1/32 Academy F-16I Sufa

Gallery Article by Yoav Efrati on Oct 26 2010

 

When Academy announced the release of the F-16I Sufa in 1/32 scale in the November 2009 Nuremberg Toy Fair, I began building my Sufa.  By assembling parts common to the single seat and two seat F-16, such as intake, wheel well, exhaust and ejection seats, I was able to work on my Sufa while waiting for my kit to arrive. 

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I replaced the wheel wells and seats with exceptionally well detailed parts made by Aires.  Where the kit's excellent decals fall short, I used stencils found in IsraDecal Sufa sheet IAF-88.  Incorrectly sized nose and intake sensors and nose wheel door were replaced with parts to be found in IsraCast's upcoming correction set. 

This is my first 1/32 scale model after building 1/48 and 1/72 scale models for the past 30+ years.  One thing for sure, it takes a lot more time to complete a 1/32 scale kit then modeling in smaller scales.  Although it's easier to pick out the details in larger scale the corollary of this is that these details cannot be ignored.  The part's fit requires prior model building experience.  My favorite part of building this kit was the external stores which are beautifully molded and accurate.  I also want to commend Cartograph for the perfectly sized artwork and durable decal sheet, it was pure pleasure to use the kit's decals.  With the exception of incorrect orange and minor error in the Ahat squadron insignia this decal is pure pleasure – they even had the serial number of my Sufa correct!

The kit's instructions fall short in the painting department, and the hurdles that one must go through to make the Academy kit look the way it should are detailed in my article to be published in an upcoming issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling. 

Yoav Efrati

Photos and text © by Yoav Efrati