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A
lot of my projects are inspired by getting my hands on new decals of great
subjects, mostly thanks to Twobobs
and their constant effort to produce cool
new sheets. This time it was the Two Bobs sheet of the great looking NSAWAC
Viper scheme for their "new" F-16As.
Of course these
F-16As (there are 4 on the sheet) are not new from Lockheed, but instead
embargoed Pakistani F-16As that were never delivered (they are now finally
getting other F-16s for their help in hunting Terrorist) and after
spending years in AMARC were finally handed over to NSAWAC (the others
went to Edwards for test work).
This was a mostly "out
of the box" build using the
kit cockpit with the addition of a True Details ACES
II ejection seat and a few scrachtbuilt items (like
the HUD).
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The rest of the kit went together very quickly,
this is the third Hasegawa F-16 I have built and they are easy to throw together and you can't beat the
detail! I also scored it for around $15 on eBay so there was no reason to resort to a Revell kit for
example. I built this from the F-16A boxing since I knew it was all I needed but latter boxing's (like
the F-16CJ) include all the parts to build an A as well as the C models. Despite the
great looking Tamyia and Academy 1/32 scale kits the Hasegawa kits are still worth
building. The only addition I added was some plastic card to the wings to represent
some sort of wing braces that are fitted to NSAWAC jets that I saw in photos. I would
guess this is to protect them from the wing cracks that prematurely ended the life of the
previous F-16Ns used by Top Gun.
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Next came the paint, I used Testors paints and had
to mix some of the colors (I don't remember which ones) but I used the Mk 1 eyeball to determine the
correct color. I started with light Tan and masked and painted darker colors.
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Like my previous NSAWAC F-18A I used the two Bobs
instruction sheets and blew them up with a photo copier to 1/48th scale so I could produce proper
masks. I also used Testor's metalizer on the exhaust areas and then coated the inner ring closest to
the fuselage with some Tamyia clear blue to get a nice blue tint (my reference photos
show this) and I was very happy with the results this being the first time I have done that.
Decals went on well, what few there were, but be
very careful as with all Two Bob's sheets they are very thin. For weapons fit I put a AIM-9 training
round on one rail that had some two bobs decals on it (Monogram) and a ACMI pod on the other (Hasegawa)
and nothing else because NSAWAC aggressors often fly clean to enhance their maneuverability. I finished
things up with some antennae covers, intake cover and
RBF flags and I was done!
Although an easy and quick build I really enjoyed
this project and you can't beat a nice aggressor for relief of the Grey jet syndrome. Next up might be an
A-4 aggressor or maybe an F-5, thanks Twobobs for a
great looking model!
Everett
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