Italeri 1/48 F-16B Falcon

ITALERI 1:48 F-16B FALCON

Reviewer: Ian Langer (rec.models.scale)

The F-16B is essentially the two-seat trainer version of the A model, Fighting Falcon. It has, however, been employed in many other roles by export nations, most notably Belgium and Israel, the latter using the aircraft as a basis to design the ill-fated Lavi project. The Italeri kit provides options for a USAF or Belgian trainer and another version for Israel.

The cockpits present problems during construction because they are not aligned correctly with the fuselage. Most of the sidewall detail is both unrealistic and not correctly proportioned. The seats are also quite inaccurately reproduced. Control surfaces such as the instrument panel and side panels do not contain enough detail and most of the work has to be scratchbuilt. I heard somewhere that Neomega were going to produce a cockpit detail set but have not heard anything since (late '98). Once the interior has been scratchbuilt you will need to sand back and file down the perimeters of the supplied cockpit units in order to get them correctly positioned under the canopy. This also means they will be 'undersized' so some putty should be liberally deployed to help fix it in place. But whatever you are thinking about this kit, be prepared for a lot of work yourself for the cockpit interior if you want to have anything resembling a quality cockpit.

After hours of painstaking and meticulous effort in building the cockpit one can then get onto the major component assembly. The fuselage halves go together okay but they are misaligned slightly so the alignment pins need to be cut off to prepare a butt join, don't forget to add in some nose weight, 20-25g should do the trick. The fuselage external is nicely done and the spine has been reproduced to as close to perfection as possible. The join lines have to be sanded and this means that some rescribing has to be done to properly replicate the delicate panel lines. Of course you need to be constantly aware of what you're sanding and that you don't shave down the bulged panels for IFR fairings etc. The aft housing for the parabrake needs careful positioning because the fit is not up to par.

The distinctive underside inlet was an area of frustration, not so much in fit, but in result. The interiors were painted first to ensure that this was not something left as an almost impossible task at the conclusion of assembly before attempting to affix the inlet. While it attached rather easily it resulted in an inaccurate jutt, or step, between top and bottom sections. It also wanted to lean off centre and the only way to fix this was to use filler to coax it back on-centre, which was difficult given the area one has to work in, and if you don't pay attention when sanding back you could marr the inlet shape slightly. Perhaps I should note here that there are resin aftermarket sets available for the 48th F-16 - including inlet area, so perhaps think about replacing the kit supplied parts with one of these resin sets.

The wings attach without too much drama but the problem is that it is stepped up on the kit and not blended into the fuselage like on the real aircraft. The wings also reveal some gaps especially around the outer rails and where the upper and lower wing portions overlap/meet. This makes for both liberal and tricky filling and sanding depending on the area. The whole wing surface could do with a bit of a work over and rescribing in areas to keep the panel lines visible where filling and sanding has occurred. This is really nitpicky but has to be done to get the proper replication. The rear stabilisers go on okay but are a bit thick and slightly over-rounded in overall profile. One must also remember that the stabilisers also have a noticeable droop as there is a tendency by the kit to encourage you to have them sit straight.

The aircraft undercarriage are a bit of a mixed bag, nicely replicated but quite fiddly. The main gear wells are given some internal ribbing that is quite nicely done but the problem is that the assembly process for this stage is extremely fiddly. Care must be taken when attaching the main gear to the fuselage undersection because it can easily digress into a mess if the first attempt goes haywire. By this I mean that hobby glue fuses parts together and if over applied, or not applied correctly, or added to on subsequent attempts etc, will most likely result in a messy interior that would annoy any even modest perfectionist.

Weapons and stores options are in the form of GBU-12 laser guided bombs, AIM-9L sidewinders and a centreline 300 gal tank. The bombs in particular are very nicely done. Depicting a trainer version for the USAF I went with the Sidewinders and tank only. Italeri provide decals and colour scheme instructions for three air force F-16B's, as previously stated. I chose to replicate an F-16B in USAF colours and markings and finished it off in low vis dark grey and gull grey upper and aircraft grey undersides .

Overall the kit is a bit disappointing, it lacks any real substance in the cockpit (more detail is provided than I probably gave essence to above) and a number of very small but 'they-are-there' flaws are also evident on the model. If you are prepared to spend some quality time and effort then this kit will reward you with an excellent finish which is what I was able to achieve, and those flaws can generally be corrected. Fit of most components was on the whole very good but a few gaps etc result. But in reality one has to spend the extra effort and time, so I would not recommend this kit over the Hasegawa offering.

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