RFI: Hasegawa 1/48 F-16A Wolf Pack...

[Tokyo Raider]

Greetings Friends-  It has been a while since my last kit was finished and it was because of battling jet kits!  I usually am a WW2 modeller and have stayed out of Jets for 30 or more years.  However after coming back to 1/48 scale because of age, I decided to try some jet kits.  I wanted to start in the early 1980's where I left off!

 

Here is a 39 year old Hasegawa kit of the F-16A!  This kit came out in 1983 and its OOB with a great pilot and tinted canopy.  It was reissued in 1987 as a F-16A Plus, with some updates.  This is the original from 1983.  The best part of this kit is you get the early A short tail.  The PACAF Logo decal at top of tail is original from the kit (and one of only ones that would work).  I had a horrible time building this (problems, not with the kit).  I decided to build a Wolfpack F16 from Kusan in Korea in 1982/3...  I found a photo that was taken at an airshow and some guy posted it.  This started the problems!  So I had to cobble the decals from various sources and it was very very frustrating and difficult as weeks would go by trying to find the decals to do this job right.  In the end, after getting about 8 decal sheets on ebay, I had to cobble the tail codes from other F16 sheets and modify a '9' into a '0' and change the font of the 5 and the 7 with black paint.  It was very hard but it came out ok...

 

The weapons are from Hasegawa Weapons kits and were really nice.  The paint is Mr. Color.  This is in the Standard F-16 Camouflage in the early 1980's with the upper demarcation behind the canopy and the early cockpit warning decals in light yellow (as in the photo I found).  Its so great to actually have a photo to compare and get everything right on the model!  Enjoy and the plane was virtually new so weathering is very soft.  Let me know what you think and I really could use some jet feedback to get better, as I am sure I am missing some best practices...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you guys know I only do WW2 Models, but now am expanding into jets.  I don't really know all the tricks you guys use on weathering jets and so this is a clean looking early F-16A...  I used Tamiya wash in some of the grills and have some preshading.  The Nozzle is Mr. Color Super Iron and Burnt Iron.  Its an OOB nozzle.  Thanks and enjoy!

 

Oh yea...  to complete the mojo, I watched IRON EAGLE about 5 times during this build!

Edited April 15, 2022 by Tokyo Raider

[arfa1983]

Very nice super clean build. Looks great!

[Filler]

I love Hasegawa’s F-16 kit and you’ve done a brilliant job on it. You’ve gone above and beyond with your efforts with  decals as well. Lovely work.

[Farmerboy]

I remember building this kit 30 years ago! Still got it in the display cabinet.

That looks pretty good to my eyes, l suspect you will move on to something more weathered next time, the techniques are well within your capacity if your other models are anything to go by. Good job!

 

[Vultures1]

Very smart Viper.  Well done!

[Tokyo Raider]

11 minutes ago, Farmerboy said:

l suspect you will move on to something more weathered next time,

 

Hi Farmerboy...  I really didnt know what to do with the weathering here.  I used tamiya dark brown wash in the control surface hinges, and highlighted surface details...  usually I do more preshading, but outside of this, i really dont know what to do on a jet.  They are usually very clean and well maintained.  There are no exhaust stacks to soot up!  No wing walks to chip up!  So i was at a loss what to do.  I need to watch some weathering videos on youtube!  Next up is an equally clean F/A-18A early tri color scheme...

[Paulaero]

That's is a really nice clean jet, please don't go into the over weathering techniques, they may be artistic but not realistic if overdone .

 

Great Job    👍

[Sky Keg]

I am reminded here why the F-16 is my favorite jet and aircraft in general.  Lovely job on it Bob.  

 

 

[SAT69]

That's one beautiful build!

[Steve McArthur]

Your technique looks good.  It's a good looking model.  But I hope you are open to criticism. Since you said you are new to jets I'm assuming don't know much about modern weaponry. A USAF F-16A did not use AIM-7 sparrow missiles.  It wasn't until the ADF rebuild that Sparrows became operational on any USAF F-16s, but even then it was relatively rare.  For the most part you didn't see BVR missiles on F-16s until the AIM-120 after Desert Storm. Sidewinders and dumb bombs would be more appropriate for this time period.  I also would find it odd for a travel pod (centerline) to be on a plane with live weapons (indicated by the yellow and brown stripes).  If the pilot is carrying luggage he is probably unarmed on a cross country flight.  I'm not saying it couldn't happen but it's unlikely.

[Tokyo Raider]

Hi Steve...  yes thanks very much for the comments...  i wanted some ordinance and found photos of Aim7s  on the mid pylon...  they could be later F16s, cant tell from photo.

 

i also was regretting the travel pod, but thats what comes in the kit.  Its just pressed on the pylon and will be replaced with centerline tank when i get the Hasegawa A plus kit.  I had same feeling about travel pod and live ordinance.  Not really likely!

 

I wanted to load it up as it would appear in early 1980s, so the AIM120's are a no no.  Now i wish I built it just like my photo, with no 370g tanks or pylons...

[Steve McArthur]

@Tokyo Raider It sounds like you are doing the research.  👍  The F-16 and AIM-7 is an odd thing.  You can find photos of F-16's with AIM-7 all the way back to the prototypes.  And you can find some of what look like A models with Sparrows, but the vast majority of these are ADF versions that were F-16A remanufactured for the the air defense roll in the Air National Guard 

 

Just to make sure I wasn't talking out my a$$ I went looking and found a very curious image that looks like a USAF F-16A firing a Sparrow, but the caption indicates otherwise. 

 

Quote

RoCAF F-16A block 20 #93711 assigned to the 21st FS launches an AIM-7 Sparrow missile over the Gulf of Mexico, during the Air-to-Air Weapons System Evaluation Program, Combat Archer, hosted by the 83rd FWS, located at Tyndall AFB on November 17th, 2003. [USAF photo by MSGT Michael Ammons]

The Taiwanese Block 20 F-16A as delivered were much more like a Block 52 F-16C.  At the time the US sold these, the A model had long been out of production and the production line was pumping out Block 50/52 models.  But mainland China always gets touchy when we sell modern weapons to Taiwan.  To maintain appearances that these were somehow older tech, Lockheed made up an out of sequence Block 20 that slapped an A style taill on a modern Block 52 F-16C airframe.  Also AIM-120 wasn't part of the deal so it got the radar mode to use Sparrows.  The picture shows one of these Block 20s in USAF markings, but this is pretty common for test aircraft in the USA for foreign air forces.  Also the Sparow has a blue band around it so you know it's not a live warhead.  These old A models have been going through an upgrade program to rebuild them to current Block 70 capabilities and they finally got AIM-120