revell 1:72 F-16 solo display KLu

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 1:35 am

hi guys
so this will be my entry into this Sig
the pretty small Revell F-16 in the markings of the solo display team from the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu) or Royal Netherlands AirForce
the kit i will be using is this

the color scheme is the current scheme that is used by the solo display team and is in use by the team since 2009
but i will get to the history part later

so in this kit we have the following

the safety sheet , instructions and the pretty elaborate decal sheet (there is only 1 marking option)

a big bag with the sprues
the clear parts are in a smaller seperate bag

most of the fuselage parts

small parts and a tiny little pilot

a sprue with missles and fuel tanks
this is a bit much for a display aircraft as the only thing you need are the sidewinders and you need to modify those to make it accurate
the real version has 2 missle shaped smoke pods but all the other hardpoints on the plane have been removed

the clear parts aren't as good as i had hoped
the canopy has a bunch of shallow scratches that need to be plished out
and there is some flash but that is on almost all the sprues

and a better look at the decal sheet

so that is the kit
the sprues are from 2000 so it is basicly a 15 year old kit but this version was released in 2014
i am not overly happy about the flash that is on some parts but it looks like it can be removed without too much work

and now a little write up about the F-16 in general

the F-16 Fighting falcon
role : Multi role fighter , air superiority fighter
origin : United States
manufacturer : lockheed Martin Aeronautics and General Dynamics
first flight : 20th of January 1974
introduction : 17th of august 1978
status : active (in active service)
production : from 1973 untill the present day
production number : over 4540 units

specifications
lenght : 15,06 meters /49 ft 5 inch
wingspan : 9,96 meters / 32 ft 8 inch
height : 4,88 meters / 16 ft
wing surface : 27,87 square meter / 300 square ft
weight empty : 8570 kg / 18900 lb
weight loaded : 12000 kg / 26500 lb
weight max take off: 19200 kg / 42300 lb
powerplant : F110-GE-100 turbofan with afterburner
thrust , dry : 76,3 KN / 17155 lbf
thrust , afterburner : 127 KN / 28600 lbf
max speed ,sea level : mach 1,2 / 1470 km/h / 915 mph
max speed ,altitude : mach 2 / 2120 km/h / 1320 mph
combat radius : 550 km / 340 mi
max range(droptanks): 4220 km / 2620 mi
max G-load : +9.0 G

armament
gun : M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm 6 barreled rotating cannon with 511 rounds
hard points : 2 on the wingtips , 6 under the wings and 3 under the fuselage (2 of these are for sensors)
of these hardpoints the middle fuselage point and the 2 points closest to the fuselage under the wings are so called wet points wich means that these points are able to be used with external/drop fuel tanks
among the weapons the F-16 can use are AIM-9 Sidewinders , AIM-7 Sparrow (out of service) , AIM-120 AMRAAM ,AGM-65 maverick and the AGM-88 HARM
besides these missles it can use both guided and unguided bombs and was even capable to use the B61 and B83 nuclear bombs

the F-16 was the first fighter to use the fly by wire control system wich was a very big step up during the 70's when pilots had direct control over their plane
in the F-16 this was no longer the case as the computer flies the plane wich was also needed as the shape of the F-16 makes it very unstable so it needs constant steering to remain in a level flight or even to keep in flight
these computers can make a huge amount of steering corrections in a single second something that a pilot simply can not do (he or she is only human)
the F-16 was used as a replacement for F-104 Starfighter but in some countries like the Netherlands it replaced the F-104 and the F-5 wich we still had in service allthough they used it more for training and a ground attack role then allround fighter

but as i was searching for some photo's of the J-015 (the plane i will be building) i came acros a website that has background information on a lot of F-16's world wide but i will share that in the chat section as i think it could be usefull or intresting to others

but this is what i found about the J-015 from the Dutch Airforce
23th of august 1991 it was delived to the airforce from the Fokker factories near Amsterdam (our F-16's are licensed build in the Netherlands except for the first 5) it had the name 89-0015

24th of August1991 it was given the id number J-015 (this actually means it was the 15th F-16 we had) and was asigned to 313th squadron
at this point it was a Block15AJ OCU

January 1994 , J-015 was reassigned to 315 squadron

March 1994 , it was assigned to 322 squadron

April 1994 , it went to 311 squadron

August 1994 , it was again ressigned ,this time to 314 squadron

March 1995 , it was assigned to 312 squadron

13th of July , it suffered a bird strike and was damaged ,this was then repaired as the canopy suffered the most of the impact

then there was a gap wich is unknown as the plane was not put in active service right away after it was repaired

at some point before january 1998 it was converted to a Block 20 MLU (Mid Life Update)

