1/32 Academy F-16CJ  

by Ben "Zebra" Mears

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After several years of lurking in the forums and admiring all of the quality modelling on this website, I have finally decided to post some of my own work. This was built for two pilot co-workers who were recently married as a wedding gift. It is the Academy 1/32 Viper done up as a Block 50 CJ. I consider it a test drive for the Tamiya kit (which I hope to be able to afford sometime soon)! It marks my first attempt at using a resin aftermarket set (CMK F-16CJ interior detail set) as well as Alclad II, Future and a ton of other stuff that Iearned about here at ARC...thanks folks!

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The kit itself goes together fairly well, although it would have been better if I hadn't made a major mistake early in the build positioning the landing gear bay in the fuselage! A big challenge was getting the resin cockpit set (which was designed for the Tamiya Viper) into the Academy fuselage. The weapons and decals that come with this kit are amazing...there are a million of them! Lots of extras bits for the spare parts box! I used an enamel black wash and then added dirt/grime with ground up pencil shavings. This looked really nice until I added Testos Dullcote...then it took on a pebbly appearance and didn't look the same. I'm not sure if this is becasue of the Future, the Dullcote, or the pencil grounds....so much to learn still!

I was initially tempted to try and "super-detail" the landing gear and gun bays...but a time constraint and the fact that my DACO F-16 book hasn't arrived yet sobered me on the prospect. Hope you like the pics! 

Ben

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Photos and text © by Ben "Zebra" Mears