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A Restoration of an Airfix F-16


Brigbeale

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A short while ago, I purchased a box of 1/72 models which all required attention.

In this box was an F-16 which was the built fuselage with it’s canopy attached.  The wings had all been attached at some point but had been broken off. 
There were no wheels or their doors, no stabiliser fins, no decals, box or instructions.

I wondered what manufacturer made the kit - at first thinking it was Iraleri with it being all-over grey plastic.

While I was building an Airfix Eurofighter Typhoon from a Then & Now pairing with a MkIIA Spitfire, I decided the F-16 was the next restoration project. I put it in the freezer overnight and dismantled it - which was easier than I was expecting.

While finishing the Typhoon, I was looking for a suitable subject and remembered I built a Matchbox kit when I was a teenager as a USAF Thunderbirds F-16. 
One thing though, this kit is a two seater. I thought the Thunderbirds (not the Gerry Anderson ones) used single seat aircraft - until I found a photo of a two seat Thunderbird F-16. That was that then - this is what it was going to be.

I used the Scalemates Website to run through the 1/72 F-16 kits looking at the available instruction downloads to find the kit. After a short search and looking at the top and bottom of the fuselage for the part numbers, I found it is an Airfix kit 04025. (Thank God it was Airfix and not Testors or I’d have been there all night).

Now I had kit identified, I needed some parts for wheels down mode.

Nobody was currently selling the Airfix parts I required, but I found a seller on eBay who was selling the same kit. With a bit of cheek, I asked him if he would send me some clear photos of the landing gear and stabiliser fins. To my surprise he did with a 1p coin as size reference and offered me luck with the restoration.

I printed the pictures to scale using the Print to Size app on my iPad and measured the parts out and sketched them out in Onshape. I simplified the main gear a bit and 3D printed it. I also did the nose gear and the three wheels which required a bit of fettling to remove the bed adhesion tags and get the onto their axles.

Next up was the stabiliser fins. I found a picture in Walkarounds and measured the angle with a protractor. I designed one in Onshape and sent it to the slicing software (Cura 4.6). I simply mirrored it and printed the two out. A bit of fine sanding and a trial fit into the recesses in the fuselage. To my surprise they fitted first time. They were attached with TET.

I was going to add this as a WIP but didn’t get round to it until now.

The current state is fuselage and wings built up with the painted cockpit and crew fitted. Replacement undercarriage and stabiliser fins fitted with the wheel bay doors to design and make.

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Edited by Brigbeale
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This is quite an impressive method of creating replacement parts!  

 

If you ever have a "mystery kit" to identify again, posting images here is probably faster - albeit less fun - than browsing through Scalemates' instruction libraries.

 

Since adopting the F-16 the USAF Thunderbirds have always maintained at least one two-seater (at times up to 2-3).  Traditionally the "Number 7" airframe is flown by the team's announcer/PR lead, primarily serve for "press flights" with local media representatives at each show site during a normal airshow season. There are also occasions when one of the six single-seat display birds breaks on short notice and #7 or another "family model" is flown as a replacement aircraft during displays.

 

Just a small heads up, the photo you posted is actually an F-16D, but Airfix's kit is the B model. For the variants flown by the Thunderbirds the main differences are the shape of the vertical fin, particularly the base (wider on the C/D with a blade antenna near the leading edge), and the "bird slicer" antenna on the upper nose just forward of the windscreen (a feature of the later C/D models, similar antennae also used on the ADF and MLU versions of the A).  The markings are very similar but you'll want to be sure your decals are for the A/B as the difference in the C/D tail affects those markings.  The "flag panel" also varies in presentation every season the team visits any new countries for the first time.  Beyond that the pilot and plane captain names obviously vary each year, but I believe the style of their presentation has been the same since the second year in the F-16A/B (first year only had Blue blocks with white text and red/white end stripes, vs. current style with red/white/blue stripes and blue text on a white background, as seen in your photo).

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Aircraft 7 and 8 were the two seaters and this goes back to the F-16A/B jets from back in the day. Later on with the C/D jets, it looks like they had a D primarily used for #4 slot work (possibly to use for filming that season since mounting a camera in a two seater is a lot easier than a single seater).

 

The only other thing to keep in mind is the Thunderbirds were equipped with Block 15 jets which featured longer horizontal stabs. The Airfix kit represents block 5 and 10 jets, which had the original short stabs. Airfix did tool up new longer stabs for the most recent pressing of that kit. If you can't acquire any longer stabs, don't sweat it too much. She should look fine with the original stabs in T-birds colors.

 

I built the MPC version of the Airfix kit when I was a kid and IMHO it built into a nice model. I recently acquired a Heller example (same plastic). Sure she may not be a later Revell or Hasegawa example, but the kit was not bad for what you got and at the time it was one of the few F-16s that had the A and B option in the box.

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Thank you both for your insights into the Thunderbirds F-16 two seater information.

I have been offered a set of Hasegawa decals for this model (which I thank Alan for). I have looked at a picture of a set of Hasegawa F-16C decals and (stabiliser wise) it looks like parts will have to be sized to match the decals - which appears more or less as I have made them. The tail-fin root appears to be the ‘D’ spec longer type. I have a choice of reshaping the fin root or cutting the decal down to suit the ‘B’ spec.
I’m thinking that I’ll try my best to emulate an F-16B Thunderbird no ‘8’.

Should be fun getting the Hasegawa decals on an Airfix F-16🤔
 

I note the tail-plane elevators on the Airfix kit are square on the rear corner but the decals appear to have that corner trimmed off.

Edited by Brigbeale
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  • 2 years later...
On 9/24/2020 at 11:49 PM, Brigbeale said:

I note the tail-plane elevators on the Airfix kit are square on the rear corner but the decals appear to have that corner trimmed off.

Just in case you're still working on her, the Airfix stabs represent the original Block 1 through 10 configuration. From Block 15 on, the trailing edge was extended, resulting in a tail with more area and hence more control authority. 

 

See https://www.f-16.net/f-16_versions_article3.html for some more info.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre 

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Thanks for that tidbit of information Andre.

That restoration was completed in 2020 - doesn’t time fly.

 

Here’s the F-16 as it sits now with home made decals - two years later and still looking good

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I must get back to the Hawk builds at some point in the near future……

Edited by Brigbeale
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