1/32 Tamiya F-16CJ

 Fighting Falcon On line build  Part. 11

Clear coating and decaling the airframe

by Steve Bridges

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Decaling has always been my part of building a model, as I suspect it is for a lot of us builders.

I didn't take any pictures of the clear coating, but have a few notes.

For those of you who remember my on-line build of the Academy F/A-18C on the TwoBobs web page a couple of years ago, you may remember that I used to use DuPont 7600 automotive clear coat for my gloss finish.  It produced a superior smooth surface.  But, unfortunately, DuPont changed the formulation as well as the size of the clear coat.  You used to be able to by the clear coat and activator in quart containers.  DuPont now only sells the 7600 replacement in gallon containers, and to get a new gallon with the newer activator was over $100.  Since it does go bad over time (I used at most 2 oz on a model), I went back to Testors clear coat.

I've tried Future in the past on a couple of kits, and have never gotten the hang of it.

I know that there is no weathering yet, but I normally do that after decaling and before dull coating.

The nav lights in these photos still have their liquid mask applied, so don't worry about them

Landing/Taxi lights

I promised in an earlier article some notes on the landing light.

How I painted the light is as follows:

I painted the interior chrome silver, and masked the lens with Ambroid liquid mask.  

I then assembled the front and rear halves of the light, and sprayed the exterior of it flat black.

Click on image below to see larger image

 

Decaling the airframe

The picture to the right shows the surface of the nose after re-spraying the radome F-15C Eagle Dark Gray and re-clear coating it.  

I'll have some notes on radome color in the wrap up article, but be sure to check references to see how dirty the radome is on the specific airplane you are building.

Just a bit of filler needed here and there on the drop tank.

The specific decal sheet is 32-031 from TwoBobs that includes markings for 2 Block 40 F-16CJs from the 8th FW at Kunsan AB.  These are typical TwoBobs decals -- very thin and perfectly in register.

There are quite a few 2 part decals on the sheet, especially for the demo jet (the one I'm building).  they include 

  • Pilot/Crew Chief names for the canopy rail
  • Tail code and the 8th FW for the tail
  • The "Lets Roll" for the left intake
  • Fin flash

My general sequence of decaling is to apply the main markings first, and then go back and apply the 2nd part of the two part markings, and then finally the stenciling.

I use the Microscale setting solutions on these decals.

There doesn't seem to be  lot of stencils on F-16s today compared to the F-16A.

I did use the "Do Not Paint" and a radome warning from the kit decals.  Not sure if this jet has them, but I decided to put them on.

Now on to some specific notes

Canopy rails
The left canopy rail has the pilot's name inside a box, and it is a 2 part decal.  The 1st part is the box, and the pilot's name in white.  The 2nd part of the decal is the pilot's name in black.  I slight off-set the black decal for a shadow effect, similar to the markings on the tail.

The right canopy rail has the name of the crew chief, and a 2nd part for the fuselage for other crew members.  To get them aligned, I did the canopy portion first, and once that was dry, put the canopy on the airplane in the close position, and used where the decal was on the canopy as an alignment guide for the fuselage part.

I used the same offset technique for the names on this side as well.

Wolf on the tail 
This is easily the largest decal on the sheet.  Since the rudder is movable, and the decal spans both the rudder and vertical stabilizer, getting it on can be time consuming.  Once I was happy with the placement, I took a brand new #11 blade and slit the decal.

Fin flash
This is another 2 part decal, and is sized perfectly for the fin cap.  Take your time getting the upper and lower halves aligned.

The left side flash slipped slightly on mine, and I didn't notice it till after it was done.  Part of the white was showing where it should have been covered by blue.  To touch it up, Testors Blue Angel Blue is a perfect match!

Steve

Click on images below to see larger images

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Steve Bridges