Based at Nellis AFB
Nevada,the US Air Force runs a series of excercises each year code named
"Red Flag". Instituted in the mid 1970's, they were designed to give
American pilots the chance to experience combat in as realistic
environment as possible without actually going to war. The missions take place
over the vast ranges and airspace of Nellis AFB and have grown in sophistication
as well as drawing in participants from other NATO and allied countries.
As part
of the training, the blue forces face a range of anti-aircraft defences including
very realistic SAM simulators and the Aggressor squadrons who fly F-16 (and now
F-15's) as "Red Air". Painted in a variety of camouflage patterns these
pilots simulate a range of potential adversaries usually based on Russian
aircraft. I've always liked the aggressor schemes and when Afterburner Decals
released their superb sheet for the F-16 I didn't need any more of a reason to
build one. The sheet has decals for four camouflage schemes which are used on
the F-16C/D Block 32/42/52 aircraft used and it's possible to build at least 16
jets from what's included although you'd need to use kit stencils. The
instruction sheet is also very informative about the aircraft such as the Block
type which colour of stencil is used and whether the airframe requires
strengthening plates added. There's also example loadout information provided for
the training and inert weapons used.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The kit itself was a
1/48 Hasegawa F-16C "Night Falcon" traded to me by my good friend
Graeme AKA Eng(Cheers mate!). The Hasegawa F-16 series has pretty much been
the accepted standard in this scale for about 20 years but may be forced to
relinquish the title by Tamiya. It went together without any major problems, but
I decided to do without a resin cockpit and instead added a pilot with a Dr Pepper
resin head. Very easy to use just a quick swap for the kit part. I also
swapped the P&W exhaust for an Aires one which is just beautifully detailed
and almost a drop in fit. Finally, I used the Cobra Company resin F-16
Aggressor set which provides the RWR antennae for the wing leading edges as
well as the ALQ-188 ECM pod carried on the centreline pylon. The wingtip rails
were SOL LAU-129 and the ACMI pod and training AIM-9M came from the spares
box.
I painted the model
using Vallejo Model Color paints sprayed through an Aztek 4702, masking by Blu
Tak ( A lot of it!). This was only my third time using an airbrush, but I'm happy
with the result. I sprayed (several coats!) Klear for a gloss finish then began
decalling over a couple of nights. The decals went down beautifully using Klear
as a setting agent. Finally I sprayed Xtracrlyix Matt varnish which
gives a nice semi-gloss sheen and dries very quickly. I'll probably
build a couple more F-16's using this sheet as I've several more F-16's in the
stash and they make a nice contrast to the standard grey scheme.
Thanks to Graeme for
the kit , Dr Pepper
resins for the pilot's head, Cobra Company for the ECM/RWR pods and especially
Afterburner Decals for the sheet.
References and
sources
Stephen
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