Eat my shorts Hussein

Ingmar Stöhr
I'm in! First row!
I also have those decals, but in 1:72 scale.

Konrad -
Take a seat here as well👍!

Sven Schönyan
Hey guys, thank you for your interest! Maybe there will be not so much progress during the next few weeks. Venting my man cave with 30°C outside doesn´t make fun.

Konrad -
Yep thats true my progress on the projects is nearly zero at the moment. Anyhow I'm looking forward to this one.

Mirko Römer
Nice idea, I'm in!

Jos Jansen
I don't care when you start this build, but when you start I'll be sitting front row 😉!

Sven Schönyan
Thanks for watching mates!

Slavo Hazucha
Always happy to watch some solid 4th gen stuff come together!

Sven Schönyan
Thank you Slavo!

Sven Schönyan
Even when it´s too hot outside for a proper venting of my room after airbrushing doesn´t mean I cannot glue some parts together. Today´s work saw the fitting together of nearly all subassemblies. So now I hope for cooler weather - without painting I cannot go on....

Sven Schönyan
... and today I could go on with painting! I used the rainy day with comfortable temperatures to airbrush the wheelbays, air intake and cockpit using FS17875 and FS36231.

Ingmar Stöhr
Looking good!

Sven Schönyan
Some minor paintwork during the last couple of days.

Slavo Hazucha
Nice job with the ABT Sepia - a light shadow accent being all the nice parts really needed 👍 Pit & seat coming along nicely too...

Sven Schönyan
Thank you Slavo! Yes, I´m more in for a rather subtle weathering. Normally I´m building carrier aircrafts which sometimes have an extremely dirty appearance in the wheelbays. USAF planes aren´t that dirty as far as I noticed. So an very, very diluted Sepia came to use here which represents my desired effect.

Sven Schönyan
Only some minor progress this weekend. I´ve painted the pylons next to some gluework.

Sven Schönyan
The most complicated main gear I´ve ever assembled. Now waiting until the last few filler spots dried (unbelievable but even Tamiya kits need filling in some cases) before I can start the "Joy of Painting".

Maciej Bellos
Niiice! There are quite a few Desert Storm Vipers with nose art, some more inspired (this one) than others. I must admit I have missed this one during my search about a year ago.

Christian Bruer
Very nice work so far Sven. It seems to me you're also away from ship modelling at the moment 😉

Sven Schönyan
Thank you guys!

@ Maciej: I´ve started this one just some weeks ago. By chance I found a Tamiya store during my last Thailand holiday in the end of 2019 and they had some special offers. So I couldn´t resist. During a model show in March I found several decal sheets covering Desert Storm F-16s. Bart Simpson is the most interesting of them.

@ Christian: Yes, I´m away from ship modelling but not for long anymore. An Arleigh Burke next HMS Montrose is waiting here to see the F-16 finished.

Michael Phillips
Taking a seat here too!

Off to a very nice start, looking forward to watching as you progress.

Sven Schönyan
Thank you Michael, you´re welcome!

Erik Leijdens
Great start indeed! Nice clean work! And always good to see a early Viper!

Sven Schönyan
Thank you Erik! Maybe soon there will be another early Viper on the bench. But Hussein will need something to eat first.

Mathijs Beenhakker
Yup even Tamiya needs filling here and there...but how about that join of the top fuselage halves...there's where your money is going...Kinetic has the same join...BIG difference between that one and the one on the Tamiya kit. Tamiya is totally seamless the one on Kinetic isn't and will require some careful filling

Sven Schönyan
Thanks for the hint Mathijs! Yes, indeed, I was thinking to purchase a Kinetic F-16 kit. With the historical flypast of the Israeli/German Air Force last week over the Fürstenfeldbruck AB and KZ Dachau, both not far away from my home, I thought I should build one of the IDF Vipers.

Sven Schönyan
The major paintwork started today! The fuselage is primed and more and more small parts get their finish.

Slavo Hazucha
All looking very promising - I too try to delay the point when static dispensers & tiny antennas hit the model 🙂 But with the F-16 variety, it's probably best to have them on before the main paintjob.

I hope all goes well, the details & sub-groups look really good 👍

Konrad -
Awesome work so far Sven!

Ingmar Stöhr
Nice Progress!

Sven Schönyan
Thank you for the kind words Slavo, Kanrad and Ingmar!

