Academy F-16A

[Thud4444]

Are there any major faults with this kit?

 

 

I stumbled across one today at a local shop for a great price. Is it worth fooling with? 

 

[e8n2]

According to the archived Habu2.net site, Academy only produced a kit of the YF-16A, which is different in many respects from the production version of the kit.  Scalemates also states that the particular kit you are asking about is indeed of a YF-16A.

 

Habu2.net address, which has lots of information on F-16 kits prior to the site going off-line in Sept 2007 is:

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20070830165518/http://www.habu2.net/vipers/viperkits/72/kits72.html

 

Scalemates page on Academy 1/72 scale F-16 kits is:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/search-solr.php?fkSECTION[]=Kits&q=General+Dynamics+F-16+Fighting+Falcon

 

Later,

Dave

[Giorgio N]

Habu2.net was a great resource but as it closed in 2007 some later kits can't be found reviewed there. Academy for example issued a brand new F-16C in 2008, a kit that suffers from some accuracy issues but is modern, detailed and good fitting.

The box shown above however indeed contains the old YF-16... Not only this is a kit of the technology demonstrator, an aircraft that only resembles an F-16 in its general configuration, it's also a kit from the early days of the Korean manufacturer, with very few parts and little detail. I have the kit and started building it as the second YF-16 adding details from other kits as the demonstrators are interesting subjects, however if you want a proper F-16 better look elsewhere.

[Thud4444]

Well crud.  Thanks for the heads up guys. I guess I'm gonna have to break down and order either a Tamiya or RoG kit.. 

[Phantome]

Tamiya doesn't make an F-16A, only an F-16C Block 50 (its other F-16s are Italeri reboxes for the Japanese market).

 

Revell is your best bet. Hasegawa also makes one for around the same price but its an older less detailed kit

[Thud4444]

I know that Tamiya only makes a C, but to my understanding it's the best Viper available.  That's the general consensus, right? 

[Phantome]

20 hours ago, Thud4444 said:

I know that Tamiya only makes a C, but to my understanding it's the best Viper available.  That's the general consensus, right? 

 

Indeed, it is IMHO the best kit ever made in 1/72 scale. That good! Never built anything that fit so well, had such brilliant engineering and had such fine surface detail.

 

Unfortunately I do not see an easy way for it to be backdated to previous blocks which is a shame. You're stuck with a Block 50 which is quite limiting since you can't build any aircraft from the 80s and most of the 90s. The Revell Block 50 kit allows you pretty much every C variant. It's a great kit, but my main gripe is that it's sold only in special markings which lack most stencils and missile decals and in the case of the latest Solo Turk boxing, horrible black plastic.

 

The Revell F-16A (the one with the Spitfire markings) does give you a full set of old style (orange) stencils which is great.

[Thud4444]

I did the research and I need a block 30 Viper. How far is a 50 from a 30? Or is the RoG kit the way to go?

[vppelt68]

As far as I know, the Block 30 is the most accurate F-16C version you can build out of the box from the Revell C- kit. regards, V-P

[Thud4444]

Thanks everyone.  Looks like I've got some shopping to do.

Edited December 19, 2016 by Thud4444

[tonywood]

Does the Academy YF-16 give a better representation of the prototype than the Hasegawa YF?

[tempestfan]

Being one of Academy 's earliest kits (when they were mainly copying) and issued simultaneously with clones of the ghastly Hasegawa MiG-21 and F-104 from the 60s, I'm fairly certain the YF-16 has great similarities to the Hase kit, too.

 

[tonywood]

Thanks for the reply, think I will stick with the Hasegawa YF-16 i have in the stash!

[Aardvark]

I did not find a specialized topic about the YF-16A, which is not a very popular modification of the famous aircraft F-16. Therefore, for those who decide to build this plane, this is just a recently posted video from Jeff Quitney:

https://m.facebook.com/jeff.quitney?fref=nf

 

B.w.

On 12/19/2016 at 5:03 PM, tonywood said:

Does the Academy YF-16 give a better representation of the prototype than the Hasegawa YF?

