ITALERI F16
A/B NATO FALCON
(Kit No. 1204) |
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1/72
F-16 A/B NATO |
My son Chris won this model for his
Crusader AA Tank at Wings 07 which was held at Moorabbin
Airport in November. Being into everything and anything
he had to open the kit on the way home to have a look at
it. His first comment to me was that the kit had lots
of detail and recessed panel lines. Upon arriving
home and having a closer look at the kit he was indeed
right!
The boxing is your usual 1/72 Italeri
size and design (refer pic below). Upon opening the
box there are three sprues, the main fuselage parts (Sprue
A) which includes parts for both the single seat F-16A
and extra seat for the F-16B version, two tail alternatives
and two exhaust alternatives. The weapons and
drop tanks were on Sprue B and the two canopy alternatives
(Sprue C). There are approximately 80 parts in
total. (Refer instruction pic)
The construction of this kit for Chris as
a 9 year old was very simple and straight forward and he
had no problems putting it together except for the undercarriage
leg braces which I helped him with. As the majority
of the F-16 version he choose was grey I told him to just
build it and we would paint it together when it was done. Except
for a little puty in the wing root where it appears he left
a little flashing on, so not creating a direct fit, he had
no problems knocking the kit up in about an hour and a half
to the point where it could almost be painted.
The colour schemes for the four variants
available were basically the same as your standard grey F-16s:
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36231
Dark Gull Grey
-
35237 Medium Grey
-
36118 Gunship Grey
-
36375 Light Ghost
Grey
-
Exhaust/Jet
After painting a coat of Tamiya enamel
clear gloss was sprayed on the kit to assist with placement
of the decals and weathering.
As previously mentioned there are decals to cover four country
variants. Chris chose the box cover scheme which of
an F-16B of the Royal Dutch Air Force's 313 Squadron. The
other schemes available were;
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F-16A of the Belgian Air Force's 2nd Wing, 2nd Squadron,
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F-16A of the Royal Danish Air Force; ESK.723, and
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F-16B of the USAF Arizona Air National Guard
The decals were excellent and relatively easy to put on. The
only problem was that there were decals left over that had
no corresponding match on the instruction sheet. I
had to look at a previous F16 model I had to find where some
of these went. Those that couldn't be matched to a
place weren't put on. Once in place, the kit was weathered
and washed with acrylic German Grey to bring up the panel
lines. The model was then sealed with a coat of dull
coat and the final touch ups and parts were added.
This is an ideal kit for a junior to attempt. The
parts fitted well (beside where Chris left on the excess
flashing on the wings and putty was required) and is a good
representation of an F-16B. He enjoyed building it
and loves the end result.
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