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F-16AM Royal Norwegian Air Force **FINISHED**


FortyEighter

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The extra surface details certainly make the skin of this one look busy and more interesting. Those small details add a lot.

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1 hour ago, Col. said:

The extra surface details certainly make the skin of this one look busy and more interesting. Those small details add a lot.

Thanks Col,

 

The Daco plates are pre cut vinyl, they might be a bit overscale in thickness but that will be less noticeable once the aircraft is painted.

 

Mike

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7 hours ago, FortyEighter said:

I also need to think about whether I'm going to use the kit exhaust (not a brilliant moulding) or an aftermarket resin version - either way the shroud needs to be attached to the fuselage prior to painting.

 

Mike

Looking good. The strengtheners will definitely tone down under some primer/top coat/varnish etc. I can definitely recommend and Aires exhaust over the kit one. Just thinking about cleaning up those sprue attachments on the kit offering gives me nightmares :fraidnot:
 

Sean

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There's no kits that have the strengthener plates moulded in - all scales have this as aftermarked items. That said, they do make a visible impression when added.
I've used Daco, WolfPak, and Flying Leathernecks and they all improve on late-service F-16AM/BM, block 30/32/40/42 CM/DM's. Best thing with all of them is that they are self-adhesive, while Tamiya's isn't wich is a **** as you have to super-glue them ;)

Edited by Boman
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11 hours ago, Mozzy19 said:

Looking good. The strengtheners will definitely tone down under some primer/top coat/varnish etc. I can definitely recommend and Aires exhaust over the kit one. Just thinking about cleaning up those sprue attachments on the kit offering gives me nightmares :fraidnot:
 

Sean

That was my thinking too re the exhausts - the design of the kit plastic didn't give much thought to the modeller when the sprue attachment points were drawn in!

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11 hours ago, Boman said:

There's no kits that have the strengthener plates moulded in - all scales have this as aftermarked items. That said, they do make a visible impression when added.
I've used Daco, WolfPak, and Flying Leathernecks and they all improve on late-service F-16AM/BM, block 30/32/40/42 CM/DM's. Best thing with all of them is that they are self-adhesive, while Tamiya's isn't wich is a **** as you have to super-glue them ;)

Yes, the self adhesive ones are much easier to apply than etched plates, my Dutch Diana (Eduard) has those (and is still waiting for me to finish painting it, just like my "Orange Jumper").

 

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

This one took a back seat whilst trying to finish my Mustangs (50% success rate) but now has a coat of primer and is waiting for an exhaust which is in the post from the "Big H"

 

20200320_114418

 

Under a coat of paint the strengtheners are far less obvious.  Those panels around the nose still need some more work but are better than my first Kinetic F-16.

 

Mike

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That does look good Mike. Hopefully the exhaust won't take too long to come although I've noticed deliveries from that particular online retailer seem slower these days. Or are we getting spoilt by the next-day service many others are offering? :shrug:

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On 3/20/2020 at 1:28 PM, Col. said:

That does look good Mike. Hopefully the exhaust won't take too long to come although I've noticed deliveries from that particular online retailer seem slower these days. Or are we getting spoilt by the next-day service many others are offering? :shrug:

 

On 3/20/2020 at 9:17 PM, trickyrich said:

maybe they're under increased work load due to all the self-isolators getting back to their work benches and finishing off all those projects!

 

Oh ye of little faith; ordered Thursday, posted Friday, delivered Saturday.

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Main airframe now complete, AOA sensors attached, static wicks fabricated from brass wire, resin exhaust shroud in place and all primed.  Will concentrate on the Sea Vixen for a few days before a rub down of this one with micromesh before thinking about painting

20200325_175001

 

To aid priming / masking the wheel wells I made a dummy nose gear door out of plasticard and despite the instructions have also put the central under fuselage section between the main gear doors (C42) in place.  The main gear legs (G1) can be easily cut into two parts which will locate positively after the main painting.

 

I also decided not to try to mask of the 4 wing nav lights before priming and will deal with them later.

 

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

And let the decaling begin:

 

20200406_162442

 

Annoyingly, the front centre section of the "Walkway / No Step" line (behind the cockpit) is too short - it should come down to the panel line that is level with the centre of the roundel.  Luckily there is a long "spare" all the way down one edge of the decal sheet (phew!).

 

Strangely although the Port side has a decal for the white "push here" box by the Rescue arrow, it is shown in the instructions for the Starboard side but isn't on the sheet - an error that appears for all four of the liveries available.  It's a good job we all have extra odd sheets of decals lying around just waiting for moments like this.

 

Mike

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confusing/incorrect decal instructions...gosh haven't we all had those. Hopefully you hav enough to sort out the errors, looking forward to seeing how she looks with them on.

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On 4/6/2020 at 10:50 PM, trickyrich said:

confusing/incorrect decal instructions...gosh haven't we all had those. Hopefully you hav enough to sort out the errors, looking forward to seeing how she looks with them on.

Wait no longer Rich:

20200410_163636

 

All decals on the aircraft, which now needs a seal of gloss varnish followed by either satin or matt.

Loadout is almost complete and at the same stage but still I need to finish off the Lantirn and ALQ-131 pods (sadly have no decals for the latter but will hunt through other kits).

For an alternate loadout the HARM and its HTS pod still await decals too and possibly a GBU-38 and CAT-9.  That IRIS-T missile has been a pain, the resin is very brittle and I've knocked off and lost two of the rear fins.

 

So now on to painting and attaching the exhaust and undercarriage components......

 

Mike

 

 

Edited by FortyEighter
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12 hours ago, Mozzy19 said:

That looks really good Mike. The colours really pop out against the grey.

 

Sean

 

9 hours ago, trickyrich said:

:thumbsup:

 

now that's a scheme I like to see! She looks great.

Thanks both, can't wait to get that asymmetric loadout in place.

 

Would I be correct in thinking that the wing tip launchers should have the same stencilling as the under wing ones?

 

Mike

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It's taken a bit of time to get everything finished but this one is now in the gallery.

 

Some extra pictures:

20200429_095528 20200429_095453 20200429_095324 20200429_095652(0)

 

 and finally it looks like the US Navy sent over one of their aircraft to Red Flag 15-2

20200429_100728

 

There are two more (Dutch) F-16s in the paint shop - hopefully in RFI next month

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she looks great, well done on completing her!! :thumbsup:

 

Who says a grey F-16 has to be boring, especially when it can have a Tiger Meet scheme! :wub:

 

hopefully the build wan't too troublesome and you enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to follow and to have you along, again well done on a fine looking model.

 

 

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