RSAF Goshawk

[Scotaidh]

Many of you remember Nonobar's beautiful Scottish F-16, with those lovely decals.  He was kind enough to send me some, so I decided to follow suit, so to speak.

Fighters are all very well, but a full-function air force also needs bomb-carriers, so to that end I made one.  I had an F-16XL in the SSR, and it has become ... this.



RSAF Goshawk 001
All dressed up for a Tiger Meet. I was going to go with a metallic gold stripe down the back, but it was so ... bright. This bronze, I believe, is less showy whilst still holding to the yellow colour-family established by Nonobars. The stripes were hand-drawn with a marker.
A couple of points for explanation. I went with 'Royal Scottish Armed Forces' in stead of 'Air Force' because I admire what Canada did with their military - it always seemed very common-sense. Also, rather like the CAF, the Scottish Armed Forces will always be smaller and much more defence-oriented than their more belligerent counterparts of other countries who seem to feel the need to make some kind of point about their relative importance world-wide. Scots already know that "If it isn't Scottish, it's crap!", so why even boast? Rather like gilding the lily, old boy.
I looked up "Raptors Native to Scotland" (because this is, after all, a species of falcon), and decided to go with Goshawk for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, Goshawlks are defined thus: "A large hawk. When seen close to it has a fierce expression with bright red eyes and a distinctive white eyebrow. Its broad wings enable it to hunt at high speed, weaving in and out of trees, and its long legs and talons..." - the 'broad wings' and 'high speed' bits fit the XL.
Second, I like the name.
Third, the name hasn't really been used anywhere to my knowledge. (The USN's "Goshawk" is really just a Hawk under a different flag, so I'm ignoring it.)
Fourth, it is (or will be) in Scottish colours, so it needs to be a Scottish raptor.



RSAF Goshawk 002
Lots yet to do - the port wing-tip missile rail came off whilst drawing the stripes, so there's that. Also, need ot over-paint (again) the ends of the stripes where they go too far. I won't bore you with all the details - I'm sure you know them all already.

[The Rat]

Nicey stripey! 

[Tophe]

  I love this other twin-fin F-16!

[Firefox]

 

[Scotaidh]

RSAF Goshawk 003
This kit is intended to be strictly a missile-carrier, but I found a picture of one of these carrying a truck-load of bombs, so here we are. The inner ARAAMs are retained. Research showed that the latest iteration of these missiles has the fins clipped, a light grey body with a white nose-cap.



RSAF Goshawk 004 I couldn't find enough bombs of a single type in my spares box - I had six Mk 82 Snake Eyes, and six GP bombs. So, the Snake-eyes are on one pylon and the GPs on another because we wouldn't want the pilot to pickle off the wrong type in the stress of combat. The Snake-eyes will go to any low-level targets - AAA, etc. - and the GPs to anything else.

[Scotaidh]

RSAF Goshawk 005
I'm not sure why this happened. My clear gloss has never done this before - and only to one wing.     Yes, same gloss varnish I've used before, over the same paints - Humbrols. 

I'm going to have to re-do the stbd wing, for sure, and the tiger-stripes on it. Now that I'm getting used to it, the "run" effect is kinda cool - suggesting (to me, anyway) that the aircraft out-ran its paint.

What do you think?

[kerick]

I've had this happen on several different projects lately. Sometimes just from a second coat over the same paint! Enough to drive a guy nuts! No idea what causes it. 
You could blame it on aerodynamic heating from Mach whatever speed?

[Rick Lowe]

Yes, annoying. I don't know about the crackling on the paint, but I've had a marker run before when I brushed Klear over it, so know your pain... I thought it should have been absorbed/keyed a little into the matt white I used, but no...

[Scotaidh]

I'm just going to repaint the whole thing.     Of course this happened after I got the ordnance (finally!) in place ... 

Ah, well - if it was easy blah blah blah. 

[NARSES2]

I've had it happen when using matt varnish aerosols before and no real reason, or one I could think of. One of the most frustrating, infuriating things that can happen. My commiserations.

[nönöbär]

Have you used some kind of thinner on your gloss? I had this once when I used some kind of "incompatible" thinner for the airbrush. Or is it simply too old?

[Scotaidh]

Have you used some kind of thinner on your gloss? I had this once when I used some kind of "incompatible" thinner for the airbrush. Or is it simply too old?

It's from a spray can I got years ago, so it may be old.  It was a sunny day when I used it, but it was still very 'brisk', as they say in England.  I guess it was in the 40s (Fahrenheit), and I used the stuff in the garage because it's nasty to breathe.  It may have been too cold to cure properly - but then, why was only one wing affected?

I sprayed the whole thing in one go.  The aircraft was standing on its tail.  I worked my way around it, making sure I side-shot the ordnance and top of the intake ... and only that one area did that.

[dwomby]

You have my sympathy (not that it's any help to you).  Good luck restoring this to its previous beauty..

David

[Scotaidh]

RSAF Goshawk 006

Repainted all the upper surfaces. This time time the stripes were done with black paint and a brush, not a marker. During this the pitot got snapped off - twice. :/ Once the black paint is dry, it being a nice and fairly warm day out, I'll re-try that gloss spray. Fingers crossed it behaves this time!

(Yes - a bit out of focus.  Trust me, it's the best snap of the lot.  A photographer I am not, unlike my friend SiaoMouse.)

[zenrat]

I'm crossing my fingers for you.