1/48 Eduard/Kinetic F-16 A Netz

Gallery Article by Bill Dedig on Apr 10 2015

 

      

I have a passion for U.S. designed, Israeli flown aircraft.  With that said, I met an Israeli aircraft photographer at the Telford model show in 2014. Ofer Zidon presented me with a photo of a F-16A he had taken. I have provided a photo of the photo below. These aircraft markings where available on a decal set of the F-16 A/B from Isradecals that I possessed. Fate has now dictated this project.

I happened to have the Eduard boxing of the Kinetic F-16A. Seemed like a perfect set-up.

This kit has tons of extra features and an amazing amount of parts and options.  However it also has some very challenging build issues. I am not going to go into each one, however a couple of notices I will provide.

  • 1. Why does it take 8 pieces to make a Tail.

  • 2. Lots of options on the control surfaces, which made for various fit issues

  • 3. The nose section alone required a few days of fitting and filling and re-scribing (see photo 4)

  • 4. The Eduard resin exhaust ,while very detailed, did not come close to fitting the plastic fuselage, lots of cutting and patching  (see photo 5)

  • 5. Somehow the nose was missing!!! Who knows. I tried Hasegawa nose -not close, Italeri nose-not close, finally a Monogram F-16 real early kit. Had to add strakes and used a Master pitot and AOA probes (I love their stuff). Small (tiny pieces of steel wire was attached to the nose and blended.  (see photo 6)

  • 6. The interior is beautiful and packed with tiny bits of details. I really love the final result  (see photo 7)

Click on images below to see larger images

photo 3

photo 4

photo 5

photo 6

You have to really have a passion to get involved in the schemes. Rolled Blu-tack and tape takes about a week of painting, drying, masking and repeat as necessary.
But I love the Israeli schemes way over the basic Greys and the results are worth the extra effort in my opinion.  (see photo 8 & 9)

F-16A NETZ photo by Ofer Zidon

Couple of Construction notes

  • 1. Used Future darkened with food color to tint the canopy as there is a difference between rear section and canopy.

  • 2. I added a ISRACAST F-16A set to this aircraft to match the Ofer Zidon photo, showing the chaff/flare dispensers.

  • 3. I used Ushi powders to generate the metallic finish on the exhaust petals and Alclad for the metal portion in front of the petals.  (see photo 10)

  • 4. Paints were a mix of Testors Acrylics and Gunze Sky for the Light Green. I did use Testors rattle can Flat Lacquer decanted for the final coating. I used the Gunze Clear as my clear coat for the decals and was very happy with this option. I will use Future on any other paints but not over Gunze (couple of cracking results).

  • 5. Some pre-shading and some basic lightening with basic colors to simulate fading.

Enjoy the photos.

Bill Dedig

Click on images below to see larger images

photo 7

photo 8

photo 9

photo 10

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Photos and text © by Bill Dedig