Academy F-16 Debacle

[BelugaBoss]

So yesterday I went to go get a couple of things from my local model shop. After a quick look in the model section to see if anything new or exciting had shown up I came across the Academy F-16 kit. Being cheap I picked it up and would soon find out something rather interesting.

The box art on my kit shows an F-16A in this scheme

Yet when I open up the box the instructions, decals, and kit build up to this

I'm fine with what is in the box. A nice simple 2nd run F-16 will be fun. But what I don't understand is why Academy would package this kit with the box art for their 1/48th F-16. Even on the side of the box there are real shots of the 1/48th model.

If anyone has any info on why Academy repackaged this kit the way they did I'd love to hear about it.

Also any pictures of the real aircraft (in its grey scheme) would be greatly appreciated. I couldn't find any pics on Airliners.net of YF-16 2.

-Nick

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Yeah, that's a prototype/development scheme IIRC. If you don't fancy that scheme I should have some surplus decals for other schemes that you can have.

The pic also shows the early block 10 stabs (without the extensions), not sure if the kit has them or not.

[Giorgio N]

The best reference to find pictures of F-16 prototypes is probably this gallery on F-16.net

http://www.f-16.net/gallery_item16706.html

That academy kit can only be used for a YF-16 demonstrator and it is quite accurate, apart from the ventral fins that need trimming. It's impossible to build an FSD or production F-16 as the 2 YF-16s only had the same configuration while being somewhat smaller and with a pointier radome (that housed no radar).

Still, IMHO the 2nd YF-16 scheme was very striking and it would make a nice addition ! If you look in the completed group builds, you'll find the work done by Vingtor to build the first YF-16, a very useful resource ! He started from the old Hasegawa kit, but the academy kit is just a rescribed copy of this...

[BelugaBoss]

Yeah, that's a prototype/development scheme IIRC. If you don't fancy that scheme I should have some surplus decals for other schemes that you can have.

The pic also shows the early block 10 stabs (without the extensions), not sure if the kit has them or not.

Thanks for the offer Neil but the pro/dev scheme will do! Since you caught the look of the vertical stabs could you tell me if I'm right about something?

I found a pic of 568 in a medium grey scheme (the one I'll be building). But it seems as if the front gear doors are in two peices? Is that right?

Thanks, Nick

The best reference to find pictures of F-16 prototypes is probably this gallery on F-16.net

http://www.f-16.net/gallery_item16706.html

That academy kit can only be used for a YF-16 demonstrator and it is quite accurate, apart from the ventral fins that need trimming. It's impossible to build an FSD or production F-16 as the 2 YF-16s only had the same configuration while being somewhat smaller and with a pointier radome (that housed no radar).

Still, IMHO the 2nd YF-16 scheme was very striking and it would make a nice addition ! If you look in the completed group builds, you'll find the work done by Vingtor to build the first YF-16, a very useful resource ! He started from the old Hasegawa kit, but the academy kit is just a rescribed copy of this...

Thanks for telling me about Vingtor, Giorgio!

-Nick

[Giorgio N]

Yes, the front gear doors are in two pieces on the YF.

I started building your same kit a while ago with the idea of building 568 in the two colour scheme, but then had to stop. I should restart on it one of these days....

[rav]

I found a pic of 568 in a medium grey scheme (the one I'll be building).

Good choice! I built her in October:

The camouflage is two-tone grey (36320/36375). I used fin from Revell F-16A because the Academy one has wrong shape of fin base. Things under wings are from different kits.