1/48 Hasegawa CF-18 751 Airshow scheme

[ALF18]

I installed all the tiny bits that hold the ailerons and flaps in place. With hydraulic pressure removed, the trailing edge flaps (TEF) and ailerons fairly quickly droop to the full-down position, while the leading edge flaps (LEF) will remain in the position they were selected (either 0 degrees or 12 degrees down). Early on in the CF-18's service life, we sometimes shut down with the LEF at zero (flaps AUTO), but after a few years we realised that doing so would leave us at risk for a LEF lock-up as the flight controls were reset electronically after engine start. It is possible to regain control of the LEF after a lock-up on ground, but it's a bit of a pain and every little thing that slows you down as you are starting up can make you late for your formation taxi time, and incur the wrath of your lead (or frustration of your wingman as he waits). For that reason, LEF are almost always at 12 degrees down on shut down CF-18s.

I have seen some quibbling about the angle of the drooped TEF and ailerons being a bit off, but it looks pretty good to me. The actual angles are 42 degrees (ailerons) and 45 degrees (flaps). In this picture of another build, you can see the unmodified kit flap hinges allow the controls to droop quite a bit; perhaps not perfectly, but I will claim that this aircraft has been shut down fairly recently, and therefore the flaps/ailerons are not all the way down. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

I now have to join SWMBO on the patio for an imported German beer. The weather is finally beautiful here; we have had very British-style weather for several weeks (a lot of 15 to 18 Celsius with wind and rain), but summer has finally shown up for a few days. It's 35 Celsius (very hot in Fahrenheit), bright sunshine, and the pool water is quite inviting. A frosted mug from the Officers' Mess Oktoberfest in Moose Jaw was the ideal receptacle for this brew. Prosit!

ALF

Edited July 14, 2013 by ALF18

[Peter W]

Good information again Alf and you're going to be getting some paint on in no time, assuming the imported beer hasn't clouded your head too much. Must be tough with no Oxygen to clear the head these days.

I found the instructions for this kit to be a touch frustrating too, no mention of any Canadian specific bits and why do they include the identification light but no means to fit it.

Looking good though

Pete

[wellzy]

Great build ALF nice and clean keep up the good work

Les

[Sundown]

Looking good Alf and proving to be a very informative thread. I may be tempted to start my own after seeing this...

Sean

[Shaun]

Nice work, looks like your making good progress.

Shaun

[ALF18]

Looking good Alf and proving to be a very informative thread. I may be tempted to start my own after seeing this...

Sean

Thanks Sean

I hope that at least 1 person will pick up some useful information from this. I look forward to gleaning similar info from people who know a lot about other aircraft I plan to build: Typhoon (EFA), Lancaster, Tornado, Kfir, Mirage IIIE, etc. The beauty of sites like this is how many people know so much about the various subjects.

ALF

[ALF18]

This kit has a lot of great qualities, but one small complaint I have is the complexity of the assembly. The worst area is the HUD (the PE parts that are tiny and almost impossible to assemble with the clear parts without getting glue everywhere), but the flaps are a close second.

Slow and steady is the approach that I take, but I find that it is a little too slow for my liking. Trailing edge flap in place.

The flaps before the moveable segments are inserted in the gaps. Not perfect, but the slight angles won't show so much after the little covers are in place. Note also that the ailerons are at a noticeably different angle; I will claim that the groundcrew lifted them up manually and they dropped less than the TEF. To load stores, the techs will often lift the TEF by pushing up with their backs, and they will install flap locks to hold them up while they work. After they're done, they allow them to droop again.

Here I have the flaps in place, and am gluing the inboard pylons to the wings. These pylons will carry fuel tanks, but I don't install the fuel tanks until later because they stick out quite a bit, and I tend to get dark grey overspray on them when I do the top of the aircraft. For the same reason, I will leave off the outboard pylons with their VERs (Vertical Ejector Racks) until later.

The two wing tanks and the pylon/VER combinations for the outboard wing stations are assembled.

Here it is ready for some final gap filling and primer.

ALF

[ALF18]

I also leave off the arrestor hook because it has been snagged and broken on previous builds. I leave off the nozzles until it's almost done, which allows the hook to stick out quite a bit, making it vulnerable to damage.

Having been inspired by a fellow GB's AMS, I filled some gaps on the LEF hinges. This will make it look more natural.

The nose gear is assembled. This boxing comes with metal gear which is nicely detailed, but the tiny parts for the launch bar are a bit tough to get assembled without attaching one's fingers to them with super glue. I have installed the clear part for the Angle Of Attack (AOA) box, but have left off the lens for the landing/taxi light.

For the main gear, I chose the upper part here (not listed in the instructions, of course). Canadian Hornets have quite different shock absorbers to the USN/USMC versions.

The shock absorber is in place here. The small ring at the bottom is a shiny silver colour; the rest is white.