Hasegawa & Academy YF-16A absolutely identical models but with one difference - Academy does not contain little wings for YF-16CCV.

I have both models and Academy, and Hasegawa.

Also quality 

injection   Academy model is worse than Hasegawa.

 

B.R.

Serge

 

[Giorgio N]

10 hours ago, Aardvark said:

 

B.w.

Hasegawa & Academy YF-16A absolutely identical models but with one difference - Academy does not contain little wings for YF-16CCV.

I have both models and Academy, and Hasegawa.

Also quality 

injection   Academy model is worse than Hasegawa.

 

B.R.

Serge

 

 

That's because the Academy kit is a "clone" of the original 1976 Hasegawa kit, that only offered the YF-16 option. The parts for the CCV were added in 1984 when Hasegawa updated the kit. Around the same time Hasegawa also released the first issue of their "new" F-16, this time representing a proper production aircraft. This was at the time the best F-16 on the market and is still available.

[Aardvark]

17 minutes ago, Giorgio N said:

That's because the Academy kit is a "clone" of the original 1976 Hasegawa kit, that only offered the YF-16 option. The parts for the CCV were added in 1984 when Hasegawa updated the kit.

I did not know this moment, but in fact, I was always more interested in YF-16CCV.

 

B.R.

Serge

[CT7567]

18 hours ago, Aardvark said:

I did not find a specialized topic about the YF-16A, which is not a very popular modification of the famous aircraft F-16. Therefore, for those who decide to build this plane, this is just a recently posted video from Jeff Quitney:

https://m.facebook.com/jeff.quitney?fref=nf

 

B.w.

Hasegawa & Academy YF-16A absolutely identical models but with one difference - Academy does not contain little wings for YF-16CCV.

I have both models and Academy, and Hasegawa.

Also quality 

injection   Academy model is worse than Hasegawa.

 

B.R.

Serge

 

Although I haven't attempted to use them for this particular kit, by reputation Academy's decals are also of poor quality.

 

For anyone wanting to improve on Academy's or Hasegawa's markings, Caracal recently issued an "early F-16s" sheet that covers both YF prototypes at multiple points in time, the F-16 CCV (as converted from YF #1), and some other FSD and early test airframes.

 

http://www.caracalmodels.com/cd72103.html

 

(No affiliation other than being a satisfied customer)

[Aardvark]

1 hour ago, CT7567 said:

Although I haven't attempted to use them for this particular kit, by reputation Academy's decals are also of poor quality.

Yeah, at the time,

Academy decals manufactures on tank armor factory  as a by-product, therefore forget all this decal solution, I'm not even sure if the RPG-7 will pierce the old Academy decals! 😉😁😁

But Hasegawa decal on YF-16A also not good, because they have poor hiding power, as a result of which white letter "CCV" applied on red fin, turn into pink letters "CCV".

1 hour ago, CT7567 said:

For anyone wanting to improve on Academy's or Hasegawa's markings, Caracal recently issued an "early F-16s" sheet that covers both YF prototypes at multiple points in time, the F-16 CCV (as converted from YF #1), and some other FSD and early test airframes.

 

http://www.caracalmodels.com/cd72103.html

I know, but all this closed border's.....

 

B.w. anybody compared YF-16A from Hasegawa/Academy with drawings?

 

B.R.

Serge

 

[CT7567]

20 hours ago, Aardvark said:

I know, but all this closed border's.....

Sooner or later things will get back to something closer to normal 🔜📬😊

 

If you can't wait for Caracal's decals to be available where you are, @Vingtor Decals did a very similar sheet a few years ago for prototype/FSD F-16s:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/vingtor-decals-72-111-f-16--658593

 

Unfortunately it's been out of print for some time, but it might be found on the secondary market in areas where shipping is not so problematic.

 

[Vingtor]

20 hours ago, Aardvark said:

I know, but all this closed border's.....

No problem with letters and parcels. Postal services go nearly as normal.

 

Unfortunately I cannot help with the Vingtor sheet. Sold out long time ago.

 

Nils