1/72 Revell and Hasegawa F-16's

by Michel Koster

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A couple of months ago I came up with the idea of building multiple kits at one time.  I had four F-16 kits at that time and after finishing some other kits that were on the list I started on them.  Just before the start of my one man group build, my stash of F-16’s grew with another bird.  So now I had five F-16's waiting to be built.  Here is a list of the kits:

- Revell 1:72 F-16 Mlu, F-16B Twin Seater and F-16C BLock 50/52 kit (All three are versions of the Revell kit)

- Hasegawa 1:72 F-16C and F-16D

I started of deleting all the unnecessary parts that were not used and replacing other parts with better detailed parts like the weapon pylons off the Hasegawa kits with the Revell ones.

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I also had to decide which markings I was gonna' use.  I had a huge poster of a F-16BM from the RNLAF on my room from 313 Sqn and that was the one I wanted to build, J-650, which I used the Revell F-16B kit for.  I had some Dutch Decals lying around and so the idea of the 316 Sqn 40 years Anniversary bird was born, F-16 Mlu kit was used.  And I also wanted to do a bird that was a test bird for the MLu program, and so the Belgian Air Force FA-93 was born with the Check six markings, using the Hasegawa C kit.  For the Hasegawa F-16D kit, I had no idea what to use, but I found the MJ decals in the box quite nice, so I used those. The last kit, the F-16 Block 50/52 kit was actually bought after the decals.  In a trade, I got Astra Aviano Decals and so the idea of a Aviano F-16C was born.  Now I know which markings I would, I could start the build.

The build was not straight out of the box.  For the Belgian F-16AM, I had to do major surgery.  I had a spare instrument panel and coaming from the Revell F-16B kit  that I managed to get onto the Hasegawa fuselage and also some IFF antennas.  The tail had to be replaced and along came a spare one from the spare parts box.  I also added the Carpace ECM system to it.  On the Aviano bird I had to replace the WAC HUD with a WAR HUD, and luckily the Eduard PE set has one and I used that one. More parts were used from that Eduard set like Scab plates (For the Aviano bird) and Missile Fins (To make my own smokewinders).  The 3 other F-16's were build mostly with parts from their own box.

Then came the time for painting.  I used Humbrol 125, 126 and 127 for the F-16 schemes.  The Colour of the burnercans is my own mix of Iron and Rust.  The Blue ring on the PW engines are a mix of Chrome Silver and Clear Blue, two colours from Tamiya.  I also did some canopy tinting on the F-16BM.  That F-16 required a gold tint, so I mixed up some Future with Smoke and Clear Yellow, after 3 coats of the paint I stopped cause the tinting looked really great for a first attempt.

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For the markings, I used decals from the sheets supplied in the kits and also decals from aftermarket companies like Dutch Decal, Astra Decals and Two Bobs (Service decals that weren't present anymore on the Astra sheet).  The serial for J-650 was not present as one decal on the sheets, so I used sliced up parts for the serial with the use of the Revell MLu and F-16B sheet.

The Final coat is from Revell 2 Matt.  The Aviano F-16 has a dead flat coat the other ones a more glossy matt coat.  This happened because the paintj ar that I used on the four birds with the glossy matt coat was empty and I grabbed a new one for the Aviano bird.  I added a bit too much thinner to it I think and he got another finish than the other four.

Weapon ideas came from pictures on the web and out of books.  J-650 has almost the same load out as the RNLAF F-16BM that is testing the JDAM's, only the ECM pod is on it.  Weapons came from the kits and from the Hasegawa weapons kits.

I'm very happy with the end result.  My favorite?  Well that is the RNLAF F-16BM J-650, I really like the look of it with the JDAM's and open canopy.

References I used was the Daco F-16 book, the Dutch book Called "F-16, 25 jaar in dienst van de KLu", pics from the web and my big poster on my room from J-650.

Michel

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Photos and text © by Michel Koster