Zola25 Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 (edited) Hi All I have started work on my next project and thought I might - for a change - share a few pictures as I go - I am going to build an F-16D block 52+ from the Royal Moroccan Air Force. I will use the Academy F-16I Sufa kit and a number of additional goodies; Wolfpack Cockpit Grand Models F-16 block 50/52+ conversion (tail parapack, larger nose gear and nose gear door a.o) - it is listed only as a CFT conversion but it contains a lot of essential goodies Aires Wheelbays Eduard Sniper pod KASL Exhaust Resin Wheels Kopecky LAU-129 rails Resin Weapons - not sure what the loadout will be yet.. One of the challenges is the spine on the block 52+ - its quite different from the Sufa so a few changes are needed. Anyone who has build the Sufa will know that the spine construction is a bit flimsy in the Academy kit. But other than that I am expecting an enjoyable build. The Wheelbays and cockpit are drop-in fits - my kind of aftermarket parts /Niels Edited January 6, 2023 by Zola25 Mebo, LSP_Kevin, themongoose and 17 others 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyGhost Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 (edited) Schweet ... Love to see Vipers done up in some other cool schemes, this should be a very fun build ..! -Gregg Edited October 10, 2022 by GreyGhost Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
npb748r Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 nice, I've got the sufa in my stash and keep ignoring it. Will follow with interest, hopefully you'll help me stop ignoring it and start building it ! neil Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zola25 Posted October 10, 2022 Author Share Posted October 10, 2022 17 hours ago, GreyGhost said: Schweet ... Love to see Vipers done up in some other cool schemes, this should be a very fun build ..! -Gregg Yeah me too - biggest challenge is that decals are really hard to come by for the more exotic variants, Chile, Egypt, Oman, Iraq, Morocco, UAE, Pakistan, Korea... - Jake Melampy ( jmel ), if you are watching this... /Niels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zola25 Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 (edited) Time for an update to this build. There is not an awful lot of construction to show in this first part of the build. I have put together a handful of Tamiya F-16´s but this is my first Academy F-16. I have to say they are very similar in quality and only really differ in the engineering. The Academy also has a slight texture to the plastic which happily disappears under a coat of primer. I knew that the air intake could cause problems and now I understand why. The parts are just "floating" freely so you need to take care when joining the parts to preserve the correct geometry. I installed the beautiful Aires gear bays - the main gear well fits 100% as a drop-in part with no modifications whatsoever - the nose gear well, not at all. You have to sand an awful lot for the resin part to fit in there but it is also a blessing in disguise. The snug fit helps you preserve the geometry and fit of the kit parts. All details are brush painted. I brush painted the beautiful Wolfpack cockpit details with patience and a 20/0 brush from ANYZ. I added a few decals to make it pop even more and it is now ready to go into the fuselage. I just love working on busy cockpits like this.. I cut through the floor of the cockpit when removing the gigantic casting block but it will not be visible once installed so no real harm done. The floor in the rear cockpit was covered by a piece of plastic card to ensure that the ejection seat would not sit tilted too far back only The spine had to be modified as not all the lumps and bumps from the Sufa is found on the block 52+ aircraft. It is a matter of removing stuff so it is not complicated at all. I assembled and finished the spine before I glued it to the fuselage but in hindsight that was a mistake. It has no underside support so the seam running down the length tends to crack open when you apply a little pressure - which I had to do to make it fit to the fuselage. All the sanding and filling I had done had to be done all over again The parapack extension is included in the kit but it only has the ECM bulge on one side. I have the AFV F-16B kit so I borrowed the second one from that kit - I was not happy with it as the bulges are just too small so I ended up using the beautiful parapack extension from the Grand Models set. It almost fits perfectly but in this case it comes in handy that the spine has no underside support. You can get it to fit perfectly just by sanding a slight wedge in the spine parts and pressing them together and it will line up very nicely. No filler needed as you can see.. Next step is to close the fuselage and build the airplane. It should go faster from here /Niels Edited October 24, 2022 by Zola25 Squizzy 78, johncrow, patricksparks and 19 others 22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokey Pete Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Seriously dude…..your killin’ me. More schemes that would look great in my collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zola25 Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 4 minutes ago, Stokey Pete said: Seriously dude…..your killin’ me. More schemes that would look great in my collection. Look who´s talking - My list of F-16 projects grows every time I look in your massive F-16 thread themongoose 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokey Pete Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Just now, Zola25 said: Look who´s talking - My list of F-16 projects grows every time I look in your massive F-16 thread D’ya know what my daughter keeps saying to me? She’s 4 btw……. To quote her exact words “16 16’s, 16 16’s” Paul in Napier and themongoose 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Outstanding detail painting, Niels! Kev Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 If you plan to use the saddle tanks, tape the top and bottom fuselage halves together when you glue them on. Otherwise (as happened to me) they didn’t fit so well in the final assembly. Alain Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zola25 Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 10 hours ago, Stokey Pete said: D’ya know what my daughter keeps saying to me? She’s 4 btw……. To quote her exact words “16 16’s, 16 16’s” Hahaha.. - well, I already have another F-16 project lined up so you may want to look the other way.. Or keep making models Pete Niels Stokey Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zola25 Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 1 hour ago, Alain Gadbois said: If you plan to use the saddle tanks, tape the top and bottom fuselage halves together when you glue them on. Otherwise (as happened to me) they didn’t fit so well in the final assembly. Alain Thanks Alain. I actually installed the CFT's after I joined the fuselage halves as it happens. But I think you are right. It Would have been a potential issue. Niels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottsGT Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 Those are great kits with enough parts to build almost anything F-16. I built one as a SC ANG bird my MD gets back seat time in since he’s the flight surgeon for the unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zola25 Posted October 30, 2022 Author Share Posted October 30, 2022 (edited) Prime-Time - Well, Primer Time to be exact I have finished the main assemblies and its now sitting pretty in its black primer. I use my trusted Mr. Surfacer 1500 and Levelling Thinner mix in a 40/60 ratio(roughly). After a light sanding with a high grit micro-mesh pad it will be as smooth as... something very smooth. I am using the KASL exhaust on this build but the inner assembly had a smaller diameter than the kit. Too much so than I was prepared to correct. So I used the kit parts for this and I will add the outer KASL resin exhaust can to that. It fits well and I can finish the painting without attaching it until the end. On the later blocks the F100-PW-229 engines had their "Turkey Feathers" replaced with carbon fibre versions so they retain a (simpler to paint) black color instead of the burnt metal look of the older PW exhausts. I also left off the airbrakes to get better access to painting the rear part - not my first F-16 build Next step will be to add the white doodles inside all the panels and I can move on to the camouflage - the highlight of the build for me The color callouts for the camo are FS30219 and FS33316 - Radome Tan and SEA Camouflage brown - Hmmm - To my eyes the Radome Tan is far too yellow and the SEA Brown is too light... I will have to do some testing before committing to anything. It looks more like the Israeli camouflage colors only without the pale green. All the images I can find of the Moroccan F-16´s show them in pristine condition so I will only add some light weathering - I think. I also have an idea for the loadout - more on that later Weekend over - off to bed.. /Niels Edited November 1, 2022 by Zola25 Out2gtcha, Paul in Napier, GMK and 15 others 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokey Pete Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 You’re ripping through this one at top speed, and it’s looking pretty good as always. I do like the Wolfpack cockpits, they look so good when painted up. Zola25 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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