Hasegawa's 1/48 scale
F-16D Block 40 Barak

by Piero De Santis

Hasegawa's 1/48 scale Harrier GR.7 is available online from Squadron.com

The IDF F-16D entered service in 1983 together with F-16C. These were Block-30 aircraft.

A lot of modifications were done compared to USAF’s F-16Ds.

• New Israeli RWR-ECM war package.
• Big dorsal spine.
• Extended tail spine.
• Provisioning for Israeli’s weapons.

After some years, Israel acquired a new batch of F-16C/D, this time were Block-40 aircraft.

Block-40 are specifically optimised for night operations, and includes some modifications compared to the Block-30:

• Modified cockpit with a new rear HUD repeater screen.
• Black coloured cockpit tub and seats with new lights for night operations.
• New big undercarriage wheels, legs and bay doors.
• Two chaff & flares box instead of three on each side of dorsal spine.
• New big intercooler intake on the port side.

For my model I choose the 619 from the Scorpion Squadron, based at Haztor AFB.

Is has a big scorpion squadron badge applied on both side of the tail fin. 

Modeling the F-16

There is almost everything on the F-16 in all the three main scale 1/72nd, 1/48th and 1/32nd: kits, decals, resin detail sets, photo etched sheets, conversion sets… 

Looking only at the 1/48^th scale, I choose the Hasegawa kit: you can find so many different variant and boxes from Hasegawa, A, A+, B, B+, C and D of different blocks (30, 40, 52). 

But, as for many other kits, not everything you need is in the box and for the Israeli’s D you need all the parts listed before: Hasegawa made a limited-edition box of the IDF F-16D with a resin dorsal spine and other minor antennas parts, but not with the right-looking for me and many details missing.

It seemed very strange that Hasegawa put the name “F-16D Braaket” on the box. This is not correct because the Israeli name for the F-16C/D is “Barak”. 

Other F-16’s kit in 1/48^th came from Academy (a simplified copy of Hasegawa), Italeri (cheap), Revell (Italeri re-boxed), Heller (idem), ESCI, Tamiya, Monogram, Hobbycraft, Arii, Otaki… no comment, go with Hasegawa.

The 1/48^th scale “Hasegawa” F-16D has many parts in common with the other Hasegawa F-16’s boxes, with some extras to build a D version not referred to a specific block. 

To improve the D version I got some extra parts from the aftermarket and from other kits:

• Black Box resin cockpit for F-16D.
• Cutting Edge resin big mouth intake.
• Cutting Edge resin dorsal spine.
• Shull-24 resin GE exhaust nozzle.
• Aires resin main wheel bay.
• From Eagle Design’s conversion set I got all the ECM/RWR bulges and antennas plus the four big squared antenna’s boxes.
• Because the Israeli’s F-16 use to carry the enlarged 600 gallon fuel tanks instead of the standard 300 gallon fuel tanks, I found a pair of this plus the correct wing pylons in the F-2B Hasegawa kits. This kit contains also the correct wheels and legs for block 40, plus many other detail parts.

Now some information related to the assembly of the Hasegawa kit.

• Cockpit resin set must be sanded a lot before placed inside the fuselage parts.
• A 10 grams weight must be placed into the nose to avoid a tail sitting model.
• The resin seamless resin intake needs some dry-fitting testing. The engine-fan duct can’t be used together with the resin wheel bay. I decided to short the resin duct.
• Wheel bay is easy to fit inside the lower part of the fuselage.
• Join the wings with the fuselage was the biggest task for me building the kit… I can’t found a way without using an amount of Tamiya bi-component filler.
• I scratch build the enlarged pre-cooler intake.
• The resin dorsal spine needs to be removed from a long block of resin. Pay attention to this step for your health.
• I decide to use the kit vertical fin instead of the resin one.

As I said before, many details were added to obtain a block 40 aircraft replica and some panel lines were corrected too.

I painted my model using my Aztek double-action airbrush.

Instead of following the Hasegawa painting guide for the camouflage pattern I referred to the marvellous Isradecal book covering the F-16C/D “Barak” in Israeli service. 

The colours are:

• Sand (FS33531)
• Tan (FS30219)
• Pale Green (FS34424)
• Light Ghost Grey (FS36375).

I use acrylic paints from Gunze.

Pre-shading and post-shading as usual for my models.

I spayed some clear smoke along the panel lines.

Decals

Hasegawa's kit decals are too thick and colours are wrong… white is not “white”… looks more cream. 

I got the decal sheets for “F-16C/D Barak” by “Isradecal”, very thin and correct. 

I sprayed a cote of clear gloss from Tamiya" to prepare the model for decaling: I do not use “Future” anymore over the Gunze colour because they “cracked”. 

Those decal are very thin with no silvering at all. "Microscale" Set/Sol were used to apply decals. 

To finish a cote of clear gloss from Tamiya and then a flat clear from Gunze.

Weapons and Ordnance

To load my F-16D I got a Litening laser pod from a Hasegawa AV-8B kit and pylon came from Hasegawa modern weapons set.

I added an asymmetrical configuration with a GBU-16 LGB and a JDAM.

AIM-9M infra-red missile at the wing tip rails.

Another fuel tank was added under the belly pylon.

Books that can be recommended for references are "Isradecal F-16C/D" N°4 and some "World Air Power Journal" back issues. 

Specific information, support and references on can be found on the web as F-16.net website.

CIAO!

Piero

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Modelling the Harrier I and II Osprey Modelling 1 Author: Glenn Ashley US Price: $17.95 UK Price: £12.99 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Publish Date: September 25, 2003 Details: 80 pages; ISBN: 184176647X   Shop Buy it from Osprey Publishing

Model and Images Copyright 2006 by Piero De Santis
Page Created 08 February, 2006
Last Updated 21 February, 2007

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