Zola25 Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 (edited) Hi All Well, I had some yellow left over from my F-4EJ Kai build and thought there was no better way to use it than get moving on the Belgian Airforce F-16AM X-Tiger build - it is the 50th anniversary of the F-16 After all (and mine too) so building F-16´s all year long seems appropriate. There are a few amazing build threads on the Tamiya F-16 kits at the moment so if you want to see how to put this kit together you should have a look at those. I have used most of the great tips and tricks provided in those - In this thread I will just show the paint progress. I have used quite a number of add-on parts such as the Aires Wheel Bay and Cockpit. PWMP Tail conversion and sensors. Numerous weapons from Reskit and Masking set & Decals from Model Maker Decals.. (same company that brought us the Venom Viper Demo set) Its a pretty complex masking job with layers of masks sitting on top of each other. This is just asking for paint seeping under the masks and I decided early on I would just accept spending a fair bit of time repairing the damages than trying to prevent them entirely. In my experience it cannot be avoided when using vinyl masks in 3 layers. The underside was especially troublesome having to cut out the areas for the wheel bays. I wish the masking set would have come with separate masks for these parts and corresponding cut-out parts for the open areas left behind. All in all I am really happy at this stage.. When you unmask a model like this it is wise to remove the masks carefully to be able to re-use them when fixing areas. Especially with highly complex shapes like on the X-Tiger. The black shapes are symmetrical on either side so special care and attention has to be taken to make sure they are placed exactly the same. The eye is just drawn to any asymmetrical or out of place lines and they become very obvious. All paints are MRP in painting order 1.Yellow -> 2.Black -> 3.Grey The images below are straight after un-masking so there are a lot of smaller issues to fix. Edited May 17 by Zola25 Madmax, Landrotten Highlander, SwissFighters and 21 others 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos07 Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 That's quite the paint scheme - well done to this point as it looks like clean-up is fairly minimal considering the complexity you describe with the masks. Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 Wow! So cool. You don't see a Viper that looks like this every day! Cheers, Chuck Zola25 and Michael931080 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted May 7 Share Posted May 7 That is a striking scheme, and such intricate masking needed to pull it off! Awesome progress! Matt Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyrosjzmichos Posted May 7 Share Posted May 7 Holy cow! That's one beautiful scheme and some impressive painting skills! Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shujaa Posted May 7 Share Posted May 7 (edited) Not my most favourite Demo-bird but Your effort is looking just as stunning as it's Danish brother. (Don't forget to remove the "beer-can's" from the leading-edge flaps. The Belgium Air Force MLU's didn't have these...) Kind regards, Rudy. Edited May 7 by Shujaa typo Madmax, chaos07, Grunticus and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zola25 Posted May 7 Author Share Posted May 7 44 minutes ago, Shujaa said: Not my most favourite Demo-bird but Your effort is looking just as stunning as it's Danish brother. (Don't forget to remove the "beer-can's" from the leading-edge flaps. The Belgium Air Force MLU's didn't have these...) Kind regards, Rudy. Yeah.. I forgot those .. more paint repair works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted May 8 Share Posted May 8 Very nice paint job! Looks great! Håkan Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokey Pete Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 It’s been a while since I logged in, and missed this. That looks incredible, as I suspected it would when you said you were intent on doing it. Epic work my friend! Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zola25 Posted May 15 Author Share Posted May 15 I have done all the paint repairs (and removed the "Beer Cans") I want to do and I have the clear coat on - ready for decals. There are hardly any decals on this plane so that is not going to take long at all. I have also started the very basic paint work on the loadout - as mentioned in a previous thread I really like the way it looks in the image below So that is what I am going for - The AIM-120´s are from Reskit as is the AN/ALQ-131 - that thing is a little work of art! - The AIM-9X is from Brengun. The centerline pylon as well as the LAU-129´s are from @CruZz Kopecky - also works of art - Notice the the X-Tiger is flying with a single old style LAU-127 on station 2 - Wonder why? The Sniper Pod is from Eduard. As you can see from the last image the underside was a bit tricky to mask off as each color consisted of two large masks (one for each side) without the cut-out for the main gear bay (or the nose gear for that matter but that is all black). It worked out pretty nice in the end. I simply overlayed the kit gear door part on the mask and basically cut it out myself. The CARAPACE sensor under the air intake is included in the conversion kit by PWMP. I think I pulled off the symmetrical pattern of the black shapes pretty well but if you spot anything please let me know as it is not too late ..Uh - An F-35 just flew by my house pretty low... Noisy thing that airplane /Niels Shoggz, Lemonstein, patricksparks and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 That paint job is so cool, but with the gloss finish it looks even better. Cheers, Chuck Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zola25 Posted May 17 Author Share Posted May 17 (edited) I finished applying the (few) decals in the set - most of the stencils normally found on F-16´s are not present on this jet so it did not take long. Only real problem was the decal for the refueling receptacle. It was much too big and I had to create a paint mask for that instead. I still have a little bit of paint touch up to do on that.. I also applied the first step of my weathering process. I always apply a wash to enhance all the panel lines and create a dirty look to the airframe. For the "Base-layer" I have used my go-to product which is the clay-based washes from Flory Models. As the name suggests it is basically mud-in-a-jar. It is super easy to work with and with a range of colors available, I am able to create all degrees of dirty looks I feel like. For this I have used (and use mostly) "Dark Dirt". For the black areas I have used a mix of Grey and White. Its pretty clear to see the big difference this step makes and it really helps create contrast. Thanks for looking Niels Edited May 17 by Zola25 TankBuster, chaos07, LSP_Kevin and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Furie Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 Soldering lamps aren't really my cup of tea, but I have to admit that your F-16 is sumptuous! Wowwwwwwwwwww ! Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 That looks fantastic! Kev Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 Looks fantastic with the wash applied! Matt Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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