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1/32 F-16D Wolfpack Aggressor


Marcel111

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I should really be moving on to something else but I just can’t resist tackling my third F-16. I started on the Academy two-seater back when I was doing my F-16A and I have been building some subassemblies here and there as made synergistic sense with the other F-16’s. For example, the canopy is polished, Future-dipped and good to go. The (Tamiya) tanks are done with a first coat of paint on them, the ACMI pod is entirely complete, the AIM-9CATM is almost done, the Zacto intake is already painted white inside and the Aires wheel well is ready to be dropped in. In short, I think completing this model will take less than half the time it will take me to do the Legendary Grumman Product project I have lined up next.

 

 

Here is the exact aircraft I will be doing (pic has free for use rights):

 

uc442P.jpg

 

 

I will be using the AFV Club F-16B kit, which is essentially the Academy kit with all the plastic that you would get with the various variants of that plus some resin parts. The most important parts for what will be an F-16D Block 30 are the correct wheels required for a Block 30 and also the non-bulged main landing gear doors. I will use the heavyweight legs when I should be using lightweight main gear but I honestly find it almost impossible to recognize the difference. More important is that I don’t need to use the bulged main gear doors of the kit, which look off from far away (more on that later).

 

 

I will be using the Two Bobs Arctic Aggressor sheet together with some custom serial number decals and a second red/yellow “6” from the spares box and that should be about it as far as turning this into a Block30 Aggressor.

 

 

The Tamiya F-16 kit is generally superior to the Academy kit but the Academy kit has some advantages. And of course it is the only two-seater in town. Here is my summary of the ADVANTAGES of the Academy kit (roughly in order of importance):

1.      Zacto makes beautiful small and big mouth intakes for the Academy F-16. These are drop-and-go and do away with the tedious seam-filling required for the Tamiya kit.

2.      The Aires wheel well fits absolutely perfectly into this kit. I would speculate that Aires designed the set for the Academy kit and then only modified the little panel between the bays for the Tamiya kit. I would strongly advise against using the Aires set on the Tamiya kit, the fit is poor requiring a chain reaction of modifications.

3.      The wing leading edge is molded as part of the wing. For the Tamiya kit, I find that the separately produced leading edge is difficult to glue in such that the gap, especially around the hinges, is perfectly neat and consistent. No such worries on the Academy kit.

4.      Academy added some nice detail in places where Tamiya didn’t provide any, e.g. on the underside of the center wing pylons.

 

And here are some of what I consider to be must-fix problems of the Academy kit. I am sure there are plenty of additional inaccuracies on the kit but these are the ones that I consider to be too glaring to ignore:

1.      The kit intake is spaced too close to the fuselage. Apparently the intake is also misshapen but I have a hard time recognizing that. This is a must-fix issue in my book but fortunately Zacto has turned vice into virtue with his fantastic intakes.

2.      The Academy gun muzzle has the slots vertical instead of being slightly slanted back. To my eye this makes the kit look wrong from across the room because this error is right in the focal point of the model. You can address this problem a few different ways and Academy supplies two muzzles so you can mess around a little to see what works. I ended up throwing money at the problem and bought the respective sprue from the Tamiya kit, the Tamiya muzzle fits into the Academy kit almost perfectly. Going the Tamiya route will also ensure a consistent look as my various F-16’s are displayed together.

3.      The Academy wingtip and outer wing launch rails (LAU-129) are far too skinny. Simple fix is to use some Tamiya LAU-129’s from the spares box.

4.      The bulged main gear doors look way too bulged. I didn’t need these anyway but I think these could just be sanded down to get a better look.

And with that, I am launching this thread! More to follow…

 

Cheers,

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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Sweet!  I'm looking forward to another one of your aggressor builds.  One other thing wrong with the academy kit is that the base of the tail is a little off.  You probably already know that but it's something I noticed on my academy kit.  It can easily be corrected with a spare from the Tamiya kit or ordering the tail sprue.  Besides the differences you talked about, I think you will find it's a decent kit.

 

Bryan

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Chuck, why don't you start an F-5F in parallel :rolleyes: ... then you can do one in black and the other in the tiger scheme...

 

Scott, a Block 52 is a really good choice for this kit, you got the right legs on her and with the KASL exhaust and Zacto small intake you'll be in really good shape. How lucky is your doc!

 

19 hours ago, Durangokid said:

Sweet!  I'm looking forward to another one of your aggressor builds.  One other thing wrong with the academy kit is that the base of the tail is a little off.  You probably already know that but it's something I noticed on my academy kit.  It can easily be corrected with a spare from the Tamiya kit or ordering the tail sprue.  Besides the differences you talked about, I think you will find it's a decent kit.

