F-16 "Aggressor"

Edbert

Edbert

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I've decided to build my first "modern" aircraft since about 1979. Assuming you consider an airframe designed in the late 1960s to be "modern".

Looking back, I think I've fallen victim to my love of WWII era camoflage, at least when it came to choosing a kit.

The F-15 was my 1st love, I bought a PC in 1988 to play "Microprose F-15 Strike Eagle", I think it was version II (old school for 2.0) but might have been III. Anyway, after being the quintessential fan of "Red Baron" I settled on "Falcon" as my favorite offline combat simulator, owning every edition every published. In the end, for my toy airplane, I had to choose from many favorites, Starfighter, Phantom, Tomcat, Falcon, damn?

I think my decision was made for me when I saw the paint schemes. I'M A VICTIM!

1721092528198.jpeg

So it begins...

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In actuality, it's not a WW2 camo scheme per say but Arctic camo scheme. Arctic scheme is typical for "Aggressors" Vipers.

Arctic camo is more uniform & laid out straight across the fuselage and wrapped to the undersides of the fuselage - typically white, black and grey; WW2 is a little bit different layout for camouflage.
 
Edbert said:
I've decided to build my first "modern" aircraft since about 1979. Assuming you consider an airframe designed in the late 1960s to be "modern".

Looking back, I think I've fallen victim to my love of WWII era camoflage, at least when it came to choosing a kit.

The F-15 was my 1st love, I bought a PC in 1988 to play "Microprose F-15 Strike Eagle", I think it was version II (old school for 2.0) but might have been III. Anyway, after being the quintessential fan of "Red Baron" I settled on "Falcon" as my favorite offline combat simulator, owning every edition every published. In the end, for my toy airplane, I had to choose from many favorites, Starfighter, Phantom, Tomcat, Falcon, damn?

I think my decision was made for me when I saw the paint schemes. I'M A VICTIM!

View attachment 120121Which Viper kit did you get? The Hasegawa Aggressor kit?

So it begins...

View attachment 120120
Click to expand...
Aggressor/Adversary Vipers are typically F-16C/N Falcons (Block 30). Tamiya has the correct Aggressor/Adversary F-16C/N.

The Aggressors Arctic scheme didn't exist until 1987, not the 60s as one may thought/assume.

Another important note on Vipers; not all F-16s are alike. Some variants have large intake mouths, some small intake mouths, frames, different Block types (Block 15, 20, 50+, etc…) Building an Aggressor Viper with black, white, grey camo scheme on an F-16A Fighting Falcon is incorrect; unless you don't care about accuracy.

This is a must read for all Viper fans who want to learn about different variants of the Fighting Falcons.

https://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/f-16/viperversions.shtml
 
1721599954526.png
Under-shading (or is that pre-shading?) done.

Did not see the flaws in the radar cone, looking at that picture above I still don't. I need to pay more attention when in primer, think I got lazy with Tamiya's overall fit-and-finish.

1721600051592.png
Much sanding.

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Still needed attention. But trying to take my time for a change.
 
Instructions are clear, the ACMI pod should be painted "Light Ghost Gray", I notice in the first picture of this thread that the two aircraft have a different color of gray on theirs.

So I'm choosing to be wrong and add some color to my kit. Using this photo as my excuse...

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1721672530568.png

1721672565526.png
 
Edbert said:
Instructions are clear, the ACMI pod should be painted "Light Ghost Gray", I notice in the first picture of this thread that the two aircraft have a different color of gray on theirs.

So I'm choosing to be wrong and add some color to my kit. Using this photo as my excuse...

View attachment 120525


View attachment 120527

View attachment 120528
Click to expand...
Nice job. The camo matches the photo. And I like that your camo does not have sharp edges. Camo should never have straight lines or sharp edges.
 
