Pappy Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 (edited) G'day people, This is a placeholder for my Has F-16 build I keep buying second hand Has F-16 kits, usually for around $10 -$15 so I can afford to spend some spondoolies on the AM to improve the base kit. I really like the Has kits as they are actually very nicely detailed and although they are now eclipsed by the Tamiya kits (I have mixed feelings about Kinetic's offerings) I can buy four kits for one Tamiya kit and the Has kits go together without any issues so they are a fun build, cheers, Pappy Edited July 5, 2021 by Pappy 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 welcome along Pappy. I actually haven't built a Hasegawa F-16 before so am really interested to see how your's (and others) build. I have found some of the Hasegawa models a bit hit of miss (there A-4's are huge hit I think, F-14 not so). Tamiya, as you say lovely but not cheap.......have yet to build the Kinetic one, have a couple in the stash.....guess I'll find out with them one day! Good luck with the build, am interested to see the scheme you're going with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted June 26, 2021 Author Share Posted June 26, 2021 5 hours ago, trickyrich said: welcome along Pappy. I actually haven't built a Hasegawa F-16 before so am really interested to see how your's (and others) build. I have found some of the Hasegawa models a bit hit of miss (there A-4's are huge hit I think, F-14 not so). Tamiya, as you say lovely but not cheap.......have yet to build the Kinetic one, have a couple in the stash.....guess I'll find out with them one day! G'day Rich, The Has F-14 was king of the heap for quite some time but a very difficult build and not for the faint of heart. The Tamiya F-14 was a revelation wrt engineering and fit, it is not cheap but it will get you an accurate F-14 quickly and you will have fun building it, the exact opposite of the Has experience. 5 hours ago, trickyrich said: Good luck with the build, am interested to see the scheme you're going with. Me too! 🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted June 26, 2021 Author Share Posted June 26, 2021 G'day people, Construction has begun. I will be going with the kit cockpit and although I have some PE to use, I decided to retain the kit console and instrument panel detail as it is quite well done and I am generally not a fan of pre-painted PE I have got the tub painted up which was quite easy due to the crisp raised details that were a joy to paint In between paint coats, I started to prep the cockpit. One of the annoying areas of the Has kit is that the upper rear cockpit bulkhead does not include the recess behind the seat that houses the canopy actuator motor and other gubbins. This area is visible, especially with the lid up and I wanted to correct this. I marked out the area to be removed, I will remove the shaded area and build in a recess HAF Vipers feature a parabrake housing at the base of the tail. Unfortunately this is not included in my kit version but luckily I had a resin item in the spares bin. The kit part had the aft portion separated using a razor saw along a panel line and the resin part was grafted on The other bit of prep done today was to separate the moulded kit wing rails as these were replaced with the LAU-129 on later versions. The wing underside panel was added at this point and I have used some sprue gloo as filler. Finally a test fit of the fuselage halves revealed that the lower section has suffered a bit of warpage over the years. I am not concerned as the two halves marry up perfectly when held together, cheers, Pappy 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 Nice start there Pappy, who would have thought you would build a HAF viper Looking forward to your progress and I have plenty of time to do it since I am now retired Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 a jolly cracking effort so far old man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted June 27, 2021 Author Share Posted June 27, 2021 23 hours ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said: Nice start there Pappy, who would have thought you would build a HAF viper Looking forward to your progress and I have plenty of time to do it since I am now retired HAF Vipers have great weathering effects, I just have to nail down which one to build... 16 hours ago, trickyrich said: a jolly cracking effort so far old man! Oi, who are you calling old! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted June 27, 2021 Author Share Posted June 27, 2021 (edited) G'day people, Today's effort. The join between the kit part and the resin parabrake addition was cleaned up and panel line details re-scribed Prior to clean up I also grafted on what appears to some sort of RWR that is used by HAF F-16s. This was sourced from the spares box but was originally from a Has F-16I kit I think Next up, I finished the aft cockpit recess work and added some additional details using a mixture of AM and scratch items Whilst that lot was drying, I decided to reward myself by painting up the the 'zorst This is the kit part with the addition of a PE spray ring. The AB liner also got a splash of paint soz for the rubbish pic but the turbine face is buried quite deeply and I only have a primitive camera set-up Aftermarket would have been nicer but overall I am happy with the result. I have used resin exhausts previously but each time I have found that the 'doughnut' (the last bit of the fuselage before the exhaust) never seems to fit correctly as all the brands I have tried seem to be slightly undersized in diameter and hence don't match the fuselage aperture creating additional work. I think that if I am paying extra for AM bits they should at least fit the intended kit, sadly this is often not the case The kit parts fit well so that was the driver in this instance to go with the kit items Good enough for guvmint work anyways, cheers, Pappy Edited June 27, 2021 by Pappy 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickE Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 Nice detailing in the recess area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted June 28, 2021 Author Share Posted June 28, 2021 On 6/27/2021 at 6:09 PM, MickE said: Nice detailing in the recess area. G'day Mick, Thanks very much, cheers, Pappy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 well me young whippersnapper great progress!! I do like the detailing on the rear section of the cockpit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted June 29, 2021 Author Share Posted June 29, 2021 2 hours ago, trickyrich said: well me young whippersnapper great progress!! I do like the detailing on the rear section of the cockpit. Thanks Rich, I hope to get the tub painted and the fuselage together this weekend, I can't wait to see how t will look under some