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.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The
decals on this kit are my favorite F-16 scheme. They’re for the 117th
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!
The
exhaust was a challenge on this kit. Out of the box, it's grossly underdetailed
and the rear edge of the nozzle was molded super thick. It looked nothing like
the ultra-thin feathers of a real exhaust and thus had to be filed down to a
more appropriate thickness. I used Model Masters Stainless Steel metalizer on
the feathers (also buffed it) and painted the area where the fins contract with
Testors steel paint and put in some details with flat black. I painted the rear
edge area of the nozzle with Testors Jet Exhaust and made travel area with a
thin flat black. Then I coated the whole thing in Future and brutalized it with
several coats of black wash. Something weird about this kit is that it comes
with the solid nozzle with the lousy thickness (pictured here!) and then comes
with this beautiful 5 piece exhaust nozzle with all the feathers nicely cut and
interlocking, just like the kind you’d find in an expensive kit! So it’s a
no-brainer which nozzle you’re going to use, right? Now keep in mind, the
instruction sheet doesn’t mention the nice nozzle setup, only the lousy one.
So after gluing the 5th piece of the nice exhaust in, you meet with a
striking conclusion. The nice one is missing a feather!!! What the heck is that
about?!? It fits perfectly but is exactly one feather short. I was almost going
to try to build the missing feather from scrap, but it’s a pretty detailed and
curvy part. It was a shame, it looked like an F-16 with a missing tooth. I had
to reluctantly remove it’s curvy remnants and get to work on bringing the lame
one up to speed. Anyone who buys this kit will see exactly what I mean.
Right,
so the metal ring between the nozzle and the fuselage skin is an F-16 part that
presumable gets really hot, hot enough to turn the metal that blue-ish heated
metal color. I don’t know that the
color-that-bare-metal-takes-on-when-its-gets-heated has a name, but in any case
to get this finish I used Stainless Steel metalizer and a mixture of Future and
blue food coloring on top. That’s another awesome trick with Future, you can
mix it with food coloring and use it on whatever needs a clear finish, such as
tinting the canopy. To tint the forward canopy, I used Future and yellow
food coloring. I've also included a pic of what the Jersey Devils look like
today. Thanks for checking out my article, hope you liked it!
Jim
Click on
images below to see larger images
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