Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet

[Seamus]

No need to worry about the thread hijack, it's all interesting conversation, plus I've got sod all to report until I get the cockpit etch, which should be on its way now

Jen, you're right about the purpose of the typhoons foreplanes, but they do also contribute to the overall lift, simply by being forward of the CoG, just in the same way a tailplane reduces the overall lift by being behind. This is one of the advantages of the canard configuration, (particularly when flying at high alpha at low speed) which is why so many new generation aircraft have adopted this layout.

I see your point about the fixed foreplanes. I can't give a definite answer, but I would assume that the technically correct term is still foreplane. I'm sure though if you referred to it as a canard, only a pedantic muppet like me would pick you up on it

Will, nice little video that You're right in that the tailerons do indeed pitch dfferentially, to assist the flaperons in roll. If you pause the film at 18 secs, just after the roll is initiated. You can clearly see the starboard flaperon and taileron deflected downwards, (the former has the net effect of increasing the overall camber of the wing and hence the coefficient of lift thus the overall lift of that wing) which causes the aircraft to roll to the left. The port wing isn't so clear, but I can assure the opposite is happening, whereby the upward deflection of both surfaces reduces the overall lift on that side of the aircraft.

The unstable nature of the aircraft largely only affects pitch. An aircraft is unstable when the aerodynamic centre of the wing is aft of the centre of gravity, so that any sudden pitching moments will diverge, and the aircraft will continue to increase/decrease it's angle of attack (stable aircraft are the opposite and naturally damp out these inputs, returning to their initial state of flight) This is advantageous when you want an aircraft to be able to pitch and turn rapidly, but gives the pilot far too much workload to be able to cope with, which is where the FBW system comes into play, sorting everything out for the pilot, and preventing the aircraft form exceeding it's aerodynamic and structural limits.

HTH, I was beginning to confuse myself by the end of all that

Glad you like the model too, though not sure I've got the skill (and certainly not the space!) for a diorama just now

Cheers

Shaun

[Gary C]

I'm sure foreplanes do produce lift, but I was referring to the fixed type which are primarily there to act as a tailplane (but in the wrong place of course) like you see on the odd Rutan. The foreplanes on Typhoons and the like are there primarily to aid control rather than lift.

See what I'm getting at?

Interesting conversation. It's been about 15 years since I graduated so bear with me if this makes no sense at all ...

Tailplanes (and foreplanes) in general are designed to be fairly camber neutral (and therefore lift neutral in cruise) as they are a control surface and are required to both generate and reduce lift. Looking at pics, the Rutan aircraft, including the Voyager, have a fixed foreplane with a hinged elevator section so they act like a traditional tailplane with elevator, but, being a foreplane, the effect is reversed ie. if you increase the camber of the foreplane by dropping the elevator then the lift is generated and the nose rises and vice versa.

One of the advantages with canard style designs is more immediate pitch control. With traditional tailplanes you force the tail down causing the AOA to increase which is followed by an increase in lift. With canards the nose is lifted up and so the increase in lift is instant. On delta winged aircraft the ailerons often double as elevators and are known as elevons. But when the flaps are deployed they have the same elevator effect forcing the nose down and so foreplanes can be used alongside or instead of leading edge lift devices to restore balance.

The Voyager and a lot of Rutans other aircraft have hinged elevators rather than fully moving slab control surfaces simply because they don't go that fast. Slab tailplanes, all flying tails or stabs to our American friends were first used on the F-86. Early Sabre pilots were coming back from combat complaining of unresponsive controls even when powered. The reason was the speed, the increase in camber of the tailplane caused by raising or lowering the elevator ceased to be effective once the aircraft got into the transonic zone. The tailplanes were aerodynamically correct in size for the airframe so rather than increase the elevator size the tailplane was made to pivot instead allowing the lift to be generated by the angle of incidence rather than any camber. It also meant that the drag caused was much less than a hinged elevator. These days they've grown to be pretty large for increased manouverabilty, high roll rates and so on.

Tailerons, differentially moving slab tailplanes, were developed to allow better roll control. At high speeds traditional ailerons produce too much stress on the wings whereas the rolling moment is much less using tailplanes. Multiple roll control surfaces are also safer and allow for things like full span flaps. Hurts the computers brain though as it tries to figure out what surface to use for what control

BTW, nice work on the control surfaces, I chickened out and bought the Wolfpack folding wing set which includes the dropped bits

[Seamus]

Interesting stuff Gary, I was never fully sure as to the advantages of the canard configuration (which has nothing to do with occassionally falling alseep in lectures ) so that's a useful bit of information there Ta for the comments on the wings as well- I had no idea there was a set available, but had I done, maybe I'd have chickened out myself!