paint, cheers, Pappy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 Oooh a HAF build. I'm an absolute sucker for the Aegean Ghost camo. I've got a "couple" birds in that scheme planned down the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ-WobblyHands Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 That is looking great soo far ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted July 1, 2021 Author Share Posted July 1, 2021 5 hours ago, helios16v said: Oooh a HAF build. I'm an absolute sucker for the Aegean Ghost camo. I've got a "couple" birds in that scheme planned down the road. What's not to like, these jets have everything 3 hours ago, RJ-WobblyHands said: That is looking great soo far ! Thanks RJ, I hope to throw some paint on the office this weekend when I can finally get get some bench time, cheers, Pappy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted July 2, 2021 Author Share Posted July 2, 2021 G'day people, So I made it back to the bench and started to throw some paint at the cockpit I have also started to add the basic elements of the MLG bay I wanted to avoid using AM on the MLG and NLG bays but they look just a little too bare and need at least the hyd reservoir and aircraft battery t be added. I will probably end up tweaking these areas in due course, cheers, Pappy 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted July 3, 2021 Author Share Posted July 3, 2021 G'day people, A big day, the kit has quickly progressed from a few sub-assemblies to a nearly complete airframe! The cockpit tub was trapped between the fuselage halves and the fuselage joined during the week. Now set, the seams were cleaned up and the wings and intake was added Although it does not include the full intake trunking like the Tamiya/Kinetic kits, the Has intake assembly is a relatively painless affair. It won't fool close scrutiny but is good enough for a cursory look. I also added the LAU-127s to the wingtips after removing the original rails as well as the 'beer cans' which are part of the AGM-88 suite It was time to bring all the assemblies together The wings, radome and intake all fit well. I brushed on some liquid putty at the wing roots and wiped most of it off with metho, that was about the extent of putty that these areas required. The exhaust panel (the "doughnut " panel) did not fit as well and needed some filler to get the contours to match. I have never had a satisfactory join with this part no matter how much test fitting and care I throw at it so I will put this one down to the kit foibles. cheers, Pappy 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filler Posted July 3, 2021 Share Posted July 3, 2021 That’s fantastic work on the recess in the cockpit. I’m working through my shelf of doom and I have two Hasegawa F-16s on it. One is too far gone, but the other could still get that treatment. I think I’ll have a go at copying your work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted July 3, 2021 Author Share Posted July 3, 2021 1 hour ago, Filler said: That’s fantastic work on the recess in the cockpit. I’m working through my shelf of doom and I have two Hasegawa F-16s on it. One is too far gone, but the other could still get that treatment. I think I’ll have a go at copying your work. G'day Filler, Thanks very much. give it a go, it is not very hard and although only a small change I think it adds a lot, especially given how visible this area is. There are heaps of cockpit pics around so references should not be too hard to find either, cheers, Pappy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 3, 2021 Share Posted July 3, 2021 nice work Pappy, you're certainly making swift progress on her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted July 4, 2021 Author Share Posted July 4, 2021 (edited) 9 hours ago, trickyrich said: nice work Pappy, you're certainly making swift progress on her. The Has F-16s go together really well, and I have built a few of these now so not my first rodeo.... G'day people, More airframe work today. I thought I was about done but when checking my refs I realised that I was short a couple of countermeasure dispensers. The F-16A originally had a pair on the underside forward of the stabs, however as the airframe developed, later variants added additional dispensers Before After This task would have been much easier to accomplish before the fuselage was assembled but where is the fun in that? Meanwhile, at the pointy end the IFF aerial bases were added I also had some fun with the HUD I have also started to tart up the MLG bay. I opted not to go the resin route but I do have some PE bits and pieces so I started to add these There was even a replacement nose wheel door The kit item is better and in any case, the PE door is for a pre-Block 50 jet. Apart from being thicker, these have the the landing and taxi lights incorporated into the door instead of on the MLG legs. Fortunately I had one of these in the gash spares. Finally I managed to the the NLG done before calling it a day cheers, Pappy Edited July 4, 2021 by Pappy 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickE Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 Great progress Pappy and the extra detailing like the dispensers looks great. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted July 4, 2021 Author Share Posted July 4, 2021 11 hours ago, MickE said: Great progress Pappy and the extra detailing like the dispensers looks great. Mick Thanks Mick, I wish I had picked up on them before sticking the body together but they do look better than the kit representation as the kit detail looks more like a mesh covered vent than a dispenser. The Tamiya/Kinetic kits are better in this aspect as they represent an up to date airframe, the Has kits really nailed a jet up to about BLK 40 but then Hasegawa did their usual trick of adding new decals but not updating the moulds, although they often include some new sprues, cheers, Pappy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 Love ya work Pappy, always great to follow your tizzying up off your builds 🏆 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted July 5, 2021 Author Share Posted July 5, 2021 1 hour ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said: Love ya work Pappy, always great to follow your tizzying up off your builds 🏆 G'day Ray! Thanks mate, I actually have a few Tammy/ Kinetic F-16s but I like building the Has versions as I really enjoy adding /improving the details, I think that they are more of a blank canvas and they are still a good option for an early Viper. Their BLK 50/52/60 kits feature an abundance of sprues to accommodate the various lumps and bumps and it can be a little confusing trying to figure what needs to be added /deleted, cheers, Pappy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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