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VF-31 CAG Super Bug - Completed - finally!!!


trickyrich

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yes it does

 

interestingly the price difference now is only $1 for the AMK (from the dude I buy a lot of stuff from) and the Tamiya direct from Japan. Though the AMK is a bit harder to get, unless you go up to the $100 area ($79 & $78 respectively inc shipping to Oz).

 

Will think on it, don't need another D yet but do eventually want to get another one.

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Nice.  When I ordered my AMK, I ended up getting it for around $70USD...had to wait a year (or better for it), but what evs.  The Tamiya's at the time were anywhere from $115-149.

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Ok normal service has been resumed and I’m back to building aircraft and this build.

 

One really nice thing is I’m back to using these paints. :wub:

 

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First up the “Hell Hole”, the Wolfpack replacement is not bad but the PE mesh cover is wrong, the cut out and mesh cover are too big. So I fitted the AMUR one with some new backing. Looks much better once painted.

 

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Right part of my new space saving plan….wings folded!  The guidelines are a bit off when comparing the marks on the inside to outside, plus with the plastic being very soft this cutting process isn’t the easiest if you don’t want mistakes!

 

But I got some clean cuts,  so after a clean-up everything was glued together, including the new hingers.

 

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Those small panels with the grills will probably need to be replaced. I will probably scratchbuild these as they should be quite thin and should have a series of hooks on there underside. I’ll try and use the AMUR PE bits and build new ones on them….well that’s the plan for now.

 

The outer leading-edge flaps turned out to be too thick when glued together (forgot to check first…trusted Hasegawa!), so the easiest way to fix was to almost cut them apart then re-glue. The profile is not 100% now but once fitted you’d never know.

 

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The trailing flaps not so good! The outers had mould sink marks in them. The inners, you had to fit a part. Even with extra packing underneath there were still huge gaps. One I could fill the other I had to reskin, will same that back and fill. There no detail to worry about so just a time-consuming task.

 

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Ok as well as having the wings folded I’m going to position the control surfaces. Looking at lots of photos these can just about be in any position combination, even with the wings folded. So flaps will be dropped a bit, elevators down a wee bit and rudders inwards. The rudders turned out to be the only control surface of the model that wasn’t position able!!

 

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Leading edge dropped a little bit.

 

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The trailing edge flaps will be left for last (or almost), together they look pretty good.

 

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The wing fold detail is actually very simple, lots of stuff hidden which is nice. One this I do have to mod in the wee wing fence (?) on the pylon, the shape was modified with the trailing edge of it being quite a bit longer, a simple fix with some card.

 

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Finally, I’ve started painting the cockpit area. There’s actually not a lot to see, it’s quite small and hidden. I’ll hand paint all the details inside.

 

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It is very nice to be back on familiar ground. I still have one set of PE grills to fit in the intakes then I can start the process of painting all that stuff ready to close her up.

 

Plus I've also bought Scale & Detail's book (digital) on the F/A-18E,F, & G. What a great publication  :thumbsup:  with some great photos of the actual aircraft I'm building!

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Have gotten a bit done on this build over the past couple of days….getting very close to closing her up!

 

Started on cleaning up the joins where I’ve fitted the new PE mesh. I carefully masked the mesh area before filling then once almost dry removed the mask. They didn’t come out too bad a coat of MRP primer is probably all they need to finish off.

 

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Around this time, I also fitted the wings to the upper fuselage, not a bad join at all.

 

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I finished off tiding up the inner wing TE flaps, as you can see there was some filler require on the one, I reskinned. 

 

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Plus, I forgot to open out the slot for the outer pylon!!   :doh: The one time I was glad this plastic is quite soft as some careful surgery was required to open these holes up.

 

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I did notice that the mouth of the intake was not correct. On the kit part the outer and lower intake lip a very flat and square (LH), where’s on the actual aircraft these are nicely shaped and blend into the opening (RH).

 

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Once this was finish, I fitted these to the lower fuselage, the instruction say to fit the intake trunks first, but of test fitting I couldn’t get them to line up with nice joins. So, I decided to do it this way, this will allow me to have nice outside joins, as most of the inside ones are hidden for the most part.

 

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They look great, just a wee bit of work and those joins will disappear, while I was at it I fitted the mount for the ATFLIR pod.

 

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The sides and lower forward fuselage have been joined as well.

 

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The interior has had its base detailing done, I just need to clear coat it before I do the finishing work. The “Hell Hole” has had 10 tiny metal rubs attached to it….that wasn’t easy as they were tiny!

 

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.....looks ok sitting together.

 

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I’ve started on the wheels and U/C, still quite a bit to do here.

 

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Finally, I had a wee play with the weapons, I still have to make up the second Sidewinder. Those Mavericks are amazing, they actually slide onto their racks….that’s super cool!

 

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Still a bit too does before I close her all up, but I should have all that done before my next update. So afro the build has pretty much gone to plan and maybe a bit quicker than I thought too!

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5 hours ago, exdraken said:

Nice!

No assymetric load out with 2 tanks??

Hmmmm

short range CAS?

 

yeah, I've got some great reference photos of VF-31 birds with this load out, plus plenty of this CAG bird loaded up with only the centre tank. 

 

For most of their mission flights are shown with just the centre tank installed, else 3 or 5 tanks including a buddy tank.

 

The weapons load out I'm using seems to be around 2014 off the USS George W.H. Bush, plus the CAG bird also has that colourful tank fitted at the same time. That would have been a prize to get if he'd had to punch that one off!

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58 minutes ago, trickyrich said:

 

For most of their mission flights are shown with just the centre tank installed, else 3 or 5 tanks including a buddy tank.