ALF

[ALF18]

Here is what the nose and main gear struts look like with white Tamiya primer applied. I love this paint; it coats nicely, and I find no need to use other white paint other than some white Tamiya acrylic for touch-ups. I will leave the gear off until all the spraying of the main colours is done.

It doesn't show here, but I've applied a coat of white Tamiya primer. I will mask off the gear wells before painting the underbelly colour.

ALF

[wellzy]

All looking good ALF very nice clean build

Les

[RNoAF Aerobatic Team]

Enjoying this.

Keep up the good work.

[ALF18]

White primer applied, and masking of the wheel wells.

This kit has a funny thing between the main wheel wells. On the aircraft, there is a screen over this, not a hole with bumps inside it. I decided to chop off some of the PE that goes inside the nose wheel well (nobody will see that anyway), and see if it would fit over top and mimic a screen. Voilà.

I painted the radome tan (Modelmaster Acryl) first, and will mask it off. I have left off the gun port, because it will get painted separately and have a nice demarcation as a result. We're almost ready for the light grey undercolour.

The landing gear struts have lots of nice detail. That Tamiya white primer is wonderful stuff; covers nicely and evenly.

ALF

[ALF18]

I decided to install the inboard fuel tanks and missile rails before painting.

I use this metallic silver pen for detail painting of the metal parts on gear and elsewhere. Look carefully at the bottom of the nose strut, and you'll see the oleo portion that is silver. This pen is nice and shiny, and easy to be accurate with.

I carried out a bit of an experiment with this kit. I usually paint the bottom colour (FS 36375, Light Ghost Grey) by approximating it with Tamiya Light Grey primer. It covers beautifully, and looks just right to me. The only problem is that when I want to do touchups, I have to decant a bit of it and can't use the Modelmaster Acryl FS 36375 paint, since it is a darker shade than the primer. So this time, I decided to try painting the bottom with the Modelmaster Acryl. I'm not happy with the results for two reasons.

First of all, I find the coverage is not great over the white primer. Have a close look, around the pylon panel lines, and near the wingtip, and you'll see what I mean.

The other thing I'm unhappy about is the definite dark colour of the paint. It's hard to see in this pic, but you can see in the foreground the one I'm working on at the moment, painted with the Modelmaster Acryl. In the background, I have juxtaposed another build, where I used Tamiya light grey primer, which I think is the best match for the actual colour of the aircraft.

Again, hard to see the shade differences, but the lower missile rail is a bit darker, and too dark in my opinion. Also, note the poor coverage of the paint where I have oversprayed onto the top of the wing.

ALF

[ALF18]

This is what I am aiming for; a light-coloured grey underneath, with the Modelmaster Acryl FS 35237 darker grey on top. I will wait for the paint to dry, then redo with the spray primer. That should fix the problems.

I forgot to mention that I have deliberately left the vertical stabilisers off the aircraft for now. That's because the outboard portions need to be painted a pristine white, and the inboard portions the top grey shade. I have already sprayed the outsides of the tails with the white, and will do the insides when I do the top. It's easy to tell which sides are the outsides; look for the locator pins for the anti-collision lights.

The gear struts are almost done. Silver pen applied where appropriate. I just need to do the 3 dots on the AOA box on the nose gear, and install the landing/taxi light. I might dirty them up slightly, but not much - these gear were kept VERY clean by the techs. In the summer the runways were not dirty and slushy like in the winter, so the struts stayed quite white, with only the occasional pinkish stain from hydraulic fluid leaks once in a while, but those were usually wiped off promptly when detected (and leaks fixed). Someone once told me that the gear are white to aid in detection of fluid leaks, and that they keep them very clean to see if there are any fresh leaks.

The era I am representing for this jet is right after the airshow season, and before the cruddy winter conditions set in, when I flew it as part of the squadron's operational fleet. The gear were quite clean, kind of like this picture.

Bedtime! Thanks for stopping by.

ALF

[emvar]

ALF Looks good so far!!

Emil

[Peter W]

Looking good and soon be time for the decals, the best part for me as it all starts to look like your getting somewhere.

Pete

[ALF18]

Looking good and soon be time for the decals, the best part for me as it all starts to look like your getting somewhere.

Pete

Thanks Pete

I like the decals as well; for me the roughest time is trying to get the airbrushed main colours right! I have redone the light grey with Tamiya primer and fixed a couple areas that didn't look good. We lost power here for 18 hours, so I got very little done yesterday, but hopefully today or tomorrow I can spray the top dark grey and get on with things.

ALF

[wellzy]

Good to see your getting on so well She will look

great when or finish

Les

[ALF18]

One of the easiest parts to paint is the sprue with the gear doors. I spray one side with Tamiya white primer:

Then I spray the other side with Tamiya light grey primer. Done.

