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What If ?
BAC F-16 GR3 Wild Weasel
In the late 1960’s the British were seeking to develop a dedicated ground attack platform, with successive socialist governments in France, an isolationist policy prevailed resulting in their withdrawal from N.A.T.O. and the Jaguar project. The American government keen to please dwindling allies encouraged (financially) a partnership between B.A.C. and General Dynamics, which allowed the British to build under license and develop improvements to the F-16 Fighting Falcon officially known as the Javelin II in Britain, but affectionately called the Angel by it’s R.A.F pilots after it’s resemblance to the interceptor from the Captain Scarlet T.V. show. With the successes of the Wild Weasels in Vietnam, B.A.C. developed the GR3, with a delta wing to carry a greater payload, the heavier craft was fitted with a larger Rolls Royce RB199 engine which moved the air intake and front undercarriage forward, a development the pilots found a lot less disorientating when on the ground and twin tails for greater low level stability. The GR3 proved highly effective in Operation Desert Storm scoring the highest kill rate against Iraqi S.A.M. and radar installations. The example here is seen at a Saudi air base in 1991 loaded for a mission sporting the new R.A.F. desert digi-angle scheme and low visibility markings
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The Inspiration
This model was built for a competition the theme of whichwas to build a "teen" plane (F-15, F-16 etc.) in something other than the boring gray wee usually see them. The idea really came from my mate Nev’s Lightning article on the "what if" site, at the time only being back into modeling for a few months I’d never heard of an electronics pod on the spine ala the A4M, when I decided to do an F-16 Weasel that was my starting point, copy Nev make a twin seater and just stick a pod on the spine. Except a pod wouldn’t fit between the canopy and the fin, easy just put a fin on either side of the pod. The delta wings came out of a need for more space to hang all the ground attack armaments |
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The Kit
Finding myself with a plethora of F-16s it was obvious what I was going to build. It’s a mix of 1/72 Fujimi and AMT Thunderbirds. The pod is just half a drop tank, doubled up the intakes and filled with styrene sheet. Wings are laminated styrene, with brazing rod inside to stiffen them up, just used laquer thinner to melt the layers together. The design and panel lines were based on Kfir wings, bit bigger and not perfectly symmetrical but its hard to notice., L.A.N.T.I.R.N, LST/SCAM, rails and some armament are from the Italeri F18 Wild weasel kit, the rest from an AMT Eurofighter . I really don’t know what the load is and I know it’s painted "wrong" but MBM. Land Rover is die cast 1/72nd .
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Conclusion
This was also my first ever try at scratchbuilding/kitbashing and I’m really pleased with the results and the skills and confidence gained. I also had a blast doing it which is the most important thing, and pride from a job well done. But I couldn’t have done it without the help and warmth of alot of my modelling comrades, especially Neil and Evan for guiding me through my ignorance. Thanks everyone.
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A view of the pit. Yes though I build for fun and for me I too can suffer from A.M.S. Where we spend forever working on bits that are almost impossible to see. Scratchbuilt bulkheads, panels and seatbelts. The "oxygen" ? tanks are just sprue files to shape simple but adds effect and hoses of 2lb fishing line coming from them to wherever. I'm not adversed to using decals for instrument panels at this scale through a tinted canopy it really doesn't show.
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