There’s a seam line on both the canopy and the rear window, which needs to be taken care of. I found out how to do it on Phil Flory’s Youtube channel. The first thing to do is to put blue tac or clay inside the canopy to prevent it from breaking. Then I started with the course side of a nail sander/polisher and carefully sanded down the seam line.
Then I used a sanding sponge to take out the scratches from the sander, also wetting it a bit while sanding. Next step is to use a polishing stick also with a bit moist, and do circular motions and lastly finish it off with the smoothest stick polishing the last bit. I you have you can also use some polishing compound. Something I intend to get!
I tried on the rear glass first, just to see how it worked.
Polished rear glass
Here’s a pic of the canopy with the seam line visible.
Visible seam line
After doing the steps mentioned above, it looked like this!
Polished canopy
I am quite happy with that, but I still opted for a little dip in Pledge.
Canopy clear coted
Lastly i just tried them on the plane!
Canopy test fitted
I can’t see there ever was a seam line, so I’m happy! 🙂
I added some bb-gun bullets to the nose cone. The instructions doesn’t say anything about adding nose weight, but I rather be safe than sorry! 🙂
Nose weight added
The nose was then glued to the body. As can be seen are the holes I made for the probes and pitot.
Nose added
I did a little test fitting of the seat and canopy, and at first I couldn’t get the canopy down over the seat. I turned out I had put the seat slightly wrong.
Seat and canopy test fit
With the canopy in open position that little misstake wouldn’t matter much, but still it’s better to get it right!
So the seat and the fuel tanks was painted grey.
Seat and fuel tanks painted grey
The tanks needed some more putty and sanding, which will be taken care of.
The seat was painted and given seat belts made of thin cut tape. Here the seata is placed in the cockpit.
Seat in place
Some covers glued in place.
Covers in place
As well as some small covers on the underside.
Fins and covers in place
The inside of the wheel bay doors was painted white.
Wheel bay doors painted
Next will be the seam line on the canopy parts, that needs to be removed and polished. I just hope I can do that without damaging anything and getting a good result. I ordered a set of Flory sanders and polish sticks, that I will try out once they arrive which might take little more than a week.
The intake wouldn’t fit properly angainst the rear part.
Intake not aligned
Someone told me to remove those tabs in the upper front (against the body) parts to help get the intake in place easier, and I can see why, but perhaps the whole cover should have been assembled after the inner part of the intake was in place as it should. After some work and minor cursing, I got it to sit better, at least against the body.
Intake in place
I still had to use plastic sheet and putty to sort gaps.
The exhaust parts was painted on the inside with black metal and then assembled, and then got some steel paint on the outside along with the petals.
Exhaust parts painted
Then the petals parts got some black metal.
Petals painted
To get the exhaust pipe to sit right wasn’t easy and not as easy as it seemed when I test fitted it. The idea was to make it possibe to insert it after the body was painted. That didn’t work so well.
The rim is a bit too wide
The rim was too wide and wouldn’t fit. After some work, sanding off inside the edge I could push it in and later glue it in place.
Exhaust pipe glued in place
I just have to mask that later when painting.
The ejection seat was assembled.
Ejection seat
As well as fin, under wing tanks and pylons.
Some parts assembled
Still more to assemble and also some decisions to make, like if the canopy should be open or not.
This is a kit I got from my Swedish Secret Santa at IPMS Gothenburg. It looks like a nice kit, but it’s from Kinetic and they doesn’t always measure up. Anyway here’s the boxart!
Boxart
First I painted some black on the interior as a kind of pre shade.
Interior pre shade
Next up was the parts for the inner intake/rear wheel well. This isn’t very pretty!
Ejector pins
Not very hard to sort, a bit of grinding, filling and sanding takes care of it.
Filler applied
The cockpit was painted grey and then the panels black.
Cockpit painted
Intake fan painted.
Intake fan painted
Getting sprue ends on the details, creating more jobb than just some simple sanding to remove is not making me happy. But maybe I’m too picky! 🙂
Sprue gates on part
After some work I could assemble the rear intake/wheel well.
Rear wheel well
Then it got some white paint both inside and out.
Painted white
As I needed to paint white on one small detail for the well, I decided to sort a few more things to paint as well. Part of the upper interior was also painted black.
Landing gear parts and cockpit parts painted
Some more parts was added to the well and the cokpit got some dry brushing to pick out some detail.
Cockpit and well details
Some parts needed some additional white and the cockpit got a gloss clear cote.
More white paint
The intake/well was installed in the bottom fueslage, and things are getting ready for assembly.
Rear intake installed
The cockpit got a wash and a little bit of dirt/sand.
Wash and sand in the cockpit
The tires got some black paint.
Tires painted black
I decided to have open air brakes, something I usually don’t have or have to option to do. So I needed to do some cutting and assembly of the brakes in open position.
Airbrakes in open position
This kit as well as any other Kinetic kit have very nice details, and on this one it looks like they looked a lot on how Tamiyas kit was constructed. So far so good, but they don’t reach Tamiyas level of quality and precision. There is always a little more to do and check before assembly, and most often you need to check and testfit long ahead. Still this kit so far have had the best fit, and only small adjustments were needed.
Anyway I could now glue the fuselage halves, and by gluing them bit by bit, it went together fairly well.
Fuselage assembled
Next step was the front part of the intake which also holds the front gear bay. Some minor fit issues that was sorted by a little sanding. The part that created a bit of a problem was the thin strut inside the intake. I accidently broke it when trying to get it in place, and it didn’t look good after gluing it together. So I decided to use some thin plastic to create a replacement.
Replacment strut
The original strut can be seen laying beside the intake.
Part of the problem was that I haden’t cleaned up the holes properly. Whit that in place I cut off the ends and continued with the covers around the intake.
Intake with lip
Here I will need some putty as even though I tried to make it fit, I still ended up with visible seams.
Next will be sorting the seams and putting it in place, and then continue with the rest of the build. As with all F-16’s the landing gears and the stuff in the well creates a bit of a problem. I’ll see if I can solve it and hopefully not have to mask the plane with the gears mounted.
