1/144 Academy F-16A

Gallery Article by S K Loh on June 12 2019

 

      

I have been using the Academy 1/144 F-16A Falcon as the base kit for all my builds making it with some other self-made markings so far. I have never given much thought to the original markings that cane with the kit. This time my curiosity took the better of me and I decided to search for info on this particular marking. 

I learnt that this marking was on the F-16A Block 15 S/N 81-0908 assigned to the Commander 8th Tactical Fighter Wing stationed at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea. It bore the tail code WP(Wolfpack) 8TFW instead of the usual serial number on the tail. It had the yellow/light blue tail stripes on its fin. The yellow stripe belonged to 80 TFS while the light blue tail striped belonged to 35TFS both operating under the command of 8TFW. It had a new wolf marking aft of its canopy as well as a art design wolf done on the port-side main landing gear door. 

8TFW previously operated the F-4 Phantom IIs and it was the first active-duty Fighter Wing outside the US to be equipped with the F-16 Falcons. 8TFW had quite an illustrious history having involved in both the Korean War and the Vietnam Conflict.

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And so I decided to build it with the original marking this time. The usual modifications and enhancements had to be done to render it reasonably decent looking of a F-16A Block 15 as per all my previous builds using this kit. I had to supplement with self-made stencils and walklines to improve its overall look.

Paints were custom mixed using basic Mr Hobby and Tamiya acrylics and handbrushed this time. Gloss coats were applied pre and post decal application. Weathering was done and two coats of flat were airbrushed on to reduce the sheen.

Finally I did up a base with self made decals for it. Enjoy the photos.

S K Loh

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Photos and text © by S K Loh