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Scale Models

Lockheed Martin F-16AM “100 Years 1st Sqn Stingers”

1 Fighter Squadron, Belgian Air Force, Florennes, Belgium, 2017

I wanted to build a Belgian plane for a while and this aniversary decal set from SyhArt gave me the excuse to do it. I already had an F-16A MLU kit from Kinetic but I had already started building it with my daughter as a Dutch Demo Team bird. Truth be told, I was not impressed with that kit, so I was reluctant to buy it again. Then, I saw Kinetic’s announcement of a new kit in their “Gold” range I thought to wait for that instead.

I bought the new kit as soon as it became available in Belgium and I immediately started my build.

Compared to their old kit, the new “gold” one is a bit more detailed and has better fit in most areas. However, I think it could have been better.

  • Most of the seams are designed to “hide” along existing panel lines, or right angles, so only minimal putty/sanding is needed.
  • The nose cone now comes in two pieces, so you have one more seam line to take care of. They do provide a radar antenna though.
  • The cockpit is almost identical to the old kit. Not bad, but not exceptional for a kit at this price level. It does not include seatbelts for the ejection seat, nor any decals for the instrument panels (althought the raised detail is fine).
  • The excaust petals are more detailed, comprising of 5 separate parts.
  • The Landing gear bays also include nice details.
  • The leading edge slats are not posable (they were in the old kit).

The work in progress


The finished model


Products Used

KitBoxScaleCode
Kinetic “F-16A MLU NATO Viper”1/48K48100
Syhart Decals “F-16AM FA-132 “100 Years 1st Sqn Stingers”
Belgian Air Force 1917-2017″
1/4848-104
Eduard “F-16A MLU for Kinetic”1/48FE1334
Eduard “F-16I SUFA Seatbelts, Steel”1/48FE1157