Here you can see the very slight contrast between the darker Modelmaster FS 36375 light ghost grey on the aircraft, and the Tamiya primer on the gear door sprue. I like the way the Tamiya spray goes on more evenly, and has a lighter hue that is closer to the very light grey on the actual aircraft. I will be redoing the whole aircraft with the Tamiya primer shortly.

I had a look at the gear struts, and decided they looked a bit too clean. I took a couple tiny dabs of black acrylic paint (Tamiya), and mixed with a bunch of water to make a diluted wash. I then daubed it on the gear struts, and wiped clean with a tissue. Note the gear on the left has received a small wash, while the one on the right hasn't yet.

Going for subtle and relatively clean; here are the 3 struts done.

ALF

[ALF18]

Now is the time to mask and paint the top FS 35237 darker grey colour. The CF-18 fleet over the years has had a few iterations of demarcation.

The major differences lie in the line around the upper nose area, and the vertical stabilisers.

This particular one has a short-lived nose demarcation. Note that it descends from the LEX on an angle to the top of the formation light (often called slime lights on modelling forums, but never by pilots). At the front of the formation light, there is a slightly wavy demarcation that descends to the upper middle of the radome, right up against the tan coloured area.

At the back, the vertical tail is white, but below it at the front you can see the dark grey on the fuselage where the flap sits when fully up, as well as a small area near the flap root. Further aft, the grey angles from about the forward rudder hinge down to the forward part of the horizontal stabilator on a steep angle. This is also an unusual place for it to be cut; usually the dark grey starts at the aft end of the rudder, not at the hinge point.

I cut a small piece of Tamiya tape with some waves; one half for each side of the nose. Here is one half still stuck to my mat, while the other one has been applied to the nose in the lower photo.

The overall masking job. Things I paid attention to:

-the wavy nose

-overspray protection for the fronts of the wing tanks

-the wingtip missile rails remain light grey

-the area under the flaps was well masked so as not to get dark grey there

I have just finished painting the top grey; the next update will show how it turned out.

Thanks for interrupting your Royal Baby watch to stop by!

ALF

[Peter W]

Glad to be able to read this and avoid the baby news.

I've got to say that this scheme is growing on me and am tempted to add this sheet to my collection.

Looking good

Pete

[ALF18]

As always, the moment where the tape is removed is fraught with anxiety - and sometimes followed by anger!

In this case? Not bad.

There were a couple minor things to correct, but overall I was very happy with how cleanly things turned out.

Fuzzy pic, but the missile rail is nice and light compared to the upper wing.

Nice demarcations here, but...

When I test-fitted the vertical tail, I realised that the rudder started at the back of the slot for the tail, not forward of the slot. So I had to correct the placement of the line by masking again and shooting some more primer. Result was good.

Now the slanted darker grey is in exactly the right spot, at a good angle.

Even the wheel wells, which had been quickly masked, survived reasonably well. They require minor touchups only.

It's a boy!

ALF

[wellzy]

looking good ALF not long now by the looks of things

Les

[-Neu-]

Motoring right along aren't you there? Maybe I should just build one kit and not five. I like the main coat of paint... looks like it went down well and the colour looks right.

[ALF18]

Focus, Neu - focus... LOL

Even for a demo jet, this looks too pristine. I have to dirty it up a bit. First, I installed the chaff/flare dispenser PE parts, and touched up the white inside the wheel wells.

Then I got out my trusty pencil for my greasing up of the aircraft. I don't use panel washes; this (in my opinion, of course) looks too fake on Hornets, because the panel lines are very subtle, even when the aircraft paint scheme wears a bit. The idea here is to scribble some pencil lead on, moisten a fingertip, and rub in the direction of airflow. The best part? The eraser can be used if you don't like the result. Endless mulligans!

On a newly-painted Hornet, the area under the engines aft of the wheel wells gets a bit dirty (engine oil and dirt), the APU exhaust is black, and some other areas get greasy (flap actuators on the LEF, external tank cradle marks). You can see on the near tank that I have only just scribbled pencil, and have not yet wiped my wet finger on it.

Here is a pic taken in 1987, while I was on the CF-18 course. The aircraft is a newly-delivered CF-18, with about 20 hours on the airframe. Note how clean the panels are, and how nearly invisible the panel lines are. An airshow aircraft, if it was fully repainted prior to the show season, looks like this and takes months to get dirty again.

This pic shows the demo jet that crashed in Lethbridge, Alberta, a few summers ago. I was there at the unveiling of the paint job, and took several pics.

For the under-tail area, have a look at this pic. I took it flying from Bagotville Quebec to Edmonton Alberta (a flight of about 1,800 nm or about 3,200 km), on an air refuelling exercise. The other CF-18 is about 1 year old (delivered summer of '87, this pic taken in March of '88), and you can see the oil stains under the belly.

ALF