1/32 Polish F-16D 4082 Tiger Meet Cambrai 2011

[FortyEighter]

To be built from an Academy F-16I Sufa kit:

 

 

Extras include:

• Eduard F-16I Cockpit
• Model Master Pitot Tube, AOA Sensors & Static Wicks
• Eduard Brassin Sniper Pod
• Techmod decals
• Mini Magnets
• Bandit Resin Factory AMCI Pod and Travel Pod (order in process)

 

And here is a photo of the actual aircraft.

 

I'm not sure whether the cockpit set will get used; I'm going to try painting the "office" first and if that doesn't look great might buy a Red Fox 3D cockpit set (the Quinta Studio version is twice as much).

 

Mike 

[stevej60]

Great to see a big scale F-16 arrive Mike.

[trickyrich]

Welcome along Mike and oh yeah baby!!!!!  

 

This build ticks a few boxes for me, a "Tiger Meet" aircraft, a "BIG" F-16, lots of AM..... gosh I'm in love! 

 

That Academy model is a real joy to build, it's goes together really nicely, other than the canopy strut is too short if you want to have the canopy open.

 

The cockpit is sort of ok, a bit basic and the IP's........ With something this size and with such an open cockpit, it really needs an AM update. I don't know the Red Fox 3D cockpit, I used the Quinta set. But either way the investment is worth it for this beast.

 

Good luck with the build, I'll definitely be following with interest, you are going to enjoy this build.

 

[FG2Si]

I'm always up for a Tiger Meet plane.

 

I started on the Tamiya 1/32 single seater but only got as far as masking and painting the tiger on. Same with my CF-188.

 

[FortyEighter]

I'm not aiming do start any large scale building (pun intended) on this model until next month, but meanwhile have been looking at a few areas:

 

 

The main gear bay (battery yet to be painted) and intake trunking are well under way; getting rid of the internal seams has taken more effort than on the 48th versions I've built but they are close to acceptable.

The exhaust has needed some work, particularly as I didn't realise that some sink marks should have been treated before assembly 🤔  I'm not intending to go down the resin route for this section but do have the option of starting again using another set of parts if necessary.

 

As you can see I've been experimenting with using mini magnets to attach pylons to wings and weapons to pylons - then the model can be posed in various loadouts and with / without fuel tanks.

 

 

I've also been thinking about the cockpit.  On the left is the kit plastic; a coat of grey, mask the panels, paint them white and pick out some switches in silver or grey or red, then overspray with black and when dry rub lightly with a Flory stick to reveal the underlying colours.  This is the first time I've tried this method and was pleased with the results (definitely better than the flattish Eduard etch) but then I realised that there were no decals in the kit for the dials and the Eduard main instrument panels were completely black with no grey edges (and would have been a real pain to mask), so decided to treat myself to a Red Fox 3D cockpit.

 

Mike

[Luke1199]

Looks good Mike, have some Red Fox instrument panels on the way for my builds so look forward to seeing how they look- great subject too!

[dnl42]

Excellent choice of aircraft and markings! 

 

You'll love the look of this in your display cabinet. I did this subject in 1/48 using Caracal decals. 

[trickyrich]

I used Mini magnets on my F-16I, they worked a treat as there were so many cool weapons options for that model, and I couldn't decide which way to go.

 

Plus I ended up replacing the exhaust canan on mine with a nice resin one from Reskit....worth the money I reckon, especially in this scale.

[FortyEighter]

Starting to make some progress after a couple of weeks away:

 

Firstly the Red Fox cockpit set in place:

 

And a view of the starboard side

Yes, I know there is an ugly seam under the front console but it won't be seen once in situ

 

I've also been comparing the kit dorsal spine to photos of the Polish version and have identified the main differences - parts with black marker on them need removing and the aerials are in slightly different positions:

The correct parabrake housing is in the kit but the front end is too narrow so it will need to be packed out with some scrap plasticard.  I'm not sure what the two antennae are on the side of the housing but the kit only includes one of them but plenty of time to scratch build another one or put out a wanted appeal.

 

That's it for now,

 

Mike

 

Most of the weapons / pylons are built (with magnets) - they will appear in another update.

[galgos]

Always good to see some progress Mike, looking forward to more when available. 👍

[trickyrich]

The Red Fox decals (?) were definitely the way to go, they look great. 

 

Now if you really want to go down the AM rabbit hole.......

