Subject: RE: Article for the 17th of May issue of ARC? I have asked Nils to p roofread it, so there may be changes still.
From: Nils Mathisrud <[email-masked]>
To: "Brandal, Jens (J.H.)" <[email-masked]>, sheb <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 21:07:02 +0200

Not much to correct here. The only thing is that as aircraft are being 
repainted (and get the larger roundels and RNoAF style tail numbers) it is FS 
36270 that is used instead of 26270. The new paint is matt, and also slightly 
lighter than the old semi-matt colour. Also pylons and extarnal fuel tanks are 
painted FS 36270 if a repaint is required.

I leave it to Jens to decide if he wants these details corrected in his 
article.

Regards,
Nils

>===== Original Message From "Brandal, Jens (J.H.)" <[email-masked]> 
=====
>Gallery Template #03
>"Revell 1:72 F-16AM"
>by "Jens H. Brandal"
>--------------------
>Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 01.jpg here
> <<...OLE_Obj...>>
>Last year, I needed to finish something quick for a local model competition,
>and my eyes fell on Revell's new tool F-16A MLU that I had set aside as a
>"therapy project".  It was started on the 5th of May (a Bank Holiday here in
>the UK) and the deadline was 17th of May - Norwegian Contitution Day.  It's
>a gorgeous little kit that I intended to build straight from the box, but as
>the kit does not accurately reflect a Norwegian Mid-Life Update
>configuration, I had to make some modifications.  One structural
>modification that Revell did not include are the strengthening plates on top
>of the wings - maybe this was done so that they can later issue a regular
>F-16 without modifying the tools?  These plates were easily made from 0.13mm
>plastic sheet.  The GPS antenna on the spine just behind the canopy was made
>from a piece of white decal film and the help of a punch and die set.  One
>structural modification not part of the Mid-Life Update programme is the
>reinforcement just behind the canopy and in front of the roundel.  This was
>made with 0.25 mm plastic strip tapered at both ends.  Royal Norwegian Air
>Force F-16s have a searchlight on the nose, below the left hand Radar
>Warning Receiver, and this was made using a drill, silver paint and covering
>the dimple with 5-minute epoxy.  The exhaust nozzle is far better than any
>other kit in this scale, and I decided to add a little more detail by adding
>strips of 0.13 mm plastic to represent the inner petals.
>The kit has a number of options, and in fact a later issue I ordered to
>replace the exhaust nozzle after I spilled superglue on it (the result of
>adding the previously mentioned petals), had the small stabilizers and the
>original F-16A instrument panel!  For an F-16AM, you should use the new
>launchers capable of firing both AIM-9s and AIM-120s, and I decided to arm
>my Viper lightly, hoping to complement it later with better AMRAAMS.  The
>Sidewinders are gorgeous, and I decided to make one into an Accelerated
>Monitor Assembly (AMA) which is regularly carried on station no. 9, and let
>a drill round (blue band) occupy station no. 1. The centerline fueltank -
>which I placed too far forward - was virtually standard equipment a few
>years ago, but with the change in emphasis on peacekeeping operations, the
>aircraft now seem to spend more time carrying the 370 gallon underwing tanks
>(referred to as "Dollies" - after a certain female country and western
>singer), laser guided bombs on stations 3 and 7, Sidewinders on 2 and 8 and
>finally AMRAAMS on 1 and 9.  The kit includes only one type of mainwheel -
>the earlier one, but aircraft are given new brakes and wheels on an "as
>needed" basis, and is not wrong for an MLU aircraft.
>RNoAF F-16s are painted overall grey - FS26270 with the pylons in FS26375
>Light Compass Grey.  I used Polly S here for the first time, and being more
>of a believer in enamels, found these very impressive.  The radome and
>forward RWRs were painted a slightly darker version of the base coat.  The
>panel featuring the new GPS antenna was painted a lighter shade of grey, and
>a part of the fin leading edge extension was painted LifeColor FS36270 which
>is a tad darker.
>The model represents a plane from no. 331 Sqn based at Bodø Air Base.  The
>squadron markings came from an old Modeldecal sheet which has markings of
>all European F-16 squadrons at the time.  The roundels came from Flying
>Colours Aerodecals, and depict the new, correct type of roundels 400 mm in
>diameter.  The callnumber on the tailfin was made on a photocopier, but
>these are now available from Vingtor Decals
>http://home.online.no/~vingtor/Decals/Decals.html
><http://home.online.no/~vingtor/Decals/Decals.html>  .  The walkways on the
>F-16AM and BM are black (previouly they were dark grey), and to make these,
>I copied the grey walkways from the kit on a photocopier set on "dark" - it
>worked wonders.  The rest of the stencils are from the kit, and this decal
>sheet does deserve the "Super Decal" yellow triangle on the box.  Beautiful
>artwork, great printing and not bad with respect to silvering.  I really
>liked the sections on the nozzle where the "turkey feathers" are overlapping
>- that alone saved a lot of masking and painting.  For setting solution, I
>used Tamiya acrylic thinner on the PollyS gloss coat, then applied the decal
>followed by more acrylic thinner.  This dissolved the PollyS and glued the
>decal to the paint without any silvering at all.
>Being based so far north, these aircraft avoid a lot of the pollution of
>central Europe, making their aircraft look cleaner than for example Dutch or
>Belgian F-16s.  Still, a clean aircraft is less interesting than a weathered
>one, so panels that attract dirt and are prone to leaks were highlighted by
>drawing with a pencil and a bit of selective washing with black paint.  Even
>on fairly clean aircraft, streaks are seen from the hinges of the leading
>edge flaps, and this was simulated with wiping off the wash with a finger in
>the direction of the airflow.  The bottom of the centerline tank also gets
>very grubby, and was treated to a heavy wash of dirty black thinners.  The
>gun muzzle was painted copper to simulate the copper based grease used to
>protect the paint, and a little soot from firing a few rounds of 20 mm was
>added with pastel chalk.  The model has now been donated to the Aircraft
>Museum at Gardermoen for a future display of all aircraft types that has
>flown in the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
>Click on images below to see larger images
>Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 02.jpg here.
>Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 02.jpg
>   <<...OLE_Obj...>>   	Steve Bamford will insert a
>click-able smaller version of photo 03.jpg here. Clicking on that photo will
>bring up the full sized version of photo 03.jpg
>   <<...OLE_Obj...>>  
>Photos and text © 2003 by "Jens H. Brandal"