Subject: Re:
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Chuang Xue Qian" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 20:01:41 -0700

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chuang Xue Qian 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2008 12:37 AM

  Gallery Template #05

  1/72 Academy F-16CG Block 40 

  by Chuang Xue Qian
  --------------------

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  Hello once again! It's good to be back here after going on a long hiatus due to my busy schedule and here I am, back here with my fourth article. So without much further ado, presenting to you once again, Academy's brand new 1/72 F-16CG Fighting Falcon of the 8th FW based in Kunsan Air Base, South Korea. I had initially thought that I had enough of 1/72 kits and was ready to move on to 1/48 but when I happened to chance upon that kit in my favorite model shop, I just realised that I had to do another F-16 since the entire 8th FW has recently transitioned into Block 40 F-16s and I also thought of giving Academy a shot. Well I should say that the kit is very good! 

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  I took a few weeks to complete this plane as I could only afford one hour a day in assembling it while the rest of the time was spent on my studies. To be honest, this kit was the most detailed 1/72 kit that I've seen so far but it was plaqued with all sorts of problems. One notable incident was that the wheel well wasn't assembled properly and I only found that out after cementing the 2 fuselage parts together with the main landing gear. And the levelness of the wings was VERY obvious when the gear was slanting. In the end with no choice, I had to perform a very risky and painstaking job of forcing open the fuselage to correct the wheel well. And yes, parts broke like the AOA sensor on the right side of the nose. I had to scratch-build a new sensor in the end. But thank God that there was no serious damage to the fuselage after forcing them apart. Now you should experience the sense of tension and suspense when trying to force open the parts! Cos you don't know what's gonna break next or what's gonna happen.

  Another problem was the decals for the missiles. As the decals came in one piece, it was tough trying to get the decal in the exact position especially on the AIM-9X missile. At one time I got so frustrated and almost wanted to ditch the missiles for the conventional AIM-9Ms. But fortunately, I got the decals in the desired position after spending nearly 15 minutes! 

  Other additional items added to the model was a GBU-10 LGB and an LAU-129 launcher unit robbed from the Hasegawa weapons set mounted on the left wing. Other than that, all other weapons came from the kit. The AMRAAMs provided were slightly wrong on the rear fins and was corrected by cutting away a small section of it using a pen knife. 

  There was a seam of the canopy and that had always been my worst nightmare! I do not have the file that is used for removing the seam so I ended up using a pen knife to carefully scrape away the seam before using a wet ice cream stick to file the remaining portions of the seam to reduce it's visibility. Now the seam is almost invisible to the eye unless you look close enough. 

  This plane was heavily weathered to add to the effect of realism to a jet that is fully armed with live ammunition and ready to carry out it's mission of 'DEFENDING THE BASE', 'ACCEPT FOLLOW-ON FORCES' and 'TAKE THE FLIGHT NORTH'. That's the mission of the 8th FW in Kunsan Airbase, South Korea. The burn marks on the afterburners were easy to create. I simply painted the inside of the burners white before applying a layer of smoke gray over the white once it dried. After the smoke gray dried, another layer of white but this time more diluted, was painted over the smoke gray. And there you have it. A realistic afterburner that is easy and effective to create without having to use a lot of methods. 

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  This kit was generally a joy to build despite encountering problems. Overall I'm satisfied with Academy's products and I'll be looking forward to many more models by Academy in the future. Some pictures were taken with my other F-16s to add more drama to the situation. This kit is very good and I will strongly recommend it!

  Ok enough said. Will let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves. Hope you'll like them. Please feel free to comment on the plane or letting me know how I can continue to make improvements on future jets yea? 

  If you've read this article up to this point. Congratulations! Cos you've just increased your capacity to persevere! Haha... 

  Till then,

  Cheers!!

  Xue Qian

  Singapore

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  Photos and text © by Chuang Xue Qian

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