The exhaust nozzles on almost every jet kit are molded in
the “fully open” position, such as in the first image below.
This is usually the position that exhaust cones are in when
a turbojet aircraft is parked with the engine off.
When a jet engine’s throttle is moved up, the nozzle closes
down to boost the pressure of the outgoing exhaust. As more
throttle is applied, the outlet hole gets smaller and smaller until
the afterburner is engaged, when the nozzle fully opens again.
In most pictures of jet aircraft in flight, the nozzle is closed down,
like this:
Does anyone know about aftermarket burner cans in this configuration?
The prospect of cutting each exhaust feather loose, reshaping, and
repositioning is enough to make me consider opening my wallet! [xx(]
I have to disagree with you on this one - most of my kits actually have the nozzles molded in the closed position. In fact, I have purchased a few of the aforementioned sets of “open” nozzles just for this reason (I just like the look of the open ones sometimes… [:D]). But yes, you can get resin sets from Aires, etc., of corrected nozzles for many AC in either the open or closed position.
Mine is an F-16C “Aggresor” kit. I’m not sure how old it is, but it has one that is closed (not completly closed, more like at idle) and one you glue together that is open?
Mine also only has “open” nozzle option, I have kit number V0003:1500, building with Aires resin cockpit (fun fitting that bad boy I can tell you) and am trying to scratch a seamless intake.
I bet I know why you have two nozzles. Just a guess:
I’ve read that the Block 40 Hasegawa F-16C’s have two intake
options on the sprues: one “big mouth” and one “small mouth”.
Because these different intakes represent different engine types,
the exhaust cones are also different depending on the engines.
A nice feature. My kits only had the small mouth, but I got the
resin sucker from CE