Right, some minor progress to report. I'm getting bored of waiting for the etch to arrive, so I decided to have a little bash at some detailing this afternoon. I've added some brake lines to the undercarriage legs. Tried adding some piping to the gear bays as well, but I struggled with that for some reason, so I'll probably leave it now.

I've read that the canopy doesn't fit too well in the closed position, so I'll be displaying it open. The etch will help improve the detail in the office, but it doesn't include any sidewalls, so I've spruced these up with a bit of plasticard. I've also added a couple of strips on the rear decking. This is far from my forte, so it's a bit rough around the edges. I've used a bit of artistic license here, but it at least adds a bit more interest to the office, and hopefully should look much better after a lick of paint.

Should be able to get some paint in the cockpit and undercarriage now in preparation for the etch to go in.

All comments welcomed

Cheers

Shaun

[Habu12]

Any updates?

[Seamus]

'Fraid not chief

I'm still waiting on the cockpit etch to arrive, and until it does, there's not much that can really be done on her sadly

Hopefully it'll arrive sooner rather than later so I can get cracking again

[Habu12]

Doh! Gues you gotta go to the standby projects eh? I just finished a build, the latest in a series of three Vipers. It's in the critique section if you want to check it out...ya know pass the time away

[Seamus]

Evening folks

My Eduard zoom set arrived at last on Tuesday, so I've been able to make some long overdue progress on the Super Bug. 'Tis my first time using etch, so thought I'd go with the pre-painted stuff just to get my eye in. The side consoles and IPs have been jazzed up, as have the seats- a definite improvement over the rather bland cockpit OOB methinks.

With the Heinkel rapidly approaching completion, I should be able to start making some more substantial progress with this one now

Thanks for looking, comments welcomed

Cheers

Shaun

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Looks good Shaun, I might have to get myself a couple of these sets!

EDIT: Your seats and cockpit looked so good I just ordered 2 sets!

Edited May 8, 2009 by TrojanThunder

[Seamus]

Cheers Ray, I'm sure Mr. Eduard willl be happy that I've inspired you to buy a couple of his sets

With the 111 finished, I can now focus fully on this one. After assembling the cockpit, I've got the bulk of the main assembly completed during today. The new IPs were slightly taller than the kit parts, pushing the whole cockpit down by 1mm or so. So, I've simply filed down the roof of the nose gear bay onto which the cockpit sits, so that the forward fuselage fits together correctly. Overall, the fit is pretty good, as you would expect, with only a few gaps that will need filling and sanding, along with the seams. Note, the tailplane is dryfitted in place for show, and the intake interiors have been largely ignored as I intend to fit some FOD covers over them- these have been made from cling film and now just need trimming to size and painting. Also, the canopy has had it's seam removed and polished back up before being dipped in Klear. Annoyingly, there's a little crack at the front edge, but there's not much I can do about it

Will make a start on filling and sanding work tomorrow, fun times!

Now, a quick weapons question. I have a couple of JDAMS from a Raptor kit, that I intend to put on one of the double launcers. I've also got a couple of LGBs from an F/A-18C kit that I thought would be nice to hang from the other launcher. Would this be a likely loadout? And what sort of Laser Designating pod would I need to hang? There's a TIALD pod (i think) supplied in the kit, so would this be sufficient?

Thanks for looking, comments welcomed

Cheers

Shaun

[Alan P]

Phew, at last it's turned back into a build thread!

Keep going Shaun, and by the way IT'S A MODEL, he can call those bits of plastic stuck on it "bingo wings" if he wants, they're still just bits of plastic!

[Seamus]

Cheers A; TBH, I don't mind all the discussion, it's all interesting stuff

Righto, more progress to report on the Super Bug. I spent Monday and Tuesday filling and sanding the thing then sorting out some of the joins that still needed attention. If I'm honest, I'm not too happy at all with my handy work in drooping the flaps- the joins aren't at all tidy, especially on the port wing. I've tried to sort them with limited success, so I'll put this down to experience Needless to say though, my legacy Hornet will not be receiving the same treatment.....

