BBI F-16 pics? Anyone?

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:37 pm

Hey guys, I did searches but didn't find many F-16 pics. I know some of you have the BBI F-16. Can any of you post pics of them here? I MAY get the F/A-18 but I may also get the F-16 in spring.

I also went to P-51's site in hopes of seeing 1/18 pics but I didn't find any. And I have scoured webshots but no joy either. I did see some of P-51's BBI toy pics(BTW those were awesome!) but that was just a handful I found in a thread where a member asked if the hornet was worth it.

Now I know some of you have the falcon, and a lot of you who do recommend it. So show us some pics!!

Post by **p51** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:29 pm

I have some, I just need to dig them up

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:48 pm

Can you post some F/A-18C pics and comparisons too? I never saw the BBI falcon and hornet side by side. It'd be interesting to see what features the falcon has over the hornet, being that BBI made the toys a year apart. Thanks in advance!

Post by **p51** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 1:15 am

Well, I have to be honest and say after the F/A-18 Hornet I was expecting the F-16, since it was a later release, to be really amazing, but I was dissapointed. The landing gear is the worst Jet landing gear I've seen yet. While not comparable to the Lou IV P-51D gear, it's really bad. The F/A-18 Hornet's gear is pretty good and rather well done I thought, so if you're expecting that, be warned. It actually made (IMO) the Falcon's appearance go down a few notches. That's why I made sure to display it flying so I don't see the gear often. Otherwise, it looks pretty nice. The intake at the bottom could have been drilled further back, and the tail hook looks a bit weird. Also, it's very very off center with weight... even with all the stores, just tap the tail and it'll fall on it's rear. It's very back heavy. The weapons on it are not nearly as detailed as the Hornet's weapons, and the nose pitiot tube comes off very easily. But, I don't want to totally discourage you, it's great looking otherwise. The shape looks dead on and the shading and paint colors are well done.

But IMO, the F/A-18C Hornet is infinitely better and still is my favorite Jet in the 1:18 series (and that has nothing to do with the fact that the F-18 is my second favorite aircraft of all time).

Haven't foind the F-16 photos yet... but here's a few photos I never put up of the Blue Angel F/A-18C Hornet and Golden Dragons F/A-18C...

tderespino · Post by **tderespino** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 1:24 am

sweeeeet pic's

have any of anna nicole post trimspa

tomd

Folkwulfe · Post by **Folkwulfe** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:16 am

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:50 pm

P-51 and fockwulfe great pics!! The blue angel is very appealing.......hmmm...

Fockwulfe this is the FIRST time I have seen the F-16 out of box ASIDE from etailer sites. Nice pics! What is your opinion on the falcon?

P-51 when you say the gear is bad, do you mean asthetically or in application? Are they made out of soft gummy like PVC?

You guys or anyone else got more pics?(I think we should do an archived gallery of releases like on the old gp site, I miss that part!).

How about comparisons between WWII birds and the F-104 with the BBI jets? It's be interesting to see how much sleeker the F-104 could be and how much longer it can be than the BBI birds.

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:33 pm

I thought the landing gear on the F-16 were OK... Although I don't have the F-18 (for size reasons) I do recall hearing that the F-16 didn't have the bending problem with the landing gear like the F-18 did.

Website · Post by **Teamski** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:36 pm

I think the gear on the F-16 is perfectly fine. The F-16 is considerably lighter than the F-18, so the gear doesn't get distorted under a load. the F-18, however is infamous for it's squating landing gear. The plastic used was too soft to compensate for the 90 degree bend in the gear. Add the fact that the F-18 is by far the heaviest 1:18 plane made and you got an engineering problem.

Either way, both planes are beautifully done. I have no faults with them at all.

The gear on the bbi P-51 is missing the "forward Rake" of the original. When extended, the tires are not ahead of the leading edge of the wing. You can see the forward rake here:

Now compare that to the bbi P-51:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/127 ... 6068whOSNu#

It's a big difference to the eye. What is cool, though, the new retooled 21st P-51 has the gear fixed, so it should look great on it's feet!!

-Ski

Post by **p51** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:44 pm

P-51 when you say the gear is bad, do you mean asthetically or in application? Are they made out of soft gummy like PVC?

It's not an issue of structure, in fact I'll agree that the F-16's gear appears to hold up a lot better than the F-18s... I mean the physical look of the F-16's gear is really far from what it really is.

Here's a few real F-16 shots showing the gear, compare those to what you see above. While I wish they would have weathered the F-18's gear, it still is nearly dead on details wise. The F-16s is not all that close.

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:33 pm

Great pictures, as always - even of the BBI F-18s! (I like the 144th TFW F-16 picture, as those planes are based in my town

)

I can see what you mean by the F-16 landing gear. The BBI ones still don't bother me all that much, however, my plane is permanently displayed hanging since there is little ground display space.

