Centuri Fighter Fleet - Cloning the F-16
 

The Centuri Fighter Fleet F-16 was part of my childhood's fleet of rockets. This included the Nike Ajax, the V-2, the Nomad, the Alien Scoutship Flying Saucer, the EAC Viper, the Nomad (Centuri U.S. Navy missile), the Excalibur 2, and a few scratch builds. In my efforts to recreate my first fleet I have cloned the Excalibur, the Alien Scoutship, the EAC Viper, and the V-2. Now it is time to clone the F-16 Fighter. I plan to recreate the entire fleet eventually.

It is not easy wanting to continue with the hobby when one lives overseas, but luckily I can get mail from the U.S. with ease thanks to the DPO. Gathered all the files and templates needed, scrounged what I had as for rocketry supplies, and got the ball rolling. The hard parts to acquire (or recreate) are the PNC-106 NC, the plastic parts for the fuel pods and missiles, and the canopy. This is where 3D printing comes in handy... Got an STL file from the web on a NC that is close in shape to the PNC-106 and re-scaled it. I also got an STL of an "F-16 canopy" and modified it to resemble the original. My 3D designing skills are not to par to start some complex designs. I am slowly learning Fusion 360 to help me with this. Printed all the parts in PLA, sanded, primed, wet-sanded, then prime again, and I am happy with the results.

Centuri Fighter Fleet - Cloning the F-16
 

... here is a family picture of the fuel pods and some 3D printed missile parts I am currently experimenting with. Still have not decided which missile parts to use but the Sidewinder missile is my favorite. The fuel pods are from NC files that were down-scaled and adapted to this project. Not exactly as the originals but now with what little I have learned with Fusion 360 I can at least replicate the original NC for the pods... not in transparent plastic but they were painted in the original kit. Also printed and adapted an "F-16 style nozzle" (also from a file on the internet) to add when on display. Most likely this will end up being a shelf model as I cannot bring motors to my location.

Centuri Fighter Fleet - Cloning the F-16
 

I never liked the use of fiberboard on Centuri models but that was what the kit came with. This time I used 1/16 inch balsa covered with label paper. Because of the complex shape of the fins I decided to divide the bigger fin patterns so the leading edge would go along the direction of the wood fiber. Covered them with label paper then placed them on a flat surface then placed a glass cutting board with weights over it for 24 hours to ensure the paper would stick well to the balsa. Then sealed the edges with one coat of crazy glue, sanded the edges, then applied a 2nd coat of crazy glue, waited for the glue to cure, then a final light sand along the edges.

The fins came out very nice, light, and strong. Used Gorilla wood glue to attach the fins and ran one coat of glue along the roots as fillets. Thinking now of running a thin layer of epoxy as a 2nd coat of fillet.

Centuri Fighter Fleet - Cloning the F-16
 

Been busy also working with the decals. Got clear scans of the decal sheets for all the kits from Earl Cagle (Thanks Earl!). I use "the poor man's" graphic program, PowerPoint, to redraw the decals. I also customized / updated the decal sheet and added a few details, mainly on the warning labels and others. Have not printed them yet as that will be one of the last steps after I prime and paint the F-16. Here are captures of the tailored decal sheet as well as the redrawn decal sheet. Enjoy! :)

Nice clean build - should look good coming off the pad!

Raul-

Looking good! Looks like the scans of the pod and missile cones were put to good use as well as the decal scans; your pieces look pretty accurate! And you’ve certainly ‘juiced up’ the design from the Centuri kit.

Looking forward to seeing this one painted out and decaled!

Earl

Great build!

I cloned this model over ten years ago.
I lost it to the God of power lines.
I redesigned it to include the air inlet tube and separate sub fins.
I have a few pic's of this model on this site and I will try to locate them.
I did use the Centuri fin pattern of the wings an tail but separated the tail fins from the sub fins.
I have built/cloned all of the Fighter Fleet but the 5J Israeli Mirage. No interest in that one.
I did not like the canopy and substituted an Estes F-15 Screaming Eagle in place of the one Centuri designed.

Again, nice build!

Here is my build of this rocket.

https://forums.rocketshoppe.com/sho...ht=Centuri+F-16

Daniel: Please do post those pictures of your redesigned F-16 here. While working on this clone I too have been toying with the idea of adding the air inlet and separate the sub fins. Was thinking that a second F-16 with those modifications is in order and with a different color theme. I would like to see how your clone looks like with the Estes F-15 Screaming Eagle nose cone. I do not think I could get these from Estes anymore.

V/R,

Raul

I have collected this entire series and the only original I have built is the F-16. Also know, the Estes F-61 uses the same plastic parts as you can see from my build. The F-16 is a cool design, but I am not a fan of the cardboard parts. Also was not a fan of the red plastic nose cone. You can see the red still bled through even after coating with grey primer. I ended up striping the paint of the nose, priming with black followed by grey then gloss white to hid the red bleed.

sigs30,

Hello, I'm glad you chimed in.
You are one of many people I highly respect on this forum.
I love all your builds.
I hope someday I can reach your level of building awesomeness! (it that a word?)

F-61? A fat finger typo?

RR,
I will look for the redesign of my F-16.
Basically, use the patterns but shorten the BT tube length at the end of the foreword strakes and added the nose cone.
The inlet tube runs the length of the BT with about 3/4" cut off the length of the BT and the end scallop of the "look" of the fighter aft end.
Anotherwords, cut the BT down the center and measure about 3/4" over to one side of the tube. Cut this 3/4 out of the tube. The tube should look like the letter "C".
Glue it to the main BT to look like an air inlet.
The only other modification I did was I added the rudder base fins.
If you are so inclined, buy a Guillow F-16 balsa model kit and it will give some ideas on what to add to your rocket.
This also go's for the Guillows F-15 kit for the Centauri F-15.
Guillows did a lot research on these models.

BTW, I have been trying to convert the Guillows F-16 to a flying rocket model for several years. It's slow going.

Daniel