Snowy Day Update (Tamiya 1/32 F-16CJ)

My intent for the month of January was to make a bunch of progress on many things….. that did not happen…. too much Sins of a Solar Empire……

So what did I do through January. I played many videogames, watched some blu-rays, and worked a bit on what I will cover today which is the Tamiya 1/32 F-16CJ Block 50 model kit. I know that I had been working on mini’s on and off for the last few months but I really wanted to step back and take a short break from them and spend some time on some scale kits I have laying around the house.

Now I have been sitting on this particular kit for about a year with virtually no work done to it as I did not yet have the space for it once built (and I still don’t). But since my desk at work is somewhat clean and I feel like adding to the Hot Wheels I figured I would build this plane and make an airfield diorama. Now what makes the Tamiya kits nice is that they are fairly detailed out of the box with little need for aftermarket parts (in my opinion) when compared to some others that I have waiting for assemble. The plane is designed such that you can remove the weapons stores, the engine and move the flight surfaces for both storage and different setups.

Whenever I build scale planes I try to break them down into smaller subbuilds when possible to both keep progress moving on the build and so that I can paint and build in sections. This allows for me to be painting the engine while constructing the cockpit for instance.

At this point I have made progress on building the following items

• The cockpit, minus the HUD
• The engine, still being detail painted
• Main and nose landing gear bays, still being detail painted (assembled too, once fit to the fuselage)
• Engine bay and intake ducting, (not all pictured)

And for each of these I have some photos below.

In each case I still have some minor painting left and then everything will be coated in Future Floor Polish (gloss finish) for decal application and weathering, and then flat coated to seal everything up. After these items are completed I will move onto the fuselage, flight surfaces, and weapons system construction.

Next time I hope to have updates on both the F-16 and some miniatures. Maybe some videogames?