1/32 Academy F-16CJ

Gallery Article by Dan McWilliams on Sept 9 2009

 

This kit was entirely OOB.  I also took some artistic licence with the combination of decals and block number.  I really liked the large wolf head on the tail, but that option was not for the block I built (a wide-mouth Block 50).  If you don't tell anyone, I won't either...  This kit fit really nicely, and came with lots of great weapons.  I painted it with Model Master Acryl paints (the FS 36118 dark grey top) and some Tamiya light grey primer (FS 36375 light grey underside).

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

  

Photo 4

  

  

Photo 6

I actually used some AMRAAMs from an Academy F/A-18C kit, because the ones that came with this kit were nicer (this kit came with AIM-120Cs, while the F/A-18C kit came with AIM-120Bs.  I will save the AMRAAMs for a future CF-18 build.  I had one big problem with this build.  Notice in 06.jpg that the model leans at a huge angle (left wing low).  I was very surprised, and it took me a while to figure out why.  Look at 07.jpg carefully - you'll see that the main gear well is slightly misplaced (rotated slightly from where it should be).  That is what caused the main gear legs to be at the wrong angles, and gave the big tilt to the aircraft.  It got that way because I didn't use enough Tamiya ultra-thin cement at first, and the main gear well came loose after I glued the fuselage top and bottom together.  I then had to squirt some Testors regular glue into it, and pull it back against the bottom fuselage with tweezers to get it to reseat itself.  During that process, I didn't pay enough attention to what angle the wheel well was reseated at, and you can see the result in pic 07.  I ended up fixing the problem by shaving a lot of the bottom off of the right main tire, plus adding a "wheel chock" to raise the left main tire.  The wheel chock is made of a piece of yellow nylon rope wrapped in masking tape.  The version you see in pic 04 is a fast job - I will redo the chock to make it look better.  The USAF and other air forces often use chunks of rope wrapped around the wheels as chocks; a little more careful wrapping with masking tape will make it look like a greyish/beige rope chock.

I enjoyed this build.  It will look good beside its friends the CF-18 that I built last winter, CF-104, and an F-4 from Tamiya.  Up next in 1:32 will be a CF-5 with the Belcher Bits conversion from the Hasegawa kit, plus some WW II fighters.  Too many kits to build!

Dan McWilliams

Click on images below to see larger images

  

Photo 7

  

Photos and text © by Dan McWilliams