Cheers to all of you fellow modelers. This time I would like to present to you yet  another “VIPER” This particular aircraft is representing the first F16N that the USN received. But to make matters a bit more complicated, it is not in the usual USN scheme that we are used to seeing on USN birds and  on top of that this really is not a F16N.

In reality this is an F16C loaned by the USN from USAF. In 1986 the USN wanted to show the new F16N the public. The upcoming airshow in Pensacola FL, in May 1986 was a perfect time to do so. Unfortunately there were no real F16N available. To satisfy the goal of displaying the F16N the USN loaned an F16C from the USAF, painted on the Bu-No. of the first coming N (163268), applied the insignia of the units destined to receive the N on the tail fin and a badge of the 75th anniversary of Naval Aviation on both sides of the air intake and placed it on display on May 9th 1986 in Pensacola. (This information was obtained from Andrew D. The Jolly Rogers Guy. It is amazing what amount of information someone has on one particular aircraft. Thanks Andrew D.)

So this was a nice and interesting topic for my Academy F16. I like to build unusual paint schemes, but also wanted a break from often complicated Aggressor paint schemes. Since I bought the model already with the Superscale 48-419 set containing the above mentioned bird I had to build it.

The model from Academy is quite nice I would say. To me it has two flaws: the cockpit is just a decal (well a very ugly decal on top of that) and the decals themselves for a “Peppermint Patty” are unusable. The second flaw is the fit of the front inside of the air intake, but since I was planning on covering it anyway, this did not bother me at all. Besides these two “inconveniences” the model is superb. I is a very nice alternative to
 Hasegawa. The fit of the model is great I had to use filler only on the wing-to-fuselage joint and filling the extremely oversized wing pylon holes.