Tamiya F-16 Aggressor, Kicked Up a Notch, April 11/24: Lighting Details

[chuck540z3]

16 minutes ago, JayW said:

Chuck - first time I have ever followed a jet build.  And I thought I knew something about F-16's....not a thing.  The light configuration is fascinating.  For some reason, I find configuration changes on aircraft as they evolve, and modelling of same, very interesting.  I like getting it right.  So do you, obviously. 

 

Landing gear are among my favorite subjects, at least in large scales.  In smaller scales, well they just get very challenging!  Especially the torque links.  Your repair skills (I have seen them in action in other builds you have done) are remarkable.  Pretty sure your gear are going to look like shrink ray real deals.

 

Thanks a lot Jay and with your very impressive modeling skill set, your comments carry a lot of weight with me.

 

Your comments also bring to light a few of the things that I really enjoy about our hobby.  Each major build step is like a mini-model that I try to get looking just right and I hope to get that "shrink ray" look when the landing gear is finished (fingers crossed).  Doing so takes a lot of time, which is why my models typically take at least a year to complete and in the case of this build with all my new distractions, likely much longer than that.

 

The other thing that I really find fascinating is learning new things about my subject and this F-16 build is no exception.  I usually know almost nothing about each model I build when I start them and by the end of it, I have learned quite a bit about my subject, which allows me to appreciate certain aspects of the aircraft in the future that I was not aware of previously.  The landing lights is one of those idiosyncrasies that I will now check out on every pre-Block 40 Viper from now on.  I wish I had recognized this feature before I took pics at Nellis last month, so that my pics would be clearer of the lights.  Every time I take reference pics of various aircraft, no matter how many I take, I wish I had taken even more of various features and angles I missed!  Thankfully Jake's Viper Guide is filling in the blanks nicely so far.

 

With the Thunderbird kit as a base, I don't have to worry about which intake, engine, landing gear and gear doors to use for my Block 25 subject, because its all there already with no changes required.  What I'm unsure of at this early stage, is what reinforcement plates I should be using and where are they located?  Also, what other features should I be looking at that maybe this kit missed?  Any comments from those who know would be appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[Zola25]

Thanks a lot for sharing those pictures Chuck - I am green with envy of you going to that airshow 

 

The F-16 is a fascinating aircraft and there are many updates to keep track of. It is afterall almost 50 years old by now - and all of a sudden I feel very old myself being born in the same year as it flew for the first time - Having followed the Danish F-16 fleet for many years we had the luxury of having the updates in stages as the aircraft went through the Mid-Life Update program (MLU) and were updated from Block 1, 5, 10, 15... so you could see the external modifications being added..

 

Congratulations on your retirement - I will very much look forward to see even more models "kicked up a notch" 

 

/Niels

Edited December 6, 2022 by Zola25

[chuck540z3]

Thank you everyone for your kind words.

 

6 hours ago, Zola25 said:

Thanks a lot for sharing those pictures Chuck - I am green with envy of you going to that airshow 

 

The F-16 is a fascinating aircraft and there are many updates to keep track of. It is afterall almost 50 years old by now - and all of a sudden I feel very old myself being born in the same year as it flew for the first time - Having followed the Danish F-16 fleet for many years we had the luxury of having the updates in stages as the aircraft went through the Mid-Life Update program (MLU) and were updated from Block 1, 5, 10, 15... so you could see the external modifications being added..

 

Congratulations on your retirement - I will very much look forward to see even more models "kicked up a notch" 

 

/Niels

 

Hi Niels,

 

Your screen name "Zola25" looks familiar, so I looked up some of my saved builds and sure enough, I saved your VENOM Viper Demo Team F-16 as not only an awesome model, but a lot of inspiration for this build.  Everything about your Viper is fantastic and as the saying goes, "if my model turns out half as good as yours, I'll be happy".

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited December 7, 2022 by chuck540z3

[scvrobeson]

Looks like in your picture of your subject jet, you can just see the legacy light on the main gear leg way on the left side of your photo.  Great progress on this Chuck, glad to see you back to work on the Viper

 

 

Matt 

[Pete Fleischmann]

Hi Chuck-

you are off to a great start!

Fun fact- the landing and taxi lights were moved from the main gear to the nose gear door beginning with the block 40/42. The LANTIRN NAV pod and Targeting Pod carried on stations 5A & 5B (exclusive to the block 40/42) obscured the light beams; so the lights had to move. Once other blocks began carrying targeting pods, it made sense to start retrofitting the lights on all blocks. 
Take a look at the battery installed in the main well. The Aires one is the old version (either blue or orange) the current installation I believe is a new orange battery with an integral mounting frame. 
I’m not near a Tamiya kit right now, but a common F-16 error is to include the “nowhere “ duct for the ASPJ underneath the left leading edge extension. These are only on block 30B/32- shouldn’t be on your block 25.

