F-16A RNoAF Block 1, Tamiya C conversion.

[Madhatter]

Wow Dave this is some really tidy work!! I l love the exhaust petals etc - they really look the part! How did you tint the canopy BTW? It s very convincing 

[modelling minion]

11 hours ago, mirageiv said:

Thank you Craig, for sure I'm no expert compared to many people on here but I look forward to your F-16. Do you know which one you will build yet? I assume it will be not a grey one!

Ha ha, you know me well!

I'm torn between a USAF aggressor using the excellent Tamiya kit or an Indonesian F-16A using the Hasegawa kit, though I'm leaning towards the aggressor at the moment which will probably be in the "Flogger" scheme.

[Oriskany]

Outsandng work, congratulations!

The modifications are really well done and the painting work on the exaust nozzle is amazing!

[mirageiv]

13 hours ago, Plastikschrottler said:

David,

 

absolutely fantastic build. Actually made me sign up, so I could post a reply. Really looking forward to the next post.

You may want to put some additional layers of clear on the fuselage roundels on then break the edges of the decal film with some fine steel wool to make the decal film disappear.

 

Cheers,

Joerg

 

Thank you Joerg, very happy to have you along for the build. Yes you are absolutely correct the decal film on the roundels and in fact one or two of the Hasegawa stencils is unfortunately quite obvious in the right light. I've already applied I don't know, maybe 5 or 6 layers of gloss over these particular decals trying to blend them in and they still are noticeable, the gloss layers maybe even made them more obvious strangely. I'm thinking the risk at the moment out weighs the reward, for the following reasons I've just left them as is;

 

- The Zotz decal for the roundel is actually two decals, one for the roundel itself, then another one on top for the red arrow triangles. I'm worried if I sand them, before I get rid of the film of the roundel, the red triangle top decal will come off or be damaged.

- I'm a little bit nervous to try and sand them also...I tried this before on another model and ruined the decals , Im still a relative newbie to all this.

- The Alclad Aqua Gloss I used for the clear layer does not seem to like much sanding/rubbing and seems to peel/flake if you go a little too hard.

- But most importantly those particular roundel decals are really rather difficult to find and were very kindly sent to me by a fellow BM member, I'm not sure I want to risk screwing them up because it will be very hard to find replacements, if at all!

 

I will test it on a spare bit of plastic anyhow and see how it goes as I have some similar type layered decals, if it is too risky I will just have to leave it I think, but thank you for your helpful suggestions, much appreciated.

 

2 hours ago, Vingtor said:

Absolutely a very nice model. As everything else is absolutely perfect, I fell I must mention one issue. The fin numbers are not the right style. The numbers applied by Fokker were of the type with straight lines and 45^o "corners". The numbers used on the model is the later type with rounded corners. It is not too late to fix this, though.

 

Nils

 

 

Hi Nils, thank you and naturally you are spot on about the tail numbers, I completely missed this! hmm I cannot remove the decals now without considerable work on a nearly finished model... so I think maybe I can mask off the the decals at the round corners and spray fs26270 over to make them have the flat 45 deg corners. Or are there more differences in

the number thickness and size? If they are completely the wrong size, I think I may have to leave them 

 

Thank you guys

 

David

Edited December 29, 2016 by mirageiv

[mirageiv]

2 hours ago, Madhatter said:

Wow Dave this is some really tidy work!! I l love the exhaust petals etc - they really look the part! How did you tint the canopy BTW? It s very convincing 

 

Thanks Si, much appreciated! The canopy was tinted 99% with Tamiya clears, yellow, a little orange and smoke sprayed with Gunze levelling thinner only on the inside of the canopy. I also, not absolutely accurate for this very early version I might add (I like adding a bit of artistic licence in my builds), added a really tiny bit of Alclad Gold to the mixture. The little bit of seemingly pure gold that comes to the top of the Alclad bottle. I really liked the extra something it gives but it is pretty much invisible in most lighting, simply looking a normal tinted canopy with no hint of metallic, it just makes it appear more shiny in some lighting. You really have to add only a tiny bit though as too much will start distorting the transparency of the canopy. 

 

If I were to build a C model or later that had the proper full on gold tinted canopies I would add some more Alclad gold and the effect could be quite amazing depending on how the light captures it. Fortunately Tamiya acrylics mix very well with Alclads, especially when some Mr.Color thinner is added to the mix. 

 

Also thanks again for the canopy Si, saved my bottom here!

