thought I'd start a build log as everyone else's helped me so much in my build.
Blog continues in comments....

First is a quick veiw of the apparent changes to the stock set up.

I also removed the plastic covering the hardwood inserts and replaced them with 1/64th ply

Also notice the dent under the fin mount, it looks as though they used a soldering iron to melt away the foam in order to fit the hardwood spars and in doing so accidently gouged a hole in the fuse, no big deal as i'm going to cover the fuse anyway but still anoying.

I wanted to add some drop tanks and wing tip missels, so I bought some spares from a FMS FE5 and then tried to copy an original test tank image I found (ish)

Test fitted everything together to get an idea of where things should go.
Sprayed the nose and inlet lip protector grey and decorated the missles

Thought I'd start on the fin first as it's the simplest, then moved onto the wing.

Used solar trim for the orange and white and trimline for the silver.

I left the wing covering on as it came out the box.

taping everything in place (for and aft) to get cog in order to position fan.
It tells you roughly where to put it in the manual, but as they are including a new (heavier) motor and fan unit thought it best to mark it up myself.
As it turns out the manual is pretty spot on, to get it balancing about 5mm in front of the cheaters I put the motor about 142mm back from the raised lip inside the fuse. The batteries I'm using weigh 168g

I don't know if you've flown one before or heard from others but these planes need quite a bit of speed at launch and will sink fast. I highly recommend bringing a buddy to the field with you for the first couple of launches. Also, the stall speed is much faster than "normal" or should I say, "comfortable". So expect to bring it in kinda hot. Those are the biggest challenges I've seen with these models. Several people at our club have experienced these two things and once they get the hang of it, they like flying it. Until then...good luck.

thanks for the advice, I'm in the precess of joining a new club so I'm hoping to get some help from some of the more experienced edf guys when it comes to the maiden, untill then I'll just have to keep practicing with a a spit which i've clipped the wings down.
All the best
Tim

Nice finish though. I've seen two guys at our club get frustrated with those F-16's. One guy bought three of them before he moved on. The other guy brought his recently repaired one out to the field and left with a handful of foam. I haven't seen him with it since then.
I built a PVC Pedal Launcher out of some materials I found at the local hardware store. It worked great for launching my wings and many guys use them for their EDF jets. I'm sure you could make a small one for that jet. It wouldn't cost too much and it is very handy.

I'm using Hitech HS65 HB servos at the back, spent the extra as they're doing all the work, plus if I feel like upping the power later on they should be up to the job.
They're a nice tight fit but require some foam to be removed to allow the leads out and also there a little bit taller than 9g servos so had to remove some of the bottom half of the fuse so the horns didn't rub, but not much.

Set the fan unit 142mm back from the lip where the fuse ramps up and added some 0.5mm styrene sheet to cover the wires and esc. I cut a hole out to allow for cooling.

The fan is glued in with a small blob of 5min epoxy either side so I can still get a knife in to cut it out if needs be.

I've cut and sanded back the rear edge of the cheater holes to allow smoother air flow into the fan, rather than the 90degree step that was there before. This also has to be replicated on the bottom half of the fuse.

I've ran a static thrust test with the red and silver out runner that came with my P3 EF16

I was using a 2200 30c 3s (about 2/3rds full) and hobbywing/pentium 40amp esc, the fan unit has an inside diameter of 67.5 and has a 5 blade fan. The thrust tube works out at just under 80% FSA.

I dont know what the amp draw or watts are but its producing 605g (21.3oz) of static thrust at wot.

The all up wieght of my ef16 including tanks and missles is 620g (21.9 oz)

Thrust to weight ratio of 0.97

For the intake fairing I've used 0.5mm styrene, hot glued into place then the join covered in electrical tape just to smooth things out as much as possible

Originally Posted by Sweetrex

Nice finish though. I've seen two guys at our club get frustrated with those F-16's. One guy bought three of them before he moved on. The other guy brought his recently repaired one out to the field and left with a handful of foam. I haven't seen him with it since then.
I built a PVC Pedal Launcher out of some materials I found at the local hardware store. It worked great for launching my wings and many guys use them for their EDF jets. I'm sure you could make a small one for that jet. It wouldn't cost too much and it is very handy.

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it.

Covered the missile rail this eve, really makes a difference to the look of the wing. Bit fiddly but worth it.
Also started on the rear of the fuselage tried to get it done in one piece but just wrinkled, instead I've used several strips running perpendicular to the length of the fuse. Not ideal but due to the very thin nature of the covering once you step back you really cant notice the slight over lap and it just sort of looks like panel lines. I think the rest of the body will be done this way.

bulid has slowed down slightly but have covered the fuselage now which worked really well, using 3 separate panels for each side , had to remove the black bits fore and aft of the cockpit in order to cover the fuse easier. These were stuck back down with double sided tape. Also have finished the wings

I cut the lower fuse into 3 sections to allow access to the fan and ESC.
4 magnets hold the middle section in place whilst the front and back sections are expoxied.
In hind sight I would have mounted the magnets further from the motor possition but I think they are far enough away to avoid having any adverse affect on the motor (I hope).