1:48 F-16C Barak Israeli Air Force Camouflage Paint Masks Set

Lightning with an Israeli pedigree

Under the name Barak, meaning lightning, fly the Israeli machines of the F-16C series, which the air force there adapted to its own requirements. They received domestic electronics, different cockpit equipment and the ability to work with locally made armament, so they differ from the American original more than is apparent at first glance. They were put into service from the middle of the 1980s and are among the most photographed machines of their type anywhere.

Three colors, two sides, a great many edges

The desert scheme consists of three tones whose fields interlace with each other over the whole surface. Preparing it by hand means cutting out every area separately, and doing so twice: once for the second and once for the third shade. Between the rounds the tapes easily shift by a fraction of a millimeter and the result is a thin strip of the base along the edge. Cut pieces remove exactly this risk, because all the shapes come from a single pattern and in the second round they join up precisely where the first left off.

Step-by-step procedure

First spray the lightest tone over the whole area. Once dry, cover the fields that are to stay light and apply the middle shade. Continue the same way to the darkest. Always run a wooden stick carefully along the edges of the film, especially around the panel lines, where the paint bleeds most easily. Before the first spraying, clear the model of dust with a jet of compressed air.

• Three shades with no shift between rounds
• The fields join up from a single pattern
• The edges are easily pressed down with a stick