Hrvoje

I wasn't even going down the scale road. But since you opened the can, I will NEVER build a plane in 1:35 scale. It's a bastard scale that should never have existed in the first place. I'll put up with it for armor, but only because I have little choice. 
 
There...happy now? 

Hello,
 
the wrap-around camouflage Europe 1 is done!
 
 
 
 
And then after a thin layer of Clear Gloss Tamiya X22 and AK Panel Liner applied.
 
 
 
 
The area around the cockpit is painted with black and details piched up with some dark grey.
Now is ready for the decals.
 
CIAO!
Piero

Hello,
 
to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, I decided to build a rather particular F-16, which was probably one of the few if not the only case of “unsuccess” of this phenomenal and innovative multi-role aircraft.
 
In the second half of the 80s the USAF was looking for a replacement for the A-10 and so they thought of using a version of the F-16 equipped with ground attack devices, such as a FLIR, a laser tracker and a big cannon in an external pod derived from that of the A-10.
Another aspect that certainly makes the subject unique is the camouflage, the Europe 1 or so called "Charcoal Lizard", also derived from the A-10.
 
For the test phase, 7 F-16C Block-25 and a B two-seater were chosen. Before these there were some other tests with a couple of F-16As if I remember correctly.
The test did not go well, in particular the cannon hanging from the ventral pylon when it fired caused various problems, both structural to the airframe and to the avionics of the jet, in addition to the fact that the strong vibrations made it decidedly miss the target: anyway, USAF is still waiting for a replacement for the A-10 (...).
 
So, F-16 elegant shape + Europe 1 camouflage + external heavy weapon load has made this jet just spectacular and irresistible for me
For this project, I'm going to use the Tamiya 1/32 F-16C "Thunderbird" kit.
This kit contains the parts to make a Block-32 and with a few small adjustments it can be converted into a Block-25.
I decided to use few aftermarket for this because the kit parts are really good just adding some details.
 
The cockpit received instruments and consoles from Quinta Studio 3D set.
Other than this, all the other parts are from the kit, including the ACES II ejection seat.
 
 
 
Some electrical cables has been added on the back of the tube area.
 
The undercarriage wheel bays are from the kit after, to my unpleasant surprise, I discovered that the resin parts of the Aires set are definitely too short to fit the plastic parts of the fuselage.
 
 
 
Cables and pipes were added with some other small details.
 
 
 
Since I had decided from the beginning that I would put a FOD cover in the main air intake, I saved myself from having build and fit the air intake duct: the FOD cover has a yellow head of a falcon drawn in the center.
 
 
 
At that time these Block-25 F-16C didn't have the bulges above and below the wing roots and the "beer cans" RWR at the slats. These parts has to be removed from the plastic parts.
Same for the 2 extra chaff&flare box dispensers under the left side.
 
CIAO!
Piero
 

Gotta love the Lizards - I will follow this build for sure
 

Still pushing the rope uphill this week, and some progress was made.  
 
First, the intake lip was painted in a slightly darker shade of gray that seemed to match many reference photos I've found of the subject jet.  I believe the lip of the intake, and a few other areas are covered in an anti-abrasion coating which weathers similarly to the radome.  As the jet flies more, the darker it gets.  In photos showing this jet freshly painted, these areas are slightly lighter than the Light Ghost Gray, and in the most recent photos I've found from late 2023 to early 2024 they are slightly darker.  This is a mixture of MRP Aircraft Gray and MRP Light Mod Eagle Gray to give a slightly different hue and darker appearance.   In the color card in the background, I've painted several colors from the MRP/SMS line to use as a reference as the project moves forward. 
 
 
The color demarcation is curved with the leading edge of the intake, so it was masked and painted before installation as doing so later on would be very tough to pull off.  You can see where the top portion of the splitter is cut out to allow the installation of the reinforcement strut just before the intake gets glued to the lower fuselage.  The same color as the intake lip is applied to the ECS inlets, though a slightly lighter shade to match references.
 
 
On this scheme, the majority of the underside is Light Ghost Gray, I opted to paint the intake before installation.  After painting the inside of the intake, I did not want to try and get into all the recesses after the fuselage was all buttoned up.  Since the Haze Gray of the Raven is limited to the underside starting on the nose gear door, and a small portion wrapping around just behind the nose, this will save some considerable hassle later on.  Provided I'm careful, this area will only receive some light touch-ups with the installation of the gear door and some antennas.  
 
