IDF F-16I "Sufa" IAF Tayeset 119 "The Bats Squadron" - completed

[trickyrich]

Ok just a very quick update, this lovely wee thing showed up yesterday!!! 🥰

 

I actually only needed the chin/intake antennas but decided while I was at it I’d replace the “nostrils” as well. The pylons for the 370 gal tanks are so similar the kit ones will do. Only a “Level 10 Trainspotter” would know the difference.

 

 

The new antennas still to me look a wee bit thin when compared to photo’s but there shape is so much better the kit suppled ones. Mine needed more work but I gave up once I knew I had these.

 

 

They needed a little bit of work to fit as the profile on the new resin intake is a wee bit different. They had a locating pin so they lined up perfectly and needed just a dab of filler.

 

 

As mentioned I also decided to replace the “nostrils” as well as the resin ones had a much better shape. Not an easy task at all as the kit ones were glued in tight!!! Positioning the new ones were fun as there are no locating points and I had to use CA glue…so one shot to get right! Once again filler was required.

 

 

Left over night to cure, then the excess filler was removed only with nail polish remover and cottonbuds. Then a coat of XF-80 grey.

 

 

 

They look soooo much better that the kit ones. I would highly recommend trying to find one of these sets if you plan to build one of these monsters.

 

Painting time on the weekend, can’t wait, this should be lots of fun! 

 

[Marlin]

Some good improvements there Rich.

As for colours, I can't wait to see it.....

 

/Bosse

[arfa1983]

What filler do you use? And then you just clean up when dry with acetone nail polish remover? This sounds like a revelation to me!

[trickyrich]

5 hours ago, arfa1983 said:

What filler do you use? And then you just clean up when dry with acetone nail polish remover? This sounds like a revelation to me!

 

I use Tamiya's Fine Filler, the white stuff, but it should work on others.

 

 I just let it dry properly (can actually be weeks old) then I use a cotton bud soaked with a little bit of basic nail polish remover, the stuff you can buy from the supermarket. It says it contains 80% acetone but it's not as vicious as straight acetone.....please don't use that!!!

 

With the cotton bud just damp, gently start rubbing over the filler. It slowly starts to come off without damaging any of the plastic around it (on resin models you can go crazy with the stuff, perfect for them). Though if you keep rubbing around the same spot too much then the plastic will start to react a wee bit, so I just move to a different area and come back to that a wee bit later. With a little bit of effort you'll get perfect joins with no need to use any sort of sandpaper and no damage to any of the fine detail/raised line.  You do need to change cotton bibs often, but they are so cheap if you buy in bulk (I buy the 700+ bags of them at the cheap discount stores). Plus if you have any areas of plastic that are shinier then the surrounding parts (sanded/polished to remove mould lines) just a quite wipe over again with a wee bit of nail polish remover and the plastic becomes nice and even and flat looking again.

 

Just don't use it on any clear plastic for obvious reasons.  

 

Craig @modelling minion (I think) got me on to this, I'd lost without it now. Give it a try, the stuff is cheap and you'll be quite surprised just how well it works.

[trickyrich]

…..and den…… and den she’s painted!  

 

.... well a not quite the straightforward task I was hoping for, but she’s painted and looks not too bad!

 

At the end of the last post she was primed and ready for a final going over. Not mush was actually needed to tidy her up just a buff here and there with a mirco-mesh pad and a touchup with primer again.

 

Then the infamous squiggly lines, I used a dark grey for this (Tamiya XF-77) as the first colour is really pale and black would be too dark.

 

 

So the main colours, I’m using AK’s Real Color’s Israeli AF Modern Desert Colours paint set. I so love these lacquers, they’re easy to work with, give a excellent finish and are cheaper and easier to get than my fav MRP paints (which is a bit sad!   ).

 

First on was the underside Grey, (Lt Ghost grey FS.36375), went on super nicely, looks great.

 

 

 

Next on (after some masking of the underside) was the Tan (Sand FS.33531). I was a bit worried about this, it went on perfectly but the lighting and camera made/makes this look a wee bit too light. In natural light it looked better but it needed the other colours on to look right.

 

Next the light green (Pale Olive(FS.34424), this one gave me grief…..in the fact I couldn’t really tell where is was going on! There was very little contrast between it and the sand, as a result I went a bit too heavy with the coat (still super fine) and lost some of the earlier pre-shading I’d done….. not a huge deal.

 

Finally the last colour, the Dark Tan (FS.30219), lots of masking was required for this one (the actual demarcation lines on the actual aircraft are a little on the hard side and not super soft), before painting.

 

The masks came off as soon as I’d finished painting…couldn’t wait plus no need to with this paint. With this paint I can paint a coat, wander back to my work bench (after cleaning airbrush) and immediately start masking over the fresh paint, say 10 minutes max without any issues at all. Awesome stuff lacquers!

 

 

So here she sits at the moment, way too shiny though, I have one tiny spot on one of the airbrakes to do….forgot to extend the green there, but that’s it.

