1/48 F-16F Block 60 Desert Falcon

Started by Michael Turner · 32 · 1 year ago
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    Michael Turner said 1 year, 11 months ago:

    It is looking like an F-16 now...

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 11 months ago:

    Oh yes, the unmistakable shape of an F-16, my friend @michaelt!
    Looking great!

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 year, 11 months ago:

    Interior of the cockpit and wheel wells look great, Michael (@michaelt). All of the extra work in the wells will certainly pay off later. Looking forward to seeing what paint scheme you will come up with for your hypothetical plane.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 11 months ago:

    Yep, a Falcon for sure, Michael @michaelt
    Nice progress.

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    Michael Turner said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    As is typical with modern jets and bulged canopies, the canopy for this kit has a centre line seam that I had to remove, sand and polish.
    Thanks to a tip from George (@gblair), I purchased some "Looks Like Glass".
    I dipped the canopy in and this was the result.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Michael Turner said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    The Looks Like Glass worked wonders.
    Unfortunately, and in spite of my placing it straight into a container to dry, there were two pieces of lint that ruined the effect.
    I removed these and lightly sanded the area and re dipped the canopy.
    This time there were a few bubbled that marred the canopy.
    I tried again.
    And again.
    Then I washed it under a hard running tap that removed all the Looks Like Glass.
    I tried again, and there were a series of imperfections.
    I washed it again.
    Try again.
    Eventually I gave up and washed it all off.
    The interesting thing is, I am pretty sure that the canopy is much better than when I started, so maybe not all of it washed off.

    The cockpit is done now.
    Fortunately the blocks on the resin seats were not too hard to remove.
    I made my own 'spiders' - the yellow "K" shaped canopy locks on the port side because my friend and F-16 nut, Les, pointed out that no F-16 kit, or after market cockpit, includes them.

    I successfully poured some Looks Like Glass on the inside of the canopy before attaching it to the aircraft.
    I'll decide if I try coating the outside of the canopy later.

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Looks great, Michael (@michaelt). Canopies can really be a pain. The good news is that your canopy looked really good after the "Looks Like Glass". I usually discover lint and other stuff after I have already glued the canopy to the rails. The one thing I have discovered about the Looks Like Glass is that you really need to let it dry rock hard. I rushed into masking and painting on a previous model, and had some of the Glass pull up with the masking tape. I now give it at least 24 hours before masking. It seems to be a really good substitute for Future.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Despite your adventures, all looks great, my friend @michaelt!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Fully agree, Michael @michaelt
    Although you had a hard time with the canopy, it looks really nice this way.

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    Michael Turner said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    I have to get this done for Sunday with not too much time to do it...

    ...and so to painting.

    Spiros (@fiveten) may recognise the pattern, if not the colours.

    Back in the 1980s, the F-16A/B was one of the contenders that lost out to the F-18A/B Hornet for the RAAF

    Ironically, the F-16E/F was one of the contenders to replace the Hornets, losing out to the F-35A.

    Back then (1980s) an "artist's impression" of a RAAF F-16 was produced that replicated the then Dassault Mirage IIIO scheme of Olive Drab/Dark Sea Grey over Medium Sea Grey with a Black radome.

    I decided to pay tribute to that with a green/grey scheme, but with a third colour.

    Then I saw the "Aegean Ghost" scheme and decided to do a variation on that.

    A grey-green (Gunze H61 IJN Grey) replaces the blue-grey in the Aegean scheme and a blue-grey (my own mix) replaces the darker grey.

    The blue grey is not as bright as it looks in the photos.

    (I do wonder if I should have used a dark grey, though - too late now.)

    I need to touch up the light grey and the grey-green.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Looks superb as it stands my friend @michaelt!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    This is an awesome scheme for the F16, Michael @michaelt

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    Michael Turner said 1 year, 9 months ago:

    I normally paint wheel bays and fill them with tissue before painting the external camouflage, but this time I painted the camouflage and then the wheel bays.
    You can see the wires and bits and pieces i added to an otherwise empty main wheel bay.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Michael Turner said 1 year, 9 months ago:

    Nearly complete here and as it was for our club competition today - except I've removed the engine variable exhaust parts to re-paint them. 4th out of 4. :~(
    I didn't have time to paint and add the ordinance, so I'll do that next.

    3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 9 months ago:

    To me the result looks much better, Michael @michaelt
    The scheme on this Falcon looks amazing.