General Dynamics F-16 Falcon by Tamiya
1/48 scale
Kit No. MA 122
Decals: Two versions, both U.S. Air Force – 1975 European Tour markings, and two-tone combat grey camouflage scheme for undesignated USAF unit
Comments: Early version of F-16; raised panel lines, detailed pilot figure, landing gear, and wheel wells; one-piece bubble canopy; equipped with two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles and two drop tanks
THIS REVIEW IS DEDICATED
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
NOTE: While Lockheed-Martin acquired General Dynamics, the firm that built the F-16, in 1993, and the plane is today known as the Lockheed-Martin F-16, this article largely refers to the F-16 as originally designed, refined, and introduced into USAF service in the 1970’s, all while General Dynamics remained an independent firm.
History
The General Dynamics F-16 was designed in response to the Lightweight Fighter Program announced by the U.S. Air Force in 1972. Since the end of World War II up through the 1960’s, jet fighters had become successively larger, faster and more sophisticated multi-role aircraft, but also less agile and dependent on missiles in dogfights. In some ways the F-16 represented a return to basics, with a design that from the outset incorporated a 20mm cannon into the airframe as the primary armament; but it was also the first fighter to feature fly-by-wire technology, replacing conventional manual flight controls with flight computers and an intricate network of wires transmitting electronic signals to control the aircraft.
Brainchild of the Fighter Mafia
The Lightweight Fighter Program was itself a vindication of Air Force Colonel John Boyd and his acolytes, collectively known as The Fighter Mafia, who in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s secretly conducted research for and developed a new, then-unpopular lightweight fighter design that rejected the multi-role mentality and focused solely on winning air-to-air engagements — a light, agile, pure air superiority fighter, which they maintained the McDonnell Douglas F-15 was not. The Air Force at the time was in love with the F-15, whose development was well underway. The emergence of the first F-16 from the General Dynamics assembly line and its subsequent success was thus a victory of epic proportions and a total vindication of the Fighter Mafia’s guerilla campaign, which had achieved the unlikely feats of avoiding strangulation at birth, then navigating the political minefields within the Pentagon, antagonizing the Air Force brass in the process.
The first YF-16 prototype flew on January 20, 1974, and after evaluation against its competition, the Northrop YF-17 (which would ultimately evolve into the F-18 of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps), the Air Force selected it for production. The F-16 entered service with the USAF on January 7, 1979, with the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing taking the first deliveries. In addition to fly-by-wire technology, its other features included wing/fuselage blending of a type rarely seen (the only other examples being the McDonnell XP-67 of World War II and the Lockheed SR-71), Westinghouse APG-66 radar, the aforementioned side stick controller, and a pilot’s seat that reclined at 30 degrees.
In June 1975, after a European flight demonstration tour, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands selected the F-16 to replace their F-104 Starfighters, placing combined orders for over 520 aircraft. Assembly lines were established in Belgium and the Netherlands, with the first aircraft completed in January 1979. Subsequent orders came in from Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Venezuela.
Powered by a Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan and armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles on its wingtips, and equipped with belly- and wing-mounted hard points for an assortment of auxiliary fuel tanks, air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons, the F-16 would ultimately be flown by the 
air forces of over 20 nations, with sizable orders placed by Japan, Italy and Turkey. Designed to be inherently unstable without its flight computers, the F-16 cannot fly without them — a source of consternation to some pilots. But the Falcon has a quality that until recently hostile aircraft could not match — it is highly agile and can easily change direction when commanded to, consistently performing at the limit of its flight envelope with little physical movement required by the pilot. It is a fearsome adversary in a dogfight.
Combat Debut: The Osirak Raid
The F-16’s most notable combat action came on June 7, 1981 when the Israeli Air Force attacked the Osirak nuclear reactor then under construction at Twartha, near Baghdad, Iraq. Eight F-16’s, with a flight of F-15’s to provide top cover, were sent to strike the reactor, due to be completed in the Autumn of 1981. According to the Mossad (Israeli intelligence), if allowed to become operational, the Osirak reactor would have produced sufficient plutonium to allow Iraq to build up to five 20-kiloton nuclear weapons by 1985.
