Italeri 1/48 F-16C

Cool Viper! How many kits have you finished this year? I wish I was that prolific.

I honestly have no idea how many I finished so far lol. I am trying to put a dent in my stash but the problem with that is when I finish one, 2 more take their place.

The "Have Glass"paint looks really good!  Are you willing to share what you used to make the effect?

Thanks Fly, I got the look the similar way I did my raptor.

Basically I took 1 pot of MM gunship grey, and 1 pot of MM dark gull grey, and 1 pot of MM steel. I put half the steel in the gunship grey and the other in the dark gull grey. I then base coated the entire jet with alclad airframe aluminum. After mixing the gray paints and thinning them for airbrush use I sprayed about 4 light coats each total. I just sprayed till the color looked good to me.

After about 2 days of letting that cure I applied a coat of Future and let that dry. I then dusted the entire aircraft with Spaz Stix Chrome, you can use alclad too until I got a faint silvering look. I then buffed it wih a cotton t-shirts to smoth out the metallic effect. then another coat of future, decals, future then weathering. Sealed everything with a light coat of model master metalizer sealer, Testors dullcote will work too but just don't  completely flat out the finish.

the painting process took almost 2 weeks to complete due to the cure time. I tried this method with Tamiya arcylics but they don't blend like enamels do. Basically when you shoot the paint on, it re-melts the previous coat and they blend together. This is something that acrylics does not do. The big thing is not to over do the metallic finish. I want to do another viper like this probably a aviano bird since they have the same finish too.

I hope that helps.

Fantastic finish! I'm bookmarking this for reference - many thanks for sharing your technique and a stunning model.

Mike

No problem mike, glad I could contribute to the forum.

Nicely done B-1.  What was your paint mix ratio?

Sorry about that.  I clicked on this thread yesterday and had to stop before I read any of it.  Then, responded without refreshing the page.  Thanks for the info.  That's something to think about with the Airframe Aluminum. =]

B1 that looks cool.  I was lucky enough to get to see 3 Falcons painted in the Have Glass finish at the airshow at Mt. Home AFB last month.  I had heard about it in some online stories, but hadn't got the chance to see it yet.  I actually think its pretty cool looking.  Nice Job!!!

Thanks everyone. The have glass scheme is pretty cool looking in person. A pain if not impossible to keep clean.

Thanks for sharing!  I'll have to try that sometime.

Very interesting.  First, and foremost:  Great job!  Did you do the canopy in gold as well?  Also, I like your taxiway.  I'm thinking about doing some as well, but I'm unsure how to do them.  It looks like you used tile?  Just standard 4x4?  One last question.  I've been out of aviation for a couple of decades, though I'm getting back into the Civil Air Patrol after a 25 year hiatus.  I've never heard of the have paint scheme.  What was it used for?  Radar reflection?  Thanks B...  Again, Great job!  Raymond

Thanks Raymond, yes I did tint the canopy gold. Its a mix of Tamiya clear orange, clear red, and gold thinned a lot. The have glass paint treatment is to reduce the radar signature. only a hand full of viper squadrons have it applied to their birds. So far it is applied to F-16's that have a wild weasel role.

As far as the taxiway it's a piece of particle board from a shelf that I threw out. I covered it in dry spackling sanded it smooth then gouged the lines out with a scribe. I then painted it and used a black wash to fill the lines. The chipped look was from laying down some masking tape when the first layer of paint was semidry and quickly pulling it off which removed some of the 1st layer of paint. after that I just finished up applying more coats of paint.

I hope that helps

Yes, actually.  What's the measurements between the lines?  Thanks, Raymond

Each square is roughly 4 inches.