18th of January 1998 it was put out of action and became a training plane at the groundcrew training school LLETS in Schaarsbergen (Netherlands)

July 1999 it was relocated to the Woendrecht AB but still was a training subject and was not air worthy at this point

November 2001 J-015 was put back into active service and was assigned to 315 squadron

january 2004 ,after nearly 10 years J-015 returned to it's original unit 313 squadron

summer 2004 , J-015 received a big sticker on the tail fin celebrating the 50th aniversary of 313 squadron

July 2005 ,J-015 was sent to Afghanistan as part of the ISAF mission ,it was still with 313

January 2005 , J-015 returned home to Volkel airforce base

April 2006 , j-015 was assigned to 306 squadron

1st of October 2007 , it was assigned to 311 squadron and was sent on a second mission to afghanistan as part of ISAF 6 months later it returned

April 2009 , J-015 was taken out of the regular flight circuit and was repainted in the solo display colors
up to this day the F-16 with number J-015 is part of the 311 squadron and flies in the bright orange colors of the solo display team

i don't know who is currently the pilot but for the first 4 years there where 2 pilots that flew this plane
but after i checked both names where either too small to read or wrong
the first time i saw this plane it had 2 names on it
on the left side of the canopy there was Sheikh and on the right side there was the name B**ch (i can't use the full word here)
these 2 pilots flew the plane 2 years each but also where eachothers replacement if 1 was unable to fly for any reason

and now some pictures of J-015

here she is in the very first color scheme and unit marking
the overall camouflage remained the same through the years and only the unit marking on the tail was changed
this photo however shows the sign of 313 squadron (atleast i was told it is)

and this is how she looks since 2009 and still does
i heared that all the solo display planes the Dutch airforce had are still in their demonstration colors and all serve as gate guards on the 2 remaining airforce bases we have in the Netherlands

so i hope you found this intresting allthough it was a long read
thanks for stopping by and untill next time
cheers ,Mark

now let the new year begin

Post by **peppie** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 2:41 pm

Nice scheme on this one Mark

MarkVerploeg wrote:now let the new year begin

I can't wait

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 3:24 pm

Same here
But i still have 2 builds to finish first

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 4:10 pm

Will be a cool colour scheme for sure
You have definitely done your homework here

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 4:31 pm

Twokidsnosleep wrote:Will be a cool colour scheme for sure
You have definitely done your homework here

All thanks to the world wide web
The only thing i already knew where the names of the pilots that flew it from 2009 up to 2011

Post by **ToddS** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 2:07 am

Nice Color scheme! This build, this SIG, is gonna be fun

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 8:55 am

Well i hope it turns out okay
The decals look a bit complex and i never donea build where half the plane is covered in large decals
There is a mask set for it so you can paint the lion on there but that set costs more then the kit so i will stick with the decals

Post by **rip1978** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 7:33 pm

I got one on the workbench but lost the landinggear while moving. One word of advice DO NOT FIT THE ELEVATORS UNTIL YOUR DONE WITH DECALS. i found out the hard way. There is a decal on the site that has to fit on the sides befor you fit the elevators.

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 7:41 pm

Thanks for the tip
i haven't had a look at the instructions yet but now i know what to look for

Post by **Lee** » Sun Dec 27, 2015 10:46 am

Good luck with those decals Mark

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Dec 27, 2015 11:00 am

Thanks Lee
after the warning from rip1978 i had a better look at the decal instructions and it looks like it can be done but the elevators need to be glued on later
the tailrudder could be a problem aswell but i will see that once i assemble that and then check if the decal over the engine can go over the tail or that i need to place the decal first
but it can never be as bad as the Phantom i did last year with over 400 decals

Post by **wookiee76** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 9:52 pm

That'll be an order for a gallon of decal solution then Mark, good luck and look forward to seeing your progress.

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 10:47 pm

Thank you John
i think the amount of decal solution won't be that bad
Revell has some very nice decals these days and with the last kit i made from them only small amounts where needed and that was in deeper panel lines
but this thing is covered in them so we will see

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 9:39 pm

Hi guys
Well then where to start
this kit is a pretty fun build but an easy one
so easy in fact that i have build it in 2 days
it is not completely done but i only gave a few spots of filler to sand and mask the canopy and then i can paint it
if i had orange paint so that would have to be ordered next week

But before i ramble on too much here are the progres pics of the build so far

it all starts with the cockpit tub aith a whopping 3 parts to it

then the seat
it has some detail but not that much

a little pilot with very long legs
allthough he fits in there

the opening for the gun needs to be added
i don't really understand why they make it like this
but they could have done a better job at it s it needed some filling around the edges

main landing gear bay
this actually looks pretty good

nose wheel bay

the front part of the air intake
there was a lot of flash in there and you need to add the fin in the middle

all glued together
there is a small seam line where they are gludd so that needs some sanding

the landing gear bay is then fitted in the fuselage

the tail waa build

the back part of the upper fueelage was glued on the lower part
there was a little seam on both sides where the elevators go but that was fixed very fast with a sanding stick

