Tamiya 1/48 F16C Aggressor

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers Chris.

Yep, I'm happy with how it came out.

[Mr Bowcat]

A very happy Sunday afternoon to all.

It's been a case of 1 step forward and 2 steps back with this build for the last few days.

I started putting the AN/ALQ-188 Jamming Pod together and realised that the hole I had drilled in the fuselage to mount the plane on a pole was slightly too far forward and would be blocked by the pod. I considered filling the hole and moving it backwards, or just leaving the pod off, but then came up with a cunning plan. I cut a section of the pod out (using a handy Lego jig to keep the cuts straight) and using an offcut of sprue runner inside the cavity to keep everything centred I glued it all back together again. True it's now slightly shorter than it should be, but I don't think it will be too noticeable once hung from the underneath.



With this sorted I moved on to the rails, missile and ACMI pod. Eduard supplied some nice PE for the rails, but would have you cut off the locating tabs for the missiles. Rather than do this I cut the PE into sections and glued it around the tabs.



With the last of the parts together it was ready for priming, but before doing so I had a look at the Aero Masks and Two Bobs stencil instructions. It was at this point I realised I had made another error. I'd been following Tamiya's instructions (which matched the pics on F-16.net) which would have a single AIM-9 on one wingtip, and the ACMI pod on the other. However the pics on F-16.net were of the airframe in the Blue Flanker scheme, and not the Blue Splinter that I am trying to replicate. I finally found some more up to date pics of 86-0335 in the correct scheme (https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9259493) and realised that it should actually have AIM-120's on the wingtips, and the AIM-9 and ACMI pod on under wing hardpoints, as well as the external tanks fitted. The AIM-120 missiles and tanks are included on the sprues, but not mentioned in the instructions.

It was too late to try and fit the tanks now as the holes required drilling before the wing halves were glued, and I wasn't confident of drilling from the exterior and getting everything in the right place. However I could fit the missile hardpoints, although this involved carefully digging out blanking plated that had been glued in earlier.

With this all done I finally got the primer on, at which point I found yet another problem. I hadn't fitted the canopy properly, and there was a noticeable ridge at the front where it met the nose as it wasn't sitting down properly. Luckily I had attached it with Glue n' Glaze, so was able to carefully remove it with a fresh blade without causing damage.

After much puzzling and head scratching I worked out that I hadn't glued the internal canopy structure in the correct place which meant the canopy edges would never meet the fuselage properly. So the internal structure was carefully removed, all traces of glue scraped away and then it was refitted in the correct place. A test fit showed this has worked, so off came the canopy again, some remedial repairs done to the paint work, and the canopy refitted and glued with TET. A rubber band held this in place overnight and I ampleased to say that upon removal this morning the canopy is now perfect.

This morning I touched up the primer, and also painted the radome, rails, missiles & ACMI & AN/ALQ pods. I'm hoping to get the radome masked later this evening and the first of the colours down on the rest of the kit.

[Mr Bowcat]

Morning guys. :smiling3:

Small update, after masking the radome I painted the first of the camo colours (FS36251 Aggressor Grey).

I honestly can't tell much difference from the primer colour but should hopefully get the first lot of masking down tonight and the first of the blues on.

[scottie3158]

Bob,
All looking mighty fine the etch work is very good.

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers Paul.

[papa 695]

I don't know how I missed the start of this one Bob, some great additions and great work so far.

[Steve Brodie]

very nice

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers gents.

Unfortunately I ran into yet more problems, I swear this build is cursed.

Having read the mask instructions more thorougly it appears that the base colour should have been the Air Superiority Blue,. and not the grey as I assumed. To avoid putting down an overall coat I just painted in the bits that will stay AS blue and will apply the masks later.

Strangely I then have to paint the darker Agressor Blue before applying more masks and going back over with the grey. Seems strange going over lighter with darker??

[minitnkr]

The PE is astounding. Just great work so far. PaulE

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers Paul.

[Mr Bowcat]

Morning guys. :smiling3:

Been a while since my last update, mainly because this builds curse continues to haunt me. :worried:

Since my last post I had painted the three camo colours using the Aero Mask set from AMP. Their website states they are "as sticky as Tamiya tape", however when trying to remove them I found they were virtually welded to the surface. I slowly pulled each one up and found that they had left significant residue behind, as well as removing paint from the PE parts. Not something I've ever had from Tamiya tape!



I tried soapy water to remove the residue, but that didn't touch it, and not wanting to use anything that would damage the paint resorted to odourless thinners. This worked, but involved using multiple cotton buds in small sections at a time. The thinner turned the residue into a less sticky gloopy mess that could then be picked up with a dry cotton bud. This took an age, to give you an idea one side of one wing took in excess of an hour. :tired:

I finished the clean up last night so it now looks like this.



It's actually not too bad and I think can be recovered with some touching up. Luckily I had used Hataka acrylics over Mr Surfacer primer, I think if I had used acrylics I would have lost a lot more paint.

[Steven000]

Wow Bob, that looked like a real pain :astonished: , good to see you managed to fix it.
Looking good :thumb2:

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers Steven.

When I first got the masks off and saw the state of it I was ready to bin the whole lot, but I'm glad I stuck with the clean up.

[Guest]

Wow, that’s pretty bad … Good to see you persevered, though.

[scottie3158]

Bob,
Really glad you stuck with it mate.