Academy F-16I "Sufa" finished

[chrish]

I just tore the wrappers off this last night and managed to find all the resin bits (I think??) I've been accumulating for it over the years. I'm hoping to sneak it in under the final wire of the end of next month.

 

[eoyguy]

You should get the Zacto intake for it, it will save you a lot of hassle and looks much better than the kit part. 

https://zactomodels.com/product/1-32-f-16-nsi-intake-small-mouth-academy/

Looks like Zacto is closed at the moment for moving, but its worth the wait to get one. The kit part is...mediocre. Before Chris came out with his, I fit a Tamiya intake to it. Not the easiest thing to manage, but I got it in the end.

Edited October 14, 2021 by eoyguy

[chrish]

29 minutes ago, eoyguy said:

You should get the Zacto intake for it, it will save you a lot of hassle and looks much better than the kit part. 

https://zactomodels.com/product/1-32-f-16-nsi-intake-small-mouth-academy/

Looks like Zacto is closed at the moment for moving, but its worth the wait to get one. The kit part is...mediocre. Before Chris came out with his, I fit a Tamiya intake to it. Not the easiest thing to manage, but I got it in the end.

Thanks

I've been looking in on his site for a couple of months now, either he forgot it's closed or he got lost moving...on vacation??

[Dave Williams]

35 minutes ago, chrish said:

Thanks

I've been looking in on his site for a couple of months now, either he forgot it's closed or he got lost moving...on vacation??

Chris did an update over at ARC.  Short version is that the moving process ran into some unexpected glitches, but he’s moved and is setting up the shop and working on getting the website going.

[chrish]

15 minutes ago, Dave Williams said:

Chris did an update over at ARC.  Short version is that the moving process ran into some unexpected glitches, but he’s moved and is setting up the shop and working on getting the website going.

I can understand that...who here really likes moving? Raise your hand...anyone!?....crickets

I noticed (after reading this) that he's been active in the last 2 hours, so reached out to him.

[chrish]

work...such as it is, has begun on the Sufa, I've unpacked and begun cleaning up and working on the resin bits I've picked up over the years for the kit.

 

the Aires instructions suggest removing the molded in kit part to fit the nose gear bay, anyone familiar with the tight fit of Aires will know my struggle. I duly removed the molded in nose gear bay, sanded it smooth and then began the cut, sand, test fit repeat method of installing the bay. A picture speaks (many) words so I'll show a couple of images of that work. 

The intake trunk/ nose gear bay removed and sanded quite thin, I've also cut a relief into one side to lower the gear bay away from the intake trunk, the other side was also undercut.

 

 

After a bit of work...I got the gear bay fitted, figured I should test fit the main gear bay now as well

 

the main gear bay appears to be a drop in fit.

 

Thanks for looking

Edited October 15, 2021 by chrish
typo

[Alain Gadbois]

Nice work! The resin parts look fantastic!

 

Alain

[chrish]

The resin parts are well worth the getting, if you can still find them.

I've managed to get a correspondence going with Zactoman Chris who suggested he may be able to produce a seamless intake in the next few days, mailing time is the variable here.

I decided to push ahead with what I could do, so splashed some paint on some parts

I swear it doesn't look as crude in person, the camera is an unforgiving mistress.

 

I used 1/48 RBF flags because they looked better (less prominent?) in the cockpit and, yes they are in English (sorry to those who insist on proper accuracy)Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics doing all the heavy lifting here. 

 

There's so much detail in the gear bays that it should take a proper modeller weeks alone to build and paint...I may have missed a few things, although hydraulic lines have yet to be added

 

Thanks for looking

 

[Out2gtcha]

Looks awesome!

 

 

 

[chrish]

Thanks for the support!

I've been in correspondence with Chris at Zacto models and a seamless resin intake is on it's way as I type (package tracking shows it in Canada already, ordered 3 days ago) In order to keep my interest up, I've decided to spend some time on the weapons, something I usually build last and don't really spend the time I should on.

If I add them at all.

In any case I've come up with what I want to add to the model (probably a completely imaginary weapons load) AN/ AXQ 14 on the center line, GBU 10's GBU 12's and 2 AIM 120's with a LITENING pod and LANTIRN pods....(or maybe just some GBU-38's) If I'm completely out of scope someone can tell me (I just don't want drop tanks on it)

and some of the unused weapons, I should note that Academy's F/A 18 and Trumpeter's kits have donated ordnance.

Here's some of the things I was going to add to the model. Looks like I have a few pieces left over.

 

Thanks for looking

[eoyguy]

Glad you were able to go with the Zacto intake, its worth the wait. To go to all this work and settle for the intake would be a crime. I gotta get back to working on mine, perhaps this will inspire me...

[chrish]

On 10/23/2021 at 7:24 PM, eoyguy said:

Glad you were able to go with the Zacto intake, its worth the wait. To go to all this work and settle for the intake would be a crime. I gotta get back to working on mine, perhaps this will inspire me...

Maybe you should get back to work and I can follow your lead??

got a bit of work on the bomb load, first time for me is weathering the bombs my usual bomb load is almost factory new. I could call these dirty bombs I guess.

I found a couple of paint schemes on the bombs so decided I could change things up a bit and went with a mirrored variety. Here's hoping I'm not waay off track

 

On to the air to air weapons now I guess.

Thanks for looking

[chrish]

Work can resume on the model having received the Zacto seamless intake today (in only 9 days, wow!) 

clean up took less than 10 minutes, speaks to the quality of his product I think.

Its so thin as to be near translucent 

 

and finally, weapons all painted and decals placed

that's it for now.

Back to work now if I want to make the finish line.

Thanks for looking

[chrish]

Still moving along on the Sufa, I've added the conformal and spine humps a thin smear of Vallejo filler took care of the seams which were very minimal. 

 

 

 

and now for a nice surprise, here's the Zacto intake fitted to the Aires gear bay and both fitting almost perfectly to the model!

 

 

I like the Zacto intake but I also like the Aires nose gear bay, so I kind of copied the Aires stuff into the Zacto bay

Before;

 

And in progress;

Thanks for looking

[Out2gtcha]

Great work!