 
The Navigation lights were also attached now.  On the kit parts, these lights are keyed and have a small stud that fits into the intake, but on the aftermarket extended light housing, there was no such locating hole.  Since the diameter of this hole was early as big as the fairing is wide, drilling this out was not in the cards. The lights were sanded flat on the underside, then glued in place with some JB weld.  This stuff sticks to anything and cleans up exceptionally well with some IPA on a cotton bud or micro brush.  It was a bit finicky to get the lights aligned and taped down for the overnight dry time, but in the end, I managed to get them aligned fairly well.  In the future I would mount the lights before installing the fairings to the intakes, that may have been a bit easier, but if everything was easy, we wouldn't build models.  
 
 
I realize now after looking at these photos the lights were not masked correctly.  The forward edge has a small painted section which I did not mask off.  I'll address this in the future, and should not be an issue.  
 
The intake seems to have shrunk in width at some point here . . . .  before painting the assembly fit perfectly on the lower fuselage, but now I have a small gap behind the ECS intake almost back to the forward edge of the main landing gear well.  Right now the triangular section at the front of the splitter has glue, and the two tabs on the top and bottom of the intake trunk have glue and are curing.  It seems I can push the intake sides over a touch and close the gap, but that will be addressed once the glue is fully cured.  I'll have to think on this a bit to minimize damage and re-work along that joint.  
 
 
 
The brass tube was blackened with some blackening solution since it will be partially visible once the kit is finished and mounted on the acrylic rod.  The fit is fairly tight in the styrene disks it slides into as well as the fit of the rod.  This seemed to be the  best method to darken the brass to prevent any paint buildup causing problems later on.  
 
 
Then to allow the installation of the main gear bay, and the aft portion of the intake trunk/engine bay some more JB weld was applied to fully secure the brass tube to the fuselage.  This is now rock solid and is permanently affixed.  The aft bulkhead was painted black to ensure that the white plastic will not be visible in the end.  Right now I intend to install the ResKit parts minus the aft turbine section - I would have to drill a slightly larger hole than 1/2 inch in this part, and what detail is left would not be visible so I will not install it, and just leave the forward section open.  The black will make sure that the forward area blends into "nothing", making alignment tasks much easier at the end when this section gets installed.
 
 
Next, more work was done on the Sniper Pod.  The glass was installed, and what a pain that was.  As mentioned in an earlier post, the resin parts that Eduard provides were slightly small across the width, and I felt that clear styrene would look better.  Below the glass is installed with some Gator Glue and the glue line is quite visible - though still wet.  The seam between the longer sections of glass did not come out as well as I had hoped but is as good as I can get it.  This is the 4th iteration of making these parts and was the best.  On the real deal, this join is very visible, but to me, this still seems a bit too obvious but will be the final configuration.  The forward edge of the glass will get painted gray, and the red/orange sealant will also be painted.
 
 
Once the gator glue dried, a coating of MRP Gloss was sprayed over the styrene glass to ensure that the dark gray stripe at the front and the eventual red sealant will not work its way inside.  My thoughts were that if the edge was sealed up with clear, the paint will not make its way inside.  We shall see.  My phone doesn't do justice to the glass, it looks pretty decent in person.  At some point, I need to learn to use my DSLR camera for these shots.  
 
 
Lastly, to prepare to close up the fuselage the chaff/flare buckets were cut open to allow the Kopecky flare buckets to be installed.  Straight forward, and it only took a few minutes to file the edges flat after drilling out the perimeter and knocking out the centers.  These will be installed at the very end after final paint and such and I'll ensure the configuration is correct for the two partially empty buckets  The Chaff/Flare buckets offered by Jan have partial, full, and empty configurations allowing several options.  
 
 
 
Flares only will be how this jet is configured, so the red caps will be painted before installation.  Anodized Aluminum is what is currently painted on these, but may not be the final color.  I have time to sort out the final shade.  
 
 
That's all for this week - thanks for checking in!

It seems 3D Chute expert has made some magic again - this time its the various F-15 landing gears. I think they look pretty amazing.
 
https://3d-chute-expert.myshopify.com/products/1-32-f-15-series-landing-gear-tamiya
 

Some goodies arrived in the post this week.  
 
