F-16D Fighting Falcon
“Brakeet IDF”

Hasegawa

HyperScale is proudly sponsored bySquadron

Reviewed by Dave Williams

One of the more popular versions of the F-16 is the F-16D Brakeet (Thunderbolt) as flow by the Israeli Defense Force. The large spine containing advanced electronics and desert paint scheme make for a unique looking aircraft. Finally, Hasegawa has released this version as a modified reboxing of their excellent F-16D kit.

Essentially, what you get in the box is the original F-16D kit with some of the Block 40+ parts present in their later single-seat F-16CJ/CG kits. The kit includes sprue “T”, with the “Big Mouth” intake for GE-engined aircraft and bulged main gear doors, and sprue “U” (2X) with the heavier wheels and LAU-129 AMRAAM missile rails. I’m not sure if IDF F-16s use either AMRAAM or the heavier LAU-129 rail, but the kit still includes the standard Sidewinder rails if you don’t want to use these parts. Finally, the new landing gear lights on the nosewheel well door are included on the “X” sprue. Speaking of the clear parts, the kit only contains the clear canopy, not the smoked version that was present in some of the earlier kits.

The special parts to make the Brakeet are molded in tan, bubble-free resin. The new spine is molded in three parts: forward section, middle section, and tail extension. A quick dryfit between the forward and middle parts looks good. In order to use the spine, the lower part of the tail and the fairing aft of the canopy must be removed from the kit parts. The other resin parts consist of a spine blade antenna and the enlarged ECM bumps that go on either side of the nose aft of the radome. The ECM bumps look OK, but the blade antenna is relatively thick and has a mold parting line with a small amount of mismatch which makes it appear more a copy of a part from some kit instead of a newly mastered piece.

Unfortunately, Hasegawa missed some items that should have been included. Most notably, the large ECM/nav light fairings that go on either side of the intake for the Rapport III system are missing. These fairings appear in every photo of IDF Brakeets with the spine that I’ve been able to locate. Most other photos also show an additional bump under the intake forward of the nosewheel well, and four squarish fairings on the fuselage above and below the tailplanes just forward of the exhaust.

Decals are standard Hasegawa quality and are for one aircraft from the 105th Squadron “Scorpions” and an aircraft from the 601st Squadron Test and Evaluation Unit. The blue color in the Israeli national insignia looks a little light to me, although this might be Hasegawa’s attempt at a “faded” look.

It is good that Hasegawa has attempted to make this version of the F-16, but a little disappointing that they omitted some prominent items which will have to be scratchbuilt or otherwise sourced. Although better than the Italeri F-16B/D kit in a number of areas, a complete “Brakeet-in-a-box” kit still seems to elude model manufacturers.

Sample kit courtesy of my ever dwindling bank account.

Dave Williams
IPMS/USA 19050
 

Review Copyright © 2003 by Dave Williams
Page Created 11 February, 2003
Last updated 15 August, 2003

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