Hasegawa 1/48 F-16C

This will be my third 1/48 Falcon from Hasegawa; the first being an A and the second being a Belgian version. One big difference is that I will be using an aftermarket interior set with this kit. After reading all the hoopla about BlackBox, I picked up their F-16C set, #48005. I surely hope it is worth the $16.00 I had to fork out for it. This set will effectively double the price I paid forthe kit!

For me, construction starts with gluing together subassemblies. This means fuel tanks and travel pods. I also carefully read the Black Box instructions. Not sure if I'm too keen on hacking away the glare shield, but it says I gotta do it.

As you can see from the image, the BlackBox interior set is quite complete. I noticed that there is not a small upright bit on the left front corner of the seat. Not sure if this means thepart was broken off or not as there wasn't anything floating around in the package that looked like this. It also appears that one gets two different HUDs. Anyway, I committed myself to using this set so cut out the glare shield from the kit and thinned down the sides and front quite a bit with a sanding stick. After tacking on the sides to the cockpit and assuring that they fit, I did several test fits to the kit. More material than I thought had to be taken away before Igot a good fit. 

Then the resin anti-glare shield was cut from its block and test fitted tothe cockpit opening. Make sure when you cut this item, that you cut it from the top as there is supposed to be a bit of an overhang. Cutting it from the bottom is only asking for trouble. When freed from the block, the front was sanded atthe same angle as the front of the kit cockpit. Constant test fitting ensured a good fit. It was then superglued into place. The instructions would have you add the instrument panel and HUD first, but I threw caution to the wind and did it this way instead.

Meanwhile, back at the interior, the rudder pedals were glued in place andthen it was painted overall FS 36375 as per the kit instructions (there are no painting instructions at all in the Black Box set. A rather large omission, if you ask me). Then the instruments were painted flat black and then drybrushed.There are some teeny bits like the control stick, arm rest and throttle that are added to various consoles. These are painted black and then the side panels were glued in place. A few other bits were picked out in yellow and red to break up the monotony of black and grey.

Once that was accomplished the instrument panel was glued into place followed by the interior. Fit is quite good and it does look better than the kit version.The HUD will be installed as one of the last items.

Then the wings, tail, and exhaust sections were assembled. There was as mall bit of filler needed for these parts, but not really that much. While that was drying, I prepared to glue together the fuselage halves. There is a bit more resin on the bottom of the interior than one would like. Removal of the old interior tabs and much sanding on the bottom of the resin tub finally enabled meto glue the top and bottom fuselage together. The fuselage was rather badly warped so I glued it in stages starting at the front. 

After gluing the fuselage, the joins were cleaned up and the wings attached. Next, the exhaust section was glued in place. This piece doesn't exactly fit like a glove. It was difficult to line things up and I had to use clamps to deform the fuselage a bit for the best fit. There is a small insert next to the intake that was installed at this time. The fit was less than stellar and so some filler wasused to take care of the gaps.

Then it was on to sanding down as much of the mismatch on the tail section as possible. Upon completion of that, the little gaps there and in the wing/fuselage join were puttied and later sanded smooth. Meanwhile, the intake was assembled and sanded smooth. Then the intake was painted FS 36320using an old tin of Humbrol paint that I found in the back of a drawer. Once that was dry, the forward part was masked off and the rest of it painted white. The nose and main wheel wells were painted white at this time as well.

Next, the tail was glued in place. With the longer spine section, it covers up some of the panels on the top of the fuselage. One of the problems one runs into when trying to adapt an F-16A to become an F-16C as I would be willing tobet those panels have been slightly redesigned for the C model. At this time, the weighted nose and freshly painted intake were glued in place. Also attended to were a few intakes and vents that go on the fuselage. The few gaps that were present during these steps were filled and sanded smooth. Then it was time to go to the paint shop!!!

While all this decal putting on was going on, other bits and pieces were assembled. Things like the fuel tanks and various bomb racks were glued to their respective pylons and then repainted. During this operation, I trashed one of the kit supplied Sidewinders(like, I stepped on it), and had to go shopping for a weapons set. It also seemed like something was needed on the bomb rack. Having Hasegawa's weapons set'A', I looked for something to hang there. Mk 82/83/84 bombs didn't seem to fit the bill and the Mk117s were not even the right time period. I settled on theSUU-30 cluster bombs after making sure they were still in the inventory. These were painted olive drab with the usual yellow ring on the front.

All the racks and pylons were painted the same color as the underside of the aircraft as were the missiles. The weapons set Sidewinders are MUCH more detailed than those that come with the kit. The head of the AMRAAMs were painted white while the Sidewinders had the fin stabilizers painted steel and the missile head black.

Then the various additional bits and pieces such as the gear doors, landing lights, various probes and such were glued on the aircraft. The fuel tanks and underwing bits were glued in place and the kit given a bit of grunge with various washes, dry brushings and some pastel work. Finally, the kit was over sprayed with a matte clear to seal in the decals and pastels. A last step was the installation of the pilot's seat and the HUD in the cockpit. Finally, the kit was finished!