F-16XL

[Jesse220]

How about an unmanned variant?

[DogfighterZen]

Sorry. bro. Not after all the work the i had with the pilot and cockpit, even if most won't be seen again. We'll see in the future, i still have well over 10 F-16s(just counting 1/72 kits) in the stash so those may eventually be considered. But still, thanks for the ideas!



Just wanna add some antennas and sensors and it's a go for paint.

[DogfighterZen]

Added some bits...



This obviously means that this will be sort of an up-to-date XL Viper...
What if General Dynamics had been granted funds to put the XL into a limited production run, even after losing the ETF competition? The XL first flew in 1982 so it could've been produced from as early as, say, 1984, after the competition ended?
Say 150 single-seat F-16XL I and 50 twin-seat XL II were built back in 1984/85/86 and some of those ended up being sold after a short period,  like some of the ADF Vipers. This is one of the first Block 1 production airframes, with the normal A version vertical stab with the extension, but recently gone through the MLU program. (finished 10 minutes ago, to be more precise )
There were a few changes proposed for the production version but it would probably remain pretty much the same on the outside. There were issues regarding the landing gear, the XL was the first F-16 with heavy weight landing gear because of the heavier gross weight of the aircraft and the additional load capacity, for which, the normal gear was not designed for.
I'll use the kit's gear, it won't be a perfect build anyway...
The AIDEWS antennas/navigation lights on the intake came from the Kinetic F-16D, i'm using a pair from a Revell F-16 on that kinetic kit. The RWR bulges on the sides of the nose were extras from the Kinetic Sufa kit. The rest was scratch-built from Evergreen sheet styrene bits but there's still one or two bits i'd like to add.

[DogfighterZen]

Well, after a week with little to no time for modeling, just for a few more bits on this one... i glued all the antennas to avoid glue after paint, let's see if manage to finish this without snap all of them off...

[DogfighterZen]

Paint went on today, i chose a mix of Tamiya's XF-16 aluminium matte and XF-50 field blue and got this result...





I was trying to achieve the Have glass V look... Not very visible in the pics but it actually has the metal sheen seen on the real thing.
It's been gloss coated so i'll start on the decals today.

[Captain Canada]

Man that looks good. And by good I mean mean  And by mean I mean sisnister !

[DogfighterZen]

Thank you, Captain!
Now that you mention sinister and mean, i think it would look good with a shark's mouth, wouldn't it? Too bad i don't have a set that fit the Viper's nose... although it could have one on the intake.. out with the decal stash again.

[DogfighterZen]

Well, after a short search, no usable shark mouth decals came up... Went ahead with the rest though...



After the last models which had dozens of decals placed on them, it was nice to finish the decals in one rather short session of just 45 minutes and that includes the search through the spares bag. Ordnance and landing gear next.

[DogfighterZen]

Slow progress but managed to get the landing gear painted and assembled. Weapons are painted and waiting for markings, still have to paint the drop tanks and a few details on the aircraft.

[DogfighterZen]

So, it's finished! 

F-16XL MLU

"In 1986, the General Dynamics F-16XL was entered in the ETF competition against the F-15E from McDonnel-Douglas. The F-15E Strike Eagle was chosen to avoid closing the F-15 production line but the F-16XL would be kept in the backburner as there were several interested countries. Israel and the UAE were the first to chose the F-16XL over the standard F-16A/B.
The number of orders convinced the USAF and the US government to allow the exportation of the advanced fighter. The number of orders would grow over the following years, leading GD to sideline the standard F-16 design and keep producing the XL.
Portugal acquired it's first batch of 20 F-16XLs in 1994 through the "Peace Atlantis II" agreement but a second delivery would take place in the end of 1995, totaling 48 aircraft.
The first PoAF Squadron to transition from the A-7P to the Viper was the 201st FS Falcões (Falcons), based at Monte Real BA5 air base.
In 2014, the last of the Portuguese XLs was updated with the MLU program, during which, the new radar absorbing "Have Glass V" paint was to be applied to the whole fuselage, including external hardware commonly used like the external fuel tanks and pylons, excluding the radome."



















Well, took me a complete month to finish my first XL Viper and, although it could be much better, i'm happy with it! Fun build that gave me the chance to play a bit with the XL's lines and get a glimpse of something to build in the future.
And above all, i finally have the XL on my shelf!

Hope you guys like it, thanks for looking!

[Zero-Sen]

Cool, really like the last three shots! 

[DogfighterZen]

Cool, really like the last three shots! 

Glad you like it! It was such a great summer afternoon that i had to get some pics of it in the sunlight just outside the Zencave...
I've been thinking and i'll probably pull a YF-23 out of my stash, another one of my Holy Grail kits... 

[su27rules]

 

[Dizzyfugu]

Nice! 

[DogfighterZen]

Nice! 

Thank you very much, guys, glad to know you like it!