Egg Sixteen

Hasegawa’s model kits are highly regarded among modellers. Whether this is deserved – I have no idea. As it so happens, I haven’t built anything from this manufacturer’s range so far. Now I have finally decided to change that.

A tough choice

After digging through piles of boxes, it turned out that I have only one model with the right origin in my stash. With a rather unconventional boxart.

Well, I've seen worse, much worse. After all, it's not uncommon for Asian manufacturers to reissue kits in quirky looking boxes with some cartoon characters. That must be something like that.

Cuts

Hasegawa’s years of experience in model making is evident from the start – kit designer needed only a couple of parts to recreate the F-16 in plastic form. Furthermore, assembling the basic parts of the airframe revealed that the opinions about the accuracy of Hasegawa’a models are not exaggerated. Just look at that – like a real F-16!

I knew from the start, that I want to recreate a Polish Air Force machine, which requires adjusting some elements of the kit accordingly. The engine nozzle, for example, does not quite resemble the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 unit used in our machines (the box doesn't say which production block the sprues represents – perhaps powered by a General Electric engine?). So without a delay I got down to cutting and fixing.

Fortunately, I am no stranger to scratchbuilding, so after only a few weeks of laborious tinkering I had a new nozzle ready, much more correct of course. I didn't even count how many new pieces were needed, let the photos speak for themselves.

Corrected part temporarily installed in its place looks so much better – resin aftermarkets can go home!

Now a layer of primer for the fuselage (because too much is reflected in these smooth surfaces) and it's time to get down to the cockpit.

Essential step

But not so fast! Although the model already appears to be a perfect representation of the original, it would be appropriate to confirm this, as a true modeller should. So I rushed to rummage through my library in search of suitable plans. Found them in a book issued some time ago by a Polish publisher.

The ritual of placing the miniature on the drawings left no doubt – the Japanese manufacturer captured the distinctive silhouette of the American fighter jet brilliantly.

Now I could continue working on the model with a clear conscience.

****pit

To be fair, not everything was that rosy – out of the box cockpit interior looks rather poor. One might even suspect a conspiracy with manufacturers of the aftermarket detail sets. Hmm…

I didn’t fall for it and decided to make the necessary details myself. The first aid kit for example, because it's a “must have” for every vehicle, right? Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room on the rear shelf for the nodding dog figurine…

I don't know why Yahu, manufacturer of the ready-to-use instrument panels, doesn't have a piece for this model. Well, scratch it is then. A bit of fiddling and the period appropriate display unit ended in the cockpit.

Which, as you can see, was painted earlier. Anyone curious about the colours? Because I wrote the numbers down.

Some guy

I don't know if you've already noticed, but I decided to make my F-16 “in flight”. This obviously involves finding a proper crewman. Luckily I found some willing dude in the box.

Elephant man was slightly modified and coloured. Painting the helmet's glass was the most time-consuming task – first I applied Mr Metal Color MC218 Alminume (Aluminium) to a base of glossy black Tamiya X-1 paint, next sprayed it with Gunze H92 Clear Orange and then shaded with transparent Tamiya X-19 Smoke and the aforementioned black gloss. Simple.

If you look close enough, you can spot another intricate detail made form scratch, with which I Polonised the puppet.

I must say, this is the best figure I have ever made!

Closing time

Finished pilot was seated in the cabin, but unfortunately I apparently misadjusted the seat, so the sleeve patch will be quite hard to see.

Now I was finally able to cover the whole thing with one-piece glass, which I had painstakingly polished beforehand.

Then I reached for the yellow self-adhesive tape from some unknown Japanese company and marked out the windows edges with trimmed strips. The insides were filled with a bit more tape plus some gooey and sticky stuff, yuck.

The engine air intake was masked earlier (tape plus sponge). Oh, and before that – I painted it white.

Not that many shades of grey

I started the painting in a fairly conventional manner by spraying the glass with the cockpit interior colour. Grey as you can clearly see.

Then I prepared the model for application of the camouflage, i.e. I evened the whole thing out colour-wise with another coat of primer. In result I got a uniform surface of a relatively light colour to paint.

Camouflaging started with the grey FS36375 shade, which one can find in a jar marked H308 from Gunze.

The second colour, forming slightly darker patches, was not so easy – I didn't have any paint with a matching number (FS36270) at hand. So I reached for the bit darker Gunze H307 and painted the spots in transparent layers until I was satisfied with the saturation.

I cleverly achieved the effect of the elusive borders, visible in some of the photos, by – you’ll never guess it – painting the borders. Using the same paint as the camouflage patches, but darkened with a few drops of Tamiya XF-63 German Gray.

Front was sprayed with the same mixture – only with more layers to achieve a slightly darker shade.

Thereby, the painting stage of the build was completed.

Meanwhile

Well, not quite. In the meantime I also took care of the meticulously scratch-built engine exhaust nozzle. First it received a coat of primer.

Then a black gloss from Tamiya's palette, on which I applied Aluminium (Gunze) and Burnt Metal (AK Interactive) metalizers.

Adding a bit of Tamiya Smoke paint at the end was the final step.

The finished (well, almost) nozzle, will be however installed at the very end of the build (of the aircraft too, by the way), as the hole in the back of the fuselage is excellent for holding the miniature, without leaving everywhere greasy fingerprints.

Meanwhile 2: Electric Boogaloo

Pst… Before we go any further, one more thing. In the aforementioned meantime, I have also prepared kit missiles.

I liked them so much that I immediately decided to install them. In the dumpster.

Remarks about marks

Weirdly enough, the kit was released without markings for the Polish machine. Outrageous! Fortunately, I was prepared for this, as I had stocked up in advance with a suitable set of decals produced by Techmod.

On a solid-sized sheet I found absolutely all the markings I needed.

Why exactly this side number? I know, but I won't tell. Guess for yourselves.

Not that many shades of grey + 1

Remember how I said that the painting phase was over? I lied. Using an airbrush I highlighted some of the miniature's control surfaces.

Now the painting can indeed be considered finished. Trust me.

Wash & go

Time for the controversial step of pouring paint into the panel lines. Black one of course, only black, there is no other option here, and the appropriate one is black. All the lines that, in my opinion, needed this treatment were filled with the ready-to-use solution from Tamiya.

However I must confess here to a fairly embarrassing mistake – I used a dark grey wash. Forgive me.

Extensive weathering

Only joking. After all, it's a well-known fact that planes don't get dirty. Let's move on.

Clearly bit matt

Last, and I really mean least, time I used an airbrush to apply Gunze clear matt varnish onto the model.

Jar marked GX114 if anyone was curious.

Finishing

Very few things remained to be done. Install the ventral fins in their proper places.

Plug the hole in the rear of the fuselage with the finished nozzle.

And finally unmask the glass.

That seems to be all. But there was one more aspect of the build left to be addressed.

Impaling

My F-16 was supposed to be in flight, and for that you need a suitable stand. Admittedly, there were some parts in the box for assembling such a thing, but frankly they didn't suit me at all. So, in the best traditions of junk modelling, I made my version from a broken bicycle spoke, a piece of deodorant packaging and some screws from a scrapped office chair.

I happened to visit a couple modelling shows, where I observed a tendency to make tall stands, so since the higher the better…

The miniature can be screwed on and off the stand without any problem.

I may not have mentioned it (well, I'm sure I didn't), but the fuselage was drilled at the very start of the build and a hunk of plastic with the matching nut was glued inside.

The End

That’s all folks! Miniature’s finished – maybe not the best looking, but utterly accurate.

More photos as always can be found in a separate gallery entry, comments full of praise are of course welcomed.

MMXXII