BELTxFED · Post by **BELTxFED** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 12:39 pm

I would like to display an F-18 Blue Angel, but I would prefer a model with a high gloss finish like the 1:1 Angels. Has anyone glossed their plane & how did it come out?

vulgarvulture · Post by **vulgarvulture** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 12:54 pm

Bruzzer did. Check out his website.

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:12 pm

I see what you mean about the gear. Still a nice looking bird regardless. ANd I got a craving to recreate some iron eagle scenes lol.

P51 did you find the pics of your BBI falcon yet?

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:38 pm

Hey guys, can you take the sparrow missles from the F-16 and mount them on the BBI F/A-18's wing pylons?? I have always wondered if you could, and I wondered why BBI did not make sparrow mounts for the fueselage where they are usually mounted. Hmmm. P-51 did you find your pics yet? And what do you think of the Blue angel F/A-18?

The pics have been beautiful folks!

Post by **p51** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:37 pm

Hey guys, can you take the sparrow missles from the F-16 and mount them on the BBI F/A-18's wing pylons??

No, unfortunatly not. I tried that the other day, but the way they connect is different

P-51 did you find your pics yet?

I haven't had a chance to look yet, but it might take some time since there's a lot of DVDs with a lot of photos I've taken.

And what do you think of the Blue angel F/A-18?

I think it's one of the best aircraft I have in my collection. Granted, I'm a HUGE Blue Angel fan and grew up with the Blue Angels being my heros, so the Blue Angel F-18C was probably one of the few aircraft I was diehard for. The first day I saw it, I just about when insane

It took me sometime to get around to ordering it, but I ended up getting it 3 days before Christmas! I was just amazed at how awesome it was! It's one of the few Blue Angel toys that are spot on correct, and one of the very rare few that have the arrow on the belly. I have it proudly hanging in here next to a Golden Dragons F/A-18 Hornet. So yes, I LOVE it... but I may be a bit biased

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:59 pm

Hey understandable man! I grew up a navy brat and was based on an airbase where the runway was literally off of my frontyard, so I LOVE planes, and I got exposed to the F-14 at a very early age. The first thing I tried drawing at the age of 2 was an F-14. And after drawing all my life, and becoming an illustration major in college, I still draw the F-14.

Back when I was 3 my dad took me to the andrew's AFB airshow. It was great. Thunderbirds demo(first time seeing them), rhino's tomcats, everything. Very cool.

So I can understand how much you like the blue angels toy. I want a thunderbirds 1/18 scale toy.

The blue angels are awesome. I am biased since I am a navy brat and have always felt that the blue angels scheme is one of thee best! Very dynamic and striking.

And that sucks about not being able to mount the sparrows on the hornet! Oh man BBI really should have sculpted in the weapon ports on the fueselage and gave us some sparrows or AMRAAMs!

Post by **p51** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 2:21 am

Yeah. I wished they had made the weapons more interchangeable. Fine, they don't want to release weapon packs, but make the weapons interchangeable!

As for me, my family's military service goes way back. So it could be said I as well was born with the military 'gene'. I live not far from MCAS El Toro, so I was constantly seeing F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornets fly over from famous squadrons like VMFA-314 Black Knights, VMFA-232 Red Devils, and VMFAT-101 Sharpshooters. There was at least two squadrons of C-130 Hercules stationed there (which I'd also see fly very often). Not to mention the Airshow would put the Blue Angels flying over the house! I could watch much of the practice and shows from the house, and we could hear the MAGTF rumble in the distance. We used to go almost every year on one of the days, my earlierst actualy memory is when I was just turned three, we were at one of the El Toro Airshows when it started to rain and we rushed home. I was seriously bummed. Then just a short hop from there was (once NAS) MCAS Tustin which had the blimp hangars and blimps when it was NAS. Once it turned MCAS, it housed a sea of USMC Sea Stallions, Sea Knights, etc. So we had those flying around all the time. This area used to be a Military hub! John Wayne (Santa Ana) Airport traffic was diverted often for incoming military aircraft. I'd see C-130 Hercules and Sea Stallions flying in the John Wayne approach every so often, which was next to see. That'd put them really low over the house.

While I never joined the service, though I do think about joining the Marine Air Corps every now and then, but things are just too enrooted here to be gone that long. Who knows, maybe someday. But my family's history in the military goes back to WW2! So it's totally no wonder why I'm a military nut

Okay, back to the topic! He he, I've looked around, found nothing yet. I might do some shoots tomorrow, so if so, I'll throw the F-16 in for a few.

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:22 am

Cool man!! Nice knowing about how you got into aviation as well.Thats awesome that you might shoot some pics!

Are you going to put some 1/18 stuff on your site?

I think we should all do a 1/18 gallery and submit pics for this forum. The old gp had an archive, and I think with the amount of 1/18 boys here, and being that most of us(well I am getting my FIRST 1/18 plane this week) will have stuff, I figure it'll be relatively easy for us to get pics of stuff up! Either that or a dedicated 1/18 image thread.

btw back home I live near oceana and I was there for the last tomcat demo. Wow....I'll miss that plane. Every time I am at the exchange and I hear a LOUD noise I klnow its a super hornet, those things are WAY louder(and much slower) than tomcats!

