F-16CJ (Block 50) Fighting Falcon
Tamiya 60315
1:32
The aircraft
F-16 Fighting Falcon was developed as a result of the Lightweight Fighter
Program announced in January 1971. As part of this program two General Dynamics
YF-16 prototypes were built and they competed against Northrop’s YF-17 planes.
On January 13th 1975 YF-16 has been announced as the winner of the contest,
which in the meantime was renamed to Air Combat Fighter (ACF). The first F-16A /
Full Scale Development aircraft was flown on December 8th, 1976 and the first
operational F-16A was delivered in January 1979 to the 388th Tactical Fighter
Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
Since its first flight Fighting Falcon, also known
unofficially as Viper, is constantly modernized and updated. Those modifications
however are not clearly reflected in a version number, as only recently the E
and F models were introduced and all previous single-seat models were carrying A
and C designations (B and D for two-seaters respectively). This is why it is
very important to note the block production number, as in case of F-16 it is
most important information to properly identify features of the variant.
F-16A/Bs were built in five blocks: 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20. The
F-16C/D designation was introduced with block 25. Beginning with Block 30 new
engines were installed in Vipers. All previous variants were powered by Pratt &
Whitney F100 engines and Block 30 aircraft were first F-16s equipped with
General Electric F110 engine. 75% of new Vipers produced for US Air Force were
Block 30 GE-powered machines, but remaining 25% still had PE engines - these
machines were known as Block 32. After the introduction of Block 30 aircraft to
service it became obvious that the air consumption of GE engine, which was
significantly higher than this of PE engine, necessitated in redesign of air
intake. Beginning with sub-block 30D larger, so called “big mouth”, air intake
was installed. Subsequent production blocks maintained similar designation
convention, where block 30 and 40 aircraft were powered by GE engines and
featured large intakes, while block 42 and 52 planes were PE-powered and had
“classic” small intakes. Block 40/42 aircraft introduced in 1989 were known also
as Night Falcons because of their enhanced night/all-weather capabilities
achieved by installation of LANTIRN pods. Block 50/52 feature, among other
updates, upgraded radar and Improved Performance Engines, the F110-GE-129 for
the Block 50 or the F100-PW-229 for the Block 52.
In May 1993 deliveries of Block 50D/52D began. These
aircraft, unofficially known as F-16CJ/DJ have added capabilities, which allow
them to perform Wild Weasel (SEAD - Suppression of Enemy Air Defense and DEAD -
Destruction of Enemy Air Defense) missions thanks to a full integration of HARM
missile avionics/Launcher Interface Computer (ALIC) and associated systems /
pods. All but the earliest Block 50 models have been upgraded to Block 50D
standard.
New Tamiya kit represents F-16CJ Block 50D aircraft (although
the D letter was omitted from the kit name).
The kit
The kit comes in a quite large box with a very nice picture of 79th Fighter Squadron aircraft in Tiger Meet of the Americas 2001 colors on the lid. The box is about the same size as other Tamiya 1/32 scale jets. After opening the box I saw... well... another box. Or actually the inner lid. This inner lid has pre-cut holes in it and once properly bent to shape can later serve as a storage base to hold completed model in the box. But at this moment what I wanted to see was PLASTIC! So I removed the inner lid and underneath was exactly it - a lot of light gray plastic. Each sprue is individually bagged, except for those that are provided in two copies - in such case both copies are in one bag. There are 10 plastic bags in the box with 13 sprues inside them. But there is even more sprue letters listed in instructions - that’s because some of smaller individually named sprues are molded together and make up de-facto larger sprues. For some reason in my kit parts “V9”, which are AIM-9 stabilizers were not attached to the sprue (they should be on V sprue), but provided separately in a small bag with the piece of paper inside (with part number printed on it). Quick look on parts on sprues reveals plethora of beautiful crisp details and delicate but well defined engraved panel lines and rivets. Everything we expect from the modern kit and even more!
