1:32 Polish F-16C/D Stencils

These are not fifty-year-old machines

The introduction of the F-16 meant the greatest technological leap for the Polish air force since the war. The order for forty-eight machines of the Block 52 series covered single-seat and two-seat versions alike and the deliveries took place in the second half of the first decade of this century. The aircraft supplemented the older eastern equipment and quickly took over the role of the main fighter and strike force. The base at Krzesiny near Poznan became their first home and is bound up with the type to this day.

How the set differs from ordinary decals

The sheet is devoted exclusively to the technical lettering of the airframe. A real F-16 carries hundreds of small items of lettering: warning texts at the entry to the engine duct, marks for rescue work, captions on the access covers, notices at the ejection seat, markings at the filler necks and a number of others. In 1:32 they are all legible, and leaving them out is therefore immediately noticeable on a model.

How manageable the work is

The quantity of elements makes this a job for several evenings. It pays to work section by section, to polish the model to a gloss before each part and to use a slow-acting decal softener, so that the lettering has time to straighten out over the panel lines. The fuselage of the aircraft measures around forty-seven centimeters at this scale, so there is room to place the lettering and the result shows even from a distance.

Anyone building a Polish aircraft in one of the anniversary or competition schemes usually runs into the fact that the set for the special scheme does not hold the lettering of the airframe. This sheet fills the gap and serves at the same time as a stock of spare elements, should any item of lettering be damaged during application.