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Israeli Air Force Lockheed Martin
F-16I "Sufa"

Kinetic, 1/48 scale

S u m m a r y
Item No. Kinetic Model Kits #48006 - Israeli Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16I “Sufa”
Contents and Media: Approximately 450 parts in grey and clear-cloured plastic; photo-etched CFT; turned brass pitot tube; markings for four aircraft.
Scale 1/48
Price: USD$32.99 plus shipping available online from Lucky Model
Review Type: FirstLook
Advantages: Complete Sufa detail; comprehensive weapons fit; good surface detail; excellent cockpit, wheel well and engine nozzle detail; nicely printed decal sheet; clear transparencies; concise instructions
Disadvantages: Clear transparency needs a coat of clear smoke to replicate tint; some shape problems; no 600 gal wing tanks.
Recommendation: The Kinetic Sufa will deliver a very well detailed and reasonably accurate model straight from the box with no need for expensive aftermarket sets to detail or convert to this version of the F-16.

 

Reviewed by Mick Evans


HyperScale is proudly supported by Squadron.com

 

FirstLook

 

The Israeli Air Forces F-16I Sufa is the latest version of the Lockheed Martin F-16 family.

Under the Peace Marble V foreign military sales program Lockheed Martin will supply the Israel Air Force with 102 two-seat aircraft, the largest Israeli acquisition to date.  The F-16I has been specifically designed to meet Israeli requirements and is based on the current block 50/52 production aircraft.

 

 

The Sufa has a 52,000 pound take off weight which is considerably more than the earlier F-16s acquired by Israel.  The Sufa has one of the latest engines fitted from Pratt & Whitney, the F100-PW-229.

The Sufa has structural, plumbing and wiring provisions for the Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFT), which are attached to the upper surface of the fuselage.  The CFTs allow the Sufa to attack targets as far away as Iran without having to refuel.  The CFT set holds 450 gallons of fuel, 50% more than the centreline tank but with only 12 percent of the drag.  At subsonic speeds, the CFTs have negligible effect on the aircraft agility.

 

 

The Sufa is fitted with the large dorsal spine extension similar to the earlier Barak but the ECM extension beyond the tail fin is much shorter on the Sufa.  The Sufa also has many more lumps and bumps for the extra and later versions of ECM gear and sensors.

 

 

The make up of the Sufa kit is at least 75% common with the Barak kit that I reviewed recently on HyperScale, so I will not repeat these parts in this review.  The Sufa kit has all of the sprues common to both the Barak and Sufa kits with the addition of the sprues containing:

  • the upper forward fuselage and twin seat cockpit components

  • narrow mouth air intake halves, dorsal spine, ECM antennas

  • Pratt & Whitney the F100-PW-229 exhaust petals, ECM antennas, air intake scoops and new nose wheel

  • Conformal Fuel Tanks

  • tail ECM fairing, centreline wheel bay fairing and ECM antennae

  • Small metal pitot tube and etch brass screen for the CFT

 

 

Once again there will be many parts to consign to the spares box and certainly a loot of unused weapons for the weapons spares box for future use on other kits.  Kinetic supply all pods that can be fitted under the nose of the F-16, with other manufacturers kits these would have sought from aftermarket sources, the pods included are the

  • AAQ-13 LANTIRN Pod

  • 1 x AAQ-14 LANTIRN Pod

  • 1 x AAQ-28 Litening Pod

  • 1 x AAQ-33 Sniper Pod

  • 1 x ALQ-131

Missing, though, are the Israeli designed 600 gallon wing drop tanks and the Shaffir air to air missiles. These would have been a nice addition.

The decals are nicely printed with good colour saturation and crisp detail.  A complete sheet of weapons markings are also provided.

 

 

Markings are provided for four aircraft as follows:

  1. F-16I Sufa Serial number 408 of the Negev Fighter Squadron,

  2. F-16I Sufa Serial number 422 of the Negev Fighter Squadron,

  3. F-16I Sufa 40 Serial number 451 of the Bat Squadron and

  4. F-16I Sufa 40 Serial number 425 of the Bat Squadron.

 

 

The instruction sheet gives a good level of breakdown and clear instruction while the painting and decal instruction sheet is in colour and provides excellent colour scheme and decal placement detail.

 

 

Conclusion

 

At the end of the day, Kinetic’s kit is designed to be built as a Sufa and the finished model will look like a Sufa, and a very nice one indeed straight from the box.

Purists will always criticise minor inaccuracies, but I am still to see a faultless model kit and this is one that I will be happy to build and proud to display.

The key to this kit for me is that the detail is nice enough not to warrant any after marked details to replace the wheel wells, cockpit or engine nozzle. In fact, the engine nozzle detail is one of the best that I have seen.

Thanks to Lucky Model for the samples

Review Text Copyright © 2009 by Mick Evans
Images Copyright © 2009 by Brett Green
Page Created 29 April, 2009
Last updated 29 April, 2009

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