Hard-to-miss F-16

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
That is a stunning paint scheme and will be equally stunning as a model. The decals do look as if they will take a bit of planning and care but as you say Cartograph are usually pretty good. That pilot's arm was odd - not just a bit out but way out!!
Jim

[Guest]

The cockpit is now complete:

[ATTACH]332020[/ATTACH]

Helmet colours seem to vary, but looking carefully at photos of the real thing, orange helmets were used ca. 2013 (off the top of my head) and that makes the pilot much easier to see in the cockpit once the canopy is on.

And inside the fuselage:

[ATTACH]332023[/ATTACH]

With that out of the way, I need to adjust the leading edge slats and the ailerons, as this model will be posed as in flight during an airshow. I used a Tamiya plastic scriber to cut about halfway through the right wing from underneath:

[ATTACH]332022[/ATTACH]

Then, with the help of my newly acquired, second-hand Etch Mate, I bent it down as far as it would go:

[ATTACH]332021[/ATTACH]

You can just see it by comparing the wing at the front with the one at the back. However, since taking the photo I’ve cut the slot deeper with a knife and bent it some more, then glued and clamped it in place. The one on the other side will follow later, and the same goes for the ailerons.

[Guest]

All four are now done:

[ATTACH]332090[/ATTACH]

The left wing was done like the right, but with me being right-handed, it proved a bit more difficult because I had to hold it in the wrong way round to be able to cut the groove underneath the wing. The ailerons I first cut from the trailing edge of the wing to the hinge line using a Tiger razorblade saw, then cut a groove along the hinge line with the plastic cutter, on top of the wing on the right and on the underside on the left. Then it was just a matter of bending them up and down a bit.

Before adding the wings to the plane, though, I’ll need to fill the locating holes for the pylons.

I’ve also painted the inside of the exhaust:

[ATTACH]332091[/ATTACH][ATTACH]332092[/ATTACH]

I first painted it yellow, the added thin orange into the rear half of the nozzle (this will be partly painted out with the colour of the nozzle itself later on), and mixed lighter shades of yellow for deeper inside the front part of the exhaust pipe. I think I’ll paint the deepest insides with white to make it brighter still.

[Guest]

The cockpit always takes me ages, but once that’sd done, the rest of an aircraft model usually goes together very quickly.

[ATTACH]332182[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]332183[/ATTACH]

The canopy is still loose, as is the exhaust, and the nose pitot tube still needs to be fitted, but that’ll only go on when the model is almost finished. Other than that, I just need to paint the exhaust, then mask it and the canopy and glue them both on before I can start painting.

Wait, I also still need to make the smoke pods on the wingtips. Revell says to cut the front fins off the Sidewinders, but that’ll only sort of look like the smoke pods.

[RM6239]

Jakko, it always seems to go quick once the cockpit is done, looking good.

cheers
Ross

[JR]

Morning.
I shall sit at the back and watch with interest .

[Guest]

Cheers

[yak face]

Looking good Jakko, cant wait to see the paint and decals start to go on , cheers tony

[Guest]

That makes two of us, then

[papa 695]

Very nice work so far Jakko.

[Guest]

Dug mine out of the stash.......
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]
I shall get my coat........

[Guest]

Somehow I think you had to put in less work on that than I’ve so far had to do on mine

[Fernando N]

Neat looking office Jakko.:thumb2:

Nice looking mods to the wings too for the inflight look.:smiling:

[Guest]

Thanks. Still trying to work out the best way to make the smoke pods and support for the in-flight base, though.

[Guest]

I’ve finally gotten round to the smoke pods. I initially intended to use 2 mm plastic rod, but when I zoomed in on a photo of the real plane on my iPad so that the length of the wingtip launch rail matched that on the model, I found it needed to be about 2.5 mm. A lot of searching though sprues (nearly all 3 mm, some larger, some smaller, but none 2.5) and spares parts boxes later, I discovered that the exact size needed were … the AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles that came with this F-16 kit in the first place :rolling:

All I needed to do was remove all of the fins, cut the missiles down to about 45 mm long, fill all the grooves moulded into them, then add new fins. I also drilled a hole into the rear of each, as I intend to use them to support the model on twin steel rods. This entailed outting them into a lathe and drilling them out to 1.3 mm, but unfortunately, that went slightly wrong on the first one:

[ATTACH]333612[/ATTACH]

Too high RPM and drilling too quickly meant the plastic melted a little; the second attempt (slower for both) went better. If I’d had another AMRAAM I would have just made a third one, but no such luck, so I had to deal with the damaged one. What I did was shave off the melted plastic, which left holes in the sides, so I glued in the 1.2 mm steel rod and then just filled the holes and grooves with putty. Two days later (that is, about an hour ago) I sanded the putty smooth. In retrospect, I should have inserted the rod without glue, filled and sanded the holes, and then removed the rod again as this would have made it easier to handle the model for painting.

All that remained was to make the fins from 0.25 mm plastic card. They’re just eight bits, 3 mm high, 7 mm along the bottom edge and 5 mm along the top edge, with the rear corners at 90 degrees.

[ATTACH]333613[/ATTACH]

And glued them the model:

[ATTACH]333614[/ATTACH]

Once painting is finished, there will be one rod in each of the smoke pods to hold the model in an in-flight pose.