers. I have read that early RNoAF vipers had dark grey walkway markings rather than black ones, so that would be the only inaccuracy that I'm aware of.

 

The Kit

I used the original Revell F-16A boxing which has a Belgian "Spitfire" aircraft on the artwork. It is currently the best representation of a F-16A in The One True Scale. For some strange reason, my copy had some sprues in the older light grey (with a yellow-ish tint) color and others in the more recent standard grey. The transparencies weren't tinted either which is great since 666 had a smoked rather than a golden canopy. I sprayed Tamiya smoke (X-19) thinned at 5:1 from the inside for this effect. Norwegian and Danish vipers come with a searchlight on the starboard nose, necessary since so many missions are over water. I drilled a hole where appropriate and glued some plasticard from the inside so the tiny transparency would stay put.

 

Being a Norwegian viper, I of course wanted to be armed with Penguin anti-ship missiles. Although there is no picture of 666 carrying them, being a test bird it is likely to have done so at some point. I later discovered a picture of 667 carrying a menacing 4x Penguin load, plus 4x Sidewinders. I have no way of knowing if this configuration was ever carried by 666 but it was too cool to ignore. For this, I needed two extra weapons pylons which I took from an older kit that I was planning to send to modelling Valhalla (i.e. the bin). The Penguin missiles themselves were taken from the Hasegawa Weapons Set V and are beautifully rendered and have their launchers included too.

 

The Revell F-16 is relatively hassle free, with an excellent cockpit (no aftermarket needed IMHO), accurate dimensions, and mostly good fit although like many Revell kits, the landing gear is a bit fiddly. Note that the instructions don't say to put any nose weight but although it is not a tail sitter, its center of gravity is quite precarious and does tend to fall back with the slightest nudge, so I do suggest putting in at least some weight (less than 5g will suffice). Panel lines are quite fine but, sadly, Revell didn't bother with any rivets which makes it look a bit dated compared to the amazing new(ish) Tamiya F-16. Alas, the Tamiya can only be built as a block 50 and I'm losing hope that any earlier variants will be released in the near future.

 

Decals

All decals including stencils came from the Vingtor "late RNoAF F-16AMs" sheet. The decals are very thin but easy to handle and snuggle in perfectly with Microset/Microsol. The only annoying thing is that they are too crammed into the very small sheet which makes it annoying to cut. I have a love-hate relationship with Eastern European decals (some are far too thin) but these were an absolute joy to work with.

 

Painting/weathering

The aircraft was painted with Gunze 36270 while the nose was painted Gunze 36118 (woefully light for the real thing but makes a good viper nose). Norwegian aircraft have their canopies painted black on the edges and this was done as well. Pylons and the centerline fuel tank were painted Gunze 36375. The red/white squadron fin marking was painted manually since there was no decal for it. Thanks to the climate, Norwegian birds are typically very clean, and so only mild weathering was done, with a Humbrol dark grey panel wash and later, some streaking with Windsor & Newton oils.

 

Enjoy! #HailSatan #AveSatanas #nemA :devil:

 

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Edited by Phantome
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Very nice! :thumbsup:

 

666 served as normal squadron fighter jet while stationed with the 334 squadron. This unit specialised on the AGM-119 penguin, being dedicated anti-sea invasion orientated. 

It is only after 334 sq disbanded in 2003/4 that 666 was transferred to the US as the Norwegian test aircraft for future MLU upgrades.  

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14 hours ago, Boman said:

Very nice! :thumbsup:

 

666 served as normal squadron fighter jet while stationed with the 334 squadron. This unit specialised on the AGM-119 penguin, being dedicated anti-sea invasion orientated. 

It is only after 334 sq disbanded in 2003/4 that 666 was transferred to the US as the Norwegian test aircraft for future MLU upgrades.  

That's great to know! Which means my weapons load may not be that inaccurate ;)

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Very nice model. 666 as a pre-MLU aicraft would have been with the smaller "Fokker style" roundels though. You might be aware that 666 also carried a very special "nose art" (thus on the ventral fin) for a short period while serving with 334 squardon after MLU upgrade, with the name Bitchn' Betty.

 

Please note that Vingtor Decals also has a decal sheet for 666 as a test aircraft at Edwards AFB, with 299 on the same sheet:

 

48-132_img.jpg

Nils

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On 9/3/2017 at 8:21 PM, Vingtor said:

Very nice model. 666 as a pre-MLU aicraft would have been with the smaller "Fokker style" roundels though. You might be aware that 666 also carried a very special "nose art" (thus on the ventral fin) for a short period while serving with 334 squardon after MLU upgrade, with the name Bitchn' Betty.

 

Please note that Vingtor Decals also has a decal sheet for 666 as a test aircraft at Edwards AFB, with 299 on the same sheet:

 

48-132_img.jpg

Nils

 

I actually e-mailed you about that sheet! Alas, it didn't have the dark walkway markings and the "666" codes are a thicker style than the old ones.

 

Maybe you can reconsider reprinting your old F-16A sheet? *wink* *wink* ;)

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On 9/2/2017 at 11:31 PM, Valkyrie said:

You don't do a less than perfect model, awesome as always, Thanks for posting a joy to view!

Well, actually nobody seemed to notice but the HUD had snapped off when I took the pics! I didn't realize until later but thankfully stole it from the F-16 kit that I binned after I finished this one

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12 hours ago, Phantome said:

Maybe you can reconsider reprinting your old F-16A sheet? *wink* *wink* ;)

It is not entirely unlikely that I do a new "classic" sheet some day. There are a few minor errors to correct, and the old sheet's paper format does not fit my current plastic bags.

 

Nils

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