I've ploughed on anyway, and will use this as a test bed for painting USN jets, for when I get round to the Hornet and Tomcat in the stash. As usual, I began by preshading, before forgetting to take photos and moving onto the light ghost grey undersides. Once the base coat was on, I then added a drop of black to the mix and thinned it down before effectively mottling the darker grey over the model in an attempt to replicate the worn, grubby look of these naval birds. Then white was added back into the mix to tone down areas where I got a bit close with the AB, before the entire process was repeated again, to give me a load of different tones to break up the scheme. It's come out looking OK I guess so I'm pleased enough

I'll let that little lot dry fully overnight before masking it off and getting the dark ghost grey on tomorrow, again with the same postshdaing method-hopefully she'll be nice and grubby by the time I've finished with her

As always, all comments and suggestions welcomed

Cheers

Shaun

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Your paint technique looks very effective Shaun

My etch set turned up yesterday, very nice indeed! So impressed I picked up the set for the F-4E at our meeting last night as well

Looking forward to seeing more of your build.

Edited May 15, 2009 by TrojanThunder

[Seamus]

Thanks very much Ray, the etch really is a nice bit of kit

More progress today (loving having 3 days off work ) and the dark ghost grey is on. Again, I applied the base coat over the preshade, before adding a drop or two black, followed by white to get some tonal variation and wear into the basic scheme.

Pretty happy with the results there- should blend in nicely once a matt coat is on- so once I've done a touch of detail painting she'll be ready for a gloss coat and decalling.

Thanks for looking, comments welcomed

Cheers

Shaun

[Seamus]

More progress then, and after a touch of detail painting and a coat of Klear the decalling is done. Decals came from the kit and went on quite nicely with some microsol.

Just needs another coat of Klear to seal them in before making a start on the weathering

thanks for looking, comments welcomed

Cheers

Shaun

[AndyL]

Very, very nice Shaun. You're getting a bit good at this model making lark aren't you?

Seriously, lovely job there.

[turnerdad]

Superb as always Sean.

[Seamus]

Appreciate the comments chaps, much appreciated

More work has been done on the Super Bug these last few days, with the weathering now complete. I've given her a light pastel wash to gently highlight the panel lines, before whipping out the oil paints to add some staining trailing from the various hinges on the control surfaces and the distinctive smears on the lower rear fuselage. I've also applied a black oil wash to the undercarriage and wheel wells to dirty them up and highlight some of the detail in there.

So, with the weatyhering complete, all that really reamins is to matt everything down and complete the final assembly. Hope to get the mattcote on later this evening so with a bit of luck she'll be ready for inspection sometime tomorrow

Thanks for looking, comments welcome as always

Cheers

Shaun

[Angels49]

Is it tomorrow yet.....we'll be waiting with anxious eyes..matey...I love to ogle a well done kit...and this one is definitely a well done kit. The in prog says it all.....be ready for a beauty.

[Seamus]

Shucks Clif, you're too kind chap

The super Hornet is now complete. I sprayed a matt coat forst thing this morning before compelting the assembly late this afternoon once it had fully cured. I'll pop some pics up in an RFI thread later on this evening.

Many thanks as always for the kind words throughout the build, much appreciated

Cheers

Shaun

[Gene K]

Shaun,

Excellent work on the flight surfaces, and the rest of the model, of course.

Despite PHaTNesS' proud declaration that "IT'S A MODEL, he can call those bits of plastic stuck on it "bingo wings" if he wants, they're still just bits of plastic! ", I thought you may want some more info since you're obviously an aviation scholar as well as an accomplished modeller.

You said about British Phantoms

That's very true, but, and I may be wrong about this, I think they only droop when powered down and as such are not used as flaps, just ailerons....

The British Phantoms did, in fact, have ailerons that were lowered (drooped) to 16.5 degrees when the flaps were lowered to either 1/2 or full down. The USN birds also had this modification, whereas the USAF didn't adopt it - so the picture you used as an example, the Turkish F-4E (a USAF derivative), doesn't have drooped ailerons. Here's a picture that shows the Brit Phantom with flaps down and ailerons drooped.

Gene K

[Gene K]

Does anyone have the book of artwork by the guy who does the Hasegawa boxes?

Hasegawa uses several artists, but mainly the venerable Shigeo Koike - to whom you're probably referring. He's had several books of his aviation art published, the most recent being the "Flying Colors" series, two books (of the three) of which you can get from Hobby Link Japan here.

If you like his boxtop art, you'll probably really enjoy this site.

Gene K

[Seamus]

Thank very much Gene, I stand corrected on the Phantom ailerons

Pictures can now be found here