The kit has some ok representations of most antennae to install, but the Total Air Temperature (TAT) probe suffers from a rather inconveniently placed ejector pin mark.  This extremely small part installs into a keyed opening on the lower fuselage.  
 

 
There is no way I want to try and clean this up - lost one in my first attempt, and not planning on trying again.
 

 
Seeing the boom in 3D printed parts emerging from small and large businesses alike, turning to Google gave me a partial answer to my problem initially - it did not look like anyone made a replacement.  I found PK Productions (Pascal) listing a TAT and Air Data Probe set and reached out to see how to find them.  He passed on that Wolf 3D Resin produced the parts, so I dropped an order.  A couple of weeks later, the trip from Austria concluded, and here we are.  He produces several sets for the F-14, F-15, F-16, and F-18 along with what appears to be a growing inventory and varied subjects.  
 

 
These are very well printed, and super sharp in detail.  As a bonus, a better-looking Air Data Probe will also be used.
 

 
These are razor thin - and carry incredible detail.
 

 
One-inch squares on the cutting mat for a good size comparison.  
 

 
As I eluded to in an earlier post, I prepared for this in advance by drilling out the keyed opening to 2mm and placed a backer to ensure the replacement could be installed at the very end.  This will allow the entire probe to have a natural metal finish including the round base - and be installed at the very end.  The current depth is a bit too deep to account for a small amount of epoxy to fill the gap on installation.
 

 
The Air Data Probe fits quite well on the nose also and will get the same treatment as the TAT for installation.  Pre-paint, and installed at the end.
 

 
Goal is to squirt some paint on the intake and start gluing some larger parts together.   We shall see how the weekend treats the bench.
 
Thanks for checking in.
 
 

Here she is, done! Thanks for the research support I've received for the build, especially from Jari.
 
I seem to have lost my photographic skills, most of the pics are overexposed, in some the model appears a lot more patchy than she really is.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 
I am really pleased with the way the hinge mechanism turned out, thanks again Severin.
Here and there I used old-school detailing techniques, e.g. the fuel dump was done by squashing some brass tube in a vice to get the oval shape, then sawn off to correct length and worked into the trailing edge. Those Eduard photo-etch stencil masks are gems.
 





 
Don't pay too much attention to the base, it's somewhat temporary since the end-game is to have this and an A-6B stand on a large Coral Sea base.

 

 
Cheers,
 
Marcel

Upper deck is getting there.  Still need to add all the small bits and do some touchups but it's progress.   Anti skid areas were first coated with Mr. Surfacer and before it dried, stippled with a cut off paint brush to replicate the texture of the real thing.   
 
 
 

 
 

Thanks Guys!
 
March 3/24
 
Well, I’m back already, mostly because I didn’t really go anywhere.  To make a very long and painful story short, I experienced an intestinal blockage almost a month ago and spent 4 days in the hospital.  When we left for our big trip I was feeling OK, but on the first leg of our flight all of the symptoms of a blockage came back, so we had to cancel the 16 hour flight to New Zealand and the 6 week cruise we had planned for 2 years to celebrate my new retirement.  Huge bummer, but there are much worse things that could have happened I know, so my wife and I have re-booked a similar trip in a year and we soldier on.
 
After a week of feeling sorry for myself and moping around, I finally picked up this model and got after the Aires main landing gear bay.  Modeling is great therapy when you want to forget about things and I soon became totally engrossed in painting all the tiny details.  This was fairly difficult to do, because I suck at brush painting and with all the tiny details hard to get at, it took a long time with lots of mistakes.  After fixing most of them, here is where I am today.
 

 
With the gear bay already cemented into the lower fuselage, I found it easier to handle than it might be otherwise.  I tried to replicate many reference pics I found on the ‘net, and some great detailed pics in Jake’s Modern Viper Guide.  The Aires resin is super detailed already, but I did add a few hoses and pipes here and there into holes I had pre-drilled earlier before paint.  The 3 holes on either side at the top will be used for the hydraulic lines that will go into the gear doors when they are attached.
 

