This was
a very interesting kit... It's a model of the F-CK-1 Ching-kuo Indigenous
Defense Fighter used by the ROCAF. I had heard of this aircraft and it
looked like a mix between a F-16 and F-18, so it peaked my curiosity. Other
than a resin 1/72 kit, the only other kits available for this aircraft are the
1/48 and 1/72 Kitech/Zhenghdefu kits. I found the 1/48 version for less
than $10 shipped via eBay.
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The kit
itself is typical Kitech quality. Poor detail, bare cockpit, bad decals
and atrocious fit. I filled in most of the deep and wide panel lines, and
rescribed them while adding more. I also added fastener detail throughout.
Due to its similarities to the F-16, I dressed it up with some spare
Hasegawa F-16 parts. The AIM-9s, missile rails, antennas, and wheels were
F-16 spares. The kit came with some missiles that looked similar to
AGM-84s, so I replaced them with shortened AGM-84s from the Hasegawa weapons
set. The kit came with a pair of undersized and incorrect fuel tanks, and
I didn't recognize the type used at the time. So I scratchbuilt the tanks
by combining spare centerline F-16 tanks, and adding the fins from the kit
tanks. After finishing the kit, I realized the fuel tanks used were
probably identical to the type found on F-5s.
The decals were
homemade, with the exception of the white number decals and the formation
lights. The formation lights were from a CAM sheet, and the actual
formation light strips were added by me. Since the cockpit was bare and
the ejection seats were toy like, I replaced them with a F-16I PE set from
Eduard and a pair of True Details NACES ejection seats. The interior PE
set and resin seats really helped this kit a lot.
K Diamond
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