1/48 Monogram F-16A (M)

Gallery Article by Alvis 3.1 on Jan 7 2010

Silly Week 2010

 

In the late 1970s, General Dynamics attempted to sell the F-16 to pretty much anyone with a decent sized bank account. One of their lesser known efforts was to the tiny country of Malta. 

Seen here is one of the prototype aircraft marked up in the appropriate insignia of Malta. The all black appearance was chosen apparently to disguise the previously bright gold finish applied when it was being toured around various Middle Eastern countries. A retired Canadian Captain, Charles Allnut, was the pilot for the delivery/sales mission. 

The aircraft was staged from the US and apparently saw some action in the North Atlantic of an unknown nature. It was then ferried around Africa and Asia Minor, with only Tech Sergeant Joe Gunn as ground crew, along with a sales team consisting of Frank McLeod and Rick Blaine following in various transport aircraft. 

The F-16 was scheduled to tour in the Pacific region and return across the Pacific late in 1980, but tragically, it disappeared before it could even be seen in Malta. After Captain Allnut took off from Casablanca, an USAF AWACS commanded by Lt Colonel Matthew Brennan reported 2 Libyan TU-16s flying on an intercept course. The last communication from the F-16 was "Badgers? We don't need no steenking Badgers!" Despite an extensive search of the area by the USS Caine, no sign was ever found of the Maltese Falcon.

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Oddly, the only photos taken of the Maltese Falcon appear to have been in black and white only. In the mid 1980s, Turner Entertainment attempted to colorize some of them, but the results were not aesthetically pleasing.

I used the old Monogram 1/48th scale kit for this model, mostly because it was near the top of my stash. I'm saving the Tamiya, Hasegawa and Kinetic F-16s for a kitbash where I meld all three together using only the wrong parts from each, but I digress. The kit was assembled stock from the box, with anti-static tabs being added from stretched sprue. The kit was painted with various Tamiya paints, mostly NATO Black and Semi-Gloss Black. The decals were custom printed on my cheap inkjet printer. This is the third time I've built this plane, starting in 1/144 and last in 1/72...and I hope it's the last time. There is only so many times I feel the need to cram as many Bogart references into one joke!

Alvis 3.1

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Photos and text © by Alvis 3.1