My apologies for making this a long post, it has just been a build that took up a lot of my time and effort to get to this point.

I have been building models since before I was a teenager, and while I enjoyed it, I never really put the effort and money into getting good at it. I’d do basic painting and things, and really bought them more to have a representation of a vehicle I liked than really wanting to build a model.

Over the years I have bought several models for vehicles I liked and often had a specific version of it in mind when I bought it, but in many cases felt I needed to improve my skills and get better tools before starting, so I could make sure I did a good job. I would buy “lesser” kits from time to time and build them, using them as practice for certain techniques, but was often afraid to dig into a rare or special kit, thinking I still wasn’t there yet.

Back in 2009, I took some photos of F-16Cs from the 144th Fighter Wing, and they are some of my favorite photos, and shortly after taking them, I thought it would be cool to build an F-16C kit with those markings. Here are a couple of photos from that day:





I did a search for third-party decals and found that Two Bobs had made them, but they were out of production. I managed to find some on ebay, and I ordered two sets, just to have spares. Because they were rare, I was afraid to use them until I felt I could do a good enough job on a kit to warrant their use, and for some reason, decided I was ready to try a few months ago. I started off with what I thought was a good kit, one from Academy, because it was the correct block with the small intake. As I got to the wings, I realized that they were warped, and then found out that was a common issue with that kit. I had a second Academy kit, so I then started working on that one, and it didn’t have the warped wings, but I ruined it by painting it with enamel paints that I thought were acrylic, so I didn’t apply it correctly.

So then, looked at a Hasegawa kit, which I heard was the standard for 1/48 F-16 kits, but it was the F-16CJ, with the larger intake. In doing some research I found out that it was a modification of an earlier kit of an older variant that had the small intake, and that those parts were still in the box, so I figured I could use those parts and get the right version. Another concern I had was the canopy, which, to be molded with the correct shape, had a raised seam down the center that would need to be sanded and polished to ensure it would remain clear, and I wasn’t sure I was up to the task, but decided to give it a try.

After working on it for a few months, I finally got it finished. It is rife with issues, such as some inaccurate parts, but mostly paint and build issues due to my limited skill-set. For some reason, I really struggled with the missiles, and I may try to remove them and redo them at some point in the future. It's not anywhere close to the work done by many of those posting here, but it is probably my best build so far (which probably isn't saying that much ).

I took some photos with my phone outside, but I think the phone sensor enhances the colors and makes it look a little brighter than it does in person.









And then one fun photo trying to replicate one of the photos I had taken, using the magic of Photoshop. I didn't get the angle quite right, but I think it is close enough to get the point across.

Looks good. I had some friends at Fresno back when they had F-4s and my former personnel specialist is a ground officer out there now.

No need to apologize for a long post as, at times, the process others use teaches us something.

Your F-16 matches the photo of the real one closely....well done.

Thanks guys! The photo of the model when taken outside, and especially with the phone, looks a lot more blue than it did when I was painting and building indoors. I'll just have to make sure I only display it inside .

Thanks again for the comments!

Because I built it with the gear up, I wanted a way to display it without it just sitting on a shelf on its tanks, so I found a cheap case, made a small wooden stand, and put it in there. I think the lighting is a little more natural in these photos and more accurately shows what it looks like compared to the previous photos.





And for kicks I spent a little more time in Photoshop to see if I could get things to match up better, and I think it's an improvement:

Great Job man!

Cool stuff, thank you for sharing!

Thanks guys!