Under the bagged sprues there is a cardboard box with all
additional parts inside. Here is what I found inside it:
- plastic bag with seven vinyl tires (three for airplane and four for engine
dolly) and two small sprues with tiny poly caps,
- clear plastic container with die-cast metal landing gear parts and metal
weight for the aircraft nose,
- a bag with the radome molded as single part with tiny angle of attack antennas
molded on,
- two bags with two sets of clear canopy parts - one of them tinted. Canopy
parts are very well protected, each in individual bag.
- a bag with clear parts sprue,
- a bag with two photoetched frets,
- a bag with a screwdriver, length of twine and several smaller plastic bags
inside. In those bags are additional poly caps plus various small metal parts:
screws, rivets, shafts and machined aluminum Pitot tube (well, actually it is
not a tube in the model, as it is solid... oh, well...).
Under all the stuff mentioned above, on the bottom of kit box, is another plastic bag - flat this time, as it contains two decal sheets (relatively small for such large kit), a paper sheet with printed RBF tags and a sheet of painting masks for the canopy.
Decals. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
RBF tags and canopy masks. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
The last three items in the box are: small sheet of paper with usual safety instructions, 32 page A-4 size instructions booklet plus painting and decaling guide printed in full color on both sides of large high quality paper sheet, with a bonus in form of a lot of useful photos of real aircraft details on it.
Instructions. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
Painting and decaling guide. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
Markings on decal sheets are provided for four aircraft:
1. 79th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Wing, USAF, Tiger Meet of Americas,
Buckley AFB, Colorado, USA, August 2001 - with beautifully printed colorful
tiger for the tail fin,
2. 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Wing, USAF, Prince Sultan AB, Saudi
Arabia, Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003
3. 13th Fighter Squadron, 35th Fighter Wing, USAF, Prince Sultan AB, Saudi
Arabia, Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003
4. 14th Fighter Squadron, 35th Fighter Wing, USAF, Prince Sultan AB, Saudi
Arabia, Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003.
We also get full set of very well printed stencil decals for
the aircraft and all external stores. Decal film seems to be quite typical for
Tamiya and this means that it is a bit on the thick side.
To make my life easier I will now describe the kit in more
detail in the order of assembly described in instructions. The instructions
booklet starts with the aircraft history in four languages (Japanese, English,
German and French), followed by short description of all “dangly bits” provided
in the kit (weapons, fuel tanks, pods) and decaling guide for them. Next is
general model painting instructions, list of required Tamiya paints (42
listed!), short “read before assembly” instructions and a list of recommended
tools. Only after all these introductions, 63 step actual assembly instructions
start.
Assembly diagrams are very clear, with a lot of useful and
important information added in text form. Gluing surfaces are shaded in blue on
all pictures, what can be extremely important to avoid incorrectly attached
parts. Painting instructions for all detail parts are also provided on diagrams
in all assembly steps.
Assembly starts not with the aircraft, but with the engine
dolly (6 instructions steps). It is very detailed and many components remain
moveable after assembly - it is a nice little kit itself. Dolly can be assembled
in two configurations - for raised or lowered engine. To display engine lowered
on the dolly modeler has to modify one set of engine mounts / jacks, as there
are two identical sets provided, and shafts in one have to be shortened to make
lowered version. As there are two sets provided and they are attached to the
dolly without using glue, it is possible to quickly and easily reconfigure the
dolly to any of configurations by swapping jack parts.
Next five steps describe the assembly of the F110-GE-129
engine. This is nicely detailed, although I’m sure that super-detailers among
you will still find a lot of space to show their talents here. Exhaust nozzle
itself is composed of eleven detailed parts. Some engine parts are detachable
after assembly and two versions for these parts are provided - one for engine
displayed on the dolly, and the other for engine installed in the aircraft. It
is possible to display engine in three ways - in the aircraft, on the dolly in
raised position or on the dolly in lowered position and thanks to detachable
parts you can reconfigure your display of finished model to any of them. I
personally don’t play with my models this way once they are finished, but for
some it may significantly increase the “coolness” factor of the kit. I would
prefer to get two sets of inner engine and exhaust parts to be able to display
my finished model with the engine inside (at least its visible components), but
with the second complete engine displayed on the dolly. To do this however I
will need to order additional sprues from Tamiya...
