Photo etch
I had originally not purchased any of the Tamiya PE sets for my F-16’s (don’t really know why). Of course once I started to build one and needed the re-enforcing plates I ordered them. Problem is, they will take some time to get here and I am on a roll with this model. To the rescue comes another friend, Brett (from R&R Models). He has kindly given me one of his sets until mine arrive. The set provides plates for all possible F-16 variants (which means on any one model you won’t use them all). It also provides metal pitot and AOA sensors. Thanks Brett.
One trick I use for working with larger, flat PE parts is to glue them to thin plastic card (in this case 5 thou). This allows me to place the part onto the model and use normal styrene liquid glue (I have started using pure MEK) to secure it, rather than fiddling with super glue on the model. A simple way to avoid having to get the part perfectly aligned first go (as super glue is very unforgiving).
Once the CA glue dries, the plastic card is trimmed to shape and if needed thinned out so it does not adversely affect the scale thickness of the part.
The part is attached to the model just like any plastic part and MEK is touched to the edge with a fine brush and runs around the edge and under to secure the part. Simple but effective.
By far, the part which has required the most attention in this build is the intake. Here we see some Milliput (white) being used to fill in the step between the intake and the lip. The gap was fairly large as I had sanded too much of the forward intake away when working on the seam.
The fit of the other exterior intake parts are not real flash either. Milliput and subsequently Tamiya Basic Putty was used to repair these joins.
The cockpit panels have been painted black using Vallejo acrylic paints. These paints are ideal for brush painting as they leave no brush marks and don’t dry too rapidly like Tamiya or Gunze when brush painting.
