F-16

Subject:
F-16
Fighting Falcon
Kit Used: Tamiya 1/32

Review & model by:
Ian Dow
Pictures: R. Forys

Background: The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a multi-role jet fighter aircraft developed in the United States by General Dynamics. Designed as a lightweight fighter, it has evolved into a successful multi-role aircraft. The Falcon's versatility may be the main reason it was a success on the export market, serving 24 countries. The F-16 is the largest and probably most significant current Western fighter program, with over 4,000 aircraft built since production started in 1976. Though no longer produced for the United States Air Force, it is still produced for export.

The Fighting Falcon is regarded as a superb dogfighter, with innovations including a frameless canopy for better visibility, side-mounted control stick to ease control while under high g-forces, and reclined seat to reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot. It was also the first fighter aircraft to be purposely designed and built to sustain 9g turns, and is one of the few jets with a thrust-to-weight ratio greater than one, giving the Falcon excellent acceleration.

Although the F-16's official name is "Fighting Falcon", its pilots know it as the "Viper", after the Battlestar Galactica starfighter of the same name. Still a front line fighter, it was an F-16 that delivered two 500 lb GPS bombs which killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the 2nd in command of the Al-Queda terrorist network, in June of 2006.

The Kit: The kit is the 1/32 Tamiya F-16CJ Block 50 Fighting Falcon. It has been reviewed in various forums and in magazines as being a well-designed and easy to put together kit. The reviews were correct on this one. The name Tamiya has come to mean the kit will be accurate, well designed, and have complete instructions. This kit is no exception, and is near flawless. Assembly begins with the engine and engine cart. It is a very nice piece and will lend itself nicely to being super detailed if desired. I built this kit mostly out of the box, but the detail possibilities on the kit are vast.

The various components of the kit are broken down into sub assemblies that then fit into each other to build the model up. This means that there are few molded together parts, which make painting and putting together each assembly easier. For instance the landing gear is made up of metal struts, with individual shocks and supports for each wheel. Each wheel has a rubber tire, a brake and a wheel that all fit together. The fuselage itself is two pieces, a forward and rear piece that are screwed together. This means that there are no seam lines for the wings. The 20mm Vulcan Gun is a 4-piece gun that even has the ability to spin the barrel if desired. This type of design is seen through out the model and makes assembly very smooth.

The model was painted in the two-tone scheme of Light Ghost Grey and Gunship Grey. The "spec" calls for a 3-color scheme of Light Ghost Grey, Medium Grey and Gunship Grey, but this model depicts an F-16 serving in the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Wing in Iraq. These planes have been in service for a while, and most have been repainted using only the two-tone paint scheme. When painting the model, apparently the pigment came out too fine and was drying before I got a good coat on. I didn't notice it at first, but when I clear coated it with Future to lay down the decals, I was able to see that there were areas that it was not smooth. At this point it was not an option to redo the paint, so I forged ahead. Most of the decals went down pretty well, however some did silver a little. I used Solvoset and then dull coated the model to finish the paint. After that I went through the panel lines with a mechanical pencil, and used pastels to add weathering to the model. I was happy with the final results.

Several complaints about the model were minor yet significant. For starters, the engine can be displayed either installed or externally on the engine cart. The problem is, it is such a nice engine with great potential to super detail, and it seems a shame to have it stuck inside the plane. Without it installed, you don't have the finished look of the plane with the exhaust in place. It would have been nice if they had included an extra end assembly with the "turkey feathers", so that it could be displayed complete with the engine on the dolly.

Secondly the cockpit is very nicely detailed, but it had no decals to accentuate the avionics. I rectified this with the $16.00 color photo-etch set from Eduard for this kit. It has plates for the controls and switches to give them more detail. I also added several more buttons to the control stick to simulate the various weapon stations. These were made from plastic rods of various diameters. These were not big issues, but when they did such a good job replicating so many other components, one wonders why they would not give as much detail to the cockpit.

Overall this was a great kit to build. It was never an issue of having to re-engineer the kit to get it to go together. This may not seem like a big deal, but with the price of models today, you begin to expect a lot from the model you are building. This is not a cheap kit, but it is worth building if only for the experience of building such a well designed model. I highly recommend this kit, and there is lots of free reference material on the web, so there is almost no limit as to what can be done with this one.