2 more fins on the lower part

the tail was fitted
again i needed to add a little drop of filler around the edges

the landing gear doors where added
i want to make it a in flight plane so they where closed
the nose gear door was the only poor fitting part of the build
and that needed a lot of trimming and fitting

the sidewinders are changed into smokewinders
all you need to do is sand it smooth and remove the fins in the front

i then needed to paint some things
i wasn't really in the mood to paint so i delayed that as long as i could
the cockpit is painted with grey and black grey
the dark parts where dry brushed with fieldgrey to highlight the details
the helmet was painted in deep yellow
this is just a basecoat because i only have clear orange at the moment

the decals where added

the little dude was placed in the seat

once that cockpit was ready i glued it in the fuselage part
i didn't do any washes or that kind of weathering as i think it is too small to really make a difference

the front part of the fuselage was fitted and the nose cone was added along with some other small parts and ofcourse the canopy

the burnercan was glued on a stick to make it easier to handle during painting

after a warning i got for this kit i had a good look at the decal instructions and there is a decal that goed on the side so tjese elevators need to be painted seperate and placed once the decals are on

i glued a large stick of a sprue in the engine area to make painting easier
this way i don't have to touch the plane during painting

and then the F-16 was ready for paint

allthough i need to fix these spots of filler first

and then i placed all the bits in a block of expanded styrene that i use to keep all the parts together

And that is all i have for now
it is a pretty nice little kit to build and i had a few good hours of fun to get to this point
so next step is to order some paint (and other stuff ofcourse) and then i can continue this build
thanks for stopping by and having a look
untill next time
Cheers ,Mark

Post by **patrickroos** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 12:10 am

Holy...thats fast!

Nice work so far Mark

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 12:53 am

Thank you very much Patrick
it was a pretty easy build so that helps a bit
besides that i didn't use washes and that kind of stuff so no drying times for varnish and washes
saves about 12 hours i think
and i had a huge amount of mojo on the first day of the year and build most of the F-16 in a few hours
and a La-5 interior but that is not done yet and i need to make a thread for that one

Post by **ToddS** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 2:53 am

Yumpin yimminy dude! Talk about fast!!

really nice work.

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:18 am

Thank you
but like said before it was a easy kit to put together
that helps a lot and skipping some weathering techniques saves time
i really think that washes woudln't have made much difference in this crammed and small cockpit
i will do some washes on the exterior later as that will be seen and the large decals make pre shading useless because i would have parts with shading and parts without if i do pre shade
But looking at the photo's of the real plane it looks very clean and only some panel lines are visible so that will be the plan for this build

Post by **Homerlovesbeer** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:47 am

Lovely work so far...nice!

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 11:38 am

Thank you

Post by **peppie** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 8:07 pm

Uhm..... I have not even started yet...

Do you allready know what you are going to use to display it?

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 8:12 pm

I will print out a aerial phot probably and use 2 stiff metal wires that i glue in the Smokewinders and add some smoke to them
but i'm not 100% sure yet
i can't do much at the mo.ent because i can't paint it (lack of orange paint)
so i have some time left to think about it

Post by **Avgas** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 2:24 pm

Looking good Mark.

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 2:30 pm

Avgas wrote:Looking good Mark.

Thanks Dave

Post by **Nige201980** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 7:54 pm

Cracking work so far Mark

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 8:57 pm

Thank you very much Nige
allthough the challenge will be in the paintwork i think
there arw some decals for the black parts but i think i will trace them and mask it to paint it on
thanks for having a look

Post by **chief5437** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 1:55 am

Wow! That came together quick, nice work Mark! I built one of these a few years back, I got some pearlescent orange paint from an art shop. Looked great until I put a wash on it without varnish!! I was still learning the basics at the time (still learning now!)

Good luck with the rest of it buddy

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 2:21 am

Thank you very much Chief
i found the color i want for it but i need to make a bigger shopping list as i don't want to order just 1 bottle of paint and then 6 times more for shipping so i need to have a look if there is some more stuff i want
i still wonder about the idea of the metal paint that revell has for this kit
the real plain is gloss orange with dark orange and black and all are gloss finished paints not metallic or anything
i have been near this plane several times so i would have noticed something like that (i like to think)
i think i will have everything i need by next week so i can go on with the build
cheers

