F-16 1/48 Scale Kit Resources

When the first F-16s entered service within the USAF and NATO, kit manufacturers around the world began issuing kits of this new fighter in various scales, but all were based upon the prototypes. After a period of time, there was another flurry of releases to offer the 'operational version' of the Viper, but most of these were 'tweaked' FSD kits to reflect the Block 1/5/10 airframes. By this time, the Block 15s were common around the world and the USAF was looking toward the F-16C/D. About the time the Block 30/32 airframes arrived in squadrons, we started seeing Block 15 kits, and many of these were nicely done.

As time progressed, we started seeing some nice kits offered in most scales of all versions of the Viper through Block 50/52. Nevertheless, some manufacturers chose to bill a new release as a particular variant of the F-16 complete with nice box art, but on opening the box, you found their older kit with no new parts to render the new version. Some weren't so blatant, but would still bill their kit as a "Night Falcon" only to have a Block 30/32 kit in the box. As always, buyer beware. An excellent online resouce for learning what's in that F-16 box, I refer you to the Habu website where the webmaster has done most of the legwork for you.

In the table that follows, I've listed each manufacter's kit number according to what's in the box, not what it says on the box. In some cases a kit might have parts for multiple versions in the box, but I'll mark it according to the kit's primary intent. A note in particular on Block 30 kits, most releases do not have the widemouth inlet included in the box, so these represent the early Block 30 configurations. If you're looking for a widemouth Block 30 (or any other particular version of the F-16 for that matter), look inside the box before purchasing the kit.