1/72 Academy F-16C-52ID

Gallery Article by Alex Sidharta on Aug 17 2015

  Indonesia Independence Day  

 

      

Indonesia is now in progress of receiving 24 F-16C/Ds under Peace Bima Sena II program. Originally ex-USAF F-16C/D Block 25, the new Indonesian Fighting Falcons are refurbished and upgraded to the level of Block 52. The designation of this unique Viper is now F-16C/D Block 52ID (ID stands for Indonesia). Upon receiving this new fighters, a new fighter squadron was formed; Skadron Udara 16 and operates this new F-16C/D-52ID.

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Modeling this block 52ID in 1/72 is not quite easy. It is basically a Block 25 with other blocks’ features like block 30/32 main wheel hub and nose wheel door’s landing/taxi light. Problem is the light-weight Block 30/32 wheel hubs. I can’t find any AM for this also.

I have an Academy F-16C “Air National Guard” in my stash so I decided to try my hand on it. I have everything I need to build my 52ID from the kit except the main wheels and MLG cover. Fortunately, the bulged MLG covers Academy supplied are so subtle so they look unbulged ones. Can do nothing on the heavy weight LG so I left it as is.

Building the kit is straight forward with no drama. Details are great everywhere. The shape of the nose is wrong. Period. It ruins the beauty look of an F-16. I corrected the flaps as Academy did it wrong. There are some more errors but I left them too.

I used Oracal tape cut-to-shape for the strengthener plates. There are 8 of them. Indonesian Falcons are painted in FS 36314 and FS 34148 which I found that Gunze’s C334 Barley Grey is a good match for the grey color. As for the green color, I have to mix automobile lacquer paints in the paint depot. I painted FS 36118 grey for the walkways line and masked them before painting the main colors.

Decal was kindly supplied by CJM, a local decal brand who has just released Indonesian F-16C/D sheet. The quality of the decal is very good and accurate.

I don’t like the tinted clear part Academy supplied. It is good for the canopy but the other clear areas should be clear, not tinted, like the HUD, etc. I applied minimum weathering on this one.

Unfortunately this very bird was destroyed in fire after an aborted take-off early this year after only a couple months of service in Indonesian Air Force.

Alex Sidharta

Photos and text © by Alex Sidharta