1/32 Tamiya F-16C

by Jean-Luc Caut

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I am not going to describe the Tamyia 1/32 kit here, Ted Taylor gave us an exhaustive description of the main difficulties in his article (see Ted's article).

In order to keep the ball rolling and also to give some added value to Ted's article, I have installed a BlackBox cockpit in my release (see also my article) and added some cables, wires and details on landing gears. 

I will start with modifications you have to make before installing the BlackBox cockpit inside the lower fuselage (B4) and on the upper fuselage (B28). First of all you need to cut the three original fixations on the lower fuselage (noted 1, 2 and 3 on my photo below).

Then you will need do deploy some more skills in order to cut the upper fuselage properly. Be careful.....there is no chance for a second attempt. Basically the wisest way is leaving 1 or 2 mm for the sanding phase. Then start sanding, then test fit to see if the cockpit fits into the fuselage, then sand again, then test again, then sand one more, then...you deserve a cup of coffee and some rest.

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Above photos will give you an idea of the necessary amount of the original upper fuselage that needs to be cut off before installing the new cockpit, as the cockpit is already painted we can easily have a look on the black part behind the seat that needs to be installed in the grey fuselage.

We can now spend some hours improving the landing gear areas. You will need different sections of copper or lead wires in order to reproduce flexible pipes, connection and electric wires inside the main and the nose landing gear, reference photos are available on www.F16.net. www.F16.net.

I would like to take the opportunity in this article to give a simple tip to remove the mould line down the center of the canopy: just sand it like any other part and when it is finished you just need to polish it with Car Polish available in any DIY (hardware store) during 1 or 2 minutes. That's all.

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After painting in a two tone grey scheme, I weathered the kit with artist oil paint mixed with thinner. For decals I went on the Fox One web site, even if there is a big choice of aftermarket decals on the Internet I have a little preference for this splendid Oklahoma Air National Guard 138 FW release with its gorgeous Native American Chief head on the vertical fin. 

Jean-Luc

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Photos and text © by Jean-Luc Caut