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.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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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
Click on
images below to see larger images
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