 

The weapons load out I'm using seems to be around 2014 off the USS George W.H. Bush, plus the CAG bird also has that colourful tank fitted at the same time. That would have been a prize to get if he'd had to punch that one off!

Great Rich!

indeed! like it a lot!

800px-F-18E_of_VFA-31_on_deck_of_USS_GHW

VFA31-break away

but not likely to drop those tanks in Aussiland, no? ;)

not sure if the ones where it was more likely to happen would have cared a lot... surely we would have seen int on social media though!

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I've got those same photos as well, she certainly looks great with the tank fitted, though I am surprised they used it operationally.

 

That second photo it a good shot of the other weapons load out I've seen them carry in a lot of photos, 3 x GBU-38's (500lb JDAM's) and 1 x AGM-65 Maverick. A pretty light load (high precision and low drag), probably why they don't use the extra tanks.

 

Plus these are great references photo's for weathering her up! :thumbsup:

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Ok I have been quite slack in updating this build and the Rafale, I have been working on them both on and off since the last update. The lack of updating I’ll blame on my recovery from my op.

 

There are some progress photos missing, though not as many as were with the Rafale.

 

So back to the intakes, as mentioned I’m doing them backwards to the instruction as I can see there are fit issues. The intake trunks were fitted, not a really easy task, I ended up using CA glue to hold them where I wanted them. 

 

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I did find that the actual intakes were a bit wider than the trunks. I managed to hide most of the gap by putting on the outer side of the intakes, it’s now harder to notice it when the model is sitting on her wheels. 

 

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It’s been blended more with filler since this photo was done, and now looks ok.

 

Next up joining the rear fuselage sections and actually it wasn’t quite so straightforward and needed some help to get things to sit right!

 

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There was a nasty gap here and I needed to do some “key hole” surgery to sort it out, again luckily it’ll be pretty much hidden in the end, but I pretty much got it sorted out.

 

As can be seen quite a bit of filler was required to sort out all these joins.

 

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The nose section went on without too much trouble, though again there were a couple of joins that needed extra work to fix.

 

While I was tiding up all the joins, I decided to fit properly the two new mesh panels on the nose section. I had previously just glued them in place rather than trimming back the plastic and fitting them properly. This did leave me with noticeable joins or steps! 

 

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They popped off quite easily, then I carved out the excess plastic, not the cleanest work, but it will all be hidden. All the mesh vents have had the plastic removed from behind them. 

 

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New panel in place……

 

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…….starting to blend the new panel in. I’m much happier with how this and the panel behind now fit.

 

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Plus I sorted out the mould line on the canopy.

 

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Looks good here, but then I tried to polish the inside and it went a wee bit cloudy on the inside??? I will have to dip it now, I hadn’t planned to.

 

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So this is where she sits now. 

 

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The rudders won’t be fitted until right at the end, I’ll paint and decal them first. The fit nicely so they can go on last. I’ll touch-up the cockpit area and fit the forward canopy and mask that all up. I just need to tidy up around the wing fold area as there are a couple of holes there. But like the Rafale I’m very close to painting her.

 

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And a photo with her sister build, they’ll look good together. I don’t know if it’s VF-31 aircraft, but there are some great photos online of Rafale’s and F/A-18E’s together on US carriers and in the air.

 

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Just catching up on this build Rich, those etched grills look fantastic!

 

I've got a Hobbyboss "bug" waiting for the Interceptor GB and you'll be pleased to hear that there is a set of Syhart Swiss Tiger Meet decals in the box too.

 

Mike

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On 3/18/2020 at 9:47 PM, exdraken said:

Very nice updates!!

 

Wonder how the Rafale compares to the SH ....

Of course they use differet weapons, but still!

maybe a bit similar but quite a few years apart in design and tech. Would have been interesting to see how the SH (and rest of family) could have evolved!

 

 

Gee you drop down the list quick in this GB if you don’t update regularly!

 

Just a smallish update, a lot of time spent cleaning up the model. To help she had a very light coat of grey in spots to show up faults and there were a few, mostly around the new AM bits.

 

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The Wolfpack cockpit didn’t come with a PE gunsight, and the Hasegawa one is pretty poor and super thick, so I a new frame and will use thin acetate sheet for the “glass”. It should look ok.

 

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Ok the rest of the time was spent sorting out the wings and wing fold areas.

 

There are a couple of small fairings on the wingtip rail (above & below the wing), the uppers ones were modified on the newer aircraft (mines a newer one), by extending them slightly. So a small piece of card was added to rear of this fairing.

 

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Right the wing fold itself, most of the work was done to sort this out. One thing was I wanted this join to be a bit more solid than what was supplied. So as can be seen I added a section of card that will add some strength and help get the angle right.

 

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Plus I have added 2 small mounts that will be for the hinge cover (still have to add the 3rd one).

 

I had planned to use the new PE bits for these covers, but the shape is actually quite complex, and these Stainless-Steel bits won’t conform to that shape. So I’ve had to thin down the bits that were cut out. I will thing them down further.

 

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These hinge covers are attached the inner section of the wings and have a row of hooks on the outer underside edge of them which lock into the outer wing sections to help prevent wing droop that was an early issue with these aircraft. These hooks are sort of hidden, but I may try to make something up with scrap PE.

 

In place they look quite good, they do sit out a wee bit from the wing when folded and you can sort of see behind them. I need to do some final adjustment to get them to sit just right. They’ll be fitted once the painting and stuff is completed.

 

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I am very happy with the look of the wings folded, I’m glad I went down that path. The flaps have been added now, it won’t make the painting any easier but will help with the blending in of the finish. It won’t be F-14 patchