Greetings from
Panama:
The Royal Barhain
Air Force became the 15th customer of the viper in late 80's and the first
customer in the Persian Gulf area, under the Peace Crown I program acquired 12
F-16C/D's Blk 40 (8 C's, 4 D's) Shortly after arrival of the first aircraft
Iraq invaded Kuwait and RBAF prepared for combat. Vipers started defensive
operations on January 25th, 1991 and offensive ops the following day.
The kit is an
Academy 1/48 F-16C blk 32 (Arkansas razorbacks, Vermont & RoKAF decals)
modified to blk 40. The decals came from Zotz 1/48 vivacious vipers #1, (
YES AT LAST! 25 aircraft possible) the kit went well, no big dramas, nothing
more that some putty here and there. The weathering was made using watercolors
and lots of patience.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The RBAF A2A configuration
have AMRAAM capabilities, AIM-7 Sparrows and the faithful AIM-9L
sidewinders, for A2G config have GBU-10/12 series plus AGM-65B/G TV/IR,
MK82/83 series.
Under the Peace
Crown II in 1998 the RBAF requested 10 more vipers, the regular production line
of this blk had stopped in 1995, the vipers were supplanted by blk 50's.
The AMRAAMS came
from the spares box, the AIM-9 from the kit, Last pic has the other vipers (FACH
and Aeronautica Militare) flanking the Bahraini, seen not so many Bahraini
vipers around, here's mine.
More exotic vipers
will come, that's for sure.
JochemP
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