F-16 Block50 Plus, Turkish Air Force, 181 Filo, Kinetic 1/72.

The only positive note about Covid: a lot of time for modelling! Shortly after the F-14A of the VF-84, here I'm with another project just completed for a collector and friend of mine. First of all, I have to mention that there are no available Block 50 plus bird in this scale, therefore I made a compromise, adapting Kinetic kit of a block 52. The main differences between the two models are the engine, BLOCK 50 mount a General Electric F110, Block 52 mount a Pratt & Whitney F100, and therefore exhaust nozzle, and the air intake. I solve the problem of the exhaust nozzle adapting the ResKit part, dedicated to the Hasegawa kit. The fit is almost perfect, and just a bit of sanding was required. Considering the small scale, I decide not to engage in dangerous work on the air intake, and I leave the wrong one. Other aftermarket used: Babibi Decals, excellent material, beautiful subject, good communication with the company, HARM missiles from Eduard Brassin Range. Aim-9L come from the Fine Molds weapon set for the F-14 (please note that Turkish BLOCK 50 Plus most frequently use Aim-9x) Master brass pitot and static port. Not much extra work carried out, few pipes added to the wheel bay, rescribed panel line, remove of mould junction on the canopy, cut and repositioned flap. The kit is not bad, despite some putty is required here and there. Conformal fuel tank and the top avionic bay fit perfectly on the top of the fuselage. The second presenting a missalignement on the twohalf junction, a lot of sanding required. Lighter shade of gray is Ak Real Color. Darker one, Fs 36118 come from the Gunze range, but seems to me too dark, therefore I add a bit of Tamiya withe and XF-50 Field Blue, to give a more bluish appearance.

15 additional images. Click to enlarge.