1/72 Revell F-16A Fighting Falcon Vermont ANG part 11

Gallery Article by Andrew Desautels  (a.k.a. "Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy") on Dec 3 2020

 

      

The Vermont Air National Guard was founded in 1947 as the 134th Fighter Squadron. Based in Burlington, Vermont, they were tasked with the air defense of the Northeastern United States, and a secondary mission of ground attack. 

In 2015 I decided to undertake the building of their entire aircraft history in 1/72, as they are based in my birth city. This was ambitious since no decals exist for most of their aircraft as of this writing, leaving me to test the limits of my resourcefulness. 

In 1986 the Green Mountain Boys received the first of a new generation of fighters, the F-16A. The Fighting Falcons would grace the Burlington flight line for more than three decades, with the “A” version operating from 1986-1994 before the arrival of the C’s. During this time they deployed to perform actual interceptions of real Soviet bombers approaching and testing U.S. airspace. 

Click on images below to see larger images

As of this writing, the Revell is the best 1/72 A-version (not to be confused with a much older Revell release which depicted one of the FSD airframes). I found the wings a bit thick, but it went together well. A metal pitot was installed as a vast improvement. Absolutely the best upgrade for this was the Aires exhaust, which was designed for the Hasegawa kit but fits the Revell just as well. When done up with Alclad and correct markings, it looks absolutely superb. After using this I will never use another kit exhaust on an F-16. 

Painting was Model Master enamels, except for the exhaust. 

Fortunately there are not one but two decal offerings for Vermont’s F-16A’s, from Superscale and Repliscale. Both have advantages, but I went with the Superscale. My one constructive criticism is that the “yellow chicken” tail band is too short on both offerings, and should extend over a longer length of the tail chord. Had I been more patient to find a second sheet, I could have achieved this with two sets of decals, by cutting off part of one band to make the other longer. Oh, well…. 

The rest of the airframe stenciling, including the plethora of exhaust markings, came from an AstraDecals sheet. 

I’m happy with the final result, with the Aires exhaust being a major eye-catcher. 

Next time is Vermont ANG part 12: F-16C Fighting Falcon. 

Andrew Desautels

Click on images below to see larger images

 

Photos and text © by Andrew Desautels