F-16A ADF Fighting Falcon Italian 'Viper'

[woody37]

F-16A ADF Fighting Falcon Italian 'Viper'

Hasegawa 1:72

Following it's first 'official' flight in 1974, the F16 went into service in the US as a low cost all weather multi-role aircraft. It introduced a number of unique for the time features such as side stick control, reclined seat to reduce G-force effects on the pilot and the now familiar fly-by-wire control system to improve maneuvre performance. Early variants were powered by a P&W F100 turbofan while later models received the more powerful F110 engines, the most powerful variant giving 32,000lb thrust. Constant improvement and adaptation to meet varying needs throughout the world has kept the F-16 on the front lines. Whilst the early F-16's looked clean and nimble, more recent versions have grown excessive bulges and lumps to accommodate increased fuel load and avionics. One of the most incredible facts is that it can carry almost it's own weight in ordnance, that payload being air-air, air-ground or air-ship. Since it's introduction, 4500 F16's have been built and served with no less than 25 nations throughout the world. The ADF was an upgrade to the original F-16A/B including a larger fin to improve stability during bombing runs, noticeable by the lumps at the root of the tail on each side (A-Model only) and avionic / structural enhancements to support the LANTIRN system. Italy operated 30 F-16A/B's most being the ADF variant.

The kit

Packaged in the familiar top opening box, inside you find three large grey sprue's and two smaller ones as well as the usual clear sprue which is separately packed. The fuselage is moulded top and bottom half and has finely etched panel lines. The main wheel bay is integral to the lower fuselage half and whilst some detail is included, it's relatively simple by todays standards and expectations.

A good feature is the air intake being moulded as one piece eliminating any awkward filling of seams, however it's blanked off. You might choose to open this up. There is a few instances of flash although not very much and ejector pin marks, of which each main wheel tyres have two on the inside walls which will be tricky to fully remove. Gear doors have some inner panel detail which should come up well with a light wash. The cockpit is quite bare, this is an area that Hasegawa have fell well behind the competition with in recent years. The detail is perceived using decals.

The wings, tail and tailplanes are all moulded as one piece units instead of the more traditional top / bottom mouldings. This is a good idea as it means the thin profile is more delicately reproduced. Two tails are included in the kit, probably because the ADF version is a modification on the original 'A' variant with a new sprue. A sprue containing two wing and a center line fuel tanks, Sidewinders and two iron bombs is included. If you don't want to use the hardpoints on the wings, you will need to fill the locating holes that are moulded in. The wing tip hardpoints need removing and replacing with different ones that were used by the Italians given that this is the scheme provided. Included is a small sheet with some foil strengthening plates, which I'm guessing are part of the ADF upgrade programme. These are to be glued at the wing roots and base of the tail. The rivet detail in these is finely reproduced.

The canopy is moulded in two parts enabling you have the cockpit opened or closed. The parts are crisp, although the rear part suffers a little distortion due to the small size and thickness of plastic. Presumably to make space for the canopy in the closed position, the combing over the instrument panel looks to be too narrow although nicely detailed.

The decal sheet has a striking Viper artwork that covers the entire aircraft of the 5th Stormo, 23rd Gruppo. This is broken down into smaller pieces to aid application and I suspect patience will be required here to make sure everything lines up. Register is spot on and the colours are vivid. A small amount of stencils are included, although you probably won't notice them with this artwork applied. The Italians retired their F-16's earlier this year, so this is now sadly a piece of history.

Conclusion

Although showing it's age a little in comparison to more recent kits on to the market, this reincarnation of the older Hasegawa F-16A is still capable of being turned into a great model. Although the Revell F-16 has more detail, the panel lines on this kit are more subtle, so it has it's strong points. You may want to add some additional detail in the cockpit and wheel bays, but with such a striking scheme, it's the decals that will get more attention than the interior detail in this case.

Review sample courtesy of

UK distributors for

[Julien]

Nice one, the decal sheet look really good.

Julien