My first whiff - F-16W - FINISHED!!

[silverwindblade]

I really like the way this is shaping up! Keep at it, and I'll be eager to see the end results.

[Tophe]

The new pics are wonderful, thanks! (what a delight!)

[jsport]

wonderess works. can' t wait 

[DogfighterZen]

Thanks guys!  
This is just an explanation and small update of what i've been doing with this bird.
So even with a serious case of lazyness, during the past month i scratch-built the new horizontal stabilizers from plastic card, the original ones were too small and didn't have the correct shape to match the new wings. Covered with some putty to give them a bit of thickness and slight curvature cause the plastic just seemed too thin and flat. Sanded those down, sanded the rest of the fin fairings, put the wings back on and started extending the rear of the fuselage to take it to the size of the horizontal stabs, f-35 like.
I also glued on the gun port, nose cone and main gear doors. Last night i glued the nozzle on so i can finish the fuselage. The nozzle is from an aires f-22 raptor nozzle set glued onto half of the kit's (Revell's 1:72 F-16) original nozzle, i just cut out the turkey feathers and adapted the parts to the inside. Now that the wings are on and have the right size to finally start sanding, i got one of them is almost finished after i took an hour off the sanding to scratch-build  new wing-tip launchers from some bits of sprue i had laying around that are square instead of round which was exactly what i was looking for. They're the same size, lenght and width, as the LAU-129s on the kit. Now my only doubt is about the position of the horizontal stabs.
Here's a quick pick of the thing with wing tip launchers, nothing glued in place, just to see what it looks like. Maybe next week some more will be done.

[Tophe]

just to see what it looks like

It looks good!

[DogfighterZen]

just to see what it looks like

It looks good!

Thanks! Glad you like it! 

[Captain Canada]

That's got such a nice shape to 'er.....lovely !

[DogfighterZen]

That's got such a nice shape to 'er.....lovely !

Thanks Captain! 
I can say i'm pretty much obsessed with it... In fact, in a couple of hours i'm gonna be sanding the hell out of the beast!

[steelpillow]

I am always amazed at the number of F-16 mods that have been made, both for real, seriously proposed and wholly fictional. There's just something about that airframe that makes it a whiff magnet. Equally mysteriously they always seem to look good, and yours is no exception. 

[DogfighterZen]

Thanks!  I have to give some credit to BalkanBoy at Desura.com for the F-16U design.
I'd tought about building a model of an F-16 with the dsi and twin fins but it was when i saw his design that i really decided to blend it all in one. I just hope that i'm able to give it a decent conclusion!

[DogfighterZen]

Hey guys, back with my former first whiff..  More than a month ago, while i was sanding the beast's wings, Buda, my recently deceased four-legged mate, had one of his many epilepsy crisis and as i got up running to stop him from chewing his tongue off and lying on his own piss, i threw the model onto the bench... in fact, i think it hit the edge and you can imagine the rest. As my dog settled down and i managed to clean everything up, i go back to my workroom and there i have it, spread on the floor, the right wing blown into a million pieces and the left was in half!!  The third headbang is because the intake was also badly damaged, which meant i had to star over almost from scratch!!!   
I admit, i was about to throw the thing into the bin... Lost my motivation on that so i had to put it aside for a while and get to really finish something in my first year of real modeling. Managed to finish a Silver/aluminium Russian MIG-21MF



and the Portuguese F-16V ADCUP that i've recently posted here, is getting it's final touches tomorrow!! 
All that helped to bring back the light and so, i have decided to go on and not give up on the beast!! 
But i gave up on the putty wings, the intake alone is enough PSR for at least three normal builds!!
So i looked around for some type of media that i could use other than having to buy styrene sheets (money's kind of short these days as i'm moving to a new apartment next month), i notice the things that i still throw into the home stereo to listen to music... nope, not vinyl LPs, nor cassettes but CDs!!
Or at least, their plastic cases... 



So this means that this will be my 2015 modeling priority for the first few months, i imagine... 

And i know this is not modeling but in case you're curious, this was Buda, since his second day of live for ten years almost like a son to me... R.I.P.
You will be missed

[kerick]

The Mig looks great, good idea with the new wings and sorry for the loss of your four legged family member.

[DogfighterZen]

The Mig looks great, good idea with the new wings and sorry for the loss of your four legged family member.

Thanks, Kerick. 
Buda indeed was our loved youngest, he lived a good life dispite his condition, he's probably running around after them females in the afterworld. 
Life goes on and so does the modeling, been working on the intake and i almost forgot how hard it was for me to shape it as it was before the crash, not sure if i'm able to pull it off again. We shall see in a few days.
And if it wasn't enough, i've added another twist to thing, maybe pushing the whole idea a bit too far but, what the hell, i'm all in!!  imagine how you could fit the front landing gear of an A-7 and the main gear of a hornet into the belly of an F-16?  To make this bird carrier capable?
Should have some pics soon, till then, enjoy the holidays, people!

[kerick]

Sounds interesting! Just think of it as starting a new project. New wings and kitbashing new landing gear is enough to qualify.

[DogfighterZen]

Well, the kitbashing part will not take place as this model will be gear up, i'm only enlarging the shape of the fuselage to make room for the gear, i'll just scribe the panel lines after the shaping is done.
I decided to build this model in flight cause that's how i like to look at them.. aircraft were designed to fly!! Will need a stand, though... which also has to be built.
But in fact, i have thought of doing it gear down in a future build. I've been working on a template to cut the shape of the intake in plastic card and bend/mold it into shape. If that doesn't work, maybe cut it in sections, glue it up and psr should do the rest. The main gear will have to be a mix of F-16/18 bottom fuselage. It will be an interesting chore...  I chose the front gear of the A-7 because of the same kind of intake/gear bay location and the hornet's main gear but retracting forward.
This will make the aircraft stand higher both on the front and rear, but will make it possible to have it's center of gravity more to the rear of the fuselage, ending the old "land on it's tailpipe" navy question of the F-16. But that will be a 2015 story... 

Quick pic of some progress on the intake and the fuselage enlargement



Merry Christmas, y'all!!