Exhaust nozzle parts. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
The assembly of actual airplane model starts in step 13 with main landing gear
well. It is nicely detailed with most devices and structural components present
and accurate - many of them as separate parts - but almost void of cables and
pipework. Modelers building the kit out of the box can be slightly disappointed,
as the lack of pipes and cables might make the gear well look a bit bare inside.
More skilled modelers should have no problems adding missing details using e.g.
solder wire.
As the engine is removable Tamiya provided parts to build
complete air duct and engine bay inside the fuselage - from the intake to the
exhaust. Parts are reasonably detailed inside. Engine bay and rear part of
intake air duct are secured to the lower fuselage with eight screws. The lower
fuselage part is the longest part in the kit - it includes almost the whole
length of the fuselage, as it starts behind the radome and ends on airbrake
hinges. Nose landing gear well is attached to the lower part of front air intake
duct and gear strut has to be installed before the intake is inserted in the
fuselage. This means that some care is needed during following assembly steps to
avoid damaging the strut (not likely as it is die-cast metal) and surrounding
parts (much more likely). Nose gear well is similar to main gear well in one
respect - there is no cabling / pipework details present, but all the structural
components are in place. It remains to be seen how difficult it will be to
remove the seam that appears after gluing two (upper and lower) intake duct
parts together. The MCID “big mouth” intake ‘lip” is a separate part and it
should make painting it much easier.
Once intake parts, together with nose gear, are attached to
the lower fuselage, we are supposed to finish installation of main landing gear
components. This means that starting from instructions step 26 we have complete
landing gear in place, what can potentially make later assembly difficult.
Die-cast metal landing gear struts are well detailed and there is several detail
plastic parts attached to them, what means that use of super glue is necessary.
All three wheels are attached to struts using screws and can rotate freely after
assembly. This means that wheel chocks provided in the model are not only for
show, but are also useful to make sure that our Viper does not move on the
display shelf! Tires are provided only as vinyl / rubber parts and no plastic
ones are provided (as was the case in Academy Hornet kit), so I expect that
aftermarket companies will soon offer resin replacements for those who dislike
such vinyl parts.
In step 27 the cockpit is built and it is really nice with
raised and very accurate details. Side instrument panel tops are attached to the
cockpit tub as separate parts, so it should be quite easy for Tamiya to provide
different versions of them for other Viper variants in the future. Several
parts, like pedals, thrust levers, control stick and some other are also
separate parts. Clear parts are provided for HUD and MFDs. We get decals for MFD
data. Ejection seat is made of seven parts and definitely looks the part. It is
not glued to the cockpit, but slides on its rails and can be detached easily.
Seated pilot figure is provided, but for those who prefer to display inhabited
cockpits Tamiya included photoetched seat buckles and seatbelts printed on the
same tape as canopy masks, what means that they seem to be much too green in
color. Completed cockpit is screwed on to the lower fuselage, together with
metal ballast.
Main instrument panel. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
Cockpit side panels. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
In step 33 front and rear sections of upper fuselage are assembled (again using
a screw). There is only one explanation to the fact that the front upper
fuselage is separate part - it makes it possible for Tamiya to release the
“family variant” of Viper kit in the future! Rear upper fuselage is molded
integrally with upper wing halves.
In step 35 upper and lower fuselage parts finally meet. Two
poly caps have to be enclosed between fuselage halves - they will be used to
attach horizontal stabilizers. Then lower halves of wings are glued to the upper
halves and again several poly caps go between wing parts - these will hold wing
tank pylons to wings. In following steps highly detailed landing gear doors are
attached to the fuselage (main gear doors are correctly bulged) and pylons are
assembled and glued to wings. For chaff/flare dispensers on the bottom of the
fuselage we get three options - we can use smooth plastic parts for blanking
panels to cover them or use one of dispenser parts etched from 0.3 mm thick
metal sheet. We get PE parts for both flare and chaff dispensers and it is up to
the modelers’ decision what configuration they choose.
