Viper – Håkan Ekberg Music, tarot

6 March, 2022

F-16C German AF – update 4

After getting the cockpit and the exhaust addition in place, things went pretty fast, and the fuselage, wings, stabilizers and fin was assembled.

Not entirely without problems as there are some things to sort.

I had to cut a little to make the prolonged exhaust fit with the locator tabs on the inside.

Just to check, I fit the outer part of the exhaust to the body.

I think that turned out looking pretty good, and I’ll only need to touch up a little.

Next will be to sort out all the seams and also sort some panel lines to connect the upper and lower body panels. Then it’s time to start sorting the landing gears and some other stuff that will be needed later.

6 January, 2020

F-16C – build update 4.

Next up is the landing gears and some other small stuff that needs to be done. The landing gear and parts to the bay have small ejector pin marks that needs to be taken care of. Some not so easy as they sit in areas that are hard to reach with sanders, or even hard to scrape with a blade. A bit annoying that the front wheel have marks too.

Front landing gear assembled.

I also assembled the fin and prepared the stabilizers and flapperons. Here together with the parts for the landing gears and bay.

All the landing gear parts was painted white.

Some of them need to be turned over and painted on the other side.

When that is done I’ll paint details and add decals. I also intend to add some plumbing to the landing gears.

4 January, 2020

F-16C – build update 3.

First I painted the exhaust parts black. The afterburner ring was handpainted with chrome and gun metal. The inside of the can was dry brushed lightly with white.
The outside was painted with a mix of black and chrome, then I used a Molotov chrome pen to paint the rim.
The turkey feathers was painted in steel, and then masked of for the next colour.

Exhaust parts painted and partly masked.

After painting a mix of black and chrome on the inner feathers, I removed the masking.

Then I did a simple dry fit.

The inside of the feathers was dry brushed with an off white.

Quite happy with that. Now I only need to assemble it. I think I’ll give parts of it a black pin wash to enhance some details. I might also use sooth pigment from the Tamiya set.

2 January, 2020

F-16C – build update 2.

The cockpit panels was painted black and then dry brushed with the cockpit colour and then a slightly lighter shade.
Then the cockpit and wheel bay/intake was glued to the lower fuselage.

Lower fuselage with cockpit and intak/wheel bay. — Lower fuselage with cockpit and intake/wheel bay.

Then the upper fuselage was painted black around the cokpit frame and then glued to the lower fuselage. The upper fuselage consists of two pieces and even if the fit was nice, I had problems with getting the two halves level, so some sanding might be needed.

Now it starts looking like a plane, but still there’s a lot of small parts that needs to be done.
Next will be the engine where I’ve started painting everything black as a base for the metal colours.

30 December, 201930 December, 2019

F-16C – build update 1.

To fit the pilot to the handles in the cockpit, I had to assemble the seat and place everything in the cockpit.

Pilot fitted to the seat and the handles.

I painted the main gear bay and surroundings in white.

Then I painted the cockpit tub in ocean grey and the small tank in silver. the intake fan is painted in gun metal.

The seat also got some ocean grey. Forgot to add it to the previous picture.

The front part of the intake goes together quite nicely. Here the fuselage parts are just test fitted as the rod should be fitted first. But before that the seams needs to be taken care of and the inside of the intake painted white.

It’s quite a bit of pieces that needs to be sorted before I can start assembly the fuselage. Then I guess the whole build will gain speed and start to look like a plane pretty quick.

28 December, 2019

F-16C/J – Tamiya 1/48 – my Secret Santa build.

I recieved this kit as a part of a Secret Santa group build on a Swedish forum. I was gladly surprised to get such a quality kit.

As many airplane kits even this starts with the cockpit. I must say it looks quite nice and will look good with some dry brushing and picking out some details.

The loose handle is supposed to be fitted to the pilot’s hand, so I’m leaving it like that for the time being.

Next to do is the combined front wheel bay and intake, as both that and the cockpit needs to go into the lower fuselage in the next step.

There was quite a few ejector pin marks to deal with and not on easy to deal with places.

Next I’ll glue the top part of the intake, and try to get the seam as nice as possible, and get everything ready for paint.
I might need to to step ahead and assemble the seat and pilot, so I can get the arm and handle positioned right.

24 December, 2019

My gift from secret Santa! :)

Today (on Christmas eve) I got a package from a friend at a Swedish forum I’m a member of and where we held a secret Santa event we’re holding there for those who wanted to participate.

It looks like a quite nice kit, and Tamiya usually isn’t bad! I’ll do my best to do it justice. Hopefully I’ll have the colours needed.