This GB is now restarted. i've amassed kits over the past few months and years but now i strike forth!

i have assembled the fuselages and cockpits of a dozen f-16s from various brands the past few rainy days. Most of them are lacking in details, but i won't be concerned as the partially tinted canopies will hide them. i will probably do some detailing on the seats and side panel coamings, as all canopy closed and no point looking. (some of them are atrocious anyway.)

any way, here's what i've got planned in the inventory list and subsidary GBs
3 tamiya/italeri + 1 revell for Netherlands Dirty Diana GB.
1 hobbyboss, 1 academy, 1 matchbox, 1esci, 3 kitech(with casted parts) for European Vipers GB, from Norway, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Denmark and Turkey.
2 kitech for Chile and Venezuala
2 fujimi,1 academy, 1 kitech for Indonesia , south korea, singapore and thailand
and 1 vintage yf-16 in prototype scheme.
total tally 18.


well how do i keep track of which plane is which country? you guys might ask. the answer lies in the exhaust plug. i write down the assigned country on tamiya masking tape and then stick it there.


shouldn;t take me too long to finish these. more updates coming soon. as for now, time to sand down the tamiya putty parts, and start casting my ADF tails and spines.

-edit, mods, i don't know how to post my wip! should i post it as one massive lump of photos of the entire GB or following each individual f-16's progress seperated accoding to themes into more threads on the forum? i mean i could end up with 4 or 5 threads based on the list above

WOW!!!

This is really a mass-production project. 18 Vipers in 1 go!

I think you can lump all your WIP here. Too many threads means too many to update... and to keep track.

yup.. wow.. and to think u "might" be able to bring it to VGB is just awesome...

agreed with xamel.. 1 lump sum in here should be ok and easy for you to manage.. :D


wait to see it in VGB :D

kuman

jaw dropped liao... :blink:

here we go here we go!! hobbyboss 1/72 A. the one with the nice norwegian tigermeet tail that got me suckered.

kit is SIMPLE to build. 2 halfs top and bottom. fits quite well and removes need for sanding down wing root seams. however. there is an austere lack of details everywhere! and considering it is the same price as a academy kit.. i would get the second if not for the decals.


cockpit is bare!


no detail in the wheel well


the design of the intake reduces puttying and seams.


horriboss provides the long tail seperate, allowing us to build the european and singapore longtail A version. but don't be happy yet, the shape and size of the extended tail is 150% wrong.


and as for stores? 2 nugget shaped fuel tanks!


the pylons were attched to the wings


and this is the worst part about horriboss. the instruction asks to slide and fit the landing gear struts AFTER you assemble. very difficult to slide in and twist, and espeically after painting, there is bound to be some scratch marks. well now you know.

and moving on to the vintage but decent Fujimi kits. Here i have a B and the ADF, one of the only true ADFs that provide the right shape tail. but no spotlight on the chin. still, there was no competition in sight until the tamiya/italeri half hearted extra piece many years later.



cockpit detail is as usual, bare. with gaping caves behind the ejection seats . the side panels are way too small, something reminiscent of prehistoric airfix kits. i didnt bother to fill up the back, as i didn't know there would be gaps. (gasp!) oh well, hope the smoked canopies can do their best to hide.


the easy moulding process, where there is a standard fuselage, and extra cockpit area for 1 or 2 seater, is evident here. and associated with it, is the puttying and filling of seam lines!


landing gear bays. are typically, empty of details.


the front of the bay was empty. this, i had to do something. i made a template using paper, and then transfered it to placard, and then filled up the gap.





the unique intake design was meant to reduce puttying, but at the expense of a wrong curve on the triangle-main intake joint area.

here is the esci, putty the wings, and fill up the underwing pylon holes.. this will be done in the Belgium airforce 'spitfire' markings



and here is the notorious tamiya/italeri kit. the staple of many new modellers into the hobby, i've seen many young kids carry this kit around at airshows, toy departments, because its the most easily available kit of our RSAF fighter. well, this kit sucks! if i may say it plainly, age is surely caught up, and it can't be made into the newer version of the f-16 without some serious work.

fuselage assembled first


the spine require heavy filling bcos of the optional 1/2 seat coaming piece


landing gear detail is sparse


that notoriously horrible A tail of the italeri kit. filling is required, and sanding too.


now multiply that by 5


wings have been attached, and i tried fitting the tailplanes but they are inaccurate! the tailplane end does not flush with the airbrak tips, there is about 15cm more of tail on the real thing, so i modded the stub. simple stuff.

left unmodded, right modded. the stub was cut shorter.

---

also finished assembling the pile of kitech. and casted with rubber mould a block 50 'big mouth' intake for the Chilean A.F. version




to the temporary shelf!


1 of the special kitech, italian ADF filled up the pylon holes.

the spine backed kitech were fitted with Gojucast epoxy CFTs and spines.


initiate Operation Falcon Fury - the multi tone grey paint on all the kits. first i preshaded most of the kits, the Dirty Dianas, European Tigers, Asian vipers etc..


this is followed by the nose cone grey. which was sprayed and masked.
after that i sprayed the front fuselage grey (middle grey according to myself) following that, spray the wings and top side (dark grey)
for the wing root joint at the flaps and elevator area, i masked out the dark grey after it was sprayed, and then delivered carefully aimed shot of the middle grey.


and multiply by a few times


also i sanded the the acadmey canopy which have a seam line running down the center.
i bought a emery nail buffer


the simple straightforward process, from 1-3.



and lastly with tamiya polish compound and cotton bud to polish.


before and after!

painted exhuast pipes gun metal


then masked them like so


mount them on the kits, glue and putty and sand the resulting seams. spray the grey. and remove



start painting the spinebacks



masking spray with paper template the venezulean camo



camo schemed f-16s done!


15 f-16s on standby


Southeast asia - thai, south korea and indonesia

european airforces - very grey and dull i will attempt to lighten the colours and in the background the 4 are for dirty diana GB


south american f-16


masked and sprayed the landing gear bays of 15 jets. with their associated landing gear struts and covers, wheels, etc..





painted the flat black cockpit


gloss coat for all in preparation of decals


got tails?


a enamel wash was also given

long time no update. pver the past 2 weeks i have been decalling the whole swarm..
here is revell's spitfire belgium. the decal sheet was bigger than my water tray!



i have never done a decal sheet as big as a 1/72 spitfire.. so i had extra care and lots of mark softerner to let it conform to panel lines.


i also handpainted a portugal roundel as i didn't have decals in the right scale, and i was not in the right mind either.





i also handpainted jaguar spots for the tail.

[

finally after 2 weeks of pasting decals, stencils.. i see the ligth at the end of the tunnel!

here is a pair from thailand and indonesia, both using Zotz decals.



south american vipers from venezula and chile, decal from italeri and Zotz


european twin tubs Poland and Denmark, ancient italeri and kagero


european tigers norway and portugal - horriboss and custom


korea and belgium


and last but not least, my favourite of the lot, the Dirty Diana mini GB. image blurred because of nudity.. hehehe i knew you guys would take a closer look!

Oh My god.......

Did you inform the Guinness book of records ?.........that is a mammoth project you got going..........

Nice progress too........

Like your indon and venezulan birds...........

Best
Mr B

haha thank you mr B. anyway my humble apologies for being late for the GB. its 1 month since you all had the gathering and i am still not even halfway finished with the project. But 1 day i still will..

*&*&$.....FUYOH!!!!!!! Very good production line

:D :D

WAH bestnyer....!!!!!
i bet the feeling is like a 5 years old boy playing with 30 new toys...!!!