 

Bryan

 

Bryan, big thanks for the heads-up on that, I hadn't noticed. Are you referring to the very angular transition from the front aerodynamic section to the main straight section--if so I can see what you are talking about. Ironically, I had a spare base due to my NSAWC "A" conversion but wasted it when I converted the KASL parabrake tail to an ordinary rear base section. Anyhow, I think that transition can be smoothed out with a bit of sanding but maybe I'm not understanding what you are referring to?

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel

 

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, Marcel111 said:

Chuck, why don't you start an F-5F in parallel :rolleyes: ... then you can do one in black and the other in the tiger scheme...

 

Scott, a Block 52 is a really good choice for this kit, you got the right legs on her and with the KASL exhaust and Zacto small intake you'll be in really good shape. How lucky is your doc!

 

 

Bryan, big thanks for the heads-up on that, I hadn't noticed. Are you referring to the very angular transition from the front aerodynamic section to the main straight section--if so I can see what you are talking about. Ironically, I had a spare base due to my NSAWC "A" conversion but wasted it when I converted the KASL parabrake tail to an ordinary rear base section. Anyhow, I think that transition can be smoothed out with a bit of sanding but maybe I'm not understanding what you are referring to?

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel

 

 

 

 

  Yeah that is exactly what I was talking about, it kind of triangular looking.  

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8 hours ago, Durangokid said:

  Yeah that is exactly what I was talking about, it kind of triangular looking.  

Ok, we're synched up... I think it's pretty straightforward to just sand that to be a little smoother. Glad you pointed it out, I would have missed it until after glueing the tail on, at which point a correction will be harder.

 

Guys, does anybody know of the Litening pods are still carried by the 18th? I think they have been replaced by Sniper but I am wondering if I should hand the beautifully done Eduard Litening on this build, would be super easy to do.

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here is a little update:

 

I got the Tamiya gun muzzle to fit into the Academy kit pretty smoothly:

GVk3Aa.jpg

 

The Wolfpack resin pit is in. Note the area behind the back seat. As I was removing the casting block from the resin cockpit I accidentally cracked that area. I then decided to completely remove the panel behind the rear seat since I have read that the back seat of both the kit and the Wolfpack cockpit are excessively reclined, this will give me some leeway to correct this later on.

OpcVGL.jpg

 

Overall view. I am finding the fit of the kit to be really challenging in parts. Not sure if all the resin I have added (intake and cockpit) have pulled the plastic or maybe I just somehow screwed up. There is about a 1mm step from the nosecone to the fuselage which I have had to now build up with plastic card. The wing/fuselage joints are not the nicest either and it will be pretty tricky to obtain a smooth joint while conserving the concave shape and not losing all the fine scribing.

PxCNuh.jpg

 

And with that I am putting this build on hold. Although I have come really far by my standards in the last few weeks with this build, it really needs a lot of work (esp. compared to a Tamiya F-16) and I am fatigued with F-16 building at this point. Another big factor and notwithstanding the work that this kit requires is that I would still likely finish this build in the next 9 months (I have completed many sub-components) but my display cabinet is entirely at capacity. I will have a new one built but that will probably only happen early next year. So it makes more sense to get into a mega-project that will take considerably more time than 9 months to complete e.g. an F-14D!

 

I will close out the thread for now with a pic from last week. Necessary since most of the above pics are pretty ugly :-) This is on a mountain called Diavolezza.

CGeMwE.jpg

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Marcel111
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I am having a pretty hard time with my F-14D so on one fine day two weeks ago I pulled this build back out, set up a little work area outside in our spring-blossoming garden and modeled eight hours straight. It was the perfect outside temperature and slightly overcast for excellent lighting. Wish I could get more days in like that, I made huge progress in a single day.

 

And earlier this week I noticed that Monokio have re-released their Arctic Bandits sheet in 1/32, so now I am able to build the D I have always wanted:

 

nWd8bB.jpg

[USAF photo by SrA. Steven R. Doty]

 

lMZyK4.jpg

[USAF photo by SrA. Steven R. Doty]

 

Here is where I am with the overall build:

 

9Rwm9b.jpg

 

Getting a smooth wing joint while not messing up the concave wing root was one of my biggest concerns, but it's worked out quite nicely. Shown here already re-scribed:

 

hrc2An.jpg

 

I had a hard time with the nosecone and had to build up the below with plastic card, it's all looking smooth now. Unfortunately my scribing was a little faint in places:

 

ADp5GE.jpg

 

I used the Crossdelta stiffeners, which are still relevant for this aircraft. However, for the nose, I used plastic sheet, on my C the Crossdelta stiffeners kept coming unstuck:

 

WL3B3Z.jpg

 

I am trying to use as many Tamiya parts as possible (and as I have in the spares bin). If you do this build, be sure to use the Tamiya LAU-129's:

 

zmkxay.jpg

 

60OzBg.jpg

 

Zacto intake fits perfectly, but then I always knew it would:

 

aeop9m.jpg

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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