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Rich F

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Everything posted by Rich F

  1. Hi folks, Finally managed to get my mojo back and finish this one eventually! We had some nice weather on Saturday in the north east so I thought I'd take advantage of it and take some al fresco photo's. Enjoy! Thanks for looking!
  2. A little bit more done on the deck, texture has been brushed on and I used a 4.5mm drill bit to create a 'dish' for the Brengun PE tie downs to sit in. Next up I used Tamiya german grey then a thinned coat NATO black then I masked and painted the markings... Weathering was achieved using various greys, brown and black thinned enamels. Just the tie downs to add, all 36 of them! I think I'm going to add a frame aswell to finish it off. Cheers
  3. Thanks for the nice comments guys! much appreciated 👍 I've made a start on the flight deck for those interested, its over on my WIP thread
  4. Well i thought I'd finished with this thread but I've decided to create a carrier deck to put the Hornet on, this seems as good a place as any to share it with you. This is what I've got to play with... Since i intend to fit this into my display case i am limited by size, so first off i measured the maximum i could get away with. Next up i had a scrap bit of fibre board knocking about in the garage so I cut this down to size added a silhouette of a 1/48 hornet to make sure it would fit, yep all good. Then I marked out the tie down points.. I then decided to use a bit of scrap styrene to experiment with and see if what I had in mind would work, looks pretty good so this is what I will go with. First off I added some Tamiya tape to replicate the slightly raised strips that are see on US carriers. Next I primed it with Alclad primer then brushed on some Tamiya pavement effect texture paint this left uneven brushstrokes so dabbed it with a piece of sponge which looked better, finally finished it off with Tamiya German grey. Looks pretty good so this is what I will go with. After trying to drill a couple of mm's out ready for the Brengun tie down points, I realised fibreboard doesn't like this and was left with a fuzzy mess, time for plan B. I had an old picture frame with some acrylic transparency, this was duly cut down to size, then a quick going over with some sandpaper and the tie downs have been pilot drilled for now as I am waiting for a 4.5mm drill bit to arrive. Next up the Alcad primer.. I will add the texture paint this weekend depending on how my body reacts to the AZ vaccine tomorrow 😬 Cheers
  5. Just finished this one over the weekend, although it's far from perfect I quite enjoyed this build, especially the painting. This was my first serious attempt at a us navy aircraft, trying to replicate the worn appearance of carrier aircraft I approached the painting with some trepidation but I think I pulled it off! Being a CAG bird they tend to be kept a bit cleaner so I didn't go over board with the weathering and tried to restrain myself although it was tempting to keep going with the pastels and oils! As mentioned in the title this is the 1/48 Hasegawa kit. WIP Linky AM bits used were; Aires pit and exhausts Royale resin wheels Wolfpack designs wing-fold set Brengun pylons Eduard PE Microscale VF-105 decals Weapons were from the spares box, IIRC from kinetic and hasegawa and modified to represent us navy ordnance. I'm now in the process of building a deck scene to sit it on. For those interested, I'll keep you posted on my WIP thread. All comments welcome! Thanks for looking
  6. Evening All, Just thought I'd share with you my progress on the bug. I'm still working on it although probably not as much as i would like. Finishing off all the dangly bits before I attach them. I keep forgetting how much time this takes. I also have finished the main weathering and a final coat of satin varnish has been applied, so its just a matter of sticking it altogether now! I'll make these the final pics before the RFI as your all probably getting bored of this tread by now! 😄 Hopefully I will have it finished by the weekend so I'll put the finished article in the RFI section Cheers
  7. That’s a stunner Calum! 🤩 Having built a Kiwi scooter a couple of years ago I can appreciate the work you’ve put into it. Good job!
