1/32 Tamiya F-16CJ

 Fighting Falcon On line build  Part. 8  Steps 46-53

by Steve Bridges

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Rather than re-cycling the same main picture of the painted aircraft, I decided to include a picture of our other "child".  Skipper is an 8 year old Schipperke that my wife had before I met her.  Skipper and Tiger get along very well, and really enjoy playing with each other.

Skipper pretty much avoids my workshop, but will come to visit once in a while

For the camera buffs who wonder what camera I used for the pictures, I'm currently using a Pentax EI-200, but a Pentax *ist-DS is in the near future :-)  I've been using Pentax equipment since high school, and they finally came out with a digital SLR that uses K-mount lenses that is parity priced with similar offerings from Canon and Nikon!

On to the airplane stuff!!!!  Steps 46-53 are the final airframe assembly prior to painting

Steps 46/47 - Wingtip navigation lights and Mounting the engine

Step 46 is straight forward.  I masked off the nav lights top and bottom with Ambroid Liquid mask and secured the rods with CA adhesive and the nav lights with Ambroid solvent glue

Mounting the engine is straight forward.  Since on this kit, the engine won't be removable, once I had the engine securely seated, I ran a bead of Ambroid in the seam, and clamped it up with some mini-clams from the wheel well the engine nozzle.  There was just one small area that needed a bit of filler, but it wasn't much.

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Step 48/49 - Vertical Fin Assembly and mounting 

No surprises here either.  Be sure to remember to drill the holes for the small vents on either side of the vertical stabilizer.  I forgot, and had to hold the fin up to a very bright light to see where to drill.

The 3 poly caps are for the rudder to pivot in, and for mounting to the fuselage.  

You could leave the antenna (Part C19) off until the vertical stabilizer is mounted.

I would also leave part L6 off until later (after painting and decaling).

I left the rudder and fin cap off until after the vertical stabilizer is mounted since I was gluing it on.

If you are building the kit with the engine non-removable, then in step 49 do not glue the vertical stabilizer to the fuselage.

I left the lights off (will be put on the same time as the flare/chaff dispensers).

After mounting the vertical stabilizer and it was dry (no filler required). I added the rudder and fin cap.

I masked the lens on the fin cap with liquid mask as well.

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Step 50/51 -- Speed brakes and horizontal stabilizers 

It's up to the builder on whether or not to build the speed brakes open or closed.  From reading the Squadron Walk Around book, there is no hard and fast rule on whether or not they are open when the airplane isn't powered up.  For this particular, I built them closed.

The horizontal stabilizers are symmetric (there is no left/right stabilizer).  One will have the static wick holders on top, and one will have them on the bottom.

Care is needed to properly clamp the upper and lower surfaces together so there is no step where they meet.

I would leave the wick holders off until after sanding the edges, especially to avoid knocking off part E1

Mounting the speed brakes and horizontal stabilizers is simplicity.  They only fit one way.

 

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Step 52 -- masking and painting canopy

Quite a few notes here.

From looking at the Squadron book, I realized that there was a black seam on the canopy that wasn't going to be painted the fuselage color, and I forgot to take pictures, but in the finished kit, there will be close up photos once the canopy is decaled and dull coated.

I started by masking off the canopy with Ambroid liquid mask, masked off the inside with drafting tape (it's less tacky than regular masking tape, and wider than my normal Tamiya tape), and sprayed the canopy flat black (both front and rear sections).

From the photos I've seen, the rear canopy framework is black (not the color of the fuselage).

Once the paint was dry on the forward canopy, I masked off what is supposed to be remain flat black.  The areas that this is a small "strip" along the bottom between the canopy and the framework, on the rear canopy bow, between the canopy and the framework.

Tamiya molded the demarcation between the areas on the bottom, but not on the bow.  From studying the photos in the Squadron book, it appears that the demarcation is just forward of the rivet line that goes around the canopy bow.

Step 53 -- Radome assembly, attaching radome and paint prep

Radome assembly is simple, but painting isn't

The easiest thing I found is to

Attach part F33, but not F34

Paint the lip and Part F44 flat white.

Mask off, and then spray the interior of the radome.  The color call out is Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit green.  I took this to be green zinc chromate.  Once it was dry, I attached Part 34, let it dry and then mounted the radome and 

I then clipped  the radome onto the fuselage, and glued in place with Ambroid. I had a couple of small spots on the seam to fill with my thinned mixture of Squadron White Putty and lacquer thinner, but they were tiny spots.

I also left off the pitot tube off the radome, as I was worried about stabbing myself with it (actually, knocking it off down road)

Steve

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Photos and text © by Steve Bridges