1:32 Camouflage Paint Masks For F-16C Alaska Arctic Splinter Aggressor

The Alaskan splinter camouflage of an aggressor Viper

At Eielson air base near Fairbanks sits an aggressor squadron whose task is to play the opponent in training for American and allied crews. Its F-16C machines therefore wear schemes you will not find with an ordinary combat unit: from patterns picked up from foreign armies to winter combinations of gray and white fields that fit into the arctic setting of northern Alaska.

The set deals with one of these splinter finishes with hard edges. Spraying through a stencil is the only honest way here. The transitions are not misted, the individual fields have to line up across the whole fuselage and wing, and every deviation would show at once as a broken shape that the eye picks up even from a distance.

The film is cut for 1:32 scale, where a model has a span of roughly thirty centimeters and the areas are large enough for the pattern to be sprayed part by part. It works well to move from the lightest shade to the darkest and to shift the stencils only once the previous layer is completely dry.

This type of aircraft suits such a finish in shape as well. The fuselage has smooth sides with no large protruding areas, so the film settles with no creases and the pattern does not break anywhere. Take care only at the transition onto the wing, where the stencil has to be pressed into the corner and the air beneath it pushed out with a toothpick.

Before starting, check that the surface is smooth and free of sanding dust; every grain under the film prints itself into the edge. Spray perpendicularly and in thin coats so that the paint does not bleed, and take the stencil off at a slight angle. Correct small imperfections of an edge with a fine brush before the gloss varnish under the decals goes on.