Rather than
re-cycling the same main picture of the painted aircraft, I decided to include a
picture of my "helper". Tiger is our 8 month old kitten (yes,
he's only 8 months old, and he will be a big cat) who likes to come down into
the basement when I'm working on a kit, and camp out on the hutch on top of my
assembly bench. I only let him on the bench when I'm not spraying with the
airbrush. He's pretty fearless, except when the compressor comes on.
I use a 1.5HP 12 gallon Sears compressor for my Airbrush (a Paasche VL).
When the compressor kicks on, he runs, well like a scared cat.
Loose cat hair isn't
much of a problem, but before I paint, I double check what I'm painting to make
sure.
Steps 39/40 -- Assembly of
pylons, rudder, and vertical fin cap.
Step 39 are the middle pylons for
each wing, the rudder, and the fin cap. I forgot to take any pictures of
the middle pylons, but you will need to fill/sand the bottom for a smooth
surface. I also drilled out the 4 small holes (2 per side) on the fairing
where the anti-sway braces go. I saw a picture in the F-16 walk around
book that it looks like they are clearance holes for the adjustment bolts on the
anti-sway braces.
The poly caps are there to enable
you to change the load carried by that pylon from the GBU-31JDAM to the AGM-88
HARM. There are enough of the mounts (Part V16 for the AGM-88 and Part V21
for the GBU-31) to do this.
There is some sanding and filling
needed on the fin cap, but it's minor.
The rudder fits
well together, but putting in the anti-static wick holders takes some time
and care, to not launch them somewhere on the floor. I recommend
punting parts E2/E3 on at this point, but NOT putting in the anti-static
wicks.
A few notes on the
anti-status wicks.
I've been a general
aviation pilot for almost 20 years, and have seen 2 types of anti-static
wicks.
On most piston powered
singles, they are usually a fiberglass color, but on biz jets, I've seen
both fiberglass color as well as ones that are rubberized.
Since the F-16 is capable
of more speed than the average Cessna Skyhawk/Skylane, I would imagine
that they are the rubberized ones.
However, all the ones I've
seen have a slight droop to them on the ground, as they are not rigid, but
slightly flexible. I have no idea if the ones on the F-16 are rigid
or not. I might have to take a trip out to the USAF Museum this
weekend to take a look at the F-16A out there.
Step 40
The outboard wing pylons
needed no fill. The MB7 rivet makes it easy to paint the pylon after
assembly. Just use a pair of locking forceps to hold it.
I left the pylons off the
wing and they will be attached after final decaling and clear
coatings.
I left the HTS off of this
specific airplane, as the picture I saw of it (from the TwoBobs decal
instruction set for the "Wolfpack" didn't show it fitted this
this airplane). |
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Step 41 -- HUD and Instrument
panel
Assembly of the HUD and panel is
straight forward, but I made quite a few notes.
For the HUD,
after assembly of the HUD less the combiner glass, I masked off the
projector with Ambroid Liquid Mask. This is so I could spray the HUD
flat black, and can leave the combiner off till the very end, and the
projector will still be clear.
On the instrument panel,
Tamiya's painting instructions are rather basic. Here are my notes:
I sprayed the entire panel
Light Ghost Gray, then once that was done, hand painted the black areas. |
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Upper left
instrument, right above the MFD is the RHAW. I painted this Tamiya
Clear Green to simulate what it looks like turned off.
Large instrument above the
right MFD is the secondary artificial horizon. From the pictures I
found, since this is the secondary, the upper half is a pale blue, and the
lower half is black. |
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The large
instrument in the center of the panel is the primary artificial
horizon. Colors are pale blue for the upper part, and a medium brown
for the lower part.
Remember -- gyro
instruments don't always stay level when the gyros spin down and start to
precess, but sometimes they do, and may not always agree.
The rest of the panel and
HUD controls were paint according to the kit instructions.
After all the paint was
dry, I used Microscale Krystal Kleer to simulate the instrument glass and
assembled the 3 parts into a panel assembly that will be secured to the
cockpit via a poly cap. |
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Step 42/43 -
Radar and Gun
Step 42
Since I hate trying to glue
a part to something that was painted flat white, I decided to assembly the
radar bulkhead all as one piece, spray it flat white, and then hand paint
the antenna drive mechanism Light Ghost Gray after the flat white was dry.
Assembly of the antenna was
done with CA adhesive, and the front of the antenna was left the natural
metal color, and the back was sprayed Light Ghost Gray.
The antenna was then
mounted to the drive mechanism. The antenna is designed to be
movable in azimuth only. I don't know if this was simplification on
Tamiya's part, or if the real antenna is electronically steered in
elevation.
Gun assembly presented no
challenges, and was sprayed with Metalizer gunmetal after assembly.
Step 43 - Mounting Radar
and Gun
The only notes I have on
this step is that I left the ejection seat, instrument panel, and parts C1
(pitot tube), and C3 (static port) off till final assembly. I did
add part C2 (the small antenna on the upper fuselage) at this point.
I tacked the gun barrel on
with some doubled up tape on the bottom side.
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Step 44/45 - Leading Edge
slats, trailing edge flaps
Step 44 - slats and flaps
No significant notes here, except
there are some ejector pin marks on the bottom of the trailing edge flaps that
will need to be filled. I used a Sharpie marker to mark which flap was the
right or left flap.
Same notes about the anti-static
wicks for the rudder apply here as well.
One thing that I would do
different on the next one I'm building is to paint the tips of the RHAW antennas
on the slats white before mounting the slats.
I also would paint the hinge area
of the trailing edge flaps before installing (both on the wing and flap) to
ensure coverage.
Step 45 -
installing flaps and slats
I didn't mount them in this
step, as I was waiting for the putty to cure on the fuselage where there
was some seams to take care of.
The F-16 Walk around book
indicates that the leading edge slats are rarely extended on the ground,
so the will be mounted in the up position. Be careful to remove the
proper tabs for the mounting option you choose.
Steve |
Click on
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