1/32 Tamiya F-16CJ

by Chuck Sawyer

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I built this Viper strictly OOB, except for some Eduard photo-etched interior bits and TwoBobs decals, which is mostly just for the tail anyway. AF 910379 of the 79th FS is not exactly unique since the kit comes with decals for this bird, but I did like the unique demarcation of the upper fuselage colors and I’m a sucker for unique tail art, in this case a faint tiger head applied in chalk during deployment to Saudi Arabia in 2002. During this time period, the aircraft was tri-colored, had a tinted front windshield, clear rear and no bird slicer antennae on the nose.

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Besides tinting the front windshield a yellow gold, I raised the front flaps a few degrees to match how they look when parked. I used the opened up gun compartment and front radome, but I cemented in the engine.  I also painted the battery red (vs. kit instructions blue), added red to the flare dispensers and painted the leading edge of the front flaps a darker color underneath as per many photos I found in Jake Melampy’s “Modern Viper Guide”, which I found indispensable during the assembly.

The build went fairly smoothly and the only difficult part was in and around the front intake which took a lot of putty and sanding to look just right. There’s also a huge gap between the HUD display and the nose of the aircraft, but I used masking tape, white glue and a wet cue tip to fill and smooth out the imperfection with pretty good results.  I hope you like it.

Chuck Sawyer

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Photos and text © by Chuck Sawyer