  8. Thanks Markdip, this is my first US Navy jet for a long time so I have picked up a lot of tips from watching guys on here and over on ARC, always learning Cheers JJ, I like the finish on the bombs too, although looking at my latest pics I'm starting to worry the effect is a bit too much, oh well too late now! I'm glad to report i have finished the decaling, all went well up until the VFA-105 stripe along the spine decided not to play and wrinkled badly. When I tried to lay it down again it decided to disintegrate into a million pieces, probably to do with the gallon of decal softener I had previously applied! Luckily I managed to get another set of decals for a fiver which I was toying with getting anyway as the set only comes with enough decals for 1 drop tank when I needed 2. Not sure why decal manufacturers do this as most Hornets carry two tanks! 🤨 This how she looks at the moment... The vertical stabs are just dry fitted and are way off the correct position, couldn't resist fitting to see how it looked though. The walkways are the only thing I'm concerned about at the moment, they are way too shiny. I'm planning to lay a very flat coat down and maybe even stipple it a bit to roughed up the texture a bit. Bombs and undercart details done... Next up is a another gloss coat to seal everything in then a wash to bring out the details. The finishing line is in sight now! Cheers
  9. You're a brave man Hendie attempting one of CA's twin boomers! Am I right in thinking you did a beautiful rendition of a Venom not too long ago? Having completing their T.11 Vamp with all the flightpath gubbins I know the frustration is real trying to fit those flaps! Try as I might I couldn't get them to fit as advertised, I'm afraid I made a bit of pigs ear of them. Keep plugging away and I'm sure you'll make a silk purse soon!
  10. Yep, much easier and a lot less messy that the salt method!
  11. Well I'm back again with a bit more done. This time I was eager to try out my new mottle effect stencil from AK. I must say I'm a fan, really easy to use and really adds some nice subtle effects if you take your time and make sure your paint is well thinned! To create the mottle effect I used the opposite paints so for the top which is painted in GSI 307 I used 308 and vise versa for the lower surfaces. Next I created the touch up effects often seen on Navy jets to stop them corroding. I used the same method of reversing the paints and mainly applying it to random seem lines. I managed to find another pic of the real thing and noticed that some touch ups were done to the vertical stabs. I've added this as well although I don't like the effect its on the real thing so hey ho! Linky For a bit of a break from the jet I decided to work on the bombs, still need a bit doing to them but at least they have some colour now, quite pleased with the ablative coating though! Its ready for the gloss coat and decals now. BTW thanks to those who left kind comments, much appreciated Thanks for looking. Cheers
  12. Evening chaps, the grey coat is now complete, I used Mr hobby aqueous 307 and 308 thinned liberally with IPA. The pre shade is just visible which is the effect I was going for. I have started post shading with some well thinned tamiya smoke. I'll see how this turns out but I may need to go over everything with a lightened coat of 307 and 308 respectively to blend the shading a bit. Also I will add some random lightened patches to replicate paint touch ups that is often seen on sea going jets. This is the effect I'm aiming for... Fins have a coat of gloss black enamel on ready for the decals Thanks for looking! Cheers
  13. Morning All! I'm glad to report painting has begun, I like to use Mr Hobby's black finishing surfacer as a primer to start with as it tends to show up any seams that need any more attention. I then needed to deal with that nasty windshield joint, this is where adhesive foil tape comes in handy. I had cut some to shape before I glued the windshield, it was then a matter of very carefully running it around the seam and bedding it down with a cotton bud, i then ran my riveting tool around it. Next up a bit of preshading with Tamiya white.. At this stage I thought I'd experiment with some colour under what can be a very boring grey scheme, looking at USN jets they can get very dirty and weathered and no two jets are the same so i thought I'd try some blue and brown to simulate this. My thinking is that I can modulate the amount of colour that shows through the grey by simply spray more or less grey to the affected area, will thats the theory anyway! Hopefully in the next few days I can get the greys on.
  14. Hi Folks, Moving along nicely with this one at the moment, I'm finding myself getting a lot more bench time due to everything outside of the house being a bit crap! Anyhow onto what I've been up to with the hornet. First up was sorting the wings/wingfolds out. I must say that the Wolfpack set is awesome and fits like a glove, as long as you follow the instructions everything should be a doddle. As nearly all hornets parked have there flaps lowered I did the same, however Mr Hasegawa has left a seamline in the joint between the wing and the leading edge flaps which in reality isn't there, I used a strip of styrene to hide this and sanding and re-scribed it once it was dry. I also added a some detail to the ends of the leading edge flaps as these will quite visible... I dry fitted the wingfolds to make sure every fits ok, one fits like a dream the other is a bit loose and will require a dab of CA to hold it in 10 degrees inboard past the vertical. After the wings in moved onto the vertical stabs, now the kit has you fitting 3 L-shaped brackets the inside of the fins, unless you are doing an A model these aren't here, instead 3 raised square plates are in there place I added these and used some square rod to fill the offending trenches on the rear fuselage. I also added some detail to the rudders and fixed both outboard as is often seen on parked jets... The avionics bay aka 'the hellhole' behind the pilot is also complete but not glued in place, since Aires went to the trouble of added fantastic detail here it would be a shame not to show it off. During flight a metal mesh cover is normally in place to stop things wandering about but on the deck it often left open as it can be used as a handy place to stow stuff! Lastly I have been working on the weapons, I used Tamiya's pavement effect to replicate the ablative coating on USN ordnance. Hopefully it wont look to OTT once painted. I am using hasegawa's GBU-12 which are quite good apart from the seeker heads, I modified these by drilling them out and also repositioning them so they droop. Sidewinders and GBU-38's are from the spares box, IIRC these are from kinetic, however the GBU-38's had seeker's for USAF but luckily I have some USN spares which I'll add. Brengun's pylons cleaned up and ready! One more thing, HUD in place. This was extremely fiddly to fit, I dont mind saying the air was blue whilst this was fitted! Its a bit wonky but it'll have to do as it's staying put! Ignore the bad canopy joint, I have a cunning plan how to hide this! Getting closer to the painting bit now, just need to assemble/detail the undercarriage and then we can add colour, well lots of grey anyway! Thanks looking, cheers.
