Skunkmodel F-16XL Experimental Fighter 1:48

[Mike]

F-16XL Experimental Fighter
1:48 Skunkmodels Workshop

The F-16XL was an almost project from General Dynamics that began as a technology demonstrator using the F-16 as a base, but giving it a large cranked delta wing for increased lift and fuel stowage. The fuselage was stretched by a metre, which improved both range as well as weapons carrying capability due to the increase in size and available lift. Three years after the project started, it was submitted for the Enhanced Tactical Fighter competition against the F-15E Eagle, which it lost, partly due to the major changes to the airframe of the XL compared to the F-15E, but also because the single-engined design could do little in the event of an engine failure.

After this setback the XL went into storage, but emerged again in the late 80s as NASA research aircraft where they were used in testing of new technologies for improving airflow over their wings at supersonic speeds. It was during these tests that the two-seat airframe went supersonic "dry" with no afterburner, thus accidentally achieving super-cruise. After a decade with NASA they were again sent back to storage until 2007, when one airframe was tested with a view to return to flight. After some work and a taxi test they were both returned to storage where they remain.

The Kit
The announcement of this new tooling from Kinetic/Skunkworks was greeted with polar opposite cries of "oh good!", and "they should have done a…", as you'd probably expect. This is an aircraft with only two extant airframes, one of which is a two-seater, the other single, so if you stay in the real world, you only have a very few colour schemes to work with, and little in the way of actual war-loads that you could model. That will bother a few, but a lot of folks won't mind one bit, and either be happy to build the schemes out there, or make up their own. The markings provided and stores will help you with going fictional, as a few options have thoughtfully been included. Remember that model companies are primarily in the business of making money, with filling gaps in the actual range of kits being a secondary goal that is generally only loosely linked with the primary goal, so Raymond Chung and friends have decided that this is a kit that will sell, and I'm pretty sure they're right.

The box is standard Kinetic/Skunkmodel, and if you have seen or owned one of their other F-16 kits, you'll be familiar with the layout of the sprues and even some of the parts in the box. I built one of their F-16s some years back, and I recognise more than a few, and I have a terrible memory! Inside the box are sixteen sprues in mid grey styrene, two in clear, two decal sheets, one of which quite large, and an oversized A4 instruction booklet printed in black and white. The top sprues are the upper and lower fuselage/wings, which are impressive, as they are full-span with only the leading edges of the outer wing panels and the control surfaces missing. Long streamlined sponsons project back from the wing between the inner and outer panels, with moulded-in slots for the other parts to give the additional sections a good mating surface.

The cockpit should be familiar to any F-16 modeller, and comprises of a single-seat tub to which throttle and stick are added to the side consoles, a two-part instrument panel, rear bulkhead and of course the ejection seat. This is made up from five parts and gives an adequate representation of the ACES II seat fitted to F-16s, although no belts are included. This is attached to the underside of the large upper fuselage half, which has some sidewall detail moulded in, plus the instrument coaming, which mates with the panel and has a HUD added.

The engine and main wheelbay are built as one section, with the intake trunking forming the roof of the main bay. The forward section also houses the nose gear bay, which is moulded into the lower half of the intake. There is a joint between the forward and aft sections of this trunk, but you can't really see it on completion, so paint it white and get it lined up nicely, and no-one will know you didn't fill the seam. The main bay is then detailed with bulkheads and extra parts, which gives a fair representation of the original, and with some wiring should look good under a coat of paint. The very lip of the intake is separate, and aft of that there is pair of outer skin parts that enclose the inner, with a splitter angled down from a hole in the top of the intake. Take care fitting this part so that you get it right, and do some test fits with the outer skin installed to make sure it isn't going to push the intake out of shape. The rear section drops into the lower fuselage from within, while the intake is added from below, which is where your test fitting earlier will come in very handy. There is an insert that runs between the main gear bays to the rear of the nose bay, and this will also need to be test fitted as you install the intakes, so that this is again nice and snug without being too tight in its recess. The exhaust is the last component to be built up before closing the fuselage, and it is made up from two halves, with rear engine face and afterburner ring held in the front, and exhaust petals at the rear. This slots in the rear, and after that you'll be needing the glue and clamps to close the two large fuselage/wing halves up.

At this point the instructions would have your XL stood on its own legs, which are added at various points during the building of the intakes, with separate two-part hubs and two-part wheels, which are a tad fiddly, but have been tooled in this way to maximise re-use for different variants. The main gear bay doors are single parts with very slight sink marks in the outer skin that will need sanding and possibly a smear of putty to smooth them out.

With main construction out of the way, it's time to finish off the wings, with the leading edge slats, and the rear feathers. The designers have been a bit clever here and moulded each part with tabs that allow you to pose your flaps/slats either stowed or deployed, just by cutting off half the tabs. A little sanding to remove any sign they were there, and you can be sure you're putting the parts in the correct position. Very clever! The tail is also separate, with a fairing made up from two/three parts plus three more tiny parts, two parts for the main fin, and a cap to finish it off. The rudder is also separate, giving you the option of offsetting it if you wish. An optional gun-trough of blanking panel is installed on the port wing shoulder just aft of the canopy, the main section of which is added to a styrene sled before being fitted to the opening along with the fixed rear portion. You can pose it open using the multi-pose lug at the rear of the frame. At this stage the nose cone is built up from two halves, filled with an undisclosed amount of nose-weight and glued to the bulkhead. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't a single part, but it's not the end of the world. The pitot probe fits in a small hole in the pointy end. With the addition of a few small intake scoops and the nav lights on the intake barrel, main construction is complete.

