1:32 Belgian F-16 insignias & stencils-generic set

Belgian Vipers since the 1970s

Belgium was one of the four European countries that decided in the late 1970s to replace their fighters with the American F-16, and it joined the production program straight away. A substantial share of the airframes for the European customers was built in Belgian plants, which turned the type into a domestic product. The upgrades of the 1990s extended the service life of the aircraft by whole generations, and the machines of the wings at Kleine Brogel and Florennes handled everything from airspace policing to deployments in operations abroad.

What a generic set means

The sheet is not tied to one particular aircraft. It carries Belgian roundels in every size you need, squadron emblems and serial numbers in a form from which various machines can be put together, plus complete airframe stencil markings, from the warning lettering at the intake to the labels at the hardpoints. That is exactly why it works both for the earlier un-upgraded configuration and for aircraft after the rebuild.

A note on the build

Belgian machines wear a fairly dark two-tone finish against which the light lettering stands out strongly. So that the result does not look like glued-on paper, we recommend seating the decals on a perfectly polished clear coat and, once dry, unifying the surface with a thin layer of satin varnish. In 1:32 scale an F-16 model has a span of about thirty-one centimeters, so it deserves careful placement of the small markings too.

The collector's angle of the set is interesting as well. Over decades of service the Belgian machines went through several forms of marking, so a single sheet is enough for a pair of models capturing two different periods.