 
The battery frame isn’t accurate for modern Vipers, but it looks so nicely detailed I retained it, partly because the kit has the perfect yellow decals that fit perfectly around the frame.  I also added some decals to that silver Halon bottle to match a few pics, although the red band should be a bit darker. The central wall looks a bit rough because I had to sand it down, but it will eventually be covered by Part C27.
 

 
Some of the hoses are only dry fit for now, because they will be in the way when I install the main landing gear.
 

 

 
I can’t vouch for the accuracy of some of my plumbing, but I think it looks pretty close and makes the gear bay look a bit more busy.  As always with these close-up pics, you can see a lot more mistakes than you can with your bare eyes!
 

 
With the Aires cockpit and main gear bay now painted and detailed, the most difficult part of this build is now complete.  Next steps will be to detail the front gear bay and landing gear.  Thanks for looking in.

 
Cheers,
Chuck

Sweet, more F-15 goodies for my upcoming order next month
 
Speaking of goodies, can you make R2D2 for the F-15, also known as the ELK-1891 SATCOM terminal used by the Israelis? None exist in 1/32 and Q-M-T make or used to make them in 1/48.
 

 

 
Something similar, if not the same, is used on Israeli Apaches too.
 

Today little progress
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet, more F-15 goodies for my upcoming order next month
 
Speaking of goodies, can you make R2D2 for the F-15, also known as the ELK-1891 SATCOM terminal used by the Israelis? None exist in 1/32 and Q-M-T make or used to make them in 1/48.
 

 

 
Something similar, if not the same, is used on Israeli Apaches too.
 

Sweet, more F-15 goodies for my upcoming order next month
 
Speaking of goodies, can you make R2D2 for the F-15, also known as the ELK-1891 SATCOM terminal used by the Israelis? None exist in 1/32 and Q-M-T make or used to make them in 1/48.
 

 

 
Something similar, if not the same, is used on Israeli Apaches too.
 

Sweet, more F-15 goodies for my upcoming order next month
 
Speaking of goodies, can you make R2D2 for the F-15, also known as the ELK-1891 SATCOM terminal used by the Israelis? None exist in 1/32 and Q-M-T make or used to make them in 1/48.
 

 

 
Something similar, if not the same, is used on Israeli Apaches too.
 

New sets are available on our webshop: 32050 F-15E CFT rack system (Tamiya) 32051 F-5 Tiger II Rails (Kytty hawk) 48025 F-5 Tiger II Rails (AFV/Eduard) www.kopeckyscalemodels.com Cheers, Jan    

thank you very much, if today I have finished the intake, the trick for me has been, mount the intake, then tamiya extra fine, then sand calmly, and then important, mr surface 1000 in airbrush in "amount" on the seam, and once It's all good, important, painting with Tamiya white lacquer, Tamiya's lacquer paints, apart from being very good, do like a kind of...I don't know what to call it...it's like it was latex, I don't know how to describe it, now The intake is phenomenal without seams, here's a little work
 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 

HPH kits always remind me of what’s called ‘dentist’s guitars’ in collector circles. Expensive guitars which only the rich (i.e. dentists) can afford and would never get played. 

The catalog has the 1/35 one on the very last page.

Here for your viewing pleasure are the final glamour shots! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The shot that started my infatuation with the JASDF aircraft, this is the one I set up the vignette to represent…

 
 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/icm-53tba-uh-60a-black-hawk--1527363
 
Just found this on Scalemates, seems like our Ukrainian friends have some interesting plans for 2025.  Does anyone have more info?
Hopefully there will be a UH-60M in line too

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/icm-53tba-uh-60a-black-hawk--1527363
 
Just found this on Scalemates, seems like our Ukrainian friends have some interesting plans for 2025.  Does anyone have more info?
Hopefully there will be a UH-60M in line too

Almost finished with this one. A friend is still printing some antennas for me and that will then be it. Here are some quick phone pics.
 

 

 
Some super high mag pics of the cockpit

 

 
 
 
 

 
A friend of mine printed the canopy locks, other than that the frame is scratch-built
 

 
And this is how I'll display here at the Belgian convention in two weeks time... well, hopefully with the missing antennas

 
Will be hangin' with the Scale Navy team, can't wait!
 

 
I'll take and post some better pics once everything is truly finished.
 
Cheers,
 
Marcel
 
 
 
 

1/32 Trumpeter kit
Kitsworlds decals
Barracuda wheels
All colours MRP