1/48 Hasegawa F16C Arctic Bandit

Gallery Article by Burt Gustafson on Oct 21 2010

 

For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos of my 1/48 scale Hasegawa F-16C Arctic Bandit.  The Arctic Bandits are the aircraft (24 F-16Cs) of the 18th Aggressor Squadron, based at Eielson AFB Alaska, USA.

 

The mission of the 18th Aggressor Squadron is to provide realistic, combat adversary training in air, space and information operations.  Aggressor squadrons use enemy tactics, techniques, and procedures to give a realistic simulation of air combat.  In short, the F-16s of the 18th Aggressor Squadron play the role of the bad guys.

 

In the photos note the weapons load out, a captive AIM-9L and an AN/APX-95 TACTS Pod.  Captive AIM-9L missiles have live seeker heads but the rest of the missile is non functional.  The blue bands on the missile body signify that it is a training missile.  The AN/APX-95 TACTS Pod is an airborne air data sensor, electronic altimeter, and inertia sensor used to send data to ground receiving stations.  As a training tool, it is used to judge the effects of simulated weapons fire.

 

Construction

This was an out of the box build except for the AN/APX-95 TACTS Pod and the seat belts I added to the ejection seat.  The TACTS Pod is from the Hasegawa Aircraft Weapons: D kit.  This was a straight forward kit to build because the parts fit was excellent.  Note though the two canopy parts had parting lines down the middle which had to be sanded out.  And it required some extra sanding to get the pieces to fit into place.

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Painting

All paints used for this model were airbrushed with Model Masters and Floquil enamel paints.  The model here is painted in the new “Arctic” paint scheme: Camouflage Gray FS36622, Dark Gull Gray FS36231, and Semi Gloss Black.  The landing gears and wheel wells were painted with Floquil Reefer White, and the nose cone Dark Gray FS36176.  Note that the Arctic paint scheme (Black, White, and Gray) is just one of three paint schemes used by the 18th Aggressor Squadron.  There is the Blue/Gray Camouflage scheme and the Brown/Green Camouflage scheme.  

Decals

The decals for this kit were flawless.  They are well printed, easily placed on the model and snugged down nicely to the model.  The kit offers decals for four aircraft.  I chose to go with the decals for aircraft number AF86290.  Looking at the model photos one might get the impression that there are not a lot of decals.  Trust me there are a ton of decals on this model, many are stencil type decals.

 

Comments

This kit was a pleasure to build.  The parts fit was excellent, cockpit and external detail is quite good, and the decals were super.  The overall quality of this kit is excellent, typical of a Hasegawa kit.  I was pleased with the finished model—an impressive model and it looks like the real aircraft.

Burt Gustafson

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Photos and text © by Burt Gustafson