  15. Happy to report more progress has been made, quite a lot of activity happening on my workbench in the past week, well a lot for me anyway! Pit installed in the fuselage which was surprisingly easy for a Aires pit, next up was the intakes, I was toying with buying some full length intakes but as they will be under the LERX and in shadow I couldn't justify it, however the kit intakes are a wee bit shallow so I came up with a plan! First take a cheap plastic pipette and cut the bulbous end off, this was almost the correct diameter to fit over the rear end of the intake. I then painted them white and then a very thin coat of buff to represent dirt, lastly some NATO black was shot into the end to represent a dark hole leading to the fans. Once the intakes were fitted it was time to close up the fuselage and fill the offending gaps, I also re-enforced the rear engine area with plastic card as this is a known structurally weak area of the kit (sorry no pics). I then re-scribed and re-riveted the whole kit so it would hold a wash once painted, a tedious job but necessary as some of the panel lines are quite shallow in places. Once this was done I added various PE pieces from the eduard detail set. The strengthen plates just under the rear of the flap area are missing from the kit, I added these using thin plastic sheet from evergreen. I then started to work on the canopy and after cleaning up the seamlines I shamelessly stole an idea from a guy over on ARC that is building a hornet, he used the ink from sharpie pens to tint the canopy glass. Some hornets have the windshield with a yellowish tint, I used tamiya clear yellow and a drop or 2 of smoke to simulate this. The rear canopy was tinted with sharpie method. I used a purple sharpie and some IPA with a couple of drops of Klear to break the surface tension once it was sprayed... Quite pleased with the results, after the tint I dipped them in Klear to seal them, hopefully when the framing has been painted it will look a little less obvious. Having the DACO book is a double edge sword as the detail shown is great but it also shows up the weaknesses of the Hasegawa kit, this is especially true of the pylons, when I compared the kit offerings to the line drawings in the book they were way off. This is where Brengun came to the rescue, they state that they are intended for the kinetic kit but I'm sure they will fit on the Hasegawa kit. Although not perfect they capture the true shape much better and only for the price of a couple of pints, since the pubs are closed I can justify buying them! I also got myself this template for the painting stage. Thinking ahead to the loadout, I have this in mind, if we have any Hornet experts please let me know if this a viable load. The timeframe is 2005. I would like to use AIM-9X's on the wingtip launchers but my head is telling me that 9L/M's are more realistic. Excuse the poor sketch. Thats all for now folks, next up will be the wing-folds and undercarriage then I can move on to the painting bit! BTW nice artwork Serkan, shame you aren't planning a 1/48 scale as I could have given you my kit decals, although I think they are for a Navy not Marine bird.
  16. Thanks for the interest guys, i hope i can live up to your expectations! I said i would have some progress soon and i have manged to paint the cockpit. I'm using the Aires pit, which is well detailed and surprisingly not much hacking to make it fit. I'm still working on the rear decking and 'hell hole' so will post these once i have finished installing the cockpit. Painting was done with mainly humbrol enamels, although i think the grey is a bit dark, but i think i can live with it. Also started on the hacking the wings ready to fit the wolfpack wing folds... Thats all for now folks, hopefully have some more progress in the net few days.