 

2 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Ha ha, you know me well!

I'm torn between a USAF aggressor using the excellent Tamiya kit or an Indonesian F-16A using the Hasegawa kit, though I'm leaning towards the aggressor at the moment which will probably be in the "Flogger" scheme.

 

Nice choices Craig, I really like the F-16Ns and their camo and will build one someday, I shall look forward to your build!

 

2 hours ago, Oriskany said:

Outsandng work, congratulations!

The modifications are really well done and the painting work on the exaust nozzle is amazing!

 

Thank you Oriskany!  

 

David.

Edited December 29, 2016 by mirageiv

[Vingtor]

8 hours ago, mirageiv said:

Hi Nils, thank you and naturally you are spot on about the tail numbers, I completely missed this! hmm I cannot remove the decals now without considerable work on a nearly finished model... so I think maybe I can mask off the the decals at the round corners and spray fs26270 over to make them have the flat 45 deg corners. Or are there more differences in

the number thickness and size? If they are completely the wrong size, I think I may have to leave them 

 

The size should be the same, 300 mm in height I think (I don't have my references accessible). Here is a photo of the fin of 273 from the early 1980s, with the "Fokker numbers".

 

 

Nils

[mirageiv]

Thanks for the picture Nils. After measuring and comparing the 'late' Vingtor sheet numbers with a Fokker number from a DACO sheet, there are some subtle differences in thickness etc..that will make trying to convert my '272' tail numbers already on the model impossible, not as simple as just over-painting flat 45 deg corners.

 

Damn it! Such a basic error to make, I even made sure to get this correct on a 1/72 RNoAF model, why this one passed me here I don't know, I blame Christmas day alcohol! 

 

Thanks for your input Nils to get things right, very much appreciated.

 

David.

 

edit, I will correct it...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2016 by mirageiv

[Hook]

Ouch, that must've hurt! 

 

Still, better take care of it now than have it bother you every time you look at the model.Great work so far, I now have a strange urge to do a RoG 1/72nd Norwegian F-16A....

 

Cheers,

 

Andre 

[Gary West]

A mere set back David, she'll look magnificent when finished - keep the faith

[mirageiv]

Thanks fellas  You are right, not much point in spending months building a model and leaving a daft error like that!

 

Andre- Nice choice, conveniently there is an F-16 group build just about to kick off in the forums  

 

I replaced the incorrect style with new (/older) Fokker numbers, luckily the sheet had enough of the correct number '2'. I thought they looked a little too large and they come out 0.2mm too large but I can live with that, also I couldn't find any other alternatives available. Man I wish Vingtor still made the earlier F-16 sheet as it would have made this a heck of a lot simpler!

 

 

 

The seat, IP and parachute pack are complete. I ended up using the Quickboost one with the Brassin launch rails, I'll use the Brassin seat on a closed canopy jet with the kit rails so nothing goes to waste. The IP didn't really come out as I hoped tbh, not my best effort, it is sort of correct for a Block 1 machine but some of the layout was compromised to make the main bits of Eduard PE fit the converted Black box 'C' IP.  I used some etch and some bits were also made like the old gun camera, switches, screen and a few other bits. The radar display and the stores control panel are made from film and the result is quite convincing for 'off' screens in flesh, the latter had some horizontal lines lightly scribed in it but not sure it can be seen on the photos. 

 

 

The HUD  glass was made from some clear plastic as the Tamiya one didn't fit the Eduard frame and the projector from a bit of holographic decoration. 

 

 

hmm these close ups show my need to be improved heavy handed brush work

 

 

They will fit like so,

 

 

 

The Quickboost seat needed some sanding on the bottom sides to fit in so some of the seat detail is lost there, but you don't see it anyways. The gap around the front coaming is there in real life, if a little exaggerated on my attempt. Thing is I will not glue it in, I'm thinking of making a Block 1 IP based on the Tamiya part and casting some resin copies for future early F-16s. That go I'm sure will be much better than this and since I want to build quite few early jets it should save a lot of time in the long run, AFAIK no proper early Block F-16 IP is available anywhere, etch or resin. Still need to add a few bits and bobs to the cockpit but it is nearly there. So thats the kit tub, Quickboost seat, Eduard/Black box IP and some self made bits along the way, quite a mixed bag for the cockpit.

 

I spent a little time on the canopy locks and handles, I planned on using some Eduard etch here but the locks were pretty dodgy. Not sure why there are 3 on one side and 4 on the other but thats what my refs showed.

