Part 2: The Build

Well, now that the Sufa has taken its place in the display case, I can honestly say that I wasn't sure if I was going to complete this one before I lost all control and turned it into a target drone for my rifle. That being said, it's not a bad kit. On the contrary, it is a very nice kit; it just has a few downfalls which drove me nuts. The Cockpit Has with almost any aircraft model, construction started up front, with the 'pit. Now, looking at the instructions, "Step 1" may look like an absolute nightmare. But fear not, it's actually quite easy. The main tub is cast as one piece, which compared to other two-seat F-16 kits, is a welcome change. A little on the odd side [and I presume another method of allowing Kinetic to use the same tub for multiple F-16 kits] each panel section is molded individually. Now, while this has the downside of taking extra time to cut, sand, align and glue, it does allow for greater detail and ease of painting. I painted all the panels before installing them. And while on the subject of the panels, I compared mine to pictures of the real thing, and let me say, it is almost 100% spot on. Using pictures as a guide, I was able to pick out each button with ease and add a little more detail with paint. I did notice the detail on the instrument panels to be a little soft. But it still showed up nicely with a good dry brushing. Now, the instructions have you wait until "Step 17" to install the seats, but dry fitting found the fit to be a bit tight, so they were installed after the 'pit was finished. I did take the time to add scratch built oxygen hoses and seatbelts, a feature that would have been a nice touch to the kit. The seats are a bit complex in assembly, but went together without issue. Overall, I have to say the 'pit is excellent. And I had fun working on mine.

The Fuselage Construction of the main fuselage begins with the intake tunnel, part of which also doubles as the main gear bay. I was impressed that Kinetic included the entire intake tunnel in the kit. Every other kit I have of a 1/48 scale F-16 only has the front half of the intake. The only gripe I had was that the intake is made of 4 pieces, two tops and two bottoms. However, a nice feature is that the compressor blades are visible, and the front lip is a separate piece, which saves time in masking for paint. I did add a few hoses to the gear bay, but even without hoses, the bay is well detailed and nicely sculpted. The rear section of tunnel fits into the bottom fuselage via four pins. The fit on my kit was very poor, and I was forced to open the holes to fit the pins. The fit for the rest of the fuselage was pretty good, with only a few exceptions, mostly in the interchangeable panels. The major issues I ran into were in part numbers, since Kinetic uses the same basic sprues for most of their F-16 kits. May pieces were incorrectly called out in the instructions, while others were not called out at all [wing tip rails]. A huge area for confusion is the outside of the intake mouth. There are two pieces that form the intake portion of the fuselage, however there were two sets on the sprues, with minor differences. A quick look ahead in the instructions helps determine which to use. Moving aft, I was VERY pleased to find two sets of exhaust feathers. A one-piece nozzle is provided for the GE engines, however the Sufa uses the P&W F100 engines, and Kinetic was very nice in providing a larger nozzle cone, made of separate feather sections. This meant none of the detail was lost in attachment point clean-up. Kinetic also included a separate afterburner grid, instead of molding it into the blade plate. Overall, I was quite pleased with the exhaust assembly.

Final assembly includes the canopy, with a closed or open option. I found that the closed option didn't work once the canopy frames were installed. So I opted for the open canopy to show off the wonderful 'pit. The canopy is plagued by the same ailment of all accurately shaped F-16 canopies...a large seam down the middle. I spent about 30 minutes sanding the seam, starting with 3000 grit and working up to 12,000 grit. I then dipped the piece in future and let it sit overnight on a piece of parchment. The seam was gone. Masking was very easy, as the lines are visible even under Tamiya tape. Panting was done with Tamiya paints, using Buff, Flat Earth, and Sky for the upper surfaces, and sky grey for the lower fuselage. The camouflage was airbrushed freehand. After a coat of future, the decals were applied with minimal use of setting solution. A final coat of future sealed everything and was followed with a light wash of Raw Umber oils, and a coat of Testor's dull coat. The CFT's on the upper fuselage were installed after painting, as the camouflage needs to run under the tanks. The Weapons Quite possibly the best feature of the kit is the weapons selection. Kinetic provided several sprues of weapons, allowing for just about any configuration of arming the Sufa. I chose to copy a picture of the Sufa, featuring AIM-120B's, AIM-9M's, and GBU-24's. Combined with the three external fuel tanks, it makes for a very aggressive looking fighter. Assembling the weapons was easy; however selecting the correct pylons was a bit tricky, as the instructions never actually show the pylons being installed.

Final Verdict Overall I was quite pleased with Kinetic's F-16I. Compared to other F-16 kits in the same scale, I felt the detail to be far superior, while the construction did seem a little over complicated. The decals were excellent, and the SUFA details were very accurate based on the photos and walk-around found on the internet. Kinetic has also released the one-seat Israeli F-16 Barak. I hope to pick it up soon to add it to my Sufa, and maybe a few other Kinetic F-16's. As a side note, my Sufa claimed 2nd place at one of the local contests, while another Kinetic F-16C took 1st, a huge testament to the quality of the Kinetic F-16 kits.

My thanks to Mike Bass and the fine people at Stevens International for the excellent review kit.