Japanese F/A-16XL "Taifun" (Typhoon) anti-shipping aircraft

[seadude]

About the second and third pictures further above in my earlier Post # 2 -
The 2nd pic is of the real Japanese F-2B prototype aircraft. The 3rd pic is a model of the same prototype.
After digging around the Net a bit more, especially on the F-16.net website, the Japanese F-2A and F-2B prototypes were the only aircraft to wear the overall blue color on top and the overall white color on the bottom. At least as far as I've been able to determine.
As far as the blue color is concerned, I did some more digging on the Scalemates website. Hasegawa made 1 or 2 model kits of the F-2 prototype aircraft. According to the instructions for the model, they call the blue color for the top of the aircraft "Shallow Ocean Blue".
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hasegawa-07509-mitsubishi-f-2b-prototype-no4--1410505
So I think what I've suggested for "light blue" paints might work out ok.
So the F-16XL I'm building won't be an operational squadron aircraft. Instead, it'll be built and painted to be a prototype for evaluation by the Japanese Air Self Defense Force.

[seadude]

And another update.
The majority of details like armament, landing gear, gear doors, etc. are done.
To the best of my understanding, the blue colored missiles are supposed to be inert rounds for training or evaluation purposes on the aircraft.
I didn't want to paint the missiles white or light gray otherwise they'd blend in and get "hidden" with the underside of the aircraft and they might be difficult to see by people.
I sprayed the underside of the aircraft with TAMIYA fine white surface primer. But there are some nooks and crannies where the primer couldn't get at, so I'll have to brush paint those areas by hand. The top of the aircraft fuselage will eventually be brush painted blue.

[seadude]

First coat of blue is on. I'll put the second coat on tomorrow if I have the time.
After this has been fully put together and painted, I regret I have no decals for it.
So it'll be awhile before I add decals as I need to search for and buy some appropriate ones for a Japanese aircraft.
Though markings won't be much as the real XF-2A/B aircraft didn't have very much for markings.

[seadude]

Ok, the kit has been built and painted. Decals are all that's left to be done yet.
Yeah, I know the model doesn't look very "exciting". No camouflage or other special whiffery.
But it's just something small and quick to do to clear out my stash of another model kit that was sitting on my shelf for months.
The "story" for this model is the following and I'm pretty much sticking to it. 

This is the 1/72 scale Monogram F-16XL (Kit # 5206) that has been built into a what if Japanese XF-16XL fighter instead. I wondered what it might be like if the U.S. government had tried to interest the Japanese in an export version of the F-16XL when interest of the F-16XL had failed in the U.S.
The model has been built and painted as a prototype testbed (Similar to the Japanese XF-2A & XF-2B fighters which are Japanese variants of the U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon design) for evaluation purposes, which also includes underwing stores of air-to-air missiles and air-to-ground antiship missiles. The antiship missiles being of particuar interest as the Japanese home islands are surrounded by large areas of ocean, and Japan would need to defend itself from any enemy attack from sea. Main colors used are Vallejo 71.001 White and 71.089 Light Sea Blue. Why Light Sea Blue? I noticed that for some Hasegawa Japanese F-2A/B kits (Prototype and Operational fighter versions), the painting instructions refer to a lighter blue color on the aircraft being called "Shallow Ocean Blue". I figured the Light Sea Blue was close enough. And secondly, I'm not very good with camouflage schemes, so the model is painted in a scheme similar to what the prototype Japanese XF-2A/B aircraft wore during flight testing. All the missiles are also painted blue as these are inert (not live) training rounds.

[seadude]

One minor issue about decals............
I got the following sheet (second pic below) earlier this year.
But there's no description next to any of the sizes of the national insignia that specifically says what scale they all are. 
So I'm left guessing on what size roundels I need. Can anybody help? What size Japanese roundels should I use for my 1/72 scale model?

[Gondor]

That looks about right. A lot of it depends on the size of the aircraft part the Hinomaru is going onto.

Gondor

[perttime]

I would eyeball the sizes, while referring to drawings and photos of the F-2 - if being "realistic" is important.

Looks as if fuselage roundels are smaller than the ones on wings?

[Gondor]

I would eyeball the sizes, while referring to drawings and photos of the F-2 - if being "realistic" is important.

Looks as if fuselage roundels are smaller than the ones on wings?

That they are, as on this BOX

Gondor

[seadude]

The 1/72 scale roundels that I labled in this pic are what I went with for my model.
The smaller ones for the sides of the fuselage, and the larger ones for on top/bottoms of the wings.

[kerick]

I was going to suggest that but I wasn't sure of the actual sizes on the decal sheet.
That sheet looks awesome. Where did you get it.

[seadude]

I was going to suggest that but I wasn't sure of the actual sizes on the decal sheet.
That sheet looks awesome. Where did you get it.

I got the sheet in the vendor area at the NIMCON model contest earlier this year in June. There was a guy handing them out for free. So I took 2. 

So I finished adding the Japanese roundels to my model. I used the 1/72 scale ones (I hope) that I mentioned in my earlier pic further above.
But I'm still not done yet. I need more decal markings. Specifically the ones on either side of the cockpit for crew rescue.
And I need the upper fuselage refueling recepticle decal marking.
I need the "old style" markings that are "colorful" like the red/yellow crew rescue markings on either side of the cockpit canopy.
Low visibility markings like what is now worn by most modern aircraft won't work for this paint scheme.
Go back to Page 1 of this thread and look at some of the earlier pics/posts and you'll see what I mean.
When I get the additional new decals and add them is unknown. But I hope it'll be before the end of the year.
In the very last pic below, I had some old TAMIYA modern armor decals. The dragon emblem looked kind of cool, so I added it on both sides of the vertical stabilizer.

[kerick]

Looking good!

[NARSES2]

Looking good!

It iis indeed 

[kerick]

I have a set of Japanese decals for the Starviggen. They look great but must include literally a hundred tiny stencils. I'm sure I won't apply all of them!

[Spino]

I've been trying to match the light blue color as seen on the Japanese F-2's seen in my earlier pics. But it hasn't been easy.
But anyway, the first picture below shows the armament configuration I hope to go with for my model with 4 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, plus other missiles for self defense.
Since Vallejo is the main brand of paint I now use, the closest I could find was either Vallejo Model Air Light Sea Blue or Vallejo Mecha Color Deep Blue. They both look nearly identical. But the Mecha Color Deep Blue has a "slightly" darker tint. This is the color I will probably go with. The Light Sea Blue just seems too light.

Looks like you've got AIM-120As instead of AIM-7 Sparrows.