 

 

She stands! Hmm the lightning here seems to hide most of the details for whatever reason.

 

 

The only wires I added to the main bays are at the back where the MLG legs attach, not even that easy to see here. More of an after thought than planned but some fine mesh was added to the rear fuselage grills. Also you can see some of the lines that did get a wash, all the access panels on the airframe but most of the rivets were ignored. The slight bit of miliput I added to the base of the tyres for the bulge can only really be seen on the upside down photo, maybe the better for it as in reality any more they would probably need a good pump up!

 

 

 

 

With the gear doors mounted not so much is seen if you don't go really looking for it,

 

 

I have begun adding some of the little bits. The new position for the IFF/UHF (very light grey), under intake threat warning antennae and the little ram air scoop is moved from under the LERX to here on the port intake side, that and the lights need some paint. 

 

 

And we are here now,

 

 

I think I might knock off some of the gloss on the nose, maybe a little too shiny for the scale. They were delivered pretty darn glossy though. Only some of the last little bits left like AOA probes, static dischargers, early light, airbrakes, tip rails etc...ok maybe quite a few little bits left 

 

Thanks for looking and comments/critiques welcome.

 

Cheers,

 

David

Edited January 4, 2017 by mirageiv

[Plastikschrottler]

David,

 

fabulous work on your early Viper. Really like how your IP and Seat turned out. They certainly look the part.

Makes me go to the model room and work on my own Viper, which is an early C-model from the 52nd TFW, based here in Germany in the late 80s (aka "my youth" ).

 

Cheers,

Joerg

[Vingtor]

Nice recovery! I should guess you now are glad you spent the extra time.

 

Further progress also looks good.

 

Nils

[Christer A]

Wow!

What a STUNNING Fighting Falcon!

It looks very strange to see a F-16 without all the dangly bits underneath the wings, but you're doing an amazing job of it.

Engine detail and landing gears are a work of art, that's for sure.

[Iceman11]

Ahhh! Turning out fantastic!! I wish I could turn out a Viper like that!  Keep the pics coming!

 

Very inspiring, and now I know what my next build will be after simulanously building 3 Tamiya F-84G, all with the super Vingtor decals. The Tamiya F-84G is my fav kit - so easy, and so nice with lots of colourful RNoAF options too choose from the Vingtor sheets.

 

D-Ice

[mirageiv]

15 hours ago, Plastikschrottler said:

David,

 

fabulous work on your early Viper. Really like how your IP and Seat turned out. They certainly look the part.

Makes me go to the model room and work on my own Viper, which is an early C-model from the 52nd TFW, based here in Germany in the late 80s (aka "my youth" ).

 

Cheers,

Joerg

 

Thank you Joerg. Nice choice of F-16, would love to see the results of your build on here  Also there is an F-16 group build kicking off soon if you want to enter it.

 

14 hours ago, Vingtor said:

Nice recovery! I should guess you now are glad you spent the extra time.

 

Further progress also looks good.

 

Nils

 

Thanks Nils, yes certainly, I was hoping you would view this build as I was bound to get things wrong so cheers for correcting that! Maybe there are more accuracy issues, I'm not sure, but it all looks good enough for me now.

 

13 hours ago, Christer A said:

Wow!

What a STUNNING Fighting Falcon!

It looks very strange to see a F-16 without all the dangly bits underneath the wings, but you're doing an amazing job of it.

Engine detail and landing gears are a work of art, that's for sure.

 

Thanks Christer. Yeah a non-weathered, grey, lack of stores carrying F-16 I guess isn't everyones cup of tea but I like the clean shape of a Viper, looks so sharp, and the overall grey shows the lines off well imho. 

 

11 hours ago, Iceman11 said:

Ahhh! Turning out fantastic!! I wish I could turn out a Viper like that!  Keep the pics coming!

 

Very inspiring, and now I know what my next build will be after simulanously building 3 Tamiya F-84G, all with the super Vingtor decals. The Tamiya F-84G is my fav kit - so easy, and so nice with lots of colourful RNoAF options too choose from the Vingtor sheets.

 

D-Ice

 

Thanks D-Ice! I've not built the Tamiya F-84 but I do like RNoAF Cold War subjects so maybe someday I will, would love to see your models. I think my next RNoAF jet will be an F-104G in natural metal. I agree with the Vingtor decals, they really are the best decals I have used yet! 