 

 

I love that intake, certainly worth the money, looks awesome….sorry couldn’t get the light to shine all the way down. And I just realized that I shouldn’t have removed the insdie masks as I need to paint the lip dark grey!!!! Opps 

 

 

The two Nav/Targeting pods, they’re awaiting more work, clear gloss coat/panel-lines/decals……

 

 

Next up there are some grey strips on the tail surfaces that need to be added plus all the grey antennas all over the place, that’s going to take some masking!! 

 

Plus I’ll try to re-do those panel lines with super super thinned dark grey, plus some other panel work. These aircraft as a whole were generally kept in nice condition paint wise, intimately I will fade down all the upper surfaces once all the final Matt clear coat is done.

 

With luck I should have this all completed today reading for the clear coat. Plan is to clear coat her over the week and decal next weekend.

 

[darthspud]

Awesome kit you've got there. Not made an F16 that scale, i stick to 1/48.

On the ''MAGNET '' thing, do you drill out a hole and then back fill with putty and a small magnet or attach internally to the pylon and the mounting point on the weapon ?

 

[arfa1983]

Looks really good Rich. You're gonna finish in no time. The Israeli camo is hands down the best looking clothes on the F16 and F15. Not sure if it's the photos or my display,  but the tan looks very grey. I think it  needs a bit more saturated colour but in the flesh it maybe looks warmer.

[trickyrich]

11 hours ago, darthspud said:

Awesome kit you've got there. Not made an F16 that scale, i stick to 1/48.

On the ''MAGNET '' thing, do you drill out a hole and then back fill with putty and a small magnet or attach internally to the pylon and the mounting point on the weapon ?

 

 

Yeah the magnets are really small so I drill a hole for them both in the pylon and store, I make sure it's a snug fit and glue inlace with CA glue. Making sure of course you have the poles correctly aligned.......  I use 2 magnets because the stores in this case a quite heavy relative to the size of the magnets. This is only the second build I've tried it on so am still learning as I go.

 

5 hours ago, arfa1983 said:

Looks really good Rich. You're gonna finish in no time. The Israeli camo is hands down the best looking clothes on the F16 and F15. Not sure if it's the photos or my display,  but the tan looks very grey. I think it  needs a bit more saturated colour but in the flesh it maybe looks warmer.

 

The Sand is really quite pale, the camera makes it more so, plus the photos probably throws some unwanted hues into it as well when viewed on different monitors. It was/is actually the green that was the worry for me. With the main IsraDecal book I'm using, all the photos in it are over saturated to the max! The earlier version of the same book the images are of a better quality colour wise but and the quality isn't as good. Plus that sand is a very light/thinned down coat on purpose.

 

Of course everything changes when the clear coats go on, will be interested to see how it all looks then.... plus I'll do a wee bit of fading on all the top surfaces as well at the end.

[trickyrich]

1 hour ago, Miko said:

Great job! I thought the Mitsubishi was a bit of an oddity but the Sufa is kinda weird! 

 

 

Miko

 

she's not what you'd call pretty by any means!! Very much a mutant F-16 built to blow things up!

[madcat911]

This is good stuff!

 

I noticed that you painted the LITENING pod pylon in the same colour as the pod itself. I believe it should actually be in light ghost grey i.e. the underside colour instead. 
 

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Israel-Air-Force/Lockheed-Martin-F-16I-Sufa/1762474

 

Mark

[trickyrich]

27 minutes ago, madcat911 said:

This is good stuff!

 

I noticed that you painted the LITENING pod pylon in the same colour as the pod itself. I believe it should actually be in light ghost grey i.e. the underside colour instead. 
 

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Israel-Air-Force/Lockheed-Martin-F-16I-Sufa/1762474

 

Mark

Guilty as charged!!   I wondered off in the wrong direction there, I think because I was having trouble getting the pylon to fit the intake. The new resin intake has a slightly different shape to the kit one....which wasn't the right shape in the first place!

 

Plus I have also noticed now that the colour is wrong for the launcher rails!  They should be the same colour as the missiles (well AAM-120's), easy fix.

[trickyrich]

OK the decals are on……. and oh what 2 days of fun that was!!!

 

The kit decals are by Cartograf and looked awesome, but the initial ones I did (on the weapons to test them) gave me some trouble. They didn’t really want to stick to anything other than my tweezers or fingers, and they were super thin. Needless to say, a couple of them died! (RIPieces little fella's  ) Later on they then decided to stick to anything!! This was not helped by Academy getting the numbering and positioning wrong on a few decals, including those big red flashes on the tail.  

 

I used some decal setting solution with them and they eventually snuggled down really well, just a bit of softener used in places to help them conform.

 

First up I just wasn’t happy with the Dark Grey line work on the flying surfaces, it was just too dark……. and I completely forgot to post/mention this other than this one photo!! 