 

.....I bailed on the intake assembly with my F-16I as I was concerned about how it would all fit and what gaps if any I'd have and found this;

 

https://zactomodels.com/product/1-32-f-16-mcid-large-mouth-intake-academy/

 

 

It's not the cheapest and is temporarily out of stock, but the fit and look is perfect. Don't think anyone else does Seemless intakes for the Academy model.

 

I don't know if these would be of use to you with this scheme as they are for a F-16C at the 2015 meet, but these masks may help with the pattern......don't know how similar it is. 

 

http://www.modelmaker.com.pl/MD32061-Polish-F-16C-NATO-Tiger-Meet-2015-F-16-Tiger-Demo-Team-Poland/697/

 

They are nice masks and really helped with Tiger on the tail, mine is the 1/48th version.

 

[FortyEighter]

12 hours ago, trickyrich said:

The Red Fox decals (?) were definitely the way to go, they look great. 

 

Now if you really want to go down the AM rabbit hole.......

 

.....I bailed on the intake assembly with my F-16I as I was concerned about how it would all fit and what gaps if any I'd have and found this;

 

https://zactomodels.com/product/1-32-f-16-mcid-large-mouth-intake-academy/

 

 

It's not the cheapest and is temporarily out of stock, but the fit and look is perfect. Don't think anyone else does Seemless intakes for the Academy model.

 

I don't know if these would be of use to you with this scheme as they are for a F-16C at the 2015 meet, but these masks may help with the pattern......don't know how similar it is. 

 

http://www.modelmaker.com.pl/MD32061-Polish-F-16C-NATO-Tiger-Meet-2015-F-16-Tiger-Demo-Team-Poland/697/

 

They are nice masks and really helped with Tiger on the tail, mine is the 1/48th version.

 

Hi Rich,

 

The Red Fox detail set is 3D printed not decals.

 

Yes that seamless intake looks superb and the narrow mouth one is still available but $42 is a lot of money!

 

Thanks for the pic of your 4052; as it happens I have both the decals and stencils for this airframe / scheme - I'm waiting for a suitable Group Build to get voted for in the next Bunfight.

 

Mike

[Alan P]

On 7/8/2023 at 2:09 PM, FortyEighter said:

Yes that seamless intake looks superb and the narrow mouth one is still available but $42 is a lot of money!

Save your money and just do it yourself Mike! It's an easy fix, see here for how-to...

Use a plastic insert to lower the intake (Academy designed it too tight against the fuselage underside)

Glue and fill the intake parts as instructed...

Stop up the aft end of the intake assembly with blu-tac or similar, stick to the bottom of a yoghurt pot, and fill the intake with household white emulsion/latex paint. Leave topped up for about 20 minutes, then empty it out and let dry overnight.

 

The result: you get a perfectly seamless intake ☺️

I've used this technique to correct about 5 Academy Vipers, it's a good solution 👍

[FortyEighter]

On 7/10/2023 at 11:05 PM, Alan P said:

Save your money and just do it yourself Mike! It's an easy fix, see here for how-to...

Use a plastic insert to lower the intake (Academy designed it too tight against the fuselage underside)

Glue and fill the intake parts as instructed...

Stop up the aft end of the intake assembly with blu-tac or similar, stick to the bottom of a yoghurt pot, and fill the intake with household white emulsion/latex paint. Leave topped up for about 20 minutes, then empty it out and let dry overnight.

 

The result: you get a perfectly seamless intake ☺️

I've used this technique to correct about 5 Academy Vipers, it's a good solution 👍

Thanks for the picture guide Alan, I've seen this done in a similar way before but have yet to try it out.

 

I don't know if the paint method will be necessary on this build - before thinking about that I'm going to see if the front and rear halves of the trunking can inserted after they are mated, the most obvious seam at present is where the two sections join.

 

Mike

[trickyrich]

there is always intake covers.....they hide a multitude of sins..........don't ask me why I know.......   

[FortyEighter]

Time for an update:

 

The main fuselage, intake, spine and CFTs have all been assembled:

Although the one piece intake tube could be inserted into the lower fuselage, I just couldn't get the intake cowling in place afterwards; so I followed the instructions and fitted the front section inside the cowling, fitted that and then attached the rear section of the intake tube.  Yes, the joint between the two sections can (just) be seen but one's eye is drawn away from that to the rear compressor fan.  I also tried a plasticard shim on the top of the intake cowling as suggested by @Alan P but again couldn't get a good fit, so it was removed.

