HobbyBoss Shenyang J-16 - Build

Schnemat
Next project started... this time going far east. I really like the shape uf the Sukhoi 27/30 etc and the J-16. As I'm not the absolute "scale police", the J-16 gives me a bit more freedom, as there are not so many reference pictures around😉 Also with the colors it gives me a bit more margin to be not fully precise. Looking at the color reference within the HobbyBoss manual the colors look way darker than on the photos I found. If anybody has some references what should be used, please let me know, would be well appreciated.

Jos Jansen
Nice Schnemat...definitely one to follow!

Schnemat
well, it's a hobbyboss kit, therefor be cautious when following the instructions, they are not really accurate. already realized that i glued some parts to the turbine intakes which are not present on the J-16 (but are on the Su-27)...

Michael Phillips
I'm in! I can never stay away from a Flanker build!

I too have this kit, and I want to do the same lo-viz scheme you are doing some day. I will be eagerly watching your progress!

Daniel
nice start, I really liked the hobby boss j-11, had fun with it! And I agree, the low-vis is very cool, looks a bit NATO-like, but makes it harder to choose the right grey to go with the decals...watching with interest!

Schnemat
some detail work done on the front gear bay, also the cockpit is coming along nicely. unfortunately i was not able to completely match the eduard PE colors, but i think it's close enough that it won't be that noticable at the end... it also looks like that the front landing gear needs to be installed before closing the fuselage, which i don't really like as i always sooner or later damage it.

Schnemat
joined the two fuselage parts, a bit of putty needed at the rear, besides that the fit was surprisingly good.

Slavo Hazucha
Joining some choice company to watch this! Nice start & interesting project - Eduard unfortunately just keeps missing the mark with Russian cockpit colors... :/ Looking forward for more & how you tackle the single- color finish!

Schnemat
i like the first moment when you can see how it will look like in the end, it always motivates me to push forward!

Schnemat
After looking at some reference pictures and the provided color reference in the kit i think i will go with FS36173 for the top , FS36300 for the bottom color and some nato black for the nose (maybe switching to a very dark grey). If someone of you experts think that this ends in a desaster, please let me know😉

Slavo Hazucha
Schnemat Daniel has built a J-11 recently and it seems to be quite true to the original color tone, using AK - you got to check the exact color-code with him:

J-11B by Hobby Boss (OOB) | Album by halohead (1:48)

I´m not so solid in chinese Flankers to know if J-16 is exactly the same color, but there would be some logic in it 🙂

Daniel
Well thx Slavo for bringing me up, but I am not solid on China Flankers either😉
Mine was in ak rc FS36076 fits some of the high vis j-16, but I think this a tad to dark for the low-vis j-16.
50 shades of grey, think there is no perfect FS match for all of them, I just picked a reference pic and tried to get close.

My 0,02€: I think your choice is absolutely valid - but may be a bit dark if you aim for something like your cover pic. On my screen it looks like your fs36300 matches the top there and something in the range FS36495 the bottom, I would always go a bit lighter as things tend to go darker after weathering.
But next criteria are the decals, if they are too dark they might become very low-vis or in-vis😉 So a darker paint may be the safer option after all.
Enough FS-rambling from me behind the screen, the best advice is a dummy test spray and judging the real thing with the good ol eyeball 🙂

Schnemat
thanks for all your support, much appreciated! i looked at your j-11 and you're right, i'd like to go with the low vis scheme. there is a different j-16 cover picture of a project of someone else which is much darker and i like that very much. you're right, my cover picture is much lighter but i don't care if my model ends up different. the only fear i have right now is, that the markings on the lower wing side are probably barely visible finally. that's a risk i take, on the top side it should be fine.let's see how it turns out, next airbrush session on saturday, hopefully...

Schnemat
added a picture with the FS36495 in the middle, maybe that's the better choice looking at the decals...

Schnemat
was able to squeeze in a bit of airbrushing yesterday. i used FS36173 on top and FS36495 on the bottom. i like it so far!

Daniel
+1 👍

Slavo Hazucha
Good pick - definitely in the "believable" range!😉 I also like the subtle tonal variety effects 👍

Schnemat
i was able to glue the intakes to the fuselage, one further step so that the whole fuselage can be primed soon... the gear bays have already a bit of weathering applied. in addition to that a few parts coule already be varnished and are ready for decals.

Schnemat
a little bit of preshading...

Slavo Hazucha
Looking good - I also like you just make sure and isolate the front opening for the radome!😉

Schnemat
better be safe than sorry😉

Schnemat
also topside now preshaded, i hope i get that thing painted over the weekend

Nathan Dempsey
Ooh I almost missed this. Nice to catch up with all the great pics 🙂 Looks to be coming along nicely too.

Schnemat
engine parts are next, any ideas about a good base layer color?

Slavo Hazucha
I go from black primer through burnt metal/pale burnt metal/titanium blend over the entire outside surface, then mask-off sections for irregular blue and violet treatment. I make the whole thing lighter than real to apply generous amounts of thick oil paint, let almost dry then step-by-step carefully remove in direction of flight until happy. Let fully dry for 3+ days, then add small black, grey & brown streaks. No seal or varnish.

