Alex

Working through painting the exhausts, starting with a base coat of Mr Color Gloss Black Then a whole slew of Alclad metallics Some more painting and drybrushing I'll do some pastel on the inside of the nozzle (inner part) and then call it good.

I decided next to tackle the exhaust on these beasts. This is one area that I feel it's work splashing out on resin as it looks so much better that IM from the standpoint of detail, and it's such a visible part. I have basically the same kit for both. Here is the parts comparison to stock... The afterburner detail is quite nice Pity that's all going to be buried so deeply you can barely see it. The rear part of the kit fuselage has a small raised ring that needs to be trimmed out for the ResKit parts to fit (this is the Tamiya part, but Kinetic is similar).

Here's the Kinetic main LG bay assembly fitted to the lower fuselage. Conveniently, one of the different engineering choices Kinetic made vs Tamiya was to mold the two main gear assemblies separately: So I'll be able to use the same assembly order here with no modifications needed. I figured it was time to get to painting these things (especially the insides of the intake trunking) before I went any further. Here are both lower fuselages with the gear bay attached and painted. Tamiya left, Kinetic right. Easy to tell as the Tamiya plastic is significantly lighter in color. For paint I primed with Mr Surfacer White 1500 and then shot MRP-099 (FS17875).

Those engines are really slick. Decals for the pylon panel breaks are an innovation for sure. That said, the engines that come with Zvezda airliner kits are definitely better than the average. I would love to be able to get this kind of AM product for old Minicraft airliner kits…

These are the main LG bay parts from Kinetic. Very similar design - much of this kit was clearly inspired by the Tamiya approach. Kinetic has done a much better job here however, representing a lot of the plumbing in the bay, and omitting the half-dozen ejector pin marks in the Tamiya piece that had to be eradicated. I suspect the difference is in part due to advances in IM technology between the early 2000s and now. On the other hand, Kinetic (on the left) clearly falls short on the turbine intake fan (a part that you will never see). This is what the bay looks like built up. Note that Kinetic supply these four large conduits at the rear. Which I had to add to the Tamiya bay using lead wire. On to the landing gear themselves for the Tamiya kit. This is what the major parts look like dry fitted. Each side also has an actuating cylinder and a drag link, but these are easy to add in later. The challenge is that those main gear legs are a single piece, connected across the middle. This makes for a strong part that's difficult to misalign, but makes it impossible to leave them out until the end of the build, as a piece of the fuselage skin runs down the middle of the bay over the top of that central spine. The solution, after a bit of thought, is just to cut that piece apart to make two gear legs. They will still locate quite positively (I cut the center part out and glued it to the back end of that central spine, so it still fits correctly and makes a pocket for the leg to sit into), but can be added after the paint is complete. I'm going to cover both mating surfaces with tape to keep the plastic clean, ensuring the best possible bond when they do go in. There are other parts that need to go onto these, plus some scratchbuilding, but I'm leaving that til later. This is what I should be able to assemble before painting the exterior colors: Right now the gear bay is glued in, but that fuselage section is just dry fit. I plan to paint and weather the gear bays prior to permanently adding that central strip. Masking them off should then be fairly straightforward. Next up I'm going to look at the same issue with the Kinetic kit, and given the design similarities, I'm expecting to be able to use the same solution.

Both kits next move on the the main landing gear bay, which wraps round the underside of the intake ducting. This is the Tamiya instruction sheet: And this is what it looks like assembled (minus the compressor face, which I've painted but not yet added). I did a little bit of puttying on the seams inside that intake - this part is so far back that it won't really be visible. I will need to go full out on the forward part of the duct. Here's how it sits in the lower fuselage piece. I could of course start to add yards of wire to this to represent all of the plumbing and wiring that runs through here, but I'm not going to. There are a few large sections of conduit at the back that I will do, and I'll do the hydraulic and electric lines on the gear legs themselves, but that's it. I'm sticking to the "Finish more than four in '24" motto... I'm going to need to prep all of the remaining parts of the gear and bay assembly and fool around with them to see what sort of assembly order is possible. This is a notoriously tricky part of F-16 kits with the multiple bulkheads that cross the bay and the fact that the fuselage skin runs down the middle and so a piece has to be added on top at the end. I want to figure out what approach is going to give me the easiest painting sequence and the opportunity to hopefully not install the gear legs themselves until the end of the build. But first I'm going to build the equivalent part from the Kinetic kit, to keep things progressing in parallel. One other small note - before closing up the fuselage, Tamiya has you make these little polycap things that are situated to receive the pins on the stabilators. This is a very Tamiya way of doing things, and will allow the stabilators to be posed, but I wish they would not do it, as a direct glue-in joint would certainly be stronger. With the depth of the exhaust that's represented in the kit, I can't do my usual approach of drilling out the stabilators and passing a brass rod all the way through the fuselage between them - it's very strong when done that way, but here you would see it behind the afterburner. So I stuck with Tamiya's plan and will hope it works out.