Vulcan cannon and radar unit are assembled next and attached
to the fuselage. Radar antenna is provided as photoetched part. The gun barrels
are attached with the poly cap and can rotate after assembly. Gun access panel
is a separate part, which is not glued to the fuselage, so it can be removed to
display the gun details.
All control surfaces are movable in the kit, except for
leading edge flaps. These can be attached either extended or retracted, but
different tabs have to be removed from the edge of the part for each position.
Once the part is modified this way, it can only be attached in this one
position. Interesting feature of the kit are static dischargers provided as
small thin metal rods. There are three on the trailing edge of each wing plus
three on each stabilizer.
As I already mentioned vertical fin is detachable from the
fuselage to facilitate storing the finished model in the kit box. Speed brakes
can be assembled open or closed with additional detail parts provided for open
position. There are small and shallow ejector pin marks on inner surfaces or
speed brakes. Generally in the kit pin marks are very well placed, mostly in
areas hidden after assembly, but still a few remain visible here and there and
these would need to be filled. Luckily all of them (at least those I found) are
in places where it should be rather easy to do.
Assembly of the airplane ends with the radome and canopy.
Radome has a hinge, which works similarly to the real thing. This means that the
radome can be extended away from the fuselage and then swung to the side. I
already mentioned very nice, although solid, machined metal Pitot probe. There
is a thin molding seam along the top of each canopy part, which has to be
carefully removed. Canopy is designed in such way that it can be attached to the
fuselage in either open or closed position without glue. Two canopy actuator
parts - one for each canopy position - are provided and they also are attached
without glue. This means that you can reconfigure your finished kit to open or
closed canopy configuration easily.
I didn’t mention earlier that clear parts are provided in the kit for all
position lights and landing lights.
Once the aircraft itself is finished, it is time to attach
external stores. In the kit we get:
- four AIM-120 AMRAAMs, with a choice of two fin options to build either B or C
variant,
- two AIM-9M Sidewinders,
- two GBU-31 JDAMs,
- two AGM-88 HARMs,
- two 370 gallon wing tanks,
- one 300 gallon centerline tank,
- AN/ALQ-184 ECM pod (beautifully detailed - composed of seven parts),
- AN/ASQ-213 HARM targeting pod.
Missile fins are as usual slightly too thick for scale, but
still very thin for plastic parts. I’ve seen 1/72 missiles with thicker fins
than these! All air-to-air missiles have to be glued to their launchers and
there are only four launchers provided, so despite some rumors that were
circulating before the kit release, while launchers themselves are detachable
from wings (with metal pins enclosed inside pylons and poly caps inside
launchers) it is not possible to freely change weapons configuration in finished
model - unless you order additional sprues with launcher parts from Tamiya. The
only changes possible in finished model are switching HARMs with JDAMs and ECM
pod with centerline tank. You can also detach wing tanks with their pylons, but
quite large holes remain in wings with nothing to cover them. Also in case you
want to build your model in clean configuration and skip installation of all
pylons, you need to devise your own way to cover holes in wings. Also note that
there are no details on bottom sides of missile launchers, so displaying empty
launchers is not possible without some extra detailing work.
Close-up of some weapon parts. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
Final touches of the model building shown in instructions are assembly of
boarding ladder, wheel chocks and Remove Before Flight tags. No guide is given
for placement of RBF tags.
Near the end of instructions are directions for storing
finished model in the box. This is a very nice feature, which will be
particularly useful for all modelers traveling with their models.
On last two pages all part sprues are shown. It is very
interesting to notice that there is just one part marked as “not used” on all
sprues. But this single part makes it very clear that more Viper variant kits
will follow from Tamiya. This part is a small panel for area between the canopy
and radome. In the F-16CJ kit the smooth version of this part is used, but on
the B sprue we also get part with four “bird slicer” IFF antennas!
The part with "bird slicer" IFF
antennas is not used in this kit. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
The accuracy
I must admit that I’m not a Viper expert, so I can’t provide detailed analysis
of accuracy of new Tamiya kit. But I still made an attempt to at least try to
see how close is this kit to the real thing.
