Kinetic

1/48 Israel F-16I SUFA

Product #K48006 from Lucky Model www.luckymodel.com

Review Article by Dave Johnson on July 6 2009

 

The F-16I is the latest 2seater version of F-16 available from Lockheed Martin. Israel’s Peace Marble V foreign military sales program will obtain for the Israel Air Force (IAF) with 102 F-16’s. This is the largest F-16 acquisition to date for the Israeli’s. The Israeli’s have given the F-16I the nickname “Soufa” which means in Hebrew, “Storm”. The F-16I is based on the current Block 50/52 production line and has been designed specially for Israel. It has been reported that it has the flight range to strike targets in Iran and return without refueling.

 

Kinetic has been very busy producing a range of F-16 kits, the Sufa is the latest addition to their growing range. The box contains approximately 450 parts molded in gray and clear plastic, a turned brass pitot tube, and a small sheet of photo-etch for the Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFT). The kit also includes a weapon depot of its own! Sitting in the box is enough weapons to arm another F-16 or two –

 

2x 370-gallon tanks

1 x 300 gallon centerline tank

2 x Conformal Fuel Tanks

1 x AAQ-13 Lantirn Pod

1 x AAQ-14 Lantirn Pod

4 x AIM-9M Sidewinder

4 x AIM-9X Sidewinder

4 x AIM-120B AMRAAM

4 x AIM-120C AMRAAM

2 x AGM-65 Maverick

4 x Mk.82 (slicks)

4 x GBU-12 Paveway II

2 x GBU-24 Paveway III

2 x GBU-31 JDAM

4 x GBU-38 JDAM

4 x CBU-87

 

Only thing missing is some distinctively Israeli armament.

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The one thing that  jump out to me while I was fondling the sprues, that the Tires and hubs have been molded as separate items. No need of masking when painting, which I find very cool!! The rest of the detail on the kit is wonderful, fine engraved panel lines and rivets, the cockpit is nicely detailed and will look great with a coat of paint. The one addition that would been nice, would been a PE Seat harness for them. The afterburner has another nice feature with the grid being molded separate from the blade plate.

 

The instruction book is 16 pages long and printed in black and white. And contain the Paint and decal placement for the external stores and a load out guide. On a separate piece paper, printed in full colour contains the Decal and Painting guide for the Aircraft. The Paint call outs are given in the Mr. Color and Creos Aqueous paint ranges.

 

Decals in the kit give you four options of aircraft from two squadrons –

 

F-16I, 408, Negev Squadron, Israeli AF, 2007

F-16I, 422, Negev Squadron Israeli AF, 2007

F-16I, 425, Bat Squadron, Israeli AF, 2007

F-16I, 451, Bat Squadron, Israeli AF, 2007

 

While I was doing a bit researching about Kinetic and their range, some of the reviews from the early releases of their F-16 have mentioned, that there is a droop on the front nose. I googled for some built up images of the droop and started comparing them to the Sufa kit and it has appeared to me that small issue has been corrected in this kit… But then again, I am no rivet counter.

 

So, my final thoughts…

 

I think this kit will build into a great representation of an Israeli F-16I from the box and doesn’t require any major aftermarket detail sets.

 

I am looking forward to building this kit myself and already looking at adding Kinetic’s F-16C Barak to my collection sometime in the future.

 

I also would like to thank the team at Lucky Model www.luckymodel.com for the review sample that they provided me.

Dave Johnson

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Photos and text © by Dave Johnson