Esquadrão 33 1/72 F-16ADF Vertical Tail

By Al Superczynski

I've often wondered why Hasegawa hasn't made an ADF version of their 1/72 scale F-16A kit, which I prefer to Fujimi's, and had resigned myself to having to modify the kit tail with putty and plastic card or buy some Fujimi ADFs and adapt their tails to the Hasegawa kits.

Fortunately, Esquadrão 33 out of Portugal has now released resin F-16ADF vertical tails in both 1/72 and 1/48 scale. I've recently gotten a couple of the 1/72 scale parts and am very impressed. The conversion is intended for use with either the Hasegawa or Italeri/Testors kit and appears to be based on the former's kit part based on the scribing and shape but the mounting tab oddly doesn't match - it's too long and slightly too wide so I can only assume it's designed as a drop fit on the Italeri model. No problem though as trimming away the rear section of the tab on the conversion tail and minor trimming of the mounting slot on the Hasegawa kit lets it drop neatly into place and it's a good fit, matching the contour of the upper fuselage almost perfectly. This is a Good Thing since I prefer the Hasegawa kit over Italeri's and want all my F-16s to "look the same".

The part itself is very well cast in a typical tan resin with excellent scribing and no pinholes or air bubbles on the very smooth major surfaces. I found a couple on the bottom rear edge but nothing that would cause any serious problems. The casting plug is easy to remove - just gently scribe along the join line a few times and carefully snap it off. All in all a very welcome addition to the aftermarket, saving me from having to adapt Fujimi ADF tails and less expensive to boot. These are high quality products at a very low price, a rare bargain in the world of aftermarket parts.

Check out Esquadrão 33's website at https://www.aeronauta.com/esq33 for these parts and a lot of other interesting items. It's in Portuguese only but I didn't have any trouble deciphering the important parts. They can be contacted via email at esq33@usa.net or correiajose@usa.net.

The 1/72nd tail was about $2.63 and in 1/48 they're around $3.94. Postage for two 1/72 tails was 62 cents to the USA.