Hasegawa's 1/72 scale
General Dynamics F-16A

by Ömer Erkmen

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The PAF received 28 F-16As and 12 F-16Bs, permitting the formation of three squadrons. No.11 Squadron 'Arrows' at Sargodha acted as the F-16 OCU, and was followed by Nos 9 'Griffins' and 14 ' Shaheens' squadrons. No 14 Squadron is unique in being based at Kamra. Plans to acquire further F-16s were frustrated by a US arms embargo. They were delivered to navy and air force aggressor units recently.

Pakistan's F-16 Block 15s have scored at least eight victories over Soviet and Afghan aircraft crossing the border. This F16A was flown by Flight Lieutenant Khalid of No. 14 Squadron when he scored the third of his three aerial victories. He used an AIM-9L to pick off a single Afghan air force Su-22 (flown by a Cpt. Hashim) which failed to turn back over the border with the rest of his formation.

I was so tired of seeing the usual Hill scheme, and I decided to start a new series of F-16s having a camouflage rather than hill scheme. Pakistan's scheme was my first choice. After a long search I concluded that no company is producing decals for Pakistan. So I decided to make my own.

Hasegawa's F-16A kit was an excellent choice for 1/72 scale.

The only addition is a True Details' resin seat . Construction was very easy went smooth without any modification.

The eye catching part is the paint scheme. Pakistani aircraft have a unique camouflage with a central band of gunship grey (36118) and small patches of the tailplanes, over medium grey (36270)

I start painting with enamels. First, started with lightest shade of base color, and than continue painting with darker shades of the same color.

After drying, I sanded the surface with ultra fine sandpaper (over 2000 grit). As you sand more, you reach different shade layers . After sanding, airbrushing panels with acrylic paints again, this time only for shading around or in the middle of panels with various shades.

After a gloss coat I applied decals, followed by a heavy coat of matt.

To emphasise the panel lines, I used dry pastels with a common wash style. Finally, a thin layer of flat coat for protecting dry pastels was applied

Stencilling, serials, and tail flag are custom made, along with silk screen printed decals.

Roundels and walkways on wings are painted. For the desired color finish it was much better to work with paint. The Pakistani insignia is fairly easy to make with airbrush. All you need is a couple of precisely prepared masks. First I sprayed the larger circle, and placed the mask in to the middle of it and painted inner circle.

Walkways were done by using 3M tape.

 

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Images and Text Copyright © 2004 by Ömer Erkmen
Page Created 15 August, 2004
Last Updated 14 August, 2004

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