Falcon F.1

[Devilfish]

By the mid 70's the RAF were desperately looking for a replacement for the Lightning.  As good as it was at it's job, it's shortcomings were becoming more and more apparent.
What was needed was a cheap, fast interceptor, to stand watch over Britain's airspace, but one that had more endurance than the Lightning.
The answer seemed to lie in a new aircraft the ?USAF and General Dynamics were developing, the YF-16. 
To cut a long story short, an order was placed for enough aircraft to replace the Lightning squadrons.
The F-16K, known as the Falcon F.1 in the RAF, was purely an interceptor, with none of the software for ground attack. 
Armed generally with 4 AIM-9L Sidewinders (bought as part of the deal to replace the RAFs ageing stock of 9Bs) and 2 Skyflash missiles.
The RAF were the first customer to ask for a braking parachute and a bolt on probe and drogue style refuelling probe was fitted.
First deliveries were made in early 1980, with 74 Sqn becoming the first operational squadron.

The kit is the 1/48 Italeri F-16A.  Not being well clued up on all the F-16's changes over the years, I hope it is correct for the time period.  I know at some point the tail planes were smaller but I have n idea when this changed, so I left them.

[Tophe]

I like the low-vif markings for the RAF on this F.1

[McColm]

In the real world the F-16 was shown to the MOD UK for use in the RAF and the Royal Navy. First as a stop-gap for the Tornado and then the EuroFighter. For the Royal Navy surplus F-16s to fil the FRADU role as the Canberra and Hunters were being retired. FRADU fly the BAe Hawk.

[DogfighterZen]

I like the Falcon in any color or country flag!!  It is a whiff so no need to worry much about variant detail accuracy, right? 
Nice build! 

[Captain Canada]

Beauty. Love the look of this one. The grey looks perfect, and really suits the aeroplane. Also like the tail, really sets off the whole look. And anytime an aero is loaded to the nines and ready to fight ? 

[ChernayaAkula]

Nice model! 

[deathjester]

Really nice!  Love the whole look and idea of this model - well done!!

[Weaver]

Looks good!

I wouldn't worry about the tailplanes: they were enlarged to give a greater stability margin with heavy ordnance loads, so you could always say they were needed for the Skyflash.

The RAF did look at the F-16 in the mid-1970s, but they wanted something with two seats and better radar performance, since the primary requirement was to intercept Soviet bombers as far away as possible in the face of bad weather and heavy ECM.