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Painting a real F-16


Nic C.D.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Big step towards the finish today, with the vertical tail of the F-16 done. Next week the top of the aircraft will be on the menu after which she will be done, ready for first flight in a few weeks. 

 

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Painting the tail was done with 6 masks: first the white outline, followed by 3 shades of grey, one mask in black and finally another white one for some details. Still have to do a few retouches, but it doesn't look too bad. The initial design on my computer look pretty close to the real thing, so I'm happy. The Dark Falcon is almost ready for airshow season!

 

Hope you like the progress.

 

Nic 

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  • 2 weeks later...

As of today, the Dark Falcon is 99% done and she is looking really very cool! I can't post any photos yet, it would spoil the roll-out next week, but on Wednesday, the first air-to-air photos will be made and I will post photos then.

 

This has really been quite an adventure and the design in itself has some surprises for the aviation enthusiasts.

 

More soon!

 

Nic 

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Guest Maxim

Great artwork.  Congrats on such a wonderful project. Any difficult model masking project after this will seem like child's play.

Edited by Maxim
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This is probably the coolest aircraft related project I've been working on. Building this jet in 1/32 however is not going to be simpel: there are a lot of streaks on the aircraft with faded colours and just like with the F-35 I built, this will need a lot and very accurate masking. 

 

I spoke to the pilot yesterday, who saw the finished work just hours before and it was a relief that he was enthusiastic; the team at the paint shop at Florennes AB have done a fantastic job. Vador is a very experienced F-16 pilot who has nearly 3.000 hours on the jet and is a weapons instructor and OCU instructor. He's quite good with a photo camera too, and one of the few (if not the only) Belgian F-16 pilots that can take photos during missions. Here's one he took during a low level rehearsal in his spare Falcon.

 

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The photo you see in Hamfists post is of the previous Demo F-16, but that's the kind of photos we will be making next week on Wednesday!

 

Nic

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Today was the day! This afternoon, F-16 Dark Falcon was officially presented during its roll-out. After 2 months of design, polishing and painting, all the hard work is done. The pilot looked very happy with the result, as did the people invited to the roll-out. And here are a few photos of the Dark Falcon. On Wednesday, we are going to do some air-to-air photos. If you like, I'll post some photos of that too!

 

I hope you like her:

 

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a close-up, with the pilot's call sign on the canopy: "Vador" and the jet's name on the landing gear door.

 

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One more:

 

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Enjoy !

 

Nic

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Today was the day! This afternoon, F-16 Dark Falcon was officially presented during its roll-out. After 2 months of design, polishing and painting, all the hard work is done. The pilot looked very happy with the result, as did the people invited to the roll-out. And here are a few photos of the Dark Falcon. On Wednesday, we are going to do some air-to-air photos. If you like, I'll post some photos of that too!

 

I hope you like her:

 

Are you going to participate in the air-to-air session yourself, would be a great opportunity, wouldn't it?????

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