This is my first submission to ARC. This kit was a pretty low-stress build, it was fun and I had the freedom to try a few new things without being scared that I was going to destroy an expensive model. It was pretty cheap; about $8.00 however the detail is pretty lame in certain places like the cockpit and exhaust. I was thinking about getting a resin cockpit and a nice exhaust, but this kit has too many things against it such as raised panel lines, bare-bones landing gear & other general aircraft detail that was simply left out. If you’re looking for a cheap, fun & simple build to experiment on, I’d recommend it.

Anyway, the kit didn’t require much filler and had body seams in pretty logical places. I used Testors enamels and an Aztek airbrush for most of the painting. This was the kit where I discovered the magic of Future Floorwax. For anybody who doesn’t know what all the Future hype is about, here’s the basic deal: Paint your model like you would normally and stop just before you start weathering. With a wide brush or airbrush, liberally coat your kit with Future Floorwax. About 3 or so coats will do it (word o’ caution: if you use your airbrush, be sure to clean your nozzle with lots of water after spraying Future. If it dries in there, your nozzle is a goner!) Then mix a light wash of Enamel Thinner with flat black paint and start weathering your kit. Nothing spreads into body lines & details like Enamel Thinner and what the Future Wax does is provide a clear gloss barrier between your paint and the thinner wash. The only catch is that about 10 seconds after you apply the wash, don’t get overzealous in brushing the wash into the crevices. A little too much pressure and you’ll wipe the Future and the paint right off. Also, if you notice that your paint under the Future starts to buckle and wrinkle after you apply the wash, stop! Don’t touch that spot until it’s totally dry otherwise the newly softened paint will wipe right off. That wrinkling happens when the coat of Future is too thin and the Thinner eats through. If you leave it to dry, the wrinkles will mostly go away as the paint tightens back up and you can touch it up if you need to. The Future treatment works miracles in wheel wells, cockpits and other places of tight detail. I like to use it on the whole kit to convey the malaise of dirt and oil that real planes are exposed to. One last thing about Future Floorwax, you can find it at about any Supermarket and for $5.00 or so, you’ll have a lifetime supply.

The decals on this kit are my favorite F-16 scheme. They’re for the 117^th ANG “Jersey Devils” out of Atlantic City , New Jersey . This was the paint scheme they used back in the 1980’s when they first switched to F-16’s from F-106’s. I was at the ceremony for the change-over back in 1987. It left a lasting impression! This is what the planes looked like when the cold war was still going on and they were constantly flying out over the Atlantic to chase the Russian Tupolovs away from the coast. Many, many thanks to the Jersey Devils for all of their hard work to keep us safe! By the way, the Devils were no joke if you were trying to sneak up on Atlantic City and drop something other than quarters! If you were lucky enough to be near the boardwalk when these guys got alerted, you received a free show in Yankee readiness. These guys would go SCORCHING across the roofs of the buildings two at a time, bristling with missiles and rocketing toward whoever wasn’t on the guest list! If you've been around them, you'll know that F-16’s running with afterburner at low level are deafening. It would look like time had stopped as everybody on the boardwalk froze to watch the F-16s ripping across shoreline and fading out of sight over the ocean a few seconds later. You knew these guys meant business and they were definitely the nastiest bunch of guard dogs in the world!