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F/A-18E Super Hornet VFA-31 (Hasegawa 1/48)


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Hi Folks!

 

I recently started a build of a Hasegawa F/A-18E Super Hornet in the Anniversary Scheme of 2010.

kit: Hasegawa 1/48

Decals: Afterburner Decals "East Coast SuperBug CAGs" and Afterburner Decals "Super Hornet Upgrade Set

Aftermarket:

Quickboost Seat

Quickboost ECS vents

Phase Hangar seamless intakes

Eduard GBU-38

Tamiya AIM-9X, AIM-120 and GBU-12 (from the F-16 kit)

 

I started with the cokpit, using the decals from the Afterburner Upgrade set. They are marvelous, although I am not sure if the grey color is correct...

 

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The Quickboost seat with paint and decals:

 

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The fuselage required some surgery to fit the Quickboost bard stacks:

 

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The small gaps are filled with CA, and will be invisible under the paint.

 

I fitted the fuselage sides and intake lips before attaching the seamless intakes to get a good alignment of the parts.

 

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I carefully fitted the intakes to prevent gaps between the intake parts. As they now floated above the wheel wells and were held only by a small amount of CA at the front, I added support struts and secured them with epoxy glue behind the intake fans:

 

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looks good so far:

 

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Cheers,

Markus

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  • 2 weeks later...

I continued with the assembly of the fuselage.

I decided not to follow the instructions and first glued top and bottom halves together before joining forward and main fuselage.

 

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I also attached the wings to the upper fuselage first to get a nice transition between fuselage and wing top surface.

 

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After attaching the forwar fuselage, filling and sanding started.

 

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And the fuselage is ready:

 

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Cockpit parts added:

 

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On the bottom, I accidentially removed the location bar from the right wing outboard pylon, so I had to drill registration holes.

 

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With the leading edge flaps, flap hinges and canopy installed, the Super Hornet is ready for some paint:

 

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Cheers,

Markus

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi Folks,

 

I finally found time to continue this build.

I applied a base coat and did the preshading:

 

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I also started with the ordnance:

 

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The items are not yet flat coated. All are from a Tamiya F-16 kit.

 

Cheers,

Markus

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That ejection seat is really sharp! As is probably obvious to everyone, I tend to focus on cockpits to get a better feel for how the experts do it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Painting continues.
Here, the underside is already painted with MRP Light Ghost Grey, upper surfaces with MRP Dark Ghost Grey

 

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First stages of a light weathering:

 

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On pictures, the original aircraft has barely any signs of waethering.
The bottom has yet to receive some more weathering.
 

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The tails are peinted and decaled. Som light touch ups are necessary.

 

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Cheers,

Markus

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  • 2 months later...

Wow, time flies. It's been a long time since the last update.

 

Anyhow, I wasn't idle during lockdown.

 

After painting and fading the TPS, I painted the skunk stripe.

 

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I didn't weather it very much, since on the reference pictures, the bird is relatively clean.

 

Further detail painting and a gloss coat:

 

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And so the decaling bagan. The Afterburner decals went on really smooth.

 

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Sadly, the stripes for the black/red tank were not inlcuded on the decal sheet, so I had to make my own:

 

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Applied to the red tank:

 

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And after a gloss coat, I painted the rest black:

 

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Cheers,

Markus

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Wunderbar Markus !!

Now, I feel guilty to have mine stored aside !!

I'll save your thread in my files...

Congratulations again !!

Sincerely.

CC

 

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Excellent! The cockpit looks great, the deviation from the instructions paid rich dividends and the end result is sure to be outstanding. Can't ask for more than that!

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