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Bengals F/A-18D - Finished


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I'm not stating the GB late. I've actually been working on this since the GB started - just haven't put up a build thread. Well... now's the time.

This is the Academy 1/72 F/A-18D built using the kit decals to represent the well known 164694 WK-01 of VMF(AW)-224 "Bengals". I will be showing the jet as it appeared during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, although with a little bit of artistic licence with regard to the weapon load.

So here is the kit and the extras.

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I believe that sprues A,B and E are common to all the Academy legacy Hornets.

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Sprue D is specific to the T-bird versions

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As are the transparencies.

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These are the decals. Printed by Cartograf, they are far better than Academy decals used to be.

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And here are the extras. Resin ejection seats from CMK. AGM-65 and launcher taken from an Esci A-7 kit. LITENING pod taken from a Kinetic F-16I Sufa.

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Edited by Enzo Matrix
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These are the cockpit parts, build totally OOB. There are plenty of tiny decals which make the instrument panels look pretty good.

The lower forward fuselage assembly is made up of five parts and is really quite tricky to set up.

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The main fuselage as a whole is made up of eleven parts!

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But they fit together quite quickly, although some filler is needed to fair the lower forward fuselage in smoothly.

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Now to the wings. F/A-18s are usually seen with the flaps drooped when parked. I couldn't find the Wolfpack resin set for love nor money, so the only option is to hack the kit parts. I originally intended to completely separate the flaps from the wing and then drill holes to accept wire hinges.

In the end, I simply scribed deeply along the hinge lines, folded the flaps down and ran some liquid cement into the lines. This makes the assembly a lot more robust than it would have been with my original plan.

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The wings fitted.

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Undercarriage bays sprayed with Alclad2 white primer and masked by filling them with Copydex.

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Back to the wings. Simply scoring and drooping the flaps isn't sufficient. The flaps are actually Fowler flaps so they extend as they droop. There is a prominent flap shroud which covers the gap in the wing uppersurface. I have represented this by simply gluing a tapered peice of 15thou plastic card along the gap. It stands proud and can be sanded down so that it is almost - but not quite - flush with the uppersurface.

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Next step - priming. This is Alclad 2 grey primer.

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And then the real paint. The undersurfaces are Lifecolor UA-026 36375 Light Compass Ghost Grey.

The uppersurfaces were intended to be Lifecolor UA-027 36320 Dark Compass Ghost Grey, but a continual problem with low contrast schemes arose. Look at any photo of an USN or USMC F/A-18 and you will see that there is hardly any contrast between the two greys. Depending on the light the contrast can be clearly visible or it can disappear totally.

Well, the two Lifecolor paints simply didn't have any contrast at all, so I used a bit of artistic licence. For the uppersurfaces I used Xtracrylix XA1133 16270 Neutral Grey. This provides a very slight contrast which I'm happy with.

The orange on the rudders is Lifecolor LC23 Fluorescent Orange. Fins and tailplanes tacked on with blutak.

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I have never figured out what colours work best for the USN Hornet schemes. It seems like such a waste of time to mask and paint with two supposedly different shades of grey, only to find they blend together as if they were the same hue.

It appears to me that the newer the paint, the more contrast exists, and as it ages the two colours look very much alike. Artistic license is quite appropriate!

ALF

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks. I had my doubts about it at first. It just looked a little plain. But since the above photo was taken I have added the gear doors and the LERX strakes and it's really starting to come to life. Once I start hanging things under the wings, it should be even better.

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I've spent a happy weekend adding all the greeblies to this model and spraying with matt varnish. It's all but finished - I just need to do the canopy. I won't post any pictures this weekend as it won't look much different when I post photos of the completed model.

I must admit I'm feeling a few regrets about this GB. Why didn't I build two?!?!? :wall:

I really like the look of this Hornet - but it would look even better parked next to an F/A-18C or maybe even an early -A. Shoulda build two...! :shrug:

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  • 2 weeks later...
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