1/32 F-16XL Conversion for Hasegawa F-16A
In case you didn't realize that the Kangnum F-16XL kit has errors, here are a series of photos showing the Kangnum part, and the part from the ATTIC kit that replaces it. The differences are very significant.
The main error that Kangnum made was in not stretching the fuselage. The real F-16XL fuselage was created by stretching the F-16A fuselage by a total of 56 inches with a 30-inch extension at fuselage station (FS) 189 (FS 243 on the 2-seater) and a 26-inch extension at FS 373. The following photo shows the ATTIC fuselage compared with the Kangnum part:
Since they didn't stretch the fiuselage, The Kangnum wings are too small, as shown in the next photo:
Kangnum Wing ATTIC Wing
The Kangnum dorsal fairing and parachute housing is also a little undersize, as shown in the next photo:
Also, the actual F-16XL had bulged main gear doors and the Kangnum kit doesn't, so the ATTIC kit supplies these.
The ATTIC kit comes in two versions, the original USAF test version and the later NASA version. The main differences are the gun ports and missile channels. During USAF testing, the XL carried dummy AIM-120 AAMRAM missiles semi-submerged in channels under the front portion of the wing and the rear portion of the fuselage. In NASA service, the missiles were removed and the forward channels were covered with a flat plate. Likewise, during USAF testing, the XL gun port was open and used frequently. During NASA testing, the gun was replaced with test equipment and the gun port was covered. So, ATTIC offers one kit with wings with missile channels in their undersides and an open gun port and another kit with a flat wing underside and covered gun port. The next photo shows the F-16XL during USAF testing with the dummy missiles installed. It also shows the yaw, angle of attack, Pitot, and static (YAPS) boom, which the ATTIC kit provides. The Kangnum kit erroneously provides AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, which the XL never carried. The third photo below shows the ATTIC AIM-120s next to Kangnum AIM-7s.
This is the USAF configuration conversion kit, with 4 dummy AIM-120s, an open gun port, and missile channels under the wings:
And this is the NASA configuration conversion kit:
So that’s it. In total, the ATTIC conversion kit consists of 2x replacement wings, 2x fuselage parts with 1x gun port cover appropriate to the version you want to make, the 3-piece YAPS boom, the 2-piece dorsal fairing/parachute housing, 4x pieces of the elevon fairings, 2x rear missile channels to glue to the underside of the rear fuselage, and 4x dummy AMRAAMs in the USAF version, a small thin sheet of styrene on which the outlines of the wing fences are printed for you to cut out, plus 2x injection-molded tinted canopy parts (the Hasegawa and Kangnum canopies aren't quite right) and 1x injection molded canopy actuator. That’s a total of 22 resin pieces, the styrene sheet, and 3x inject-molded pieces in the USAF version and 18 resin pieces, styrene sheet, and 3x inject-molded pieces in the NASA version. Both USAF and NASA versions come with a 10-page instruction booklet and color reference, a large decal sheet, and a copy of the ATTIC F-16XL superdisk containing a complete XL history, 2x books on CD plus bonus movies and NASA technical reports.