Post by **p51** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 3:41 pm

Are you going to put some 1/18 stuff on your site?

Actually my photos go somewhere else... *cough*21stcenturytoys.com*cough* My warbird-photos site only has full size aviation photography... otherwise everything toys goes to 21st.

I think we should all do a 1/18 gallery and submit pics for this forum. The old gp had an archive, and I think with the amount of 1/18 boys here, and being that most of us(well I am getting my FIRST 1/18 plane this week) will have stuff, I figure it'll be relatively easy for us to get pics of stuff up! Either that or a dedicated 1/18 image thread.

Well, 21st Century Toys has a rather nice archive at the moment

But I might be biased. But at any rate, something has been in the works! Hopefully I can get more progress with it the beginning of next year. Hang tight!

btw back home I live near oceana and I was there for the last tomcat demo. Wow....I'll miss that plane. Every time I am at the exchange and I hear a LOUD noise I klnow its a super hornet, those things are WAY louder(and much slower) than tomcats!

I missed the last F-14 demo

I wish I could have been there! Oceana is just a bit too far away for me. Even with (one of the saddest years for me) the closure of both the MCAS El Toro and MCAS Tustin bases (thanks to Clinton and that round of BRACs), we still have many bases around here that I often visit. Very famous MCAS Miramar down in San Diego, March ARB, NAS North Island, Famous Edwards AFB, NAS Point Mugu, Vandenberg AFB, Los Alamitos AAF, and while a 2 hour drive, NAF El Centro (Winter home of the Blue Angels!). I'm privilidged each year to head out to El Centro in March and see the Blue Angel's very first airshow of the year! It's the BEST place in the United States to see the Blue Angel performance for a variety of reasons. I get to meet and talk to the pilots there as well, which is always awesome.
While I love the F/A-18 Hornet, I'm not as much of a Super Hornet fan. I know, that doesn't make sense

I LOVE the F/A-18C Hornet, it's my favorite of the Hornet family. Then, they had to go and make the Hornet longer, square F-14 like intakes, make the leading edge fin thingy under the cockpit one giant curve instead of a nice curved shape, add the 'wart' on the nose, and square off the horizontal stabilizers. For those reasons, I've never been a huge Super Hornet fan. Still love to see it fly and it is a F-18 Hornet no matter what, but I'd take 5x as many photos of a F-18C than a F-18E.

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:44 pm

I think maybe its perhaps that the super hornet is a compromise fighter. The F/A-18C was a GREAT replacement for the A-7 and F-4 in the strike role, and did its job well for its size class.

The super hornet had to replace both the A-6 Intruder and the F-14 Tomcat, and just had a little bit of both while not excelling either in their prominent main roles. It was literally trying to make a medium weight strike fighter into a larger one but instead of that, just taking on a bigger plane's role. Dumb rhetoric really. Even the JSF replacing the F/A-18C, I am skethy on that since once you take away stealth, what other advantages does it have? doesn't even have an internal gun!

I would not mind seeing an F/A-18F in 1/18 scale though, I got a thing for 2 seaters. I just don't know if the super hornet will have a greater legacy than the legacy hornet.

I had no idea the pics@21st were yours! Are you going to take pics of the Ah-1 cobra? And how much smaller is the 21st AH-1 cobra in relation to BBi's F-16? Does the F-16 dwarf it? I have never seen the falcon up close at stores, only the cobra and it was big.

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:53 pm

While I don't have a ready-made photo studio set up in my house for such purposes, these simple photos taken on my bedroom floor should help when comparing the size between the BBI F-16 and the 21c AH-1W Supercobra

The F-16 is a little longer in length, and overall dwarfs the AH-1W. The F-16 is nearly 3x as heavy! A BBI pilot has been placed in front to show the scale.

Hope this helps!

Post by **p51** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 9:01 pm

Thanks for replying with fast photos Tman! It's harder for me to just go and do shoots as it takes about 30 minutes to set up the studio, so I only do photos on weekends for the most part.

I'd love to see a 1:18 Super Hornet as well, two seater especially! I asked BBi about it, but they seemed mum about doing it. Wouldn't be all that much extra work! They could even start with the F/A-18C and work from there.

And to answer the question if I have photos of the Cobras...

You'd be surprised what's been photographed

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 9:48 pm

Nice job on that AH-1W photo! That needs to go on the 21c site - with a couple of BBI helicopter pilots to crew it

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:34 am

awesome guys! So what do you think about the cobra, is it one of the best helicopters?

Also, tman thanks for posting pics of the falcon can you post more! Thats pretty cool man and thanks for the comparison!

P51, that is a great shot man very clear and I like the motion!

Small Scale Military Headquarters

BBI F-16 pics? Anyone?

BBI F-16 pics? Anyone?

wow

F-16C block 52

Glossing the Angel