The kit instructions were pretty much followed as is for I have learned that with some kits, departing from them equals issues later in the build. The first step for me was to paint all the cockpit bits in dark gull grey and all the landing gear bits and wheel well bits along with the intake parts and inner gear doors in white. When doing this, one has to realize that this kit is based on the later block 50/52 kits so one has to be careful to only use the pieces specified for this variant. It is also important, if one is not building the kit supplied markings options, to be sure that the plane you are building has the right bits. The F-16 had all sorts of mods and upgrades to it and there are planes in the same block that got different bits or did not get all the upgrades. For that reason, you need photos of the aircraft you are modeling. I found that some holes needed to be opened for my build and others did not. Same goes for some of the inserts as alternates are provided.

One starts by building up the cockpit minus the seat, and the aft section of the intake that includes the main gear well. These are then installed in the lower fuselage. Various holes in the upper and lower fuselage are then opened to accept later intakes and scoops. The well and cockpit assemblies were then glued in place. The kit uses polycaps for a number of areas including the stabs, fin, and drop tanks. The ones for the stabs were installed along with their housings and the upper rear fuselage section was glued on. I did this in stages, clamping areas that did not fit flush on their own. I also sanded away two small fairings on the upper wing and filled a panel on the aft section.

There are a lot of parts in this and so the build will go more slowly than if doing, say, a similar Hasegawa kit. I also ran into some fit issues. I'm not sure if this was due to pre-painting parts, but many bits were a very tight fit and required additional cement to act as a lubricant to getting the bits in place. This was particularly noticeable when assembling the main gear well. I could not get everything all the way in and as a result, the small central cover piece had a rather large step in it near the back. I did sand and grind this down, but it could have gone better. I also was unable to get the forward upper fuselage section totally flush. This may have been due to clamping the lower and upper rear fuselage while the glue dried. Another part I found did not fit well was the nose cone.

I will caution you not to install the clear wingtip light sections until after everything is painted or they will not stay clear. In fact, I left off all the clear bits until the end of the build. Some, such as the landing light covers, will be more difficult to install at that point, but not impossible.

One does have to decide what sort of weapons load the aircraft will be carrying, especially if using aftermarket decals. Tamiya gives you a large assortment, some of which will require different pylons. In my case, the outer wing missile rails needed to be the 'old style'. I also decided to only mount one LGB on the inside weapons pylon instead of two. Tamiya does provide a proper insert for the pylon, so though I built up the TERs, I did not use them. I also built all four AMRAAM launch rails, but again, only used two. Sometime during the build, I lost the tail hook and after several weeks of on and off looking, was unable to find it. Hopefully it will show up sometime in the future so I can add it.

In addition to leaving off pylons and weapons until the end, I left off all the small, easily breakable probes on the nose. These were easy to install when all was done and were the near last items glued in. Same goes for the bang seat and the canopy. I very much liked that the fin did not have to be glued in place. This made applying the decals easier.