Weapons
Kinetic/Skunkworks are generous with the munitions and pods they include with their kits, and given the XL's load hauling ability it's good to have a lot on hand. Including the wingtip rails and centreline pylons, there are a total of twenty five pylons and weapons stations, which include two semi-recessed and flush points for a quartet of AIM-120s. IN the box you will find the following:

2 x 370gal wing tanks
1 x 300 gal centre tank
2 x AIM-9M Sidewinders
2 x AGM-65 Mavericks
2 x GBU-31 JDAMs
2 x GBU-24 Paveway IIIs
2 x GBU-12 Paveway IIs
12 x MK.82 iron bombs
4 x AIM-120B AMRAAMs
2 x CBU-87 Cluster bombs
1 x AN/AAQ-13 LANTIRN navigation pod
1 x AAN/AAQ-14 LANTIRN navigation pod

The construction of some of these items will need a little care due to the number of parts, and the orientation of the fins, but overall they're a well detailed package, with the AIM-120s and Sidewinders getting slide-moulded exhausts. With all these goodies, you'll be needing a lot of pylons and adapter rails, which are included in spades, and all have separate sway-braces where appropriate. If you are installing the AMRAAMs, you will need to remove one pair of fins for the forward flush station, as they will prevent you from fitting them properly. A page shows the possible weapons options with the stations numbered and handed due to the sheer volume of them. Most pictures show a pair of Sidewinders and additional tankage for real-life scenarios, as the XL never saw service. For the What-if inclined, there's almost everything you could want, apart from an ALQ-131 ECM pod that is mentioned, but not included in the kit.


Markings
You'd think that with there only being one extant airframe with a single-seat, you'd be a bit limited, but you are provided with two real-world schemes, and a further three schemes that are described as "fictional", for which read what-if. From the box you can build one of the following:

• Prototype scheme, 1982 – medium grey/medium gunship grey over dark ghost grey with blue spine, white tail band with F-16XL and red upper tail.
• NASA, 1993 – Flat black upper with medium grey nose and dark ghost grey undersides. NASA logo on the tail and yellow stripes around the wing leading edges and spine.
• 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Wing "Flying Tigers", USAF 1995 - medium grey/medium gunship grey over dark ghost grey with shark mouth under nose.
• 16th Weapons Squadron, 57th Wing USAF – diagonal five tone grey stripes over the whole airframe.
• Tayeset (Squadron) 101, Israeli Defence Force – Tan/sand/green upper with light ghost grey underside. Red/white striped rudder.
  

In case you hadn't twigged the first two are the real schemes, and the rest are made up. Quite inventive they are too! The decals have been designed in conjunction with Cross Delta, and printed by Cartograf, and the print quality is excellent, with good register, density and sharpness. The smaller sheet contains the stencils for the weapons and fuel tanks, as well as for a few that aren't included in this kit, so don't be surprised if you have a few left. Because of the differing uses and fictional schemes, the stencils have had to be shown on each scheme, which looks a little intimidating, but as long as you take your time and do one at a time, you'll soon finish it.

Conclusion
We already know that this won't please everyone for whatever reasons, but it should please enough people to sell well. It is well stocked with munitions, and detail is up to the standard of their standard F-16s, so you know what to expect. Looking at the sprues there doesn't seem to be any obvious allusion to a 2-seat variant, with nothing inside the forward area of the upper fuselage to suggest it. Even if the single seat option is the only one that is released, it's still one more than most people thought would be done!

Highly recommended if you're intrigued by the potential of this evolutionary dead-end of the F-16.

Review sample courtesy of

[Stephen]

Nice review Mike.

Stephen

[charley420]

Looking forward to mine arriving

[SleeperService]

I've got two on the way. I believe a two seat conversion may be forthcoming if the Rumourmonger Thread is to be believed.....

Nice review again BTW.

[thomastmcc]

cool kit lots of options for it , i have the old 1/72 kit am wanting do a what-if of it with conformal fuel tanks etc..

thomas

[Antoine]

Thanks Mike,

Well, I'm wondering about a what-if, Argentine or Brazil.

Just have to fix the context.

[rbeach84]

Mike, very nice in-box review, it is much appreciated. One big question for me - whihc came up with my own scratch-conversion - is whether 'SKM' included the double reflex wing contour that is so visible when viewed from the front (as depicted on this drawing from Wikipedia):

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/F-16XL_afg-041110-016.jpg

Also, the proportions of the kit look good, but any chance for a quick DIMS measurement to validate the general scaling of the kit? (Dims on the NASA site):

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-023-DFRC.html

Thanks for any help on these topics.

Regards, Robert

Edited July 20, 2015 by rbeach84

[woody37]

Built a 1/72 version as a kid, so this brings back nostalgic memories!

[JeffreyK]

I'll definitely get one, the black NASA scheme looks extremely cool and I'll see if I can find references to scratch the spin recovery chute construction for it...

This autumn is going to be expensive!

J

[Flashman]

Great review of a seriously impressive subject and kit- lots of respect for skunkworks for providing such a generous munitions load on an aircraft where it really sets off the large wing.