Few details about the raid have ever been released by the Israeli government, but it is known that two waves of aircraft, each consisting of two pairs of F-16’s possibly armed with laser-guided Paveway bombs, struck the reactor itself as well as adjoining laboratories and other facilities, achieving complete surprise. The damage was severe, and the Israeli objective of dealing a serious setback to Iraq’s nuclear program was achieved. Regardless of the ordnance used, the Osirak raid cemented the F-16’s reputation as an effective and accurate strike aircraft in addition to its capabilities as an interceptor. Despite the intent of its designers, it had multi-role capability after all.
While the raid was criticized in some quarters at the time as an unprovoked attack, Israel characterized it as a necessary pre-emptive strike, timed to cause minimal loss of life (the strike reportedly began at 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday). In time, Iraq would threaten the fragile peace in the Middle East with the invasion of Kuwait and during the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam Hussein would launch a series of conventional Scud missiles on Tel Aviv — placing the 1981 raid in a different light.
In 1982, in a series of air-to-air engagements over Lebanon, Israeli F-16’s shot down 44 Syrian MiG-21’s and MiG-23’s with no losses, and Falcons of the Pakistani Air Force have reportedly shot down several Russian aircraft along the border with Afghanistan. Upon its debut in 1979, the F-16 was the most agile fighter in the world. The Mirage 2000, MiG-29 and Rafale fighters have reportedly been designed to match the American jet’s superb handling. None have been able to match the F-16’s speed (maximum of Mach 2.05).
By 2004, over 4,000 F-16’s were serving with the air arms of the U.S., NATO, and various air forces and U.S. allies in Asia and Latin America. With periodic upgrades to its avionics, radar and weapons systems, it continues to serve with multiple nations well into the 21st Century.
The Kit / Construction
First, I’ll admit that this is one of the very first F-16 kits on the market, and there have been many more detailed versions released since. I chose to build this version because of its paint scheme, as a symbolic gesture to my fellow Americans to reaffirm what a great nation we are and why, at our best, we have been and will continue to be a beacon to the world.
Released by Tamiya in 1976, the same year as the initial Monogram version, this kit features raised panel lines, a detailed pilot figure, two Sidewinder missiles mounted on wingtip rails and two large underwing drop tanks. It is injection molded in white plastic and consists of 60 parts. It is engineered rather differently than the Monogram kit which I built many years ago — for some reason Monogram broke the fuselage into top and bottom halves. Tamiya instead presents the fuselage in the traditional right and left halves. Both kits provide a separate nose cone.
The cockpit detail is fair with an ejection seat bearing no resemblance to the one fitted to later production versions — in part because this kit represents a pre-production, demonstrator model of the F-16 in the form that it was pitched to both the U.S. Air Force and the air forces of primarily European nations during 1975-76. In fact, the red, white and blue paint scheme is the livery in which the F-16 participated in European air shows while it was being marketed to America’s West European allies during a 1975 tour.
The cockpit is otherwise not terribly exciting with the traditional control yoke replaced by a rather clunky-looking joy stick mounted on the starboard side instrument panel — a real innovation at the time that was a development of the fly-by-wire technology that made the F-16 such a revolutionary aircraft. The instruments for the main and side panels are represented by decals, something I’ve always found disappointing in this scale.
Construction is almost completely worry-free. It begins with the cockpit assembly consisting of the floor (with integrally molded side panels), main instrument panel, and joy stick. For some reason the three-part seat is left until the final stages, but I painted and assembled it with the cockpit, deferring on cementing it in until I had 
also painted the pilot. The completed cockpit is cemented into the left fuselage half, along with parts for the nose and main gear wells. Paint colors are called out in plain language with no particular manufacturer reference.
In Step 2 the fuselage is cemented together along with the wings, ventral fins, and the dive brakes, two-part assemblies fitted to either side of the aft section of the fuselage. Although Tamiya kits are renowned for their excellent fit, at this stage some filler is needed to hide join seams, especially where the wings meet the upper fuselage. I used Zap-a-Gap on that seam with good results, sanding until smooth.