Also pay attention to the tip of the position lights on the intakes- there is a metal cap there- most modelers miss it.

On the lower leading edge of the vertical fin; no scoop on the block 25- also the 2 vents on either side of the fin base are not present on the block 25.

For the wings- the position lights on the wingtips are clear with either red or green bulbs. Most modelers paint them green or red. (Oops) The position light on the top of the wing is mounted further aft than the one on the bottom. The inboard leading edge flap hinge has only 2 fingers on the block 25. The Tamiya kit has 3 (block 40 and beyond)

I think the block 25 only has the wing stiffeners at the roots in the fuel cell area..but I’d need to check for sure.

I challenge anyone to show me a photo of the horizontal slab that has the fasteners in the triangular configuration, or the “panel line” parallel to the trailing edge as exaggerated as Tamiya molded them-

Thats about all I can think of off the top of my head! 
happy to help Chuck however I can-

 

cheers

Pete

Edited December 8, 2022 by Pete Fleischmann
Speling

[chuck540z3]

19 minutes ago, Pete Fleischmann said:

Hi Chuck-

you are off to a great start!

Fun fact- the landing and taxi lights were moved from the main gear to the nose gear door beginning with the block 40/42. The LANTIRN NAV pod and Targeting Pod carried on stations 5A & 5B (exclusive to the block 40/42) obscured the light beams; so the lights had to move. Once other blocks began carrying targeting pods, it made sense to start retrofitting the lights on all blocks. 
Take a look at the battery installed in the main well. The Aires one is the old version (either blue or orange) the current installation I believe is a new orange battery with an integral mounting frame. 
I’m not near a Tamiya kit right now, but a common F-16 error is to include the “nowhere “ duct for the ASPJ underneath the left leading edge extension. These are only on block 30B/32- shouldn’t be on your block 25.

Also pay attention to the tip of the position lights on the intakes- there is a metal cap there- most modelers miss it.

On the lower leading edge of the vertical fin; no scoop on the block 25- also the 2 vents on either side of the fin base are not present on the block 25.

For the wings- the position lights on the wingtips are clear with either red or green bulbs. Most modelers paint them green or red. (Oops) The position light on the top of the wing is mounted further aft than the one on the bottom. The inboard leading edge flap hinge has only 2 fingers on the block 25. The Tamiya kit has 3 (block 40 and beyond)

I think the block 25 only has the wing stiffeners at the roots in the fuel cell area..but I’d need to check for sure.

I challenge anyone to show me a photo of the horizontal slab that has the fasteners in the triangular configuration, or the “panel line” parallel to the trailing edge as exaggerated as Tamiya molded them-

Thats about all I can think of off the top of my head! 
happy to help Chuck however I can-

 

cheers

Pete

 

Now THAT is exactly what I'm looking for!  Thanks Pete.  I knew about the position lights on the intakes and agree that most modelers miss this small detail, but I was unaware of all the rest.  I will strive to correct these other details as best I can.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited December 8, 2022 by chuck540z3

[chuck540z3]

December 8/22

 

 

Since most of the above details provided by Pete are not familiar to me, I documented some of them below for my (and your) future reference, when I get to these stages as follows:

 

     “a common F-16 error is to include the “nowhere” duct for the ASPJ underneath the left leading-edge extension. These are only on block 30B/32- shouldn’t be on your block 25”

     “Also pay attention to the tip of the position lights on the intakes- there is a metal cap there- most modelers miss it.”

 

Here’s a pic of 86-0229, a Block 32 jet, with this vent right under the gun.  This pic also shows the “cap” at the front of position light which is often missed.

 

 

 

My subject, 84-1220, a Block 25 jet, doesn’t have this vent.  While I don’t have a pic of this side of the aircraft, there’s a good shot of this side in the video below beginning at the 37 sec mark.

 

F-16 Gets New Look "Ghost" Paint

 

Deleting this vent is easy, since it is applied as Part C 26 in Step 8, which I will not do now.

 

     “On the lower leading edge of the vertical fin; no scoop on the block 25- also the 2 vents on either side of the fin base are not present on the block 25”

 

Here are the tail scoop/vents on 86-0229

 

 

 

 

Which are not present on my subject, 84-1220

 

 

 

 

To delete them, the scoop at the front of the fin should be cut off and filled in, while the vents, Parts C 24 and C 25, should not be applied in Step 34.

 

The other tips that Pete has provided are fairly straight forward, so I won’t document them until I actually get to them, but it’s nice to get these vent issues sorted out now while they are still fresh in my mind.  Many thanks again to Pete for providing them!

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited December 8, 2022 by chuck540z3

[chuck540z3]

December 12/22

 

Back to the landing gear, or at least a few of the control arms in the landing gear bay.  Using all kit parts, you can probably worry about this stuff near the end of the build, but with an Aires resin gear bay, now is the time to check the fit of the various kit parts within it before you paint anything.  Good thing I did!