Schnemat
hmm, not yet happy with the exhaust/engine part... i need to blend the exhaust better into the rest and also add a bit of heat stains... but i already learned my lesson: do not use different metal colors as a base layer😉

Spanjaard
you learn more from mistakes than successes... this looks quite good to me, anyway

Schnemat
i'm with you, i think i should have left it as it was... i used the ammo acrylic crystal colors to do the heat stains, for me, it looks too colorish. i was very disappointed yesterday evening, but this morning it's not really that bad. need to think about it, if i should leave or redo it.

Schnemat
ok, i tried the tamyia weathering set on the top side, i like that much more... the bottom aide has already been repainted and is now waiting for the same treatment as the top side. before doing again such large engine parts i have to figure out more how to do it...

Jos Jansen
I find your nozzles just perfect...👍!

Slavo Hazucha
Looking quite right in every aspect - the Chinese engine metal often appears lighter & less discolored than on Russian machines (age, climate, light-conditions...?), which you captured here rather nicely, good job! 👍

Schnemat
thanks guys for your nice words! i was also quite happy that i was able to revert a mistake into sth reasonable enough... a yeag ago i probably would not have been able to do so...

Nathan Dempsey
Lovely metal work there 🙂

Schnemat
ok, so far i'm now satisfied with the engine parts and will love on. maybe it ended up still a bit too colorish, will see if i can tone it down a bit...

Daniel
looks great, really good work! 👍

Clifford Keesler
I agree looks really nice.

Slavo Hazucha
👍 - did you had spray-shapes/pre-cuts for the hatches or were they masked the hard way?

If you really need to de-saturate/blend-together the tones, a few gusts of dilluted lacquer aluminium or even titanium, carefully sprayed from medium distance will do the job nicely. But I do not think it´s needed here... I´ll rather suggest adding an not entirely thin oil wash around the transition lines from metal to color, let almost dry & gradually remove until happy... 🙂

Schnemat
the hatches were actually hand painted, so from closeup they do not look that nice. but i anyway plan to do a full claywash, so that will hopefully help to cover up the irregularities... i know you do not recommend to varnish the metal areas, but without it i fear that i later mess up what i achieved so far... still learning, so i need to do some compromises... but i would love to learn lore how you do the thick oil wash. do you have some examples in an album?

Spanjaard
looks fantastic from here 🙂

Schnemat
only minor progress this weekend...

Nathan Dempsey
Nice work on the weapons.

Clifford Keesler
Agree with Nathan, very nice.

Schnemat
could finish a few small parts like missilea an gear bay doors. also the fuselage has been varnished, decalling will start soon!

Schnemat
decalling progresses very well, those decals are surprisingly very easy to deal with, happy times!

Clifford Keesler
It is coming along nicely.

Slavo Hazucha
Really nice progress Schnemat - the lo-vis chinese markings blend into the surfaces very naturally - and I really like your degree of pre-shading just coming through 👍

Coming on really nicely - looking forward for the final steps!

My personal experience with HB decals is so far really good - they adapt to lines & rivets beautifully & without fuss, silvering absolutely manageable with even light chemistry & generaly friendly & docile overall appearance 🙂 @previous question about oils - I use them in pretty much every project - in the current Aggressor too on both the F-18 & Flanker and i.e. heavily on the F-111 engines before...

Nathan Dempsey
I agree, I can't wait to see this one finished.

Schnemat
ok, so i still managed to screw up some decals and it's also a pity that not all decals are provided in low vis as they should be for this painting option. so i probably stop here with decalling

Schnemat
alright, i think this is going to look ok😉 i like the clean look, so i will only do minor weathering on the fuselage. the florymodels wash worked beautifully, the panel lines look great in my opinion. i also finished a lot of small parts, but also figured out that i forgot to paint some gear door attachment parts, so this will need a few days until i've got them finished. so this still needs a week or two...

Daniel
Looks awesome, coming together really nice with the metal parts and low vis markings on grey! I agree, I have yet to see a china flanker with dirt on it 🙂

Clifford Keesler
It looks great.

Slavo Hazucha
Very good work indeed, looks absolutely true to the original, great job 👍

Schnemat
almost there... the refueling probe causes a bit of troubles, it doesn't really fit 🙁

Schnemat
it looks finished to me 🙂

Nathan Dempsey
Looks like it finished up nicely too 🙂 I really like the low-viz national insignia.

Slavo Hazucha
It surely does, but you are not seriously leaving this at the 2 last pics..? 🙂

How would you rate the HB-experience? I think their Flankers are really a good base to work with, both the fit and the surface detailing seem to provide a really nice starting position for either an easy-going OOB or time & room to focus on whatever you want to do, not what the kit forces you to do...

Schnemat
of course not! 🙂 I will for sure add some "Rollout" pictures later this week.

I agree with you, this is actually quite a nice kit. I was a bit hesitant to do again a HB kit after I built the Rafale B from HB a while ago, which i didn't like that much (it might also be me, as my skills have improved since then). There are no real fit issue here and where it doesn't fit 100% it's more the lack of skills on my side than a problem with the kit. While studying the availabe J-16 pictures I found some differences between the real aircraft and the kit which are not mentioned (J-16 has no antennas around the cockpit area, also the air intake looks different, etc.). So if you really want to do a "full scale" J-16 you would have to be a bit cautious and do some research.

Michael Phillips
That looks fantastic Schnemat! I really dig that lo-viz scheme and really look forward to seeing the final pics when you post them. Well done!

Schnemat
"Rollout" pictures have been uploaded to the "Rollout Album" attached to the J-16 Album.