Canadian Armed Forces F-16a-germany 1984

[AeroplaneDriver]

After losing the Lightweight Fighter Competition to Northrop's F-17 Cobra, General Dynamics modified the YF-16 design to incorporate a larger delta wing optimized for weapons carriage, rather than dogfighting, in hopes that the F-16 would still achieve export sales as a multi-role fighter.

The resulting F-16A first flew in 1977, and was soon seeing orders from a number of air forces, including the Canadian Armed Forces.  

In Canadian service the F-16 Viper served primarily in Europe until the early 1990s.  This particular CF-16 was based at CFB Baden-Soellingen in 1984.  It carries a single NATO B61 tactical nuclear weapon on the left outer pylon, with a AN/ALQ-131 jamming pod on the right outboard, with external fuel tanks on the inboards and AIM-9L sidewinders on the wingtip stations.

This load was carried by four CF-16s during the October 1984 nuclear scare when East German troops appeared to be beginning a large-scale assault through the Fulda Gap.  Fortunately this scare was a false alarm, and with the thawing of East-West relations in the late 1980s, the CF-16 would soon relinquish its nuclear role.

[Brian da Basher]

Sweet, AD! You can knock 'em out like nobody's business! Canadian is a natural with that cool camo paint job and the shark's mouth is a nice touch! Loved the backstory too. I have memories of those nuke scares in the 1980s.

Brian da Basher

[The Rat]

P.A.P. - Pure Aircraft Porn!          

[AeroplaneDriver]

One more pic with a better top view of the camo.



As mentioned in the build thread this is an old Fujimi F-16 built about 15 years ago.  The wings are from an Italeri Rafale that gave up its nose to become a BAES Firestorm last year.

I had another F-16 sharkmouth in the decal stash, but it disintegrated when it hit water, so I substituted the mouth from an RAF Granby Bucc.  Not as cools as the original F-16 version, but it'll do in a pinch.

[The Rat]

That's so sexy it ought to be illegal.    

[philp]

I don't comment about builds that much but this one is real purdy.

[GTX]

Wow!!!

Regards,

Greg

[Hobbes]

Wow, that looks great!

I especially like the camo pattern. What did you use for masking?  

[AeroplaneDriver]

Wow, that looks great!

I especially like the camo pattern. What did you use for masking?

Thanks for the comments guys!

Hobbes, the masking for the camo was done with Blu-Tac putty.  I love masking camo with this stuff.  I just roll out 'sausages' to roughly mask the pattern, then with a piece of sprue carved to a chisel point I push the rolled edges of the 'sausage' down onto the odel surface.  Using this chisel it is possible to create very delicate shapes with the putty.

The airbrush never came out of the box for this model.  The camo was all done with rattle-cans.

[Scooterman]

Oh oh oh!  That is sticky HOT!!!

     


What colors did you use?  Those are a great pick.

[Dork the kit slayer]

That works....good job. I DO like the finish/scheme on that.  

[AeroplaneDriver]

Oh oh oh!  That is sticky HOT!!!

     


What colors did you use?  Those are a great pick.

The base color is Haze Gray,  (I love the blue tint in this color-it would make a great base for an arctic camo) the lighter green is SAC Bomber Green, and the darker green is Tamiya Olive Drab 2.  The radome is RAF Ocean Gray.  It's not really visible in the pics, but underneath I masked the leading edges and intake/fuselage then sprayed RAF Medium Sea Gray on the wings and forward fuselage.

[Mossie]

Now that's good.  From certain angles definately a Viper, from others, something windswept & very interesting.  The camo just looks right too.

[rafi]

Great idea, great painting and camo! I like it very much

Rafi

[kitnut617]

There are models on this forum which leave me speachless when first viewing them, this is one of those.  It just looks soo right in every way. Well done.

Robert