Hasegawa

1/48 F-16C Fighting Falcon Texas ANG 111FS, 90th Anniversary

Kit Number: 09811

Reviewed by  Fred A Amos, IPMS# 6672

MSRP: $52.00 Review kit provided by Dragon USA: www.dragonmodelsusa.com This F-16 C of the Texas Air National Guard is painted in the beautiful blue fuselage and yellow wings of the early days of the U.S. Army Air Corps. Many modelers, me included, think of this period as featuring some of the most colorful aircraft in the U.S.A. This Hasegawa molding of the F-16 goes back to some time in the 1990s and its age is beginning to show. There is a little bit of separation flash on the sprues, mostly on the smaller pieces. The decals are just absolutely beautiful, in perfect registry and very colorful. There are of course the markings for the Yellow Wings anniversary aircraft and enough markings for any one of four other Texas ANG aircraft in the two-tone gray scheme. Assembly starts in the cockpit. The only thing I would like to see that wasn't included was decals for the instrument panel and side consoles. The ejection seat was a very tight fit, so much so that no glue was needed to keep it in place. I needed only one 5/8-ounce lead weight in the nose cone to hold the nose wheel down. With the cockpit tub in place the upper and lower halves of the fuselage were a good fit with just a very small amount of my favorite body putty used along the edges of the forward fuselage. The fit of the wing parts was very good and needed just a smidgen of putty where the seam was not on a natural seam line. Fit of the wings to the fuselage left an unacceptable gap and had to be filled. On seams like this I will put masking tape along side of the gap so as not to get putty all over places I don't want it. And then, when it is dry enough, instead sanding it smooth I use a small piece of fabric from an old Tee shirt soaked in Denatured Alcohol and rub the putty till it is flush with the surface. This is a trick I learned from a very good friend some 30 years ago. It takes a little time but beats having to polish the plastic after sanding.

The very worst problem with this kit was the cockpit canopy. There was a mold seam right down the middle of it that had to be sanded out and then polished and dipped in Future to bring it back to complete clarity.

For painting I used Humbrol # 128, Satin US Compass Gray, and # 154 Matt Insignia Yellow, and Model Master #1729 Gloss Gull Gray FS 16440 and Model Master #2032 Bright Blue FS 35183. The painted model was sprayed with two coats of Future and left to dry for a few days. Decaling started with the vertical stabilizer and was completed over several hours so as not to disturb decals as they were drying. The model was again sprayed with a liberal coat of Future and left to dry for a few days. Final assembly was of all the small parts that could have been broken off during decaling and masking for painting. For some reason I did have a problem getting the main landing gear legs into the holes provided. I managed to get then in place without destroying the model. So, all in all, this was an enjoyable build. Over looking the flash and the seam on the canopy this is still a very desirable kit to add to my collection and the color scheme is a lot of fun. Thanks to Dragon USA for providing the kit to the IPMS/USA Reviewer Corps.

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