Nils's Third World F-23A's

[Spey_Phantom]

for this group build, i will be building not just 1 but 2 F-23A's 
the kits i will be using are 2 revell 1/144 YF-23's, as these are the best small black widows on the market.
one will be build in Iranian colors, the other in Iraqi colors.

Back History.

after succesfull sales of the F-23A to NATO members and US allies, Northrop-Grumman wanted to book some orders from Third world nations. the F-23 was a great fighter but not all countries could afford them. therefor, NG decided to strip down the F-23 from all expencive and sensitive equipment, and replaced them with older redundant USAF stock hardware. this included older versions of the APG-65 radar, replacement of the RAM by a standard aluminium alloy. the weapon systems were also limited to the AIM-9, although an AMRAAM capability could be optional. the modifications lowered the price of the F-23 from $80 million to $35 million. Kenia was the first to buy, and ordered 8 F-23AL's (AL = A-model Light version). as the Americans wanted to rebuild the Araqi and Iranian air forces after the wars, the F-23AL was the best option to protect the countries large airspaces. Iraq recieved 48 aircraft (40 AL & 8 BL models) and Iran 100 aircraft. the only difference the Iranian aircraft had is that the IRIAF wanted french weapons on them, therefor the iranian F-23's carried both the Magic and MICA AAM's. the Iraqi's primary used american hardware, but for ground attacks the aircraft were equiped with British 300lbs free fall bombs or Mk.84 genral Purpose Bombs.

below are 2 profiles of the expected color schemes 

[Spey_Phantom]

Day 1, 13.47CET:

opened the boxes and searched out part of the decals for the aircrafts. still need to search out the weapons as the amraam armament seems a little dull and i want to ad a bit more offencive firepower to it. ive been thinking of the following arms 

Iran:
-2 x Magic
-4 x MICA-IR (2 internal + 2 external)

Iraq:
-2 x Sidewinder
-4 x british 500lbs free fall bombs

here's the kits, ready for construction 

[Shasper]

Just out of curiousity, do you intend to mark the Iranian bird in the 'pre-war' IRIAF titles or will those initials stand for something other than the Islamic Republic of Iran etc? Looking fwd to seeing how both of these turn out!

Shas

[Spey_Phantom]

the IRIAF bird is indeed in prewar Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force markings.
i was still having doubts about the color sheme, but i thought the old style desert camo lookt better then the dull grey. 

[Spey_Phantom]

ok, time for a progres report 

Day 1, 14.20:
started with main assembly and additional weapon bays for the Iranian widow.
the weapons selected for the aircraft are 2 Magic and 3 internal MICA misilles. had some problems with the V-tail but that turned out allright 

16.00:
played a bit of Wii sports while the gleu was drying, after that it was time to mount the landing gear.

21.00:
painted the top of the aircrafts fuselage while i was watching a DVD movie, still needed to find some serial numbers for the aircraft. but that wont be a problem 

Day 2, 13.35:
ready to start applying the brown/green camo to the aircraft, the bottom will be painted as soon as the top has dryed 

here are the pictures as how the aircraft looks now 

[Eddie M.]

Good looking jets! Pretty brave doing two in one week.
    Eddie

[cthulhu77]

Almost surreal against your bench, very cool !

[Shasper]

With 144th, you could do a whole airforce in one week (type depending, of course)!

Shas

[Ed S]

here are the pictures as how the aircraft looks now 

That is one cool camo pattern...  Oh, that's the work bench top.  The plane is looking good too.

Ed

[John Howling Mouse]

Dare you to paint it to blend right in with that bench.....double-dare ya, in fact.

Looking promising so far.

[Spey_Phantom]

ok, update time again 

Day 2, 20.00:
aplied the green/brown camo, used the same color patern as the IRIAF F-14's in the early 80's, loved that scheme 
after painting i slapped on the first decals, although i must say the paintjob didnt turn out as good as i expected, but that can be improved later 

Day 3: little or no progress, but i have started looking through my decal reserves for a fitting serial number, no luck so far, maybe later 

as for pictures, here is how it looks like now.
JHM, tomorrow im gonna be painting the bottom and then i will show how the camo goes with the workbench 

[Shasper]

Where's that thumbs-up smiley? Lookin good there mate!

Shas

[Spey_Phantom]

ok update time again 

Day 4, 19.00:
painted the underside with light aircraft grey, although not to visible in this pic and the last one, is the added internal weapon bays between the rear landing wheels. but i will post better close-up pictures with the focusing webcam tomorrow 

20.00:
slapped on the last 3 roundels as soon as the paint was half dry 
1 on the wing and 1 on each intake. she's almost ready but ive decided to paint the nozles of the aircraft in a more grey metalic rather then black.

still to do tomorrow is the repainting of the nozles, and adding the serial numbers. as soon as thats done then i can finally start working on the Iraqi version 

picture of the bottom as it is now

Dare you to paint it to blend right in with that bench.....double-dare ya, in fact.

Looking promising so far.

ok JHM, hows this for a dare, m8 

[cthulhu77]

It disappears against that backround!!!! Perfect! 

You do have to love the lines of that jet, sexy x9 !

[Brian da Basher]

I really like your choice of colors for that camop scheme Nils! It's great to see another one of your completed projects!

Brian da Basher