I try to build a
Turkish Air Force model for every fall, for two reasons:there is a national
model contest at october in Istanbul, and Steve does a Turkish Republic day
special update on 29th October. Well this is this year's model...
Being a modern jet
fan, I do not have much choices about Tuaf model subjects. I choose the F-16
because I like the look of this plane much. The attractive markings were
another reason for doing this model. This F-16 belongs to the 161th squadron,
based at 6th main jet base at Bandirma. I think that the F-16 is a
plane which deserves to be built in 1/32 scale, but unfortunately you do not
have many choices. Hasegawa kit (which is bad) and Revell kit (which is
worse). My choice was the Hasegawa kit naturally. (Expect a good 1/32 F-16 kit
from Trumpeter or Tamiya soon )
The kit
required lots of detail sets, updates, and scratchbuilding to build as
a Tuaf Block 40 jet. The modifications I've done are as follows:
I have used the
Blackbox cockpit set for the office. It is supposed to be a block40
cockpit with the wide angle raster HUD, but it has its own errors. The
shape of the HUD is off, The instrument panel coaming is too big, and
the detail was not crisp like other Blackbox sets. Maybe their molds
have worn out.
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The kit has
raised panel lines, and some of them were wrong. I rescribed the whole
model using a needle in a x-acto handle, drilled rivets on the
airframe using the needle again, and constructed the fuselage
stiffeners found on late block f-16's from sheet styrene. |
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The big mouth modification
is done using the Cutting Edge set. This set is beautifully cast, and
contains the big mouth intake, larger wheels and main gear doors. I
forgot the "measure twice cut once" words, and cut the set
without measuring. In the end I got a seam like this.
Various exhausts and air intakes on the
bottom are constructed using sheet styrene.
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Tuaf specific updates
are done using PWMP Turkish F-16 update set. This set contains the
larger fin base with parachute housing, navigation lights on the
intake, new style landing light on the front landing gear door, Bird
slicers Iff antennas on the nose (not used for this model), and the
small antenna under the intake. All weapons are from Tamiya's
F-15E bunker buster kit, and LAU-129 launchers on the wingtips are
scratchbuilt from laminated sheets styrene. I ordered weapon sprues
on the Bunker Buster kit from rainbowten, and this was cheaper than
using resin counterparts. (Some of the items aren't available as
resin sets, too). The pylon for LANTIRN targeting pod is
scratchbuilt using the same technique, and the navigation pod is
modified to fit the F-16.
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I
corrected the shape of the airbrakes using some sheet styrene,
constructed the beer can antennas on the wing leading edge from
styrene rod, and designed my own decals
for
the model, which include numerous non-standard stencils (like
serial numbers on pylons, etc.). Do not forget to check
the size of your artwork by printing it on ordinary paper first,
otherwise you'll waste your expensive decal papers. I've learned
this the hard way...
I do not have an ALPS printer,
therefore I printed the decals using a laserjet, and the white
areas on the decals cannot be printed using this method. I cut the
white areas from white decal paper to do this. I could not make
the ejection seat triangles this way, and Mike Grant came to the
rescue here with his ALPS printer. Regular stencils are a
combination of Daco decals and kit decals.
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The exhaust nozzle is a
Tecknics resin item. I
used some parts from the Eduard set to detail the kit, but most of the
Eduard set is a waste for this model. Landing gears aredetailed using copper
wires and Eduard parts, and the boxes etc in the main gear wells are
added using sheet styrene and epoxy putty. Main landing gear
wells of the F-16 are really cluttered, and I couldn't achieve this
effect on the model, but I didn't left them completely bare, either.
Static discargers are done using fishing lines, the pitot tube and the
AoA indicators on the radome are replaced with stainles steel needles.
They cannot be broken this way. I dropped the flaps to give the model
a relaxed look.
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As a last
word, I would like to thank to the following people for their help on
doing the model. (Sorry if I forgot somebody)
Kursad A .
:General info on what modifications are needed to build a
Turkish viper.
Ufuk Aydiner:He went to the
6th main jet base and took many detail photos of the real plane which were
real handy to build the kit as accurate as possible.
Mike Grant:
Saved my day for
the ejection seat triangle decals.
Kaan
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