 

Glad you are enjoying the F-16 guys 

 

David.

 

[Flyingdutchman]

What an amazing details in the cockpit, looks great!! I like the RBF tags. Great attention to details!

 

Cheers, Evert

[Pappy]

Neat as a pin!

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Plastikschrottler]

5 hours ago, mirageiv said:

Thank you Joerg. Nice choice of F-16, would love to see the results of your build on here  Also there is an F-16 group build kicking off soon if you want to enter it.

 

David,

 

my Viper is already too far in progress to enter it in the group build. That said, at the speed I am building, I'd still have a hard time to finish it in time. My build speed can be described as "glacial"....

The fuselage is basically built up, with a few things still to be ironed out (e.g. I had the same fit issue you have described on the nose side panels and still have to fix that. Also the front intake piece still has to be build and I complicated matters by opening the communications panel on the port side. I still have to scratchbuild that. A lot of things you described in your WIP are familiar to what I did, although we came to different solutions. For example, as the Aires cockpit does not fit the Tamiya kit as in being too short, I built up a hybrid Aires/Tamiya cockpit. What worked really nice is fitting the front part of the Tamiya IP hood to the rear part of Aires in order to keep the way nicer IP from Aires.

Currently I mainly worked on the load out which will be two inert Shrikes, a AIM-9L acquisition round, an AMA pod, two 370 gal. wing tanks and an ALQ-131, which was pieced together from Hasegawa, Hobbyboss and Kinetic parts, as there sadly isn´t a correct pod available in 1/48 (hear me Eduard?!?).

If you are interested I can take a few snaps and send them to you. 

 

Cheers,

Joerg

[mirageiv]

6 hours ago, Flyingdutchman said:

What an amazing details in the cockpit, looks great!! I like the RBF tags. Great attention to details!

 

Cheers, Evert

 

Thank you Evert, I'll be adding a few more RBF tags to the gear set up too.

 

3 hours ago, Pappy said:

Neat as a pin!

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

Cheers Pappy! 

 

1 hour ago, Plastikschrottler said:

 

David,

 

my Viper is already too far in progress to enter it in the group build. That said, at the speed I am building, I'd still have a hard time to finish it in time. My build speed can be described as "glacial"....

The fuselage is basically built up, with a few things still to be ironed out (e.g. I had the same fit issue you have described on the nose side panels and still have to fix that. Also the front intake piece still has to be build and I complicated matters by opening the communications panel on the port side. I still have to scratchbuild that. A lot of things you described in your WIP are familiar to what I did, although we came to different solutions. For example, as the Aires cockpit does not fit the Tamiya kit as in being too short, I built up a hybrid Aires/Tamiya cockpit. What worked really nice is fitting the front part of the Tamiya IP hood to the rear part of Aires in order to keep the way nicer IP from Aires.

Currently I mainly worked on the load out which will be two inert Shrikes, a AIM-9L acquisition round, an AMA pod, two 370 gal. wing tanks and an ALQ-131, which was pieced together from Hasegawa, Hobbyboss and Kinetic parts, as there sadly isn´t a correct pod available in 1/48 (hear me Eduard?!?).

If you are interested I can take a few snaps and send them to you. 

 

Cheers,

Joerg

 

 

Nice! The nose panels, next time I will just 'temporally' glue the nose cone, then glue the nose panels in-line with it to prevent any step appearing when I permanently attach the nose later on. Super job on the Aires/Tamiya combination, a great solution for a 'C' pit that I don't think I have seen before. I remember reading that only the Tamiya cockpit tub has the correct side panel angle compared to the flat Aires etc..sides but a detail like that doesn't bother me! The Black Box 'C' cockpit is very nice too, though almost twice the price of Aires but it gives some nice canopy frames and other bits. Joerg you can post the pictures in this thread if you like (and only if you want to!), I don't care, the more vipers the better imho  

 

David.

 

 

edit..is it just my screen or are the pictures in my last progress post rather grainy/blurry to you guys?

 

 

Edited January 5, 2017 by mirageiv

[Plastikschrottler]

1 hour ago, mirageiv said:

Nice! The nose panels, next time I will just 'temporally' glue the nose cone, then glue the nose panels in-line with it to prevent any step appearing when I permanently attach the nose later on. Super job on the Aires/Tamiya combination, a great solution for a 'C' pit that I don't think I have seen before. I remember reading that only the Tamiya cockpit tub has the correct side panel angle compared to the flat Aires etc..sides but a detail like that doesn't bother me! The Black Box 'C' cockpit is very nice too, though almost twice the price of Aires but it gives some nice canopy frames and other bits. Joerg you can post the pictures in this thread if you like (and only if you want to!), I don't care, the more vipers the better imho  

 

David.

