Trying to make the best out of the “Social distancing” required to minimize the spread of the Corona virus pandemic. Here is the Eflite 70mm F-16 Thunderbird repainted and detailed to represent an F-16C aircraft tested in the 1980’s in a dedicated Close Air Support (CAS) role. The thought was that the A-10 was too slow to be survivable in the high threat anti-air arena and needed to be replaced with something faster. The USAF created a test squadron of F-16’s to evaluate the concept. They also replaced a National Guard unit’s A-10’s as well. This unit was the 174th out of Syracuse, NY. “The Boys from Syracuse.” Their F-16’s were painted in the standard two tone gray scheme.

The version I did here was of the evaluation unit based at Nellis AFB. Their aircraft were painted i. The Euro 1 scheme prevalent for close air support aircraft at that time. The colors were Federal Standard 34102/34092/36081.

This is my build log for the HSD 90mm F-86. Kit provides only the major EPO components along with a basic hardware set. I plan to make it as an 8S version with a Taft 8S EDF and a Hobbyking ESC.

Here are some of my repaints. Very rarely do I leave the stock paint scheme on the plane. Repaints are half the fun of these foamies for me....Continue Reading

Sadly, my Freewing A-10 augered in due completely to "dumb thumbs" and ego. Started to perform a loop. At the top, a roll occurred and in effort to correct it, I put the wrong input in. At the bottom of the loop, I didn't realize I was inverted and when I went to pull out of it, the plane nosed directly into the ground with a resounding thump. The ego part was where I thought I could manage it instead of hitting the Auto-Level switch for the Eagle Tree Guardian I had onboard. Lesson learned. Pretty much a complete write-off.

Although it was a great design and I, more than anybody, needed it's stout gear design, I really preferred the scale look of the FMS's A-10 landing gear a tad more. Since I was currently lacking a large A-10, I went ahead and purchased the FMS rendition.

More to follow.

Here are some photos of my homage to The Boys from Syracuse. They got their A-10's in 1979 and I remember being excited, at the time, to see them fly over head. The unit had them for 10 years before transitioning to F-16's. That must have been a great time to be with that unit. Today, not so much. It's a drone unit now.

Really love this plane so far. Here are some simple things that can be done to improve the appearnce of this great little kit.

Most USAF F-16's are painted in a two tone camouflage scheme of Gunship Gray (FS 36118) over Neutral Gray ( FS36270). FW's colors are pretty spot on to the actual colors. Before applying the decals/transfers, I painted all of the black servos with Neutral Gray. The most imortant one is the one on the Tail, otherwise it hides the tailcode decal that will be applied over it. Home Depot's match of Neutral Gray is slightly different than FW's rendition but I had that paint, on hand and it is close enough for me.

The version I chose to do was the from the 466th Fighter Squadron with "HL" on the Tail. Missing from the sheet are the Fighter Squadron and Wing Emblems that go on the intake. I obtained the images online and printed them onto decal paper to apply on my plane. Those images are attached nut will have to be resized to fit the kit.

F-16 nosecones are normally a darker color than the Neutral Gray they join up to so I painted it slightly darker and sprayed it with Polycrylic matte clear which actually gives it the correct semi-gloss sheen.

Finally, although the colors are correct, the sheen is of a semi-gloss finish which isn't how the real ones are painted. I painted the entire airframe with Golden Super Loaded Matte Medium thinned with Windex Window cleaner at a 50/50 mix and painted on with a brush. This gives the plane the accurate very flat finish. This really changes the look of the plane and makes it seem less toylike. It also gives the impression of an uneven weathered appearance.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

Here is the Horizon Hobby UMX F-16 painted in the Original US Navy Aggressor scheme. Made some simple additions to enhance it's appearance. Added a captive AIM-9 to the Port wingtip and added an ACMI Pod to the Starboard tip. Also added a pilot's silhouette to the cockpit area. Since the model is relatively close in scale to 1/32nd scale, I used SuperScale Decals to complete this scheme.

Here's a photo of the GWS A-10. A build log is located at this link:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1015638

Painted to represent a MIG-17. Bought it as a slope glider and put a pusher prop on it.

Painted to represent one of the aggressor aircraft from Nellis AFB, before I crashed it into the trees. It will fly again, just have to find the time and motivation to repair it.

GWS Zero representing Tadayoshi Koga's A6M2 shot down over the Aleutian Islands early in WWII.