Hi all,

I built this viper for the ARC Viper Cadre Group Build. I used a 1/48 Hasegawa F-16C V3 kit, as it was among the cheapest. This bird represents a block 25 from Ramstein AFB, also affectionately known as "Peppermint Patty". I couldn't find any photos on the net of her, so I winged it with the weathering. The kit is pretty much OOB, except for one Legends Aces II Seat for F-16. Again, this was because it was on sale at 10 SGD for 2 seats, so I decided to give it a try. The quality's not Black Box, but neither is it bad.

I applied the oil wash on this bird a few times, once a brown/raw umber wash, then a darker payne's gray/lamp black mix. I also applied the wash BEFORE decalling, and continued to airbrush paint on after the wash. This is because I felt that the wash was too "strong" and distinct, so I decided to tone it down by spraying a thin coat of base colour. The centre of the panels were sprayed with a 40% lightened base coat colour in order to get the sun bleached effect.

The tail was pretty much a disaster, luckily for me I had 2 V3 kits, as I used decals from both kits. I decided to cut out the red stripes and decal them on a white tail, instead of using the creamy white Hasegawa decals have. I then futured and masked to touch up with red paint, and sprayed some semi-gloss. To my horror, a light gray mist appeared: I picked up the primer can! In my defense, it was something like 2am, so I wasn't thinking straight. I had to strip the whole tail and repaint, redecal. Upon touch up, I masked the red to touch up white portions, and to my horror the masking tape pulled off the decals when removed... I was starting to think this bird was jinxed... I continued to touch up by brush this time.
Everything was then futured and flat coated. As you can see, the decals show no signs of silvering at all.

The FOD cover you see was made by the tissue paper method, and painted a dark gray. An insignia of the wing was added to the FOD cover for effect. I also used wire for the static dischargers, and the exhaust are you see took me a day or so to complete. I sprayed it white, then from the inner side of the tube I sprayed burnt iron. I then took sandpaper and sanded it to create a circular pattern. The alternating cream/white on the exhaust petals was done with q-tips and mixing of colours, with another light spray of burnt iron to dirty things up. I know the exhaust petals are not
of the right colour, but at that time I only had this metalliser colour in hand; I think it looks fine anyway. Other mods include adding wire to the wheel wells for brake wire, clipping off the gasbags fins, adding wire to the TERs. I loaded her with 4 Aim 9s as I saw this loadout in a photo somewhere and thought it looked good. I also used painted toothpick tips for the pitot tubes.

As an addition to the jinx, when I was taking photos of this plane, I picked it up by the vert. stab, and the superglue I used to attach the vert. stab chose that moment to go brittle and fracture on me. I spent the next 2 hours putting everything back together. The wire for static dischargers is now toothbrush bristles. I'm not gonna be touching this plane for a long time...

Thanks for looking
David