Unlike Tamiya, Kinetic molds the raised switch detail directly into the cockpit tub. Of course, since they don't provide decals, I'm sanding it off and using Quinta decals... The molding quality on the small parts (stick, rudder pedals) is maybe a little worse than Tamiya, but not much. Here's the tub prepped for application of the decals, along with one of the Quinta sheets (the other has ejection seat add-ons). Note that the Quinta set includes some levers and other gizmos for the cockpit inner walls, which Kelik does not do in their F-16C set. Also of note, the cockpit side panels are entirely black, rather than showing black instrument clusters on a gray base (which the Kelik set does, and which definitely agrees with my F-16C/D reference book. This seems to be corroborated by a few F-16A MLU cockpit photos I found on line These photos also seem to show the inner walls of the cockpit between side panels and sill being either black or dark grey, versus the medium gray of the F-16C tub. Unlike the Kelik decals, the Quinta ones really do need a brief soak in water to release them. I attached them with PVA glue to allow more time for positioning. I did the Kelik ones with CA, and they came out well, but it's nerve-wracking because you have only seconds to get the position right. I still need to do the HUD glass on top of that glare shield before I move on.

The Tamiya IP has more three dimensional depth to it that the Kelik decals allow for, so I'll need to cut two of them into parts and install those separately. Here it is with the decals in place and the HUD glass and glare shield mounted. Last thing for the cockpit tub was to paint and install the control sticks and to paint the rudder pedals aluminum (which is almost impossible to distinguish from the background gray...). Note that the throttle and stick controls don't have nearly all of the buttons and switches that are there on the real thing represented (especially on the throttle on the left, which should have like seven little aluminum knobs on it). Maybe there's a super-detailed 3D printed version out there that does, but I'm not going to sweat that. Nor am I going to try and add a bunch of cockpit wiring and plumbing that I can see in references but isn't in the kit. Because I don't want these two planes to take most of 2024. So time to park these in the completed parts box and go see what Kinetic gives us for a cockpit. I will address the ejection seats for both models later. I have an AM one for the Kinetic kit (came with an Eduard bundle), and will use the kit seat for the Tamiya bird, enhanced with the rest of the parts from that Kelik set.

Both kits start out, not surprisingly, telling you to build the cockpit tub. We'll begin with Tamiya. Tamiya has molded separate pieces that depict the raised control switches, knobs, etc on the sides of the pit, which you need to glue to the cockpit tub structure. I could see this making sense from the standpoint of offering different versions of the aircraft with different controls, IF these pieces were on a different sprue than the tub itself. But they're not. So it seems to me just to be needless complexity versus molding this all of a piece. Neither of the kits provides decals for the cockpit instruments, so you are stuck painting them all (which I do not have adequate brush control to do) or looking for an alternative. I find this frustrating, as I've had good luck with applying decals over raised molded panels and getting a nice look out of them (with plenty of MicroSol). Regardless, the alternative is the increasingly common 3D printed "decals", in this case from Kelik. Note that these are for the right kind of Viper (F-16C), but labeled as being for the Kinetic kit. Regardless, both kits are accurate enough that they fit fine. Another thing to think about in using these decals is that they imply a base color for the cockpit tub - the gray that is printed around the black panels. You don't want there to be a glaring mismatch. I looked around the paint rack and found this to be the closest match. Here's the tub with smoothed out panels in place, ready to paint. Also here are the control sticks and the IP and its glare shield. Those latter two aren't called for in the build sequence until later, as they drop in after the fuselage is closed up, but they get some of the Kelik decals put on them, so I figured do them now. Unlike the tub, they will be painted "scale black", which for this purpose is 50:50 black and RLM66. What I've found, at least with the Kelik cockpit sets, is that there's no need to use water to release the decals from the backing - they can be teased loose with a sharp scalpel blade. And they're easier to work with if they're not wet. I've also found that when using these things it's important to check fit as you go to ensure that you're not adding thickness to these cockpit sides in a way that prevents the fuselage from closing around it. Everything looks good here. Once I get the tub and IP finished up I'm going to move on the the equivalent parts in the Kinetic kit.