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sat Jan 09, 2016 7:39 pm

Hi guys
just a mini update for now but the F-16 is painted so i thought i would show what is going on at the moment before i put it in a clear coat and put the decals on

i started with the orange
i mixed it using H14 orange and H24 yellow orange in a 2:1 ratio as both where the wrong color
this is no exact match but it comes close enough for me

a lot of masking tape later it looked like this

after i painted it with XF-2 flat black and removed the masks it looks like this

i started painting the engine with Alclad jet exhaust

as a second color i used Alclad pale burnt metal
i didn't cover the first coat completely to make the first color shine through a bit

and the ring at the end is brush painted with mr metal color stainless steel

So now it is ready for a clear coat and later the decals
And that is all i have for now
thanks for stopping by and having a look
untill next time
cheers , Mark

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:12 am

Hi guys
so just a little update for now
i have been busy with the decals for this build
and to be honest i am not very pleased with the quality of them
the have conformed to the shape of the plane but i used a quarter bottle of micro sol to get it that way
i don't think it is because they are to thick but more the design wich isn't design around the raised details
it took me about 5 hours to get all the decals on there wich makes it my second largest decalling project to date

But here is the Solo Display F-16 after the decals went on

To be honest i like the result but it could have put up a little less of a fight to get it where it is now
i will put it in another gloss coat tomorrow and hopefully i have a wash on there by the end of the day
i am not sure anout the final varnish coat yet as i think a gloss coat makes it shine too much so maybe i will do a satin coat instead
but i haven't made up my mind about that yet
thanks for stopping by and having a look
cheers ,Mark

Post by **rwsmith14** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:26 am

WOOOO HOOOOO !!!!

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 2:03 am

Thank you
glad you like it

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 5:59 am

Nice paintwork man, worth two holy cows

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 7:29 am

Thank you Scott
glad you like it

Post by **peppie** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 11:22 am

Looking great Mark

The decals may have been a pain, but they look perfect in the pics

I would go with the satin finish, much more realistic in my opinion.

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 12:07 pm

peppie wrote:Looking great Mark
The decals may have been a pain, but they look perfect in the pics

I would go with the satin finish, much more realistic in my opinion.

Thank you Peppie
my thought about the varnish is that gloss maybe a bit of overkill as it would have a bit too much glare when you look at it
i think that i will do a satin coat and if it is not what i want i can still spray it with a gloss coat

Post by **ToddS** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 3:08 am

Holly crap man!!! Wow is all I can say

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 8:58 am

ToddS wrote:Holly crap man!!! Wow is all I can say

Thank you very much ToddS
i only have 1 more thing to do on this build by now
i put it on 2 metal wires as a mount but i will cover those wires with some cotton to make them look like smoke and then it is done
Thanks for the comment
cheers

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 12:47 pm

Hi guys
so time for the final update
i finished the build a couple of minutes ago and uploaded the last pics so i can do this update and the final reveal

after the decals i put on another coat of Aqua gloss to seal the decals
once that was dry i applied a wash using Mig prod. Dark wash

once the wash was cleaned up and dry i aplied a coat of vallejo satin gloss
i used satin because i think it was too shiny with the gloss coat
i hoe you can see it here
bit it is less shiny then before

the masks where removed
To reveal i had some glue stains on the back part of the canopy
i tried but i couldn't get it out completely

because the plan was to have it in a inflight configuration i placed some metal wires in the Smokewinders
i twised a second wire around them to make them a bit stronger
i picked up a piece of wood that i used for displaying a tank to use as a base for this
it is ordinary wood wich i colored by brushing on some vallejo modelcolor smoke and before that could dry i whiped it down with kitchen paper to get a sort of dark staining

a test fit to see if the wire is strong enough to carry the model
if not i had used some more wires and wrapped those around the wires i already used

i then used some cotton balls that i pulled apart to get a long stretch of it that i can use as a smoke trail
i glued the point of the cotton to the wires and wrapped them around the wire to make the smoke

once the cotton was wrapped around the wires i pulled them apart a bit more to make it look more like smoke

and then i put the wires back in the holes i made in the wooden board

And that is all i have for this build
the rest of the photo's will be put in the final reveals
thanks for stopping by and having a look
untill next time and happy modelling
Cheers , Mark

Post by **ToddS** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:04 pm

Awesome work!!

Look fwd to final photos

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:29 pm

Thanks
i posted the final reveal a couple of weeks ago
you can find it here
http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 47&t=16188

Post by **ToddS** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 11:25 pm

Howdy,
Did you apply a wash to the build?? Just curious. Trying to decide if I am going to or not...

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sat Mar 05, 2016 12:30 am

Yesi used washes on it
i used Neutral and Dark wash from Mig productions but i didn't use much
just to show the panel lines
it is a display plane and it is cleaned on a regular basis so it doesn't get very dirty
but i had to do a wash because i didn't do a pre shading so the panel lines where barely visible after the paint and decals