Subject: MR. ARC: MY 1/48 F-16 "THUNDERBIRD" RODNEY WILLIAMS
From: Rodney Williams <[email-masked]>
To: STEVE BAMFORD <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 09:16:45 -0700

F-16A "THUNDERBIRD"

                          BY:  RODNEY WILLIAMS

My first "Thunderbird" was the F-100D, which can be viewed on this site.

A few years ago, I built my second 1/48 scale Thunderbird, using the
F-16A kit by Hasegawa.  The kit was molded in white plastic, and most
all of the parts fit darn good.  There was next to no flashing.

I started to assemble the cockpit, and noticed that both of the kits
canopies had a seam down the center line, which had to be removed.

I warmed up a section of modeling clay with my hands, and inserted it
into the inside of my "smoke colored" canopy, including the aft canopy
section which is secured to the fuselage.  This clay keeps your canopy
from flexing during the sanding/polishing process, which in turn "helps"
prevent the parts from cracking/crazing.

The finished parts were dipped into Future Floor Wax several times.  A
few weeks later, the parts were mask off and I air brushed on flat black
on the inside, using Tamiya XF-1.  The exterior was painted with my
white, and clear automotive lacquer.  I applied kit decals on both sides
of the canopy, then added more clear lacquer.

The entire model was painted with my white lacquer.  This photo shows my
pre cut frisket film on the models fin.  I have just finished applying a
few coats of the red lacquer, with many more coats to go.  The next
photo shows the finished area, including the kit decals.  Like my
F-100D, I cut out each star, and put them on the model.  It's a bit time
consuming, but it gets rid of all the excess decal film, and no chance
of "silvering."

I mask off the front section of the model, including the wing tips, then
applied the red, and blue lacquer.

Now comes the difficult part.  I knew in advance that the kit decals,
which go on the bottom of the model, did not line up to perfection.
After a few days of "decal drying time," I sprayed on several coats of
clear lacquer.  I attached some very low tack masking tape, and liquid
masking film, then sprayed on my blue lacquer to fill in the gaps.  The
blue lacquer was not a perfect color match to the blue decal film, but
who cares.  I got the end result that I wanted.

That's it for my second Thunderbird!

Happy Modeling!

Rodney