NATO Falcons

Eduard, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Phil Parsons

Eduard's 1/48 scale NATO Falcons is available online from Squadron.com

Mick Evans has already covered most of the Kinetic F-16s in numerous reviews here on Hyperscale, I will only cover what Eduard have done with this Limited Edition release. First though a disclaimer, that I am no F-16 expert and most information that I used in analysing this kit came from a great website F-16 reference.  This site covers cover all the variations used by the four NATO countries featured in this release, and has a wealth of reference photos to assist.

Wow this is a big box for a lightweight fighter.  Eduard has chosen a very nice donor kit (Kinetic) to add their Brassin, PE, masks and Cartograf decals too. The amount of plastic is astounding, 450 parts in total. 

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I am always pleased to see manufacturers who include weapons with their modern jet kits. With this kit, 8 of the sprues are devoted to weapons and pylons. This is a must with modern jets that have all the bits that go Whoosh and Bang hung externally.

You get:

• Three styles of pylons

• 2 x LAU-114 adaptors

• 2 x LAU-129

• 2 x AIM9M

• 2 x AIM9X (Not used)

• 2 x AIM120B

• 2 x AIM120C (not used)

• 1 x 300Gal Tank

• 2 x 370 Gal Tanks

• 1 x An/AAQ-14 LANTIRN pod

• 1 x Sniper Pod

• 2 x AGM-65

• 2 x GBU-12

• 2 x GBU24

• 1 x A/ALQ131 jammer

• 2 x GBU31

• 2 x GBU-87 (SIC) CBU-87

Before you start your build you will need to choose which option from the four provided, as you cannot change your mind halfway through the build. With that decided, gather your references before you commence the build.

Construction begins with you removing the raised detail in the cockpit and replacing it with Eduard’s colour PE, with the tub done you move onto the inlet tunnel/main wheel bay. The inlet tunnel has a few ejector pin marks that will require some clean up prior to assembly. As construction continues, Eduard has provided resin engine faces and inlet guide vanes.

Moving along  to the fuselage, you have various different IFF antenna options, hence why I mentioned you must decide early the final markings. An unusual omission by Eduard is that they indicate the use of several plastic rods throughout the build, normally Eduard provide the dimensions required however, not in this case. You have the option of having the speed brakes open and as with a lot of external detail Eduard provide PE substitutes to enhance detail.

All wheels are replaced with Brassin resin wheels for which painting masks and PE are provided to enhance the detail.

With the nose landing gear, the Norwegian, Dutch and Danish jet all have the landing lights on the nose wheel door as indicated on the instructions. What is not noted is that the Italian ADF has the lights on the main gear; they are on the clear sprues but not in the instructions.

As we move to the rear fuselage the Danish jet has the smaller stabs, while these are not included, you are required to trim and then thin the training edges down of the larger stabs. Again Brassin and PE replace the Afterburner section and ALE buckets. All static lines are replaced with PE. The Leading and Trailing edge flaps do have some ejector pin/pour points that will require clean up, again an easy job.

The Rudder; there are plenty of options so take your time here, what is not listed is that you will need to use E3/4 for option A, the Italian F-16ADF variant, as it has the bulges at the base of the fin.

Finally the cockpit is finished off with a Brassin ejection seat with associated PE.

The last two pages cover weapons construction. As I mentioned, references will be your saviour as the instruction do not say which countries use what pylons/weapon/FLIR pod combinations.

Decal Options cover:

• F-16A ADF Block 15, Italian Air Force, 5th Stormo, Cervia AB, April, June 2010

• F-16AM, Royal Norwegian Air Force, 338th Squadron, 2009. My research indicates that Norway  uses the Sniper pod, and
  

• F-16A Block 20, No. 323 Squadron Royal Dutch Air Force, Leeuwarden AB, July, 2001. My research indicates that the Dutch fitted LANTIRN (AAQ-14), and
  

• F-16AM Block 10, ESK370(SIC) 730 or 727 Squadron, Royal Danish Air Force, 2010 – 2012. My research indicates that this one should possibly not have stations 5 L and R fitted, and is missing the antenna under the engine inlet.

On a final note the boxing  shows the resin wheels with yellow plastics chocks, in my review sample there are no chocks and they are not listed on the instruction contents list.

While I have highlighted omissions within the instructions, I can highly recommend this kit, the overall package that combines Brassin wheels, ejection seat and engine components with colour PE and an excellent choice of great NATO tail art makes this a very attractive package.

But you will need to get in quick as there are only 1500 of these kits available

Thanks to Eduard for the sample

Review Text & Images Copyright © 2012 by Phil Parsons
Page Created 15 October, 2012
Last updated 15 October, 2012

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