 

edit..is it just my screen or are the pictures in my last progress post rather grainy/blurry to you guys?

 

David,

 

I wouldn't bother about something as a side panel angle either, but effectively the front side panels of the tub (where the side panels angle up towards the IP) are way too steep. This steep angle means that the IP sits too far back and Aires came up with the smart idea to just cover that up by adding a goofy flat part to the IP front, which just does not exist on the real thing. On a plane as the F-16 with its one-piece canopy hinged at the back this just stands out. I know what I am talking about, as I actually ruined one kit to find out, which now has only a chance to be converted to a twoseater at some time. It really hurts me to see people build their Tamiya Vipers with an Aires pit, putting in a lot of effort and by that ruining the look of it.

 

Thinking about it, I might as well open up my own WIP thread starting as of where I am now - I didn't care to take pics earlier. You will have to live with very slow progress though...

 

Regarding your pics. Yes they do seem a little grainy/soft. Might be because you are using Photobucket. I had the same problem in the past for my "summer hobby": Aviation Photography. Photobucket compressed the pics to a point where quality went south. I know some guys manage to find a solution for that and somehow manage to still post sharp images using Photobucket. As I am no good in Black Magic, my solution was rather simple: I converted to Flickr. No problems ever since. 

 

Cheers,

Joerg

 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Only just caught sight of this thread David. I see you couldn't live with the standard wheels after all... nice job on them

[mirageiv]

54 minutes ago, Plastikschrottler said:

 

David,

 

I wouldn't bother about something as a side panel angle either, but effectively the front side panels of the tub (where the side panels angle up towards the IP) are way too steep. This steep angle means that the IP sits too far back and Aires came up with the smart idea to just cover that up by adding a goofy flat part to the IP front, which just does not exist on the real thing. On a plane as the F-16 with its one-piece canopy hinged at the back this just stands out. I know what I am talking about, as I actually ruined one kit to find out, which now has only a chance to be converted to a twoseater at some time. It really hurts me to see people build their Tamiya Vipers with an Aires pit, putting in a lot of effort and by that ruining the look of it.

 

Thinking about it, I might as well open up my own WIP thread starting as of where I am now - I didn't care to take pics earlier. You will have to live with very slow progress though...

 

Regarding your pics. Yes they do seem a little grainy/soft. Might be because you are using Photobucket. I had the same problem in the past for my "summer hobby": Aviation Photography. Photobucket compressed the pics to a point where quality went south. I know some guys manage to find a solution for that and somehow manage to still post sharp images using Photobucket. As I am no good in Black Magic, my solution was rather simple: I converted to Flickr. No problems ever since. 

 

Cheers,

Joerg

 

 

Yep, tbh I had not noticed the Aires IP initially, until I read about it online over on ARC, then I looked again and like you I think it does look quite silly! That is why I didn't go for the Aires pit for this build and instead had a go at some scratch details (plus PE belts for seats are above my abilities). When you do find the time, it would be great to see the Tamiya/Aires IP combination you have done because it really will make a difference to the overall look. Nice, I look forward to the thread. On the pics, they were initially better than they are now, I might try re-installing them as in my Photobucket account they are better weirdly. I'll have a play later on with Photobucket. 

 

43 minutes ago, Foghorn Leghorn said:

Only just caught sight of this thread David. I see you couldn't live with the standard wheels after all... nice job on them

 

Yep, I followed your suggestion and with some luck it worked out ok!  Expect a pm these next few days Neil, have some things F-16 that may be of use to you! 

 

cheers fellas,

 

david

Edited January 5, 2017 by mirageiv

[HOUSTON]

David..

 

EXCEPTIONAL workmanship...

 

looking forward to more of your OUTSTANDING Build. 

 

It ROCKS!

[Antoine]

Simply stunning, Dave, really!

 

Wot???

A build of yours with U/C down????

[modelling minion]

Once again David one of your builds is setting the standard.

Absolutely superb work and great attention to detail, I actually really like the Norwegian scheme (even though it is grey) and the national markings are nice and colourful which helps them stand out.

Really looking forward to the next installment.