1/48 Tamiya F-16 AM M5 80-3660

Royal Norwegian AF

by Sten Arne B Brunsby

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Well I'm not going to go into the history of the F-16.. that has been well covered by now.

This jet USAF serial 80-3660, tail number "660" was one of the first Block 15's delivered to the RNoAF and served for many years with 334th sqd based at Bode AB in Northern Norway. It was MLU upgraded in 2001 and upgraded to M5 standard last winter

wanted to build an RNoAF F-16 AM (MLU) for many years now and when Tamiya announced a Block 25/32 viper my mind was set.  I've been waiting for the Kinetic one for some time, but figured the Tamiya one could be rebuilt to Block10/15 standard without to much hassle as most of the parts are in the kit from the get go. I needed the A-style dragshute tail and some other minor details.  Tamiya has issued a photoetch set for this kit that also can be used for an AM/BM/MLU build. I knew some scrachbuilding had to be done, but this was easier than I'd anticipated.  And the build itself went relatively painless. I know some small blunders I did though. The call number on the tail is the wrong font, and I forgot about a couple of panel lines.

The Build:
The basic kit is the 1/48th Tamiya F-16 Block 25/32 rebuilt to F-16 AM Block 15 standard using

  • Resin A-style tail with dragshute from Wolf pack (and a lot of milliput)

  • IRIS-T missile "borrowed" from the Revell EF Eurofighter

  • Tamiya PE for F-16 C (scab plates, AOA sensors and pitot tube)

  • JHMTS "robot".. Hasegawa throttle grip for F-16 modified to look like the JHMTS sensor.

  • Decals from Zotz, Hasegawa, Tamiya, Vingtor and the scratch box

  • various details scrachbuilt

The main issue for this build is the tail area. The kit fuselage is matched up to the C-style tail that's allot larger than the A-style tail I was going to use.  After cutting off the mounting lugs I filled it up with Milliput making sure to mould it as close to the fuselage shape as possible. When dry I sanded the miliput to shape and rescribled the panel lines. The resin tail is a beautiful thing. It's just the tail base so the top has to be taken from the original kit. These two parts fit nicely together and the tail was then "blended" into the fuselage using Tamiya putty and some sanding to make it look like it was stuck on.

One other detail is the searchlight just below the RWR blister on the left-hand side of the nose. I drilled this out and used a blob of milliput to make some backing. and a tiny "spike" for the bulb, and finishing up using a drop of Clearfix to simulate the glass.

The M5's have a JHMTS sensor located just behind the pilots shoulder was made from a Hasegawa F-16 throttle grip. As I use Aries cockpits for my Hase'vipers I have a load of these in my scrachbox.  I cut the top to a cubical shape, added a little wire that runs along the inside of the canopy frame and painted the "robot" flat black. All done.

The cockpit is basically the same as any C-viper except for the colors.. the panel lines are all black in the MLU, this is allot more pleasant for the pilot when using NWGs than the gray panel lines in the C-, that lights well up when using NWGs. The two MFDs are black when not active but I wanted a little more life in them so I cut the decals for these to shape and used a drop of Clearfix to make the glass. I also used clairfix to simulate glass on all instruments. The seat is also kit-issue with the straps from Tamiya's PE set made for the viper.  The cockpit looks rather boring so I figured I'd add a little life to it. So I took the pilots head from the box, removed all the fleshy parts, and sat the helmet on the seat to liven it up abit.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

Painting and weathering the viper:

RNoAF Vipers are all light gray so the paintjob is fairly strait forward. After a layer of Tamiya primer I preshaded using Extracryllix FS 36118. This is a little easier to work with than flat black as many use. After this the main fuselage is painted Extracryllix FS 36270. The radome and RWR blisters I used the same color but added a couple of drops of FS36118.  The canopy frame has a black lining and this was masked off and then painted.  All leading edges, wings, tail planes and tail have a protective tape layer. This has a yellowish color to it, I masked the areas off and gave it a light layer of Tamiya clear yellow.

When I saw this particular plane last it was just out of the paint shop and clean as a whistle so I decided to add a little subtitle weathering. Using pastels I added a little grime where crew would normally walk on the wings and fuselage during flight inspections. And also a light wash to emulate fuel spills over the wing fuel cells. The underside also got some light weathering to simulate rubbers platter picked up during landing in rain/wet conditions. When happy with the basic weathering I sealed it off with future/klear and set the jet to dry.

Armament:  

When I saw this jet it was configured for BFM (Basic fighter manuvering trading) and had a light loadout.  One CAPAM-9L on the wingtip, One Captive AIM-2000 IRIS-T and a centerline fuel tank.  I used one of the AIM-9's from the kit, cut of the rollerons on the tail planes.  Paint was Tamiya royal blue and gunmetal on the seeker head.  The IRIS-T was stolen from a Revell Eurofighter kit and painted FS36375 (light ghost gray) with a blue "captive" band on the engine.

Decals and finishing.

There are no decal sets that depicts a RNoAF M5 F-16 so I had to put the decals together from various sources. Vingtors absolutely fantastic F-16  (check www.vingtor.net for details) sceet is the main "supplier" along with details from VV2 by Zotz and Hasegawa. All reacted well to MicroSol and when dry a layer of Klear/Future sealed the decals off.  Some light weathering using pastels and a light wash of burnt sienna and black to blend in the decals and I was all done. I did final assembly of the landing gear and tail planes, radome , doors and other small bits and pieces. 

This was a very satisfying project. The build went relatively painless and it turned out better than I expected.  The Tamiya kit is crisply detailed and easy to work with, so all in all I'd say this was an easier build than the standard Hasegawa viper conversion projects I've tried over the years. 

And not having tried the Kinetic kit yet I'd say this is a better way to go on building an MLU upgraded Viper than using the Hasegawa kit as base.  You don't really need to replace the cockpit as the kit one is fairly decent with a little work and close to all the parts you need are in the kit, except for the tail.

Sten

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

Photos and text © by Sten Arne B Brunsby