Cuban F-16H

[anthonyp]

Here's that 1/72 Monogram F-16XL kit I bought about three weeks ago.  I had all these ideas running through my head on what to do with it, that I need to get a few more of these kits.

This thing was a breeze to build, but then, most of the early to mid 80's Monogram kits were no-brainers.

When I did finally decide to go Cuban, though, I was presented with a problem:  What colors to paint the danged thing.  I think I did about 10 different test patterns using sheet styrene and all the blues and greens in my collection.  I finally decided on this scheme, which about matched two of about two dozen pics of Cuban aircraft I have on my hard drive (it seems they can't even keep the same scheme on two planes of the same type!).

The roundels, numbers, and national wording are from Zotz's South American Hind set.  The big flags on the tail are from some 1/48 (I think) Mig-15 decal set I got from Hannets.  I know, I put them on backwards, I seem to have that problem with national insignia on tails.  It's ok, though.  The decal wasn't wide enough to cover what was needed on the tail, so I used red paint to make it look right.

I discarded the kit's droptanks and scavenged some from an older, wrecked F-16 kit.  I also added a ventral drop tank from an old F-16 kit as well.  I toyed with adding air-to-ground stores on the plane, but went with an interception loadout to make it easier to finish.  I was going to add the outermost pylons found on F-16's to this kit, but it looks better without them.

Backstory:

In the late 1980's, after Cubans overthrew Castro and instituted free elections, relations with the US thawed overnight.  In exchange for all the hardware leftover from the previous alliance with the Soviet Union, the US rearmed the now free Cuba with state of the art aircraft and weapons.  One of these systems was the F-16H, the production single seat version of the experimental F-16XL.  The F-16H was used to patrol the airspace surrounding the island and for attacks in support of Cuba's new allies in Central America, against leftist rebels.

Cuban F-16H's are common sights at NAS Key West, as well as other airbases in the southern US.  Cuba's current inventory consists of 108 F-16H's and 54 F-16L's.  The F-16L is the two seat version of the F-16H, and is used for long range interdiction/strike missions, while the F-16H is primarily an interceptor, though it can carry an impressive assortment of bombs and ASM's.

[anthonyp]

Another view...  

[anthonyp]

Underside

[John Howling Mouse]

Wow (again), Anthony.
What Iffry at its finest: "if only this had really existed" eh???

 

[Brian da Basher]

What Mr Howling Mouse said! That's one of the best jet whifs I've seen yet!
Great little backstory too!

Brian da Basher

[BlackOps]

Hey where's the cigar launcher?       Looks pretty good in those colors!




Jeff G.

[NARSES2]

That is nice