RSAF F-16C, Final

I'm not happy with the way this one turned out, but I did finish it without a major disaster. I'm 2 and 2 on planes now.

I tinted the canopy with Tamiya Smoke mixed with a little Clear Yellow. It would have looked good if I hadn't gotten impatient and sprayed so much that the paint pooled at the top of the canopy.

I had some problems masking around the jet intake. I really should have painted it before installing it, but then I'd be complaining about the poor fit and being unable to fix it without screwing up the paint job. Speaking of which, the little trick of using black artist pastel to do the pre-shading around all the panel lines worked great. I'll definitely use that technique on smaller scale models in the future.

I used Testor's metallizers for the exhaust and Model Master paints for the body and really thought they were great. Another place where my impatience messed things up was when I unmasked the canopy and exhaust, just to see how it all looked. I didn't do so good a job remasking them and ended up with a big step around the exhaust after the gloss and then flat clear coats. Aiyaaah!

After the first gloss clear coat, I applied the decals, which went down fine. I followed that with another gloss coat and then a sludge wash in the panel lines. That was interesting because it really showed off every spot where I had sanded away the panel lines and then skipped rescribing them. I either need to stop obliterating the panel lines, or learn to rescribe them. Both, I guess.

After sealing everything with a final shot of Testor's Dullcote I did an oil wash on the landing gear, doors and bays (a little too heavy, in retrospect) and attached the gear and antennas.

Hasegawa's F-16C was more annoying to build than I thought it would be, but I did finish it which -- given my record -- says something. I don't know what. But now I have a pretty cool lookin' Singaporean fighter in my display case.

tags: singapore  hasegawa  f16  falcon  rsaf  

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