 

 

The radome and sensor panels along with leading edges and strips on tail surfaces were all painted this dark grey. Going over all the photos of there areas, there is quite a bit of difference in the colour of this grey, it looks to lighten over time.  But I wasn’t really happy with the colour on the flying surfaces, in a lot of the photos it was lighter than the colour on the sensors/radome.  So more masking and a re-paint, am much happier with the colour now.

 

 

So I started decaling on the weapons and over time moved between them and decaling the aircraft……. And what a job that was….

 

 

….. there are more decals on one of those AIM-120’s than on most 1/72nd aircraft, something like 35 decals!! Each of those small GBU’s has 20! They’re ready for another clear coat before I start the panel lines.

 

Luckily this aircraft doesn’t have the billions of stencils on the underside like an F-4 Phantom. Interesting things is the orange colour used for all the warning messages.

 

 

Not too many issues with the ones on the upper surfaces, other than again they got some of the placements confused, the instructions showed the IFR marking halfway down the spine!

 

 

I do like the Bat!!!  The red flash was also shown to be on the wrong side…. Luckily I managed to remove the first one after I realized it was wrong.

 

 

So next up will be another gloss coat then I can start the final panel line work and flat coat her. I reckon if I an get a little bit more done to her over the week then there’s a good chance I’ll finish her this weekend or almost will!

[Marlin]

Look's Great Rich.

/Bosse 

[trickyrich]

Ok, just a small update….am slowing getting closer to finishing her.

 

She was given a panel wash, which came out just right. She’s pretty clean looking as I am going for a slight worn/weathered looks, the wash just lightly highlighting the panel-lines. I plan to mist over a very dilute mix of white (90:10 or there abouts) over just to top facing surfaces just to slightly fade them a bit.

 

 

Pylons were fitted, then the final Flat coat, This flat coat has made a world of difference to the look of her, especially in the flesh, I’m very happy with the look.

 

 

That canopy really doesn’t fit and would need a bit of fettling to get so, though you can still see all the cockpit detailing…..

 

 

…but I intend to have it open to show off the cockpit.

 

 

Still lots of little bits to do, I need to finish off those seats, finish off the exhaust, Flat & Semi-Gloss all the weapons and all that other small stuff at the end of the build. 

 

I should have it all done this weekend or very close to it. 

 

[Dansk]

Wow it’s amazing 🤩 

[trickyrich]

All right!!! It’s finally the last update!  

 

Todays been busy putting the final clear coats on…….. and then realizing I didn’t get all the panel-wash off in places!     Tooo late now!

 

That canopy is still giving me grief, I’ve come to the conclusion it was never meant to be left open as there is no prevision for it to sit correctly at the back! Not sure what to do here now, as I haven’t found a nice detailed photo of the hinge mechanism for the rear of the cockpit…..anyway….

 

Finally finished the exhaust can and surrounds, think it looks quite good.

 

 

Lots of other bits fitted…. and found lots didn’t really fit all that well! 

 

 

 

But as she stands here….. well I’m pretty happy with how she looks, just very lightly weathered. Just a little in operation grubbiness.

 

So just more of the usual tiding up to do at the end, still have to mist over the super thinned white, will be one of the last things I do. Still waiting for these SPICE Bombs to show up, they will be it’s final stores config.

 

So next update she’ll be in the gallery!! 

 

[Hockeyboy76]

That’s not bad you know!

[Lex77]

Wow nice one! Always liked the look of those Israeli F-16's. Well done.

[arfa1983]

Nice one, I bet it looks even better in the flesh. I know the F16 is one of the more modest 1/32 planes out there but she's still going to take up some decent space on the shelf.

[trickyrich]

you're right she's not that small, actually around the size of a Tornado (which I have and I thought would have been way bigger) but she is smaller than a 1/48th MiG-31 of F-111, those things are huge!!!

 

Oddly I have been work on the 1/48th F-2A and she seems tiny to work on new!!!!  Dear God I hope I haven't caught the 1/32nd bug proper!!!! 

[Dansk]

Absolutely beautiful work as always rich. 

[trickyrich]

Well she’s done…….. well she was completed 3 weeks ago but I have been just too busy/lazy to do the final photos, plus I had to do a big bench clean-up to make space to take photos.

 

I ended up not doing too much weathering at all, left her pretty neat and tidy like the photos. Add some Remove before flight tags.

 

I had to go for an asymmetrical load out as I dropped one of the pylons with the GBU-12’s and lost the tip…..god knows where that went!!

 

So here she is, I enjoyed the build, I’m 98% happy with her, I’ve made a couple of rookie mistakes so she’s not up to my normal standards, so no comp’s for her.

 

So thanks for following and commenting, it’s really appreciated and I’d highly recommend this model to anyone wanting a big Viper/Sufa.

 

As usual more photos in the gallery and RFI sections…. thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...and with her big brothers..

 

[Marlin]

Beautiful as a summers dream Rich.

I can't find your missing 2% so in my book this rates as 100%

/Bosse

[trickyrich]

I can...it stares at me all the time, you know how it is, you can only ever see the faults in your own builds!! 

[darthspud]

Sweet Sufa, very nice artwork too.