With several difficult builds in a row, I decided I needed something that I could get together relatively quickly and something that would not fight me as I put together a good-looking airplane. So about a month ago I pulled the Tamiya F-117 (with Hummer) and Tamiya F-16C out of my stash. The Nighthawk was a smooth build, as was the Hummer.
The F-16C is one of the best kits I have ever seen. It almost builds itself. The only filler I used was along the underside of the nose cone, which was probably more a factor of builder error than molding error. The only problem with the kit was its decal sheet. It came with a set of markings for an Arkansas Air National Guard unit that includes a giant Razorback … as a Texas Aggie, there was NO WAY that was going on any aircraft I will ever build. That would be almost as bad as buying a burned orange shirt or something.
So I scoured the web for decal options and found Caracal’s set for the Texas Air National Guard 149th Fighter Wing as of September 11 2011. The big feature of this was the markings depicting the Texas flag. The decal set only included the stars - meaning I was faced with a lot of masking to replicate the red, white and blue of the Texas flag.
I lost count of the number of coats of Future I applied, probably on the order of a dozen minimum. But it worked as I believe the flag design is very well represented. And before I go on, I must say that my character, as it is, is not one that is comfortable with tooting my own horn. In my professional life I go about my business and do things as well as I can but don’t like to say things like ‘Look at me!!!’ Yet that’s what I think I’m doing here, bragging on a well-done job (my opinion).
No add-ons for this build except I did use a mask for the canopy.
I strongly recommend this kit to anyone thinking of building an F-16. Tamiya is well known for its quality, and this kit is no different than, say, their F-4U Corsair or P-47 kits. Now on to the photographs.
The only thing left to do is to attach these little antennas to the aft ends of the wings, stabs and rudder, although this is not called for in the instruction manual but I have seen on other builds of this kit. I’m still trying to figure out what material to use and how to attach them.
Hope you enjoyed looking at this build.
Steven