 

On the underside there is a small lip (less than 10 thou) where the intake cowling meets the section in front of the wheel well but I'll probably leave that, otherwise the rivet detail will be lost.  BTW gear legs are just resting in place for the photos.

 

The dorsal spine took quite a lot of effort, particularly where I was over-enthusiastic when sanding the filler near the rear and I managed to put in a taper where there isn't one (now re-profiled).  I also decided to leave the "bands" on the spine - on close inspection of photos there are some on the Polish Vipers though they are not as obvious as on the SUFA but trying to get them absolutely correct would probably have been too much effort / would risk ruining the spine.

 

Other parts (wheels, missiles, GBUs) are continuing to make progress and most are now painted.

 

My next step is the radome but more on issues with that later.

 

Mike

[galgos]

It all looks very impressive Mike, can’t honestly say I understand a great deal about it, but I look forward to more updates! 

[Luke1199]

Looks great so far Mike!

[trickyrich]

you're doing well with her, she a nice model to build, I enjoyed building mine. but there are a few bits that need a bit of extra work to sort out.

[FortyEighter]

Now ready to paint after the primer has been smoothed with micromesh:

 

 

• the exhaust is assembled / painted but still needs some internal staining before it is attached
• under the port wing are the Bandit Resin Factory travel pod and an ACMI pod (on the starboard wing is a plastic tube jig made to ensure the magnets were in the same position on both wing tip rails)
• all underwing pylons / weapons are held in place with mini magnets (2mm by 1mm).  For the pylons there are two magnets in the wing and two on the pylon - where the original locating holes / pins would have been.  With the addition of a set of Reskit AMRAAMs (waiting to be assembled) and possibly a couple more GBU-38 there should be enough "underwingythingies" to pose the model both as seen at Cambrai and also with a full loadout
• the LAU-128s are too narrow to insert magnets, so I inserted the heads from some panel pins in them to align with the magnets in the missiles / ACMI pod
• I'm not sure if there is enough room to put magnets in the AIM-9X bodies

Construction has thrown up a couple of main issues that needed sorting:

• with the benefit of hindsight I should have attached the upper wing sections to the upper fuselage first, rather than gluing the wing halves together and then fitting to the fuselage.  My first attempt resulted in a pronounced step at the wing root, so the wings were cut off and re-attached (though I still managed to get one of them at the wrong angle  so yet another cut and re-position was needed).  Any gaps were filled with "Perfect Plastic Putty".
• the profile of the radome and assembled fuselage didn't match (suspect that was my error); gentle squeezing while gluing got rid of some of the mis-match but I still needed to do some re-profiling - it's not 100% perfect but will pass

The model is too large for my extraction booth, so I'll need to find a large cardboard box to put round the booth to protect my work area.

 

Mike

 

[galgos]

No progress pics? 🧐
 

 

 

 

 

[trickyrich]

wow that is some serious progress!

 

Sounds like you had a few issues, I don't remember having similar with my build, though I do know I was quite concerned with how the wings would fit and getting them level. I found the kits tabs on the wings didn't give you a nice secure fit, which allowed the wings to move around a bit.

 

Glad to see you solved all those issues, she's look very nice!

[Jose Miguel]

Lovely!

[FortyEighter]

Time has flown by without me posting any updates (a holiday, decorating, etc etc ate into the modelling hours in late September and October) and I thought this would end up in KUTA but it might just get finished now that there is an extension.

 

First a couple of views of the exhaust, this is the kit plastic with a mix of Alclad and MRP metallics:

 

 

Painting the camouflage has taken several attempts; the MRP039 Haze Grey / FS36270 looks a greenish grey to my eyes and certainly didn't look like photos of the actual airframe, so the darker sections were re-sprayed with a mix of Sea Grey shades:

 

 

The CFTs carried at Cambrai appear to have much fresher paint (which of course does not match the camo pattern on the aircraft).  They may be a bit too dark on my model but will compare them to photos again when I repaint the MRP039 on the rear stabs.

 

Mike

[FortyEighter]

The weapons / pylons etc which are waiting for a coat of gloss and decals:

 

As mentioned in an earlier post; weapons are attached to pylons (and pylons to wings) using mini magnets - so the aircraft can be posed with an inert or an armed loadout.  The wing tip launch rails aren't wide enough to install a magnet so I'm relying on magnets in the AIM120s to hold against panel pin heads in the rails.