1/48 Hasegawa F-16C Aggressor

by Stephen Prior

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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.

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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

Photos and text © by Stephen Prior