[W] F-16C/CJ Block 50 - Tamiya 1:32

[Gelerth]

I recently finished a long build of Su-25 (long as in the meantime model landed in the box couple of times) and was wondering what next. I took me couple of days to decide and take out model which I got very long time ago. It was my second purchase of 1:32 birds, I gave around 50 bucks for it, so it was rather a bargain.
So here it is my F-16C/CJ Block 50 from Tamiya.
Apart from model itself, I'm planning to use:
 - Aires Cockpit Set
 - Aires Wheel Bay
 - Aires Exhaust nozzles
 - Wheelliant Wheels
 - M61 gun from Master

 - CMK intake (not sure about this one)
 - Eduard Canopy Masks
 - Master Piot and AoA
 - Master Static Discharges
 - ResKit BRU-57 (probably)

 

Additionally I have some
 - Wolfpack's JDAMs
 - Wolfpack's JSOWs

 - Eduard's B and C AMRAAMs
 - Eduard's Sidewinders

I would like to do an Aggressor scheme but they rarely are full loaded, so I have problem here - will se later.

Due to COVID-19 I'm still waiting for some of above, so it will be long build.

As of now, I've started with fuel tanks, HARMs and pylons:

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And as I will have aftermarket exhaust I will put engine on service cart.

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Glued engine:

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Now I will add some wiring to engine.

 

Edited June 4, 2020 by Gelerth

[Out2gtcha]

Looks great so far! Looking forward to more progress

 

[Gelerth]

Updated first post as photos disappeared.

 

Slowly but progressing. Added some wires to the engine:

 

 

 

And primed:

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I've started resin wheel bays fit.
The part is big block, to fit it the existing engine  wall, I had to cut it. Problem is that on the other side there is an air inlet:

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The kit's parts have also the small "wings" to screw them to lower fuselage - I cut them away to use on resin.

 

I replaced part (which was cut from resin) with a piece of kit's inlet:

 

However resin do not fit well on width, length and shape:

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In the meantime, I've painted some piece of internal fuselage - no of it will be visible, but I just could not leave it like this:

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Edited June 4, 2020 by Gelerth

[Derek B]

[Stokey Pete]

Can’t go wrong with more f-16’s

[zaxos345]

Do you also have problem seeing the photoes???

 

John

[Dave Williams]

18 minutes ago, zaxos345 said:

Do you also have problem seeing the photoes???

 

John

I don’t seen any photos.  Just empty outline boxes with some random alphanumeric characters in the upper left corner.

[Subodai]

1 hour ago, Dave Williams said:

I don’t seen any photos.  Just empty outline boxes with some random alphanumeric characters in the upper left corner.

Same no images for me either.

[Gelerth]

Sorry guys - Google Photos is quite unpredictable.
I've replaced pictures to the ones posted on Scalemates - hope it's ok now.

[zaxos345]

Now you are talking!! 

John

[Gelerth]

I fit the wheel bays somehow but it leaves a small gap:

I used the kits screws and a fair amount of CA glue:




Rear view:

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Now to front bay. Kit vs aftermarket:



I've painted it as later it will be difficult to access all areas:



Prepared to glue:



Fitted quite well, but...



I had some problems with closing fuselage halves - resin was too high, had to cut some:



And already with front part of intake and a lot of putty:



Comparison with CMK intake which is one big part. Nice fuselage details but wheel well is not too detailed:
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've been working on gun and gun bay:

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[Gelerth]

Aftermarket exhaust - nice details, good quality:

Minor imperfection:



Comparison kits nozzle vs Aires:



Anyway, I've got cockpit to do. Nice crisp details:



And few hours later:



In the meantime, I'm preparing place for cockit. Big plus to Tamiya fo providing nose weight:



Gluing also, rear part of fuselage and bottom part of wings, lucky fit is very good so no putty required:

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I've recently bought some real colors paints, and since I have a lot of Tamiya paints on rack and no place for new, I had to figure out how to store another few (dozens) of jars.
I decided to keep them on rotary stand. It is designed to fit my shelves system - similar to hobbyzone but bigger 20x20x40cm (8"x8"x16").
This is first layer for 12-18 jars, there will be 3 layers and 2 stands in shelf so in total it can hold 108 jars:

 

 

[Gelerth]

I finished payload:



And closing fuselage:

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Cockpit in place:

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Gun bay:



And ready for preshading:



Wolfpack's JDAMs - medium quality.

 

 

I've planned to put them on BRU-57 from Reskit. If you planning to get one - than don't. I have some missiles and other stuff from Reskit and those are ok, BRU is very poor in my opinion and not worth the money (about 55PLN, 10GBP, 13EUR). You can see the print marks, moulds are badly engineered and there is a lot of cutting and cleaning. And of course fit is not good. I was quite dissappointed.

And my printed GBU-38s:

[Gelerth]

Starting preshading:

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And few hours later done:

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[Stokey Pete]

Looking great.