 

The first control arm I checked is main front arm for the gear bay doors, which should fit flush to the outside as indicated in the poor Aires instructions on the lower right corner, which BTW, shows a heavy gear door part F 22, rather than the light gear door part P 6 as it should.  The Thunderbird kit I’m using has the grey colored “F sprue”, which has parts specifically for the Block 50 kit, but also a few for the Block 25/32 kit, so you need to be careful to follow the kit instructions closely.

 

Anyway, parts P 5 and P 6 should sit lower than the side “shelf” on either side and after lots of measuring and dry fitting, I decided to cut a notch in the shelf to allow the parts to fit below it.  This snow white plastic is sure hard to photograph clearly!

 

 

There are some oval recesses at the front, which presumably are for the two pins on parts P5/6, but they are too narrow for both pins.

 

 

By removing the outside pin and trimming the parts back a bit, the inside pin fits in the oval hole quite nicely, which tells me that Aires should have included this notch in the shelf in the first place.

 

 

Here the port side gear door dry fit with masking tape to part P 6, which is temporarily “glued” using liquid mask to hold it in place.

 

 

This door fits perfect now, confirming that the location of the control arm is correct.

 

 

Whenever I have pneumatic parts like these where the rod should be bright chrome, I try to use ordinary sewing pins as replacements, by cutting off the plastic rod, drilling holes and inserting pins cut to size.

 

 

Control arms, part R 8, don’t fit the resin receptacle that they should plug into at all, and I had to trim some of the resin spine in order to do so, in an iterative hit and mostly miss sequence of dry fitting the parts and scratching my head.

 

 

Confused as to why, I checked out the kit parts and sure enough, the receptacle is much wider than the resin, giving lots of clearance to the center spine.

 

 

To fix this problem, I decided to use some 2.4 mm tubing and glue it lower than the existing holes.  This distance is longer than before, so to accommodate that, I made the tubing a couple of millimeters deeper at the same time, which also gives better clearance.  More on that below.

 

 

A few more pneumatic parts also attach to the gear legs, but there’s no place for the ends to go.

 

 

The solution is to drill a hole, near the end of the upper spring on either side, so that they are a drop in fit.

 

 

 

Here are the 6 gear bay parts above all dry fitted, which is now quite solid.

 

 

 

One very important consideration is the fit of the central cover part C 27.  The top of the resin spine was sanded down earlier to allow this part to fit nice and flush to the adjacent kit parts.

 

 

This is why I lowered the new tubing receptacles, because otherwise the control arms (R 8) would be in the way of this cover.  Note that the lower pneumatic part R 2 is just lying there and not plugged into its new hole.  This cover also hides some of the cruder connections that I have created!

 

 

So there you have it.  Nothing earth shattering, but some important modifications to the Aires gear bay that will make final assembly much, much easier than before.  To that end, I think I'll glue the Aires gear door hinges (4) and control arm to the door itself, which can then be added at the very end of the build, with none of the drama that often comes with tiny landing gear bits.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited December 13, 2022 by chuck540z3

[Stokey Pete]

A masterclass of problem solving as always Chuck. Ingenuity, and out of box thinking. 
I love the sewing needle ‘hydraulics’ solution. 

[Greif8]

Very nice modifications and clever solutions Chuck.

 

Ernest

[JayW]

Indeed, a masterclass in problem solving.  I have in the past dealt with several brands of resin aftermarket improvements.  Why is it that seemingly much effort is made to design and make great looking replacement kits, only to completely foul up the interface with parts not meant to be replaced?  I see it over and over again.  Bad on Aires - it reflects laziness.  I doubt most other users of such kits are up for the necessary fixes that Chuck is so good at.       

[Memphis]

11 hours ago, Stokey Pete said:

I love the sewing needle ‘hydraulics’ solution

This is a famous idea. I had ordered on Aliexpress different diameters needles for piercing. I think it will useful for different undercarriage legs.

[jenshb]

When it comes to Aires, I can't help thinking they are too careless in "recycling" their patterns with minimal modifications.  Say a part designed to fit the Academy kit gets rebranded as to fit the Tamiya kit, and I wouldn't be surprised if that is the case here.  Their F-16 cockpits in 1:48 scale for the Tamiya kit has an extended gap between the fuselage and the front of the glareshield.  The Hasegawa kit cockpit is slightly shorter, so it seems to me they just added a piece to make the length of the cockpit fit.  Disregarding the shrinkage factor that Aires is also known for...

[Landrotten Highlander]

'Nothing earthshattering' he says.....

 

[F`s are my favs]

Another aggressor well, I it's my first time seeing the topic. Quite a nice surprise. I like how the thinned wheels look like in comparison to before... just a bit more recessed, but perfect now. That digital/kind of hybrid paint scheme could be a challenge, but I hardly doubt you wouldn't nail it. I'm following... and cheerios