Today I´ve airbrushed the underside with FS36375, applied a mottling and sprayed all over it again with FS36375. Unfortunately, I meant it a little bit to good so the effect dissolved more or less. On the topside I will do it in a stronger way.

Ingmar Stöhr
Happens to me all the time! Still looking very nice!!!

Sven Schönyan
Thank you Ingmar! Luckily there are so many more ways to achieve a more vintage look.

Mark D
Nice build and painting! Does the Tamiya kit come with the flaps separately? Still convinced about the metal static dischargers? They look great anyway.

Sven Schönyan
I spent the rest of the rainy day painting the pilot and Sidewinders. The missiles still need the matt varnish.

@ Mark: Thank you! Yes, the kit has separate flaps which you can build either as I did or in down position. It´s the first time for me to use turned brass discharger. I´m happy with them but they are not really necessary in 1/48.

Sven Schönyan
Today I did the rest of the main paint job. This time I was in for a more intense mottling which turned out better than before. I´m quite happy with the result so far. Only some little spots I have to rework a bit.

The worst point is at the end of the fuselage. But thanks to Slavo´s introduction in his NMF weathering process it shouldn´t be too heavy to cover this issue.

Sven Schönyan
Today I highlighted and shadowed some of the panels together with some detail painting. The static dischargers turned out very well. Something I will need to display on the next models, too.

Mathijs Beenhakker
Nice job on the statics...normally these PE things look just "out of scale"but these look near perfect!

Alexander
Really like the progress so far, staying tuned. 👍

Nathan Dempsey
The paint work is looking very convincing. Great subject for an earlier F-16.

Sven Schönyan
Thanks a lot Mathijs, Alexander and Nathan!

@ Mathijs: the dischargers are turned brass parts. Master Model does them. Anyway, you don´t really recognize them as turned parts in this scale.

Slavo Hazucha
You are really making it tasty for Saddam - very nice surface work all over - all dosed & distributed with a very good eye for the right measure of effect 👍

Sven Schönyan
If there is someone who can sabotage himself - then it´s me. I started with the washing process on the airframe. I did this before the glosscoat as this worked very well on the polyns and payloads and even on the underside of the plane. The upper side was too rough after the mottling process so the Gunship Grey just turned darker in all and killed my panel highlighting. So I tried to recover it by airbrushing the panels with Gunship Grey again - and what can I say: it turned out as an interesting new wear and tear effect! Anyway, I will do some highlighting and washing again before placing the decals

@ Slavo: thank you very much for your kind words!

Ingmar Stöhr
The way to success is paved with mistakes.
Some time ago, I was also impatient and tried the same shortcut. Now I (almost) always take the time and gross coat before applying the wash. At least for aircraft.

Sven Schönyan
Today I finally attached the last subassemblies and did the last touches of colour.

This time only workbench pictures. The balcony of our living place is under refurbishment for the next months.

Alexander
Turned out really great! Very clean and crisp build! 👍

Ingmar Stöhr
Great result! Also the pilot looks great! 👍

Nathan Dempsey
That's a great build Sven. A great load out and I really like how your pilot figure looks in the cockpit.

Sven Schönyan
Thank you very much guys!

Slavo Hazucha
Superb! The way you handled the panels & detail highlighting while keeping a nicely maintained surface without much wear & tear is great - I´d love to achieve something similar once I do a JSDAF F-2...

Very cool looking Viper (or were these still Falcon days?) both sides a pleasure for the eye! 👍 Serve the shorts!😉

Sven Schönyan
Thanks a lot Slavo! For me it´s a Falcon. Actually matt varnish "killed" a lot of highlighting effects but turned out to be as subtle as imagined before. I´m very happy with it just some few things I will do in another way the next time.

Maciej Bellos
Great looking Falcon! Or Viper for it's drivers. Well done Sven! Post a closeup of Bart just for the album to be complete.

Sven Schönyan
Great idea Maciej!

Michael Phillips
That turned out awesome Sven! The subtle panel highlighting is perfect. Well done!

Sven Schönyan
Thank you Michael!

Gary Victory
Really nice build Sven. Lovely details and weathering. Well done sir.

Sven Schönyan
Thanks a lot Gary!

Daniel
Very beautiful viper, congrats!

Sven Schönyan
Thank you Daniel!

Mark D
Nice work, like the shine of the canopy and the weathering is also just right and not overdone. The darker color of the nosecone seems to be spot on comparing to the real Viper.

Sven Schönyan
Thank you for the kind words Mark!