TimM63 said:
And I like that your camo does not have sharp edges.
Click to expand...
THANKS! I'm torn to be honest. Most pics I've seen of real Aggressors with this paint job have much sharper edges than mine, but they are not "hard" edges. I'd liken it to the variations seen in WWII RAF paint.

So in scale, I think my fuzziness is too much, might be about right if the model was 1/16 scale. My airbrush can do a 1mm line, but I cannot get the results smooth at that level, and patchy camo with brush marks (air) are not okay to me.

Then again, it is my model, and I like it, right?
 
Last edited:
I have never liked hard lines in camo. That's why I never mask for it, I use the AB and paint by eye.
 
Edbert said:
Instructions are clear, the ACMI pod should be painted "Light Ghost Gray", I notice in the first picture of this thread that the two aircraft have a different color of gray on theirs.

So I'm choosing to be wrong and add some color to my kit. Using this photo as my excuse...

View attachment 120525


View attachment 120527

View attachment 120528
Click to expand...
Airbrushed instead of hard lines looks more artistic and realistic I think. Will look more realistic than the real thing when you've finished. JJ.
 
Lots of little bits, I take the blame for not reading ahead far enough, but this 1/48 F-16 kit is far behind the 1/32 Corsair I just re-broke my cherry on.

Here's some added doo-daas (a technical term that is still classified)...
1721780898872.png

...and more...

1721780940148.png

But this will take many more days, I see flaws everywhere, will do what I feel is worth it.
 
I put a bit more time into this kit yesterday and today, not sure if it is normal among this hobby but I keep putting partially complete kits aside to do some work on other partially completed builds.

As usual for me, some success and some fails. I've decided for sure I need to find a new product to use for glosscoats before decals and washes. I've been using AK for both gloss and matte, they have a UV property of some kind that is visible under LED lighting if applied heavily, and I'm pleased with their result EXCEPT their durability. To be fair I've not tested the durability of the matte, I use that when the kit is finished, right before peeling masks off canopies. But the gloss, I put that through the ringer, apparently, and I am destroying it. I used it on an F4-U1 that was heavily weathered (as I like in Pacific Theater models) I also used it on the Nashorn which was also heavily weathered. I did not have a problem with it wearing down due to chipping and washing on these kits because I was kind of doing it on purpose. On the Focke Wulf and Spitfire I did very little weathering and did not have the problem either.

This Falcon/Viper was quite literally the first jet I've built since the 1980s, and while I did want "some" weathering, but I decided to keep it low. However this was also introducing multiple new issues for me with washes since the 3-color paint job required different tints for each color. So that meant more applications of "White Spirits" which I have become convinced is too much for the AK gloss. Maybe I did not apply it thick enough? I did 3 thin coats out of fear of filling in the panel lines or rivets.

1722463217018.png

Here's the kit with the gloss before any washes, I wanted to apply the larger decals before washes, because they need to be toned down a little. The stencils (so many!) can wait until afterwards. I then applied a light gray wash to the darkest paint, a dark bluish gray to the middle gray, and a light bluish gray to the lightest areas.

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After finishing that it looks "okay" from a distance, but there are issues everywhere. Next two pics are focuses of the one above.

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You can see that I wore off the clear coat and even the base coat of Tamiya NATO black on the leading edge of the port wing. That is the primer showing through! So I chilled out a bit with removing my wash color which resulted in a lot of steaking as shown by the tail.

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Exact same problem on the nose, trying to remove the whitish haze, I wore things down to bare primer.

So, I need help! With a Tamiya Acrylic top coat, and AK acrylic clearcoat, I thought I was immune to white spirits (turpentine right?) attacking my other layers. BZZZZT! Can anyone recommend something stronger/tougher, or am I just an ape who is overworking this stuff?
 
urumomo said:
exactly which mineral spirits are you using ?
how long are the acrylics curing prior to the washes ?
Click to expand...
The "white spirit" is from AK.

The Tamiya acrylics were down for at least 10 days, maybe 14. The acrylic glosscoat was maybe 5-8 days?
 

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