Brandi Benavides, Hamler, Ohio
Brandi built Academy’s 1/48 scale F-16 A/C Fighting Falcon and says, “I built this model for a friend who is Greek. Her name day, a celebration in her culture, was coming up, and I wanted to do something special for it. She loves aviation, so I decided to build her the jet as a gift and modify it to look like an F-16C from the Hellenic Air Force.” Brandi primed with Testors dark aircraft gray, drew the camouflage and insignia (flash fins, numbers, and roundels) with an artist’s graphite pencil, then hand-painted the plane with Testors Model Master enamels and Acryl. She used tempera paint for the roundel white. Additionally, she says, “A small Greek flag is painted on the pilot’s left arm, the HUD is detailed to look more realistic, and the base of the stand is painted to look like the Greek roundel. All together, this model took a little more than two months to complete.”