Israeli Air Force Lockheed Martin
F-16D Block 40 “Brakeet”

Kinetic, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Mick Evans

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The F-16D was supplied as 24 Block 30 aircraft under the Peace Marble II program and following the cancellation of the IAF Lavi a further 30 Block 40 aircraft under Peace Marble III.  The Brakeet is fitted with the General Electric F110-GE-100 engine, delivering 28,000lbs of thrust which is at least 4000lbs more than the Pratt and Whitney F100-PW-200 fitted to the earlier F-16A Netz and to cope with the extra airflow required by the GE engine the Brakeet is fitted with an enlarged air intake commonly called “big mouth”.

The Brakeet has extensive local modifications incorporated with different avionics fits and a higher gross weight than other F-16Cs totalling 21,770 pounds, at least 4,750 pounds heavier than the standard F-16Cs. This extra weight required changes to the landing gear and the use of new wheels.

The Brakeet is fitted with the large dorsal spine extension similar to the earlier Sufa kit. The breakdown of the Brakeet kit is at least 75% common with the previously released Kinetic two-seat kits that I reviewed earlier so I will not repeat these parts in this review. 

All of the unique Israeli antenna and ECM fairings are also supplied to build an accurate Brakeet.
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 supplies all the pods that can be fitted under the nose of the F-16. The pods included are the following:

• 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

The Kinetic kit comes in quite a large box, but it is packed with approximately 450 parts which is far more parts than any F-16 kit from Hasegawa and slightly more than Tamiya.  In reality, a lot of these are alternate parts and some will be consigned to the spares box.  The range of weapons provided looks more like a dedicated weapons detail set rather than included options and the list provides for almost every weapons fit possible on an F-16 except for 6 bomb multiple ejector racks.  This list includes

• 2 x 370 gallon wing tanks

• 1 x 300 gallon centreline tank

• 2 x 600 gallon wing tanks

• 2 Shaffir air to air missiles

• 4 x AIM-120B AMRAAM

• 4 x AIM-120C AMRAAM

• 4 x AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles

• 4 x AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles

• 2 x AGM-65 Maverick

• 2 x AGM-119A Penguin

• 4 x Mk.82

• 2 x GBU-31 JDAM

• 4 x GBU-38 JDAM

• 4 x GBU-12 Paveway II

• 2 x GBU-24 Paveway III

• 4 x CBU-87

Not all the weapons provided can be fitted to the Israeli Brakeet so you will have to consult your references for a load fit out for the Brakeet and any unused weapons can be consigned to the spares box as a bonus.

Also provided are the Israeli designed 600 gallon wing drop tanks and the Shaffir 4 air to air missiles from Skunkmodels Israeli Weapons sets and these are a nice addition to provide some unique Israeli weapons.

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

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Markings are provided for four aircraft as follows:

• F-16D Brakeet Serial number 612 of the Valley Squadron,
  

• F-16D Brakeet Serial number 637 of the Valley Squadron,
  

• F-16D Brakeet Serial number 642 of the Scorpion Squadron, and

• F-16D Brakeet Serial number 612 of the Scorpion Squadron

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

Kinetic's 1/48 scale Brakeet will be very nice straight from the box with no need for expensive aftermarket sets to detail or convert to this unique Israeli version of the F-16. 

Thanks to Lucky Model for the samples

Review Text Copyright © 2009 by Mick Evans
Images Copyright © 2009 by Brett Green
Page Created 9 November, 2009
Last updated 9 November, 2009

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