1/48 Italeri F-16A Block 15 OCU 
Fighting Falcon

by Alex Sidharta

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  Indonesia Independence Day 2005 

 

Italeri F-16 in 1/48… a lot of words has been said regarding this model. Definitely not a Hasegawa Viper class but it does capture the look of a Viper.

 

I began building this model back some 5 or 6 years ago (or more ?), when Italeri first released them. It looked nice in the box so I bought 3 of them (F-16A, F-16C and F-16B/D) instantly. After finishing the cockpit (which was built without any references, only use my imagination… :-P ), I stopped building it because of the large amount of filler used for almost every step of the construction. L

 

Then, early this year, suddenly I decided to try to finish it as the base for Aztec’s Viper decal. After 2 weeks struggling with bad fittings, filler, sandpapers (and almost use a chainsaw….), finally the first paint can be applied. I used MM Flanker Medium Blue (instead of FS 35414 as stated), MM Intermediate Blue (FS 35164) and MM Blue (FS 35109) for TNI-AU’s (Indonesian Air Force) F-16 in “Blue Spot” color. It was not an easy time to paint as the paint was wrap-around.

 

 

Finished the paint in 3 days, a cleat coat of Future was applied to give a relatively smooth gloss finish.  Decaling, futuring, oil-paint weathering as usual before finally I applied a flat coat. Here was when the disaster begin. I didn’t know exactly what was happening but the flat coat and the oil paint underneath began to blend and left blotches all over the model. Fortunately, the blotches can only be seen in relatively small distance…

 

I armed my model with 2 AIM-9P-4 Sidewinder & 6 Mk.82 from Hasegawa Weapon Set, which I gave the bombs some graffiti frequently seen on live bombing exercises.

 

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Indonesia received 12 F-16A/B Block 15 OCU in 1989-1990 under Peace Bima-Sena program. Unfortunately, 2 aircrafts has been crashed and leave 10 Vipers operational under Skadron Udara 3 (Sk.U 3) in Madiun AFB. Further purchase of additional 9 aircraft were denied by the US due to Human Right accusation issue.

 

During these 16 years of service, TNI-AU F-16 has changed its color 3 times. “Blue Spot” color was the first applied during delivery, then changed to bright blue & yellow color of Indonesian Aerobatic Team “Elang Biru”, then once again changed to current grey-green “Millenium” camouflage color until today.

Alex

 

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Photos and text © by Alex Sidharta