Construction steps for Tamiya 1/32 F-16

My dad just bought me the 1/32 Tamiya Falcon (having a dad who shares my hobby is AWESOME!). It is a SWEET kit. I haven’t started it yet, but I did read through the directions. I’m used to building aircraft by assembling the fuselage without the gear, putty/sand, painting, then assembling the wheels and armaments so that I don’t have to mask them while painting the fuselage. I assume I’m not alone in this technique.

It looks like the Falcon forces you to assemble the gear before you put the fuselage together. Does anyone have any tips for dealing with this?

Any general tips about this awesome kit are appreciated.

Hey I would suggest to you in purchasing TMMI(Tamiya modeling magazine international) magazine , it had an excellent 2 part series on how to build the kit and every thing you have questions on are answered!

I second that…

If you’d invested the cash to buy that tamiya kit, you should spend a few
bucks more for the tamiya model magazine…distributed in the UK and
available at just about any hobby shop for about $7.50. It does spend
a lot of print and photos to help guide you through.

Plus the magazine is very good if you’re building tamiya kits or not.

It’s also available from www.squadron.com

Tank

Thanks guys. The review is spread across two issues so I’ll be sure to pick up both.

On another note, does anyone have any tips for putting together the “remove before flight” tags? What kind of wire do I use? How do I bend it to the correct shape?

I use the floral wire- the finest. It works best for me. Hope that helps. I have that beast sitting in the closet waiting for time.