To my eyes the diameter of the F110 engine is too small. It
does not look quite right on photos of competed Tamiya kit. The diameter of
exhaust nozzle is correct, but the rest of the engine seems slightly too thin. I
guess it could be a compromise Tamiya accepted to make engine removable from the
fuselage.
Almost all panel lines are spot on, but there is at least one area on the fuselage where they are not fully correct. It is a small mistake - Tamiya made fuselage panels located on both sides of vertical fin symmetrical, while in reality there are noticeable differences between panel shapes on starboard and port side of fuselage in this area.
Panel lines details. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
Panel lines and rivets. Click on picture to enlarge it. |
I scaled up 1/48 plans from the Daco “Uncovering the Lockheed Martin F-16
A/B/C/D” book to 1/32 scale and compared model parts shape to them. Everything
fits almost perfectly to plans, except for vertical fin and horizontal
stabilizers. The former seems to be slightly too small overall and the latter
are slightly different shape. I wonder if an error in scaling up plans could
have caused the fins size difference? It is possible, although the difference is
quite noticeable (some 4mm in height) and other parts of the model fit very well
to the same plan. Most surprising is that earlier I found very similar
discrepancies when I compared Hasegawa 1/48 model parts to Daco plans. Could it
be that there is an error in Daco plans and not in these models? It seems quite
likely to me.
VERDICT
Tamiya definitely have not disappointed modelers with this new release. It is
really a masterpiece of injection molding and engineering. Of course I don’t
know yet how the parts will fit, but I expect the same as in all recent Tamiya
kits - and this means almost perfect fit! Some may feel that all the detachable
and movable parts are useless gimmicks, which only increase the price of the
model. I think that many of these features will actually make the assembly and
painting much easier, what makes them quite useful. I also welcome the
possibility to keep finished model in its box. I currently do not have display
space to keep finished model, but after seeing all the beautiful details in
Tamiya Viper I feel I need to build it soon anyway! Tamiya’s clever idea means
that I can finish my Viper and keep it in the box until I have more proper space
available for it.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Many thanks to RAINBOW TEN
online store for their excellent service, which allowed me to write this
review less then a week after kit's release in Japan!
ADDENDUM: It was brought to my attention that there is one more potential problem in Tamiya Viper kit: instrument faces on main instrument panel are flat and featureless. There is no molded on detail on them and no decals are provided with instrument faces. It looks like Tamiya planned to provide instrument faces as decals and simply forgot to add them later... I wrote that it is a potential problem, because for many modelers it should be easy to use aftermarket decals, printed instrument faces or simply paint details on instruments, but for many others it may be significant problem, thus it is important to mention it here.
ADDENDUM 2:
If you look closely on photo of sprue C you can see that the leading edge of
vertical fin is damaged. It looks like some part from other sprue has been
pressed against fin part and caused damage to thin fin edge. This is how I found
this part in my kit box when I first opened it, so it could have been damaged in
transport, or during packing in Tamiya factory - it is difficult to say now.
Parts it model reviewed by Michael Benolkin at
http://www.cybermodeler.com were
similarly damaged. He wrote that "the vertical stab halves had been damaged,
probably when it came out of the molds. Great packaging, but not-so-great
quality control." In my kit however the plastic bag in which sprue C had
been packed was slightly torn/cut near the damage area on the fin part, so the
damage was definitely made when the parts were already in the bag. This suggests
packing error, not mold release problem. And I assume that quality control is
performed before parts are packed. So actually quality control may be OK, but
packaging is not! I know that other people were receiving new Viper
kits without any damaged parts, so luckily it doesn't appear to be a generic
problem.
I let guys at Rainbow Ten, from whom I bought the kit, know about my problem
last week and today (or actually yesterday, but I was not home to receive the
package) I received complete replacement sprue C from them! It is of course
perfect without any blemishes. Please note that today is Tuesday, I emailed RT
about the problem last Wednesday. And I'm in Poland, while RT are in Japan!
EXCELLENT SERVICE! Many thanks Rainbow Ten!!!
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