The Little World

Is there any more disheartening a sight than a sheet of decals that is older than most of your relatives – and even more wrinkled? You stare it it hoping it will come back to life but eventually you bury it in a coffin filled with the earth of its country… and hope that it will not come awake at midnight…

This was the case with this stash-sale F-16A. It had a sheet of decals that looked like a country road in Queensland plus an after-market sheet that had been purchased for $ 5. I suspect the purchaser lacked the courage to demand the $ 5 back. The decals are perfectly good and in fine condition, but I do not think anyone has ever been interested in the Oregon Air National Guard…not even the pilots within it…

Well, I am not the dauntable type. Nor the sort who thinks all that well. I thought I could convert this plane to an Israeli F-16 with just a new set of insignia. Hahahaha. The IDF got quite a few F-16’s but few were the A model and very few were left untouched once they were added to the charge sheet. Google up the B, C, and D blocks and see what massive changes happened.

However, the internet to the rescue and some on-the-ground images from Hatzerim and in-air photos over Masada show that there were A’s within the inventory and some remained relatively standard. I have enough small images to mock up a plane…as long as everyone else doesn’t mock up my efforts.

Hasegawa models are rewarding – if you are not such an expert as to refuse their efforts. I like them, as the plastic is well-moulded and the designs not overly complex. I seek them out when I can and have never been disappointed. The plastic is stiff and the sprue trees are clean.

I must say that I have been surprised at the display seen in some photos of Hatzerim. Some of the aircraft looked to be pretty new and a few seemed to be armed up with real stuff whilst sitting there on the hard pan. A visitor noted that the IDF rotates new stuff in there occasionally so I am always happy to use the actual image as a building reference.

Presumably Little Mauritz is not allowed to go and unscrew the fuses on the bombs when his family visits the museum. Hatzerim has not gone up yet…