Douglas A-1J Skyraider

Finished this was a pleasure full build. Like all the Tamiya ones I've done.
As with the Corsair I added some copper wire to the engine.
The painting was done with Vallejo, for wash the inside of the engine was done with AK and the panel lines were done with Ecoline.

The LAU-68 rocket pod was weathered a bit, just to simmulate that it was used before.

General Dynamics F-16B Fighting Falcon

Update: 23 December 2015

Finished:

On May 3rd 1979 the F-16B J-259 made it's maiden flight from Schiphol. Was delivered to the Royal Dutch Air Force in June 1979 and flew to Leeuwarden on the 7th of june. It was the first F-16B for the Air Force.
The Block-1 F-16s were initially equipped with black radomes.
The objective I had in mind was to do an early F-16, so I choose the J-259, without the sidewinder rails, squadron markings, just a center fuel tank. Beside the black radomes the early F-16 had big roundels at the tail.

The kit used is the F-16 A/B NSAWC Adversary from Kinetic. Paint Vallejo 70870 Medium Sea Grey, 71097 Medium Gunship Grey and the underside Vallejo 70989 Sky Grey. Decals are from Flevo Decals (48-015 313 Squadron F-16A/B, F-16AM/BM Part 1, just for the numbers) and the decals from Shyhart (48-905 F-16A/B Falcon, standard stencils data Belgian Air Force and others). The two lager Dutch roundels came from the Kinetic NF-5.

Next time I need to spend a bit more time about examining pictures and data, as there are some faults.
It was a pleausre to build and that's what counts for me.

Update: 13 December 2015

The decals are almost done just some on the nose and than after a coat of varnish the last pieces and this one is ready.

The  Shyhart are a pleasure to work with. Very clear instructions and no trouble with getting the thin lines on the aircraft.

And the black nose is attached.







Update: 11 December 2015

After a coat of  Pledge extra protection wax for linoleum etc. the Falcon is ready for some decals.

The first idea was to use the basic decals form the kit together with Flevo Decals 48-015 313 Squadron F-16A/B, F-16AM/BM Part 1 for the F-16 numbers and Dutch Air Force roundels.

Not a working idea not much decals on this sheet that came with the kit.

It is going to be a combination of the Flevo Decals and the decals from Shyhart

 Only the basic decals for the aircraft will be used. The Dutch Air Force roundels will be taken from the Kinetic NF-5 kit. Just the ones near the tail, on the early Falcons those were bigger.








Update: 29 November 2015

 The result of the paint.

The colors: Vallejo 70870 Medium Sea Grey, 71097 Medium Gunship Grey.

Today worked on the last details of the main landing gear and put it in place.
 





















Update: 15 November 2015

 Working parallel on 3 kits the last weeks. So no much of progress lately.

Prepared the F-16 for the paint.

Got everything taped with Tesa painterstape (the blue version) works as well as Tamiya but is cheaper.

After a coat of primer painted the underside in Vallejo 70989 Sky Grey.

Time to let it dry and than the masking this week.



Update: 1 November 2015

Worked today on the F-86K as well as on the F-16.
The progress made by installing the seats into the cock pit tub was not the best idea. By doing this the top and bottom half of the fuselage don't fit anymore. So the seats were removed and the 2 top fuselages were glued together. Good fit just a tiny gap. The sprues in this kit are 2 colored, for some reason. The 2 cock pits (A and B) version are darker than the wings. 

All the holes for the underwing stores are filled up with sprue.

And I had a struggle with joining the intake and the engine/wing section.
I followed the instructions with the F-16DJ which suggest joining the top and bottom half of the fuselage before getting on with the forward landing gear bay and intake.

But than you can't see how the area (in the circle) is lined up.

When dry fitting it went smooth so I decided to do one half with the allignment on the inside engine ant the second after drying.

That didn't work as well as during the dry fit. Finally I ended up with glueing in the complete wheelbay with plates as one piece.

I left the wheel out on purpose. I close the bay with the doors, do the painting of the underside and than put the wheels on.











 

Update: 31 October 2015

I have been working on some seatbelts.
Looking at cock pit pictures I wanted some buckles. These were made from a food (ketchup or so) tube. This material is easier to work with than a wine lead.

Unfortunately it is difficult to get them in the right proportions. The idea was to fill up the seats, By using 1 mm tape for the belts the buckles are to big. Next time I 'll do another approach, by trying to create the buckle and belt out of the tube.

In the end I'm happy with the reault.

The tail of an early F-16 doesn't have a probe on the leading edge. This was installed with the block 15 F-16.

 A simple adjustment and the looks like an early F-16 one.


Update: 30 October 2015

Fitted the oxygen hoses, without and with the seats.

With the seat I didn't follow the instructions, either the cock pit tubb was to narrow or the the seats to wide. I had the same seat fit problem with the F-16DJ, but then I followed the instructions and had these trouble at the end with a completed aircraft.

Next is to create a couple of seatbelts.





Another lesson taken from the earlier F-16DJ build. I build the wheel bay in pieces instead of a complete one. It gave more room to get the glue in.













Update: 27 October 2015

Done some work in the cock pit area.
2 oxygen hoses were made from fuse wire, painted green and installed in the cock pit to gether with the last displays.
Not much done, due to long days at the office.

Winded some fuse wire around a tiny pin.

Painted with Vallejo Pale green (71095) 









And fitted in the cock pit. Next fase is adjust the lenght whith the seats installed.





















25 October 2015:
With this build I'll start with a work in progress and not with a completed model only.

The inspiration is this photograph.

It is taken from the book "Vlucht door de tijd 75 jaar Nederlandse Luchtmacht". This picture is taken in june or july 1979 at the Fokker aircraft factory when the first 2 Fokker build F-16 were delivered to the Royal Netherlands Airforce.
As kid I can remember reading the stories about the early F-16's in the military magazines my dad brought. So I decided to build an early model F-16B.
The one to build is a B model J-259. This was the first F-16B delivered to the Royal Netherlands Airforce. The F-16 is probably the last fighter that is ordered by the Dutch government in large numbers, the total order was 213 and the Royal Netherlands Airforce took delivery of 212 F-16's. Replacing the F-104 Starfighter and the NF-5 Freedom Fighter.
The J-259 still exist, it is in use as an instructional airframe at Woensdrecht. 

The kit:

The build will be a factory fresh F-16B so there will be lots of parts left,  the Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation (ACMI) pod will be used in the Eduard Top Falcons build, in that kit it wasn't included.

The books for reference:

The photos during the build will be taken with my phone, I don't want to set up a photo session with a DSLR. I'll try to get the best quality.

The instructions are weird. From the F-16A/B they skip to the instructions of the

F16AM Fighting Falcon Block 20 (Belgian AF Tiger meet 2009 Kit 48036). Fortunately only on the first page.

Just a some little things, parallel working on a F-86K.

The cock pit some basic work as a well trying the do dry brushing basic color  light grey (Vallejo 71050 and brown (Vallejo 70822).

The tail section was suggested with a parachute. And this is the reason I like the Kinetic models. The box is filled with parts you can use, there are three different tail options.