New Project: F-16 with parts from the ususal F-104 (ever 1/48)

[G.Marcat]

This week done very few.
Today given a hand of primer, now is possible to see how the kit look really.














Now there is a lot even to be done.

[Sauragnmon]

Very nicely done, man.  She's making very nice progress.

[Eddie M.]

That is one sharp looking aircraft. Outstanding!!

[puddingwrestler]

A very ellegant design.

[Brian da Basher]

A real beauty! Looking forward to final roll-out!

Brian da Basher

[ysi_maniac]

It is going supercool!

[Ed S]

This is looking good.  You've done an excellent job blending the various parts together.

[redstar72]

A well-done model and an interesting project!
Of cource You will decide, but I offer to make more smooth... sorry my English isn't so good... more smooth fairing between the hump and the tail fin.

[GTX]

Liking what I'm seeing - any hints re markings?

Regards,

Greg

[srkirad]

it looks fantastic!

but only if nose cone was somehow longer and narrower...it would be like bullet then!

anyway, congrats for this successful surgery, and looking forward to seeing paintjob - any hints what it would eventually look like?

[G.Marcat]

I offer to make more smooth... sorry my English isn't so good... more smooth fairing between the hump and the tail fin.

I would to make a more precise joint of the two parts in the tail zone... but in the past I have done disasters in the attempt of to correct details like this. So it's very probable that all will stay as is now.

but only if nose cone was somehow longer and narrower...it would be like bullet then!

Every work on the nose cone was out of project, I do plans of to use the F-104's original nose for two reasons:
1: in the my F-104 with rocket booster http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,23257.15.html I did tests with two differents noses on that F-104.
No one of the two versions have satisfied me and I have reverted to the original nose.
2: in the current F-16/104 I consider mandatory to use the more parts possible from the original f-104 to let the viewer understand that there is a F-104 mixed with a F-16 so I consider the F-104 nose an absolute must to the project.

I do not like the empty space from the air intake to the nose cone, it do a long curve, too naked for the my tastes, so in the two my other recent works (F-104 Rocket and F-4/F-104 mix) I did used two differents fairings to fill that empty space. This time not: the original profile will remain.

For the paint scheme I'm interested at a thing like the camo used on the A-10 JAWS



but this scheme is very difficult to reproduce so I could do a variant of this scheme ever with the color spots but with hard edges, a bit like in the my work done on the F-A/818 ( http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,24287.30.html )

In these hours I'm battling with the putty to fill the dozens of little holes on the surface, Hoping to reach the painting stage as soon as possible.

[Sauragnmon]

Well, with regards to the JAWS scheme, there are two ways you could go about it if you truely wanted to.

A) Do a standard camo pattern of green and brown, the colours used on the dots.  Then you take mac-tac or similar stuff for moldable masking, make the spots all over the fuselage, and hit it with the tan overcoat to get the overall spotted effect.  Kinda like the old fashioned scratch art where you start with a multicoloured undercoat, hit a single black overtone, then scratch back the black overcoat to get the undercolours in your outline.

B) overall tan coat, then take a fine brush and do the leopard dots in the darker colours to achieve the effect - similar to how I did the Mi-24 in Scaly Lizard.

[srkirad]

Thanx for explanatin Marcat

Anyway I adore your surgery work, as I think that's maybe the most complex thing to do in kit modelling (excluding scratchbuilding of whole model!)...

Both schemes are chalenging, and I hope you do the best one

Maybe that one with hard edges suits better to the shape of this plane, so I give my vote to that variant!

[Weaver]

Looking very good now - I particularly like the wing planform...

[G.Marcat]

In this week done very few: the kit is so full of micro holes and scratches that I'm at the third attempt to fill all of these imperfections.