The final chapter in
this 2 month saga of building the F-16 is to
Weather
Dull coat
Add all the little fiddly bits
For the weathering,
I decided to do it rather simply. I simply ground up some black pastel
chalk, and rubbed it all over the kit. After that was done, I wiped the
excess off with dampened cotton balls.
Once the water had
dried, I simply sprayed a couple of light coats of Testors Dull Coat over the
airplane, weapons, and canopy frame (the clear portion was still masked).
I then painted all
the lights after removing the liquid mask.
Once that was done,
it was time to add all the bits that I left off during the build. These
are
Flare/Chaff
dispensers (more on those in the pictures)
Field Arresting Hook
Pitot tubes (one on radome, one on fuselage)
Static port (on fuselage next to intake)
Insert the ejection seat
Insert the instrument panel
Recognition lights (follow the kit painting instructions)
Fixed portion of canopy
Canopy opening mechanism
Canopy
For the canopy, you
can change the opening mechanism (it doesn't get glued in), if you decide to
change the position of the canopy.
On to the
pictures/final notes!!!
Flare/Chaff
dispensers and main gear wells
The kit instructions
indicate that the flare/chaff dispensers should be unpainted. That
looked strange to me, so I very carefully put some flat black paint in
each of the rescesses. You get 4 each flare and 4 each chaff
dispensers. 3 fit on the left side of the fuselage, and 1 goes on
the right. I put one flare dispenser on each side, and 2 chaff
dispensers on the left side.
There is a kit decal for
the halon tank in the main gear well (a kind reader informed me as to what
it was).
A note from a reader said
that the battery box should be royal blue rather than yellow zinc chromate |
|
Nose and
tail
There is a small decal that
goes on the surface of the intake just forward of whatever that bar is,
labeled HOT. I assume that the bar is part of an engine anti-ice
system.
The 3rd picture is from the
2nd Tamiya F-16 I'm building that shows the flame holder painted per the
kit instructions |
|
Navigation
lights
The navigation lights on
the fuselage were painted with Tamiya clear green and clear blue.
For the anti-collision light on the tail, it was painted neutral gray with
the exception of the lens, which I left clear
The recognition lights by
the speed brakes are silver, as well as the light on the bottom of the
fuselage.
There is a small light
upper fuselage to the rear of the canopy. I painted that light
white. I wish Tamiya had included this as a clear part rather than
molding it as part of the fuselage. |
|
Cockpit
The fixed portion of the
canopy was affixed with Krystal Kleer to avoid any fogging. It fit
perfectly, and no fill was needed
The other 2 photos show the
ejection seat and canopy opening mechanism and the instrument panel.
Some notes on the ejection
seat. A couple of readers of this series sent me an e-mail stating
that there are 2 different types of ACES-II seats. If it has a black
headrest, then the air data sensors are folded down against the headrest,
and if it has a gray headrest, the air data sensors are extended (like the
kit parts) all the time.
I believe that the updated
seats also have the black sheepskin cushion.
Not all F-16s have the
updated seats yet.
I painted the seat to match
the picture in the F-16 walk around book, which has a black headrest, but
no folding air data sensors, so as usual, check your references.
Also, check which HUD the
specific airplane has. The block 40 F-16s have a wide angle HUD
which is much larger than the standard HUD in the block 50. I
couldn't figure out how to modify/scratch build a new HUD, so I left it
alone. |
|
Bombs/Missiles,
Drop tanks
A lot of pictures here.
In the photo to the right,
you can see how I painted the nozzle of the AIM-9M. This was done
after looking very carefully at a picture of a crew assembling an AIM-9L
in the F-16 walk around book.
I'll let the rest of the
photos speak for themselves |
|
The big
picture
Here are some final photos
of the complete kit, and the anti-static wicks on a stabilizer .
|
Click on
image below to see larger image
|
|
|
|
Wrap-up
I hope I covered
everything I discovered during the build, and that everybody who has followed
the series has enjoyed it. I've enjoyed doing this as well.
I'd also like to
thank everybody for the kind e-mails I've received during the build. The
information that I've received will make #2 that I'm building come out even
better.
There is one
specific kit note -- the kit includes the IFF Interrogator that is part of the
CCIP program for the F-16. This is NOT the bolt-on interrogator that
was used on the F-16 ADF varient. The instructions have this part marked
as "not used", but I am using it for #2, which is a jet from
Spangdahlem that has gone through CCIP.
Based on the parts
breakdown, if the kit sells well, I'm sure Tamiya could easily product a F-16D,
as well as earlier versions with the NSI intake and P&W engine, and version
with the wide-angle HUD.
In closing, I'd also
like to thank Steve Bamford for all the work he does in maintaining ARC, as well
as TwoBobs for producing such a great selection of decals.
Steve
|
|