Since I decided to depict the kit in flight in a fairly clean configuration, I skipped both the landing gear and drop tank assemblies, adding the nose cone, elevators and vertical tail in quick succession. I paid special attention to the exhaust nozzle, cementing the two parts together and airbrushing them in a primer of Gloss Black. I initially decided to follow the kit instructions and paint both parts of the exhaust in a single metallic color, but upon closer study of reference photographs they are not the same at all. More on that later.
The canopy is a beautiful one piece affair, easily masked for the minimal framing that required painting. I committed a rookie mistake and handled it without gloves, and to make matters worse, did so immediately after my fingers had been exposed to solvent and, I thought, wiped clean. Result: Distinct fingerprints that could not be washed, rubbed or buffed out. ALWAYS use rubber gloves to handle your canopies. Fortunately I was able to call upon the magical properties of Future floor wax (now called Pledge Revive It), and after dipping the canopy in Pledge and allowing it to dry (not once as usual but twice, given the damage), the prints vanished. (NOTE to wives and girlfriends out there: Pledge Revive It is a great gift for the modeler in your life. Just say, “It’s for your canopies, honey…”)
I experimented with aftermarket parts for this kit (Quickboost ejection seat, Master Model pitot tube, and Eduard’s Brassin Sidewinder missiles) but ended up building it stock, right out of the box. Quickboost’s F-16 ejection seat was beautifully detailed, but with a pilot in it, most of it would have been covered up, so I decided to save it for a future project sans pilot. The pitot tube turned out to be too small and not the same type as that used on the pre-production F-16’s, which had distinctive dual prongs. Brassin’s AIM-9 Sidewnders were more detailed than the kit missiles but also frustratingly fiddly, with their individually mounted fins (Why?) that absolutely defied the adhesive properties of cyanoacrylate glue. Until I find the proper glue or adhesive, I’m not sure that particular aftermarket expense was worth the money.
Painting
With the lone exception of the jet exhaust nozzle, the F-16 is airbrushed entirely in Tamiya gloss acrylics, Red X-7, White X-1, and Royal Blue X-3. In truth, Royal Blue is a bit darker than the blue used on the first F-16’s, but in keeping with my reasons for building the kit, I chose a blue that was a closer match to that found on the American flag. Without the help of 1.5mm Micron masking tape, made by Aizu of Japan, it would not have been possible to duplicate the early F-16’s red, white and blue paint scheme with such precision — I now swear by this tape, as it is thin enough and strong enough to follow a myriad of curves and contours and actually hold, allowing a modeler to re-create unusual paint schemes without having to settle for an approximation.
Painting the nozzle required masking, since the two parts I cemented together turned out to require different colors. The collar portion of the nozzle is airbrushed in Aluminum, an AK Interactive lacquer. The “burner can” section is airbrushed in Titanium, a Model Master buffing metallizer. Once dry and buffed, I took a small paint brush normally reserved for figure painting and treated this section with an application of MiG Dark Wash for some light weathering.
Markings
For the decals I used an aftermarket set by Caracal Models “F-16: The Early Years,” CD 48160. In a word, these decals were superb. Perfectly in register with excellent color and just the right semi-gloss finish, they were eager to grip to surface of the model, but with a little added water could be repositioned with effort and patience. The aircraft depicted is the same as that seen on the box art (as well as that of the original Monogram kit in this scale), YF-16 Serial No. 70-1567, which traveled Europe on a flight demonstration tour in 1975, and particularly turned heads at the Paris Air Show.
Conclusion
This is an older kit that according to Tamiya has been out of production since about 2006, but for all its lack of a super detailed cockpit and engraved panel lines, it holds up remarkably well. For ease of construction it cannot be beat. Highly recommended for those who fell in love with the F-16’s original, pre-production paint scheme.
References
- Combat Aircraft Since 1945 by Stewart Wilson; Copyright 2000 Stewart Wilson and Aerospace Publications Pty, Ltd., Fyshwick, Australia.
- Jet Fighters Inside Out by Jim Winchester; Copyright 2010 Amber Books, Ltd., London.
- Modern Military Aircraft, edited by Jim Winchester; Copyright 2004 International Masters Publishers AB; New York.
- Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, by Robert Coram; Copyright 2002 by Robert Coram; Published by Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company, New York.
