| Date of Review |
September 2005 |
| Manufacturer |
Cutting Edge |
| Subject |
F-16A Parapack Tail Conversion |
| Scale |
1/32 |
| Kit Number |
CEC32166 |
| Media |
Resin |
| Pros |
Simple conversion for F-16A |
| Cons |
No instructions |
| Skill Level |
Intermediate |
| MSRP (USD) |
$22.99 |
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is an agile fighter, but has little room
left in the airframe for additional avionics. When some of the
NATO countries determined that they wanted the option for parachute
braking on landing on their new F-16As, General Dynamics developed
a stretched tail base that would accommodate a parachute. This
ended up solving two problems instead of one. While one country
ended up using the parachutes (at least initially), another saw
that open cavity as an ideal location to add their own self-protection
avionics.
Cutting Edge has released a conversion for the Hasegawa F-16A
kit as well as one element to backdate either the Academy or Tamiya
F-16C kits. This conversion includes the parabrake housing tail
base, a new vertical stabilizer, separate rudder, and strobe light
lens for the top of the tail. The resin tree contains a parachute
pack and a new
weapons pylon w/self-protection fairing. For some odd reason, the
ECM unit that fits in place of the parachute was not included in
this set even though the option appears in the 1/48 scale version.
The only down side to this conversion is the lack of instructions.
While many folks who would use this conversion would also have
some knowledge of the aircraft, it would have been useful to
have a diagram or two showing the placement and orientation of
the avionics box inside the tail housing.
This set is definitely recommended!
My sincere thanks to Meteor
Productions for this review sample!
Return to the Aftermarket Details Menu
|