They take so long that I'm generally mentally fully stuck into the next one by the time the present one is complete. I only finished 4 models in 2023, despite that tendency...

I wish the USAF A-10 fleet was newer and actually something that could be given to Ukraine instead of just retired. As I understand it, though, those are some worn out birds, with essentially no pipeline of replacement parts anymore. It's a darn shame. As magical as the F-35 is in many ways, I just don't agree with the USAF's conclusion that it would be all they needed in the ground attack / CAS space.

Thanks for pointing that out! I'm not surprised that someone has gone there. I was thinking ahead to the "fantasy" group build that's slated for later this year and wondering if I should violate my "jets are 1:48" rule and build a Ukrainian F-35A in 1:32. It'll likely be a decade or more until we see those flying in the actual UAF, so I figure I can apply artistic license all I want on that subject. You should definitely start that Su-25. I have the Zvezda kit in the stash for exactly that purpose, but I don't know when I'll get to it. Would enjoy watching you do the build for sure.

Quite similar to the Fokker F-27

It does look a bit like an F-27. I can take a picture of it next to my F-27 model to compare.

Figure if I'm going to try and build two models at once I need a few more of my favorite semi home-made tools. I use these little clip stands to hold small parts for painting. I buy these little copper alligator clips on Amazon, and crimp them to short pieces of insulated wire. I then twist the bottom end of the wire... So it holds onto a blob of blue-tac securely. I also have some large plastic clamps that work well for wings and things of that size, but to make them hold well only smooth plastic I glue little squares of fine wet/dry sandpaper to the pads.

Some shots of the final product - partially taken during a zoom meeting, thus perched on my laptop...

The two kits differ in how they handle making it possible to kit a two-seat (F16-B or D) fighter. Kinetic provides a separate sprue containing pretty much just this unified upper wing and forward fuselage part: Molded with it is the cockpit tub, the other piece that needs to be swapped out to make a two-seater. So presumably their F-16B kit just needs sprue C replaced, since they already provide both canopies in the "A" kit: Tamiya takes a different approach, combining upper wings and the rear part of the fuselage in a single piece: That presumably works for both versions. You need a different one of these: To get the forward fuselage of an F-16D. They also change out the clear sprue, since the one that comes with this kit is single-seat specific (but does give you a tinted canopy option): Sorry the focus on that is terrible. I am actually going to start cutting plastic here soon; just need to finish up my little Antonov regional airliner first.

Amazing work! This really is next level modeling.

I've had the idea for a while now to do a comparative side-by-side build of the same (or nearly so) aircraft using two different kits (hence "duel" build). The motivations are to hopefully 1. create some interesting content (and motivate myself to document what I do more throughly), 2. learn more about how kits are designed and the tradeoffs therein, and 3. end up with some nice looking pairs of models to display. The base requirement for me to do this would be that there are two high-quality kits from different manufacturers available; I'm not going to bother with a known dog just to compare it to a clearly superior kit. Thankfully there are a number of cases, especially in 1:48, that meet this criterion now. For example, if this F-16 project goes well, I have in mind to do the new Academy A-10 in parallel with the (hopefully) soon-to-be-released GWH version. So on to the subjects for this one. First up is the kit of reference for 1:48 Vipers, the Tamiya one from 2008. Despite being 16 years old now, since its release this kit has been widely seen as the best 1:48 F-16 available, and is reflective of the best of Tamiya's efforts. This version of the kit is obviously packaged specifically to portray USAF Air National Guard machines, and comes with decals to represent two different states' ANG squadrons. Neither of which I'm going to do, because I have to make things more difficult for myself. I want to do a machine from my home state's ANG history. The New Mexico ANG (based at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque) was for decades home to the 150th Tactical Fighter Wing (nowadays the 150th Special Operations Wing) and operated various fighter types, starting with P-51s shortly after WW2. In 1994 they converted fro the A-7 Corsair II to the F-16. For several years they painted the vertical tails of the aircraft with a cool rendition of our state bird, the roadrunner, clutching a pair of bombs in its claws: I thought about trying to design some masks that would let me paint that bomb-toting bird, but I'm a sucker for doing models of planes that are documented as actually having been deployed in combat, so instead I'm going to do a plane from before the roadrunner era, this one: Which is pictured flying over Iraq in 2002 as part of Operation Southern Watch, the denouement of the first Gulf War. This project is going to force me to learn at least one new skill. There are no commercial decals available for the NMANG Vipers, so I'm going to have to figure out how to print my own at least for the red Zia symbol and stripes on that yellow band (lines are way too fine to mask) and probably for some of the smaller lettering as well. I bought some laser printer decal paper years ago - hopefully it's still good. Any advice y'all have on doing this would be much appreciated. In the other corner is the much more recent Kinetic Gold F-16 A-MLU kit. This is a newly-tooled kit as of 2022, sharing no molds with Kinetic's prior 1:48 Viper. This kit is exactly the one I need to build one of the formerly Belgian F-16s that are on their way to service with the Ukrainian Air Force. Belgium and a number of other NATO countries fly F-16As that underwent the extensive Mid-Life Upgrade (hence MLU) process. Thankfully many of these countries are now transitioning to the F-35 and have surplus F-16s available to send to Ukraine (Denmark has also committed a number of aircraft, and Norway has provided two trainers). Of course, I don't yet know how to paint an active duty Ukrainian Viper, because no one has seen one yet (despite rumors to the contrary, they aren't active yet). My suspicion is that expediency and a desire to hew to NATO standards will lead them to leave the planes painted just as the Belgians had them, and just replace the national insignia. So, most likely no digital camo Vipers. But we'll have to wait and see. I strongly suspect we'll see video of active UAF Vipers in the next 2-3 months, and it should take me at least that long to get both of these models to painting stage. Here's a photo of one in Belgian colors; just imagine blue and yellow roundels and a tryzub on the tail.

Funny - I have the same sort of bilingualism for a different reason. I grew up in the US in the 60s/70s when nothing metric was taught in schools, so learned to do everything Imperial. Became a scientist and got very comfortable doing everything research-related of course in metric. I use metric measurements when modeling (the math is so much easier). But I still can't do construction in metric. All my tape measures, table saw, etc are marked in Imperial, and that's the only way I can do carpentry. Dunno why - I guess I learned it that way and am too old to change....

Situation is far from deteriorating. As long as the EU remains focused on their own clear strategic interests, they will keep supporting Ukraine and Ukraine will eventually win. I agree that it's amazing that they have continued to produce such an amazing volume of scale kits and parts, but don't lose sight of the fact that they've also massively increased weapons production over the last two years (takes longer to crank that up than new styrene kits), including indigenous cruise and ballistic missiles. 2024 will see Ukrainian Vipers (finally) asserting air superiority over the East, and hopefully the russian position in Crimea becoming untenable due to the increasing frequency of precision long-range strikes.

Thanks guys! I would never have owned this kit in the first place if I hadn't seen it at random in the LHS near my daughter's house in Toronto - I was unaware that it existed and was not looking for it. So total serendipity. But it was a fun challenge and a nice addition to my LSP shelf.

Wrapping up the painting. Looks a bit more uniform with a coat of clear gloss on it: Decals tonight if I have any energy left after shoveling the rest of today's snow...

Wheels came out OK, for as small as they are... Lots of masking to do the anti-glare paint and the black areas on the sides of the engine nacelles. And fiddly masking on the props.

It's an enjoyable build, just the thing as a palate cleanser before the next big and complicated project.