Hasegawa 1/48 F-16B Plus Fighting Falcon Taiwan AF 'Flying Tigers' Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

For a quick history of the F-16, look here.

For a look at the differences between F-16 blocks, look here.

Hasegawa has released this F-16B kit with the right parts to render an F-16B Plus (Block 20). This release is molded in the standard light gray styrene and rendered on twelve parts trees, plus a single tree of clear parts. The surface detailing is scribed, but the detail is a bit soft in comparison with the Tamiya and Kinetic 1/48 Viper kits.

The kit provides all of the parts for a standard Block 15 OCU F-16B that we've seen before, but also includes the parts for this release and a few parts trees that were introduced into previous F-16 variants.

Among the features and options in this box:

• Nice cockpits straight out of the box
• Optional crew figures
• Positionable canopy
• IFF interrogator antennas ahead of canopy
• Small mouth (NSI) inlet
• Parabrake housing in base of tail
• Pratt F100 nozzle
• Positionable speed brakes
• Optional boarding ladder
• Updated missile rails for stations 1/2/8/9 for AIM-120 and AIM-9

As mentioned above, the detailing is scribed, but it is soft and not as accurately laid out as opposed to the newer kits. So in terms of external stores:

• 1 x 300 gallon centerline fuel tank
• 2 x 370 gallon underwing fuel tanks
• 1 x baggage pod
• 2 x AIM-120
• 2 x AIM-9L/M

Markings are provided for one aircraft:

• F-16B Plus, 6820, 5 TFG/401 TFW, 2015

The decals are nicely done and includes relevant maintenance stenciling.

Despite the minor bugs in this kit, Hasegawa has done a nice job this this variant and remains the only kit manufacturer to produce so many F-16 variants in any scale. In fact, you'll have a number of spares from this kit including bulged main gear doors, widemouth inlet, F-16 ADF interrogator antennas, standard F-16A/B tail, and more.

My sincere thanks to Hasegawa USA for this review sample!