  17. Hi everyone, New year, new project and I'm starting with Hasegawa's legacy hornet. I've had this kit for a while and built up a collection of goodies for it... And Danny Coreman's excellent book. I think I'm going to go with this VFA-105 Gunslingers showbird scheme like this one! Only managed to finish 2 kits last year hoping to go for at least 3 this year, so will need to knuckle down and get some modelling done. Hopefully have some progress soon.
  18. Thanks for all the kind comments everyone. I think the reason I'm not that impressed with this one is that I've spent so long looking at the damn thing! Cheers Tony, mines got a vacuform with flightpath framing so I dont know how the fit was with the original canopy but i will say that me and vacuform canopies dont get along. I find them hard work and also I've noticed that over time it is started to yellow so i will staying away from them in the future!
  19. Evening All, To say I'm glad to move this one of the workbench is a bit of understatement! It had been sat on the shelf of doom for almost a decade and then I had a spurt of enthusiasm, or is that stupidity to get it finished. Definitely not one of best efforts, I'll put that down to repeatedly losing interest in it. Either way I'm pleased its finally finished 🙂 For those interested, the WIP is here Thanks for looking!
  20. A bit more progress done, I managed to repaint the peeling on the nose with a close match so no dramas there. Next up was decaling, I used a mix of kit decals for the RN markings/stencils and fantasy workshop/model decals for the numbering, this was followed by a wash using promodeller dark wash. After this i attached the canopy but this was far from straightforward. Unfortunately my cockpit glazing was missing from my kit when I bought it so vacuform was my only choice. Having had little success in the past when working with these I wasn't looking forward to it. After marking and carefully cutting it away from the surrounding sheet I sanded it as smooth as I could. At this point my Flightpath Vampire detail set came to the rescue as the canopy framing on the vacuform piece is quite vague to say the least so the metal framing really helped define this. I used Mig Ammo Ultra glue to stick the canopy to the jet, I would definitely recommend this as it holds very firm which is impressive as the mating surface area between the canopy and the cockpit is quite small. Once it had dried I filed the seamline with some vallejo plastic putty as smoothed it over with some water. It still needs a bit of work too blend it it but its looking better than it was. This is where I am it now... Couldn't resist adding the seats, has a bit of a sports car look about it! Thanks for looking.
  21. A Little bit more progress to report, not getting much time at the bench at the moment, but I'll keep plugging away at it. After the white coat i and a rub down with various lighter grades of micromesh, i experimented with which colour to put down first, turns out dayglow red covers better over white than it does silver, so thats what i started with. I used a 50-50ish mix of humbrol 209 fluorescent orange and 19 gloss red. which turned out quite nice me thinks... Next up i was masking the dayglow red which looking at the real thing was not easy as i thought. All the photos i have seen of RN 2 seat vampires have different demarcation patterns for the nose area. Not having a frontal pic of XA128 i short of made up what i think looked right in the end. After the masking i gave it a coat of Aclad's white aluminium which i think gives it the finish i was after... All was going well until i peeled the tape off and this happened... Doesn't look like much to fix, just hope i can get a close match for the custom day glow red mix again. The finish line is almost in sight now! Cheers
  22. Thanks Chris, help yourself, pilfer what you need I have a feeling the Airfix kit might be a tad easy build... Cheers Rob, after seeing Hendie's solution to the ejection ports i thought I'd give it a go at improving them, although mine are not as elegant as his! Regarding the turbine bits, your probably right as it will be hard to spot, I'll carry on with it and see how it turns out.
  23. Still plodding along with this, although even by my sloth like model building speed i have to agree progress is some what slow! Anyway here's what i have achieved since my last update. The airframe is pretty much finished bar undercarriage, flaps and canopy. I've added some of the flightpath goodies such as access hatches, strengthening plates and an antenna plate under the wing. Also added some rivets from archer around the wing spar, some small tubing for the pitot probe and some scratch built antenna blade mountings which looking at my DH twin boom bible seem to be in different places depending on which aircraft you choose. Once i was happy with the finish i gave it an undercoat using Alcad's grey microfiller. Then i noticed a couple of flaws which i duly filled and after a quick rub down i gave it a coat of Mr Color white ready for the silver and the fluorescent red. I remember seeing a online pic at the back end of a vampire showing the turbine inside the jetpipe but for the life of me i cannot recall where i saw it, anyway i am the process of replicating this from an old 1/72 drop tank tip and some plastic strip. If anybody has any pics of this area i would be grateful. Next up will be the fluorescent red, for which i will use a custom mix of Humbrol's 19 gloss red and 209 fluorescent orange, wish me luck!
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