SteveV22FE

Eric, I think I did have a thread going of my X-1 a few years ago. Here is the link over at Zone-Five: http://www.zone-five.net/showthread.php?t=19765&highlight=stevee671 Yours looks really good. The camera has a way of changing what we see with our eyes. When I was researching mine, I noticed that they seemed to get pretty dirty and the panels were noticeable in some photos. Personally, if it looks right to you, I wouldn't change it.

Wow!That looks almost as good as mine! Excellent Work!

Began adding various stiffing plates, scoops, etc... look for the white styrene

Dry fitted the Academy pylons and tanks after drilling new location holes.

Hey Mike, I thought about lowering the leading edge slats, I am hesitant to do it because I usually muck that kind of stuff up! I put those rings on and then took them off. I have been checking my references and noticed that Academy put those weld lines on the tanks. If you scaled those up, they would be HUGE! The hasegawa tanks have migrated to another F-16 project I am working on. I have a nice shot of a Tulsa Viper underside in flight, that has been my primary reference on the bottom side of the aircraft during this build. I probably should have used the Tamiya kit, but I picked up this kit for $15.00 at a show and it seemed perfect for this project. I do have the Academy kit in the stash, but given it's inaccuracies, the Hasegawa kit was a better choice, both in price and accuracy.

Well, my first contest of the season is over and now the F-16 is back on the bench... Glued on the intake and closed up the main wheel wells using the bulged gear doors from the Academy kit. A must of you want to do a Block 40 or later jet. I cleaned up and painted the exhaust nozzle. These jets now have composite turkey feather and they look black. With the right weathering, it is be less bold as in this pic. As you may see in the above pic, I closed the holes for mounting the inboard wing pylon. The Hasegawa tanks are being used in another F-16 project and I like the looks of the Academy tanks better. New holes will be drilled in the plugs to permit a better fit of the Academy pylons. Overall shot showing the base and the "Tulsa Vipers" patches.

Finally go some paint on an external part of this jet...

One thing that has been well documented about the Hasegawa kit is the nasty mold line down the center of the canopy. It's nothing a little sandpaper can't fix. I started with 600 and worked down to 2000. I then polished the canopy with "BLUE MAGIC Plastic and Plexiglass Cleaner and Light Scratch Remover". You can see the end result. (It also works great on motorcycle windshields.) According to the instructions, the stabilators are designed to go in when the fuselage is closed. Well, I didn't want to do that. The requires some modification the stabilator mounting post. I enlarged the mounting hole and inserted an aluminum tube. I will probably drill out the mounting point in the stabilator and replace it with a metal post. While the kit does provide for the wing mounted RWR antennas, they are not entirely accurate in missing the upper fairing that is above the leading edge. This was added with sheet styrene.

Wings attached, some fuel tank work, added additional scoops to the tail base and the right side under the cockpit. Dry Fitted the tanks and pylons to the wings.

Fixed the Wing tip launch rails and added the leading edge sensors.

Closed up the fuselage... Finished Cockpit

Painted the glare shield and the inside of the canopy. Found an ACES II seat.

Added the LITENING pod pylon to the right side of the intake. LITENING pod test fitted to the pylon...

I like the the look of F-16A Block 1 - 78-0016. I like the Black Nose, Natural metal nose wheel, and the Blue Flash on the tail. This picture is posted under "Fair Use" Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

Worked on the intake. This is the first time that I tried the fill and flush method of painting the intake. I used Kilz2 Latex, first try..not so good! Second try, worked like a champ. Did some more cockpit work...

First Block 42 mod... Removed the kit AIM-9 missile rail rail and replaced with LAU-118 launcher rail (AIM-120 AMRAAM). The rail was cann'd from the Academy F/A-18C kit (Thanks David!) Began re-scribing the top of the fuselage...maybe the Academy kit would have been easier!

The plan: F-16C Block 42 Fighting Falcon - 138th FW, 125th FS, Oklahoma Air National Guard, Tulsa Vipers Overall mockup - basically taped together...on my multipurpose base Cockpit shot 1 I am using the kit cockpit with some Black Box bit thrown in. Why not use the entire Black Box set? Well, it was a freebie and the cockpit is damaged, so I am salvaging what I can and correcting the kit cockpit. For some reason Hasegawa didn't mold a complete cockpit, so this was fixed with sheet styrene. Cockpit Shot 2 Here you can see some of the Black Box bits. Continuing...pilot work...

The pilot is complete a test fit in place. The ejection seat is the wrong type (ESCAPAC) for the F-16 I am modeling, gonna have to find an ACES II Mock up

I have to admit it, I like older kits. I like the challenge of turning these kits into something nice. I figured that since I was torturing myself with updating Hasegawa's F-16C to a Block 42 jet, Why not do more damage and do Revell's 1/32 Scale offering as well! I picked up this kit at the estate of a club member from my last club prior to relocating. Out of almost 3000 kits to choose from, I picked up this one. Oh well, now let the fun begin. The box art of this original 1979 boxing looks really good. Very quickly did I realize that the kit depicted on the box is actually the 1/32 Hasegawa kit! Since the Hasegawa F-16C has A parts in it, I decided to upgrade the Revell parts with better Hasegawa parts. It's interesting to note that the parts are almost an exact fit! The tail, main wheels, nose gear and wheel and ejection seat are from the Hasegawa kit. The pilot is from the spares box. I am sure there will be more cannibalization of the spare Hasegawa parts as the build progresses. The Revell kit has no intake trunk. The nose wheel well is clearly visible from the front of the intake. Sheet styrene is your friend here. I "fabricated" an intake trunk using the 1/48 Academy F-16 as my guide. I didn't turn out too bad. In all honesty, it's really not a bad kit. It is an original release, so the molds were new. The panel lines are crisp with very little flash, No sink marks to speak of. The kit wheels are hubs and vinyl tires, which I one time, I thought were cool, now, not so much. The Revell cockpit closely resembles the Hasegawa cockpit for which it was copied. The entire aft section of the cockpit was missing and had to be completed using sheet styrene. The main instrument panel was too wide in the center console area. This wouldn't allow the pilot figure to fit. I modified the center section and thinned it and rebuilt the area with styrene. Using spare bits from a Black Box Cockpit, I modified the sidewall detail and shoe horned it into the this kit. I find it interesting that Revell didn't bother to model the throttle! Black Box to the rescue.

She's starting to look like an A-10 now!!!!

My photobucket was just getting huge. I plan on submitting a build article with all of those pictures in the article.....so all is not lost. I actually did some more work to the display after the fact. I scaled done a Hobart Ground Power Unit for it, since there is a serious lack of AGE for 1/32 scale modern aircraft. I am thinking that I might go so far as offer this a a model kit to the 32nd scale community.

Hey Guys, Since beginning this project in March, I have concluded that this is the hardest model kit I have ever built! I took some artistic license with it....the markings are indeed factual, the tail number is not. Instead of using the AF86-0022 markings for the 1997 50th Anniversary Celebration, I used the aircraft's actual tail number AF87-0701. Hope you like....

A little more done, I got the engine area painted, that was a zig-zag adventure! The landing gear doors are on, the missile bay doors and missle rail and missile complete. Next: Instrumentation vanes on the boom, pitot probes and nav lights....

Finally! PAINT! Now I have little touch-ups to do in the wheel wells and the cockpit, then the engine area.

There is a pretty drastic "step" where the fuselage meets the aft section. I used two-part Tamiya Epoxy putty to remedy the step. This stuff, once cured is very hard to sand. The finished product though is fantastic.