Norway received the
first F-16 from the Fokker assembly line in the Netherlands on the 15th
of January 1980 when "301" (serial no 78-0301) touched down with Major
Steinar Berg and Major-General Svein Heglund (a WW2 Spitfire ace and then Head
of the RNoAF Supply Command) at the controls. "301" entered
service with No.332 Sqn, the designated Operational Conversion Unit for the
F-16, and re-activated for that purpose. Based at Rygge Air Station (now
Rygge airport) south of Oslo, the unit also provided air defence duties for the
southern part of Norway. Although the Technical Order at the time called
for total anonymity (i.e. no unit markings allowed), these soon cropped up.
332 Sqn's colours were black and bronze, and a pennant in these colours was
painted on the rudder - however, the other aircraft of the squadron had their
pennants painted on the tailfin. Between 1982 and 1983, the original Block 1
aircraft (including "301") were upgraded to Block 10, and the most
visible difference is swapping the black radome for a grey one. On the 13th
of November 1984, "301" was destroyed by fire as the engine was
running up to full power for take-off. The compressor shed a blade that
punctured a fuel tank, and the fuel caught fire on the hot engine. The two
pilots, Capt Dean A Collelo and Squadron Leader David Gordon Pyper - both
exchange officers from the USAF and RAF respectively - escaped without
injuries, but the aircraft was beyond repair by the time the fire was put out.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Revell were soon off the mark to
release a 1:72nd scale kit of the F-16 in the mid 70s, but the
current issue has no relationship to the earlier kit. All F-16 kits in
1:72nd have their pros and cons, but the current Revell kit probably
gets the overall top marks as it allows for more options in the kit to enable
the modeller to build an accurate model without conversion, or crosskitting with
other variants to produce the model he/she wants. Revell released the
F-16B in 2005, and unfortunately, they have blocked off some components in the
mould which I think is a bit cheap. As per the kit, it will allow you to
build a Block 15 with the later style gun blast panel, but I wanted to build
"301" as it appeared early in it's career so I had to rob the early
gun blast panel and small horizontal stabs from the F-16C Block 50 kit that
contains all parts. I also chose to make a mould and cast the air intake
from resin after first giving it a better representation of the duct from
Milliput. Note that the two seaters don't have the strengthening plates on
the nav lights, so these were removed - together with the sawtooth panel at the
rear end of the parabrake housing, as this was not there in 1980. I also
detailed the cockpit tubs and cast copies in resin - there are more F-16s in the
pipeline! The seats I managed to lose, and luckily I had some True Details
ACES II in storage that just required the rails to be added from strip.
The exhaust of the kit is a bit bare and a little small, and rather than
detailing the kit exhaust, I chose to detail the exhaust of the Hasegawa kit
with the afterburner of an old Eduard etched brass set. The Hasegawa part
fits very well, but for the next one I will use the Aires P&W exhaust
instead. The flaperons were separated and deflected, and the horizontal
stabs glued in a "relaxed" attitude. The pitot tube was again
added from piano wire embedded in the radome, and the static dischargers from
nylon sewing thread. The UHF blade aerial and IFF antenna under the air
intake were made from scrap plastic and glued in place after the model was
finished.
The decals are Vingtor Decals'
recently released decals for early RNoAF F-16s (72-101) and are definitely
recommended - they are available also in 1:48th scale and direct from
www.vingtor.net
if your favourite model shop doesn't carry them. Beautifully printed by
Cartograf, they allow you to build one model of any RNoAF F-16 featuring Gunship
Grey walkways and 280 or 300 mm diameter roundels (current aircraft have 400 mm
roundels and black walkways). There is only one problem - the walkways on
the sheet are too dark to be Gunship Grey - they are virtually scale black.
However, fixing this is straightforward. Apply the walkway and refuelling
markings first, then tone them down with a misting of the base colour (mixed
with gloss clear if you like), then apply the other decals.
A coat of clear satin will give
the aircraft a nice, clean sheen. To reflect the clean state of this still
new aircraft, I chose to be very careful with the weathering - only some streaks
on the belly, a wash in selected panel lines and some soot around the gun
aperture. As per the early years, "301" carried a centreline
tank and no underwing launchers. These were only used as the aircraft took
on operational missions, but a white dummy AIM-9J/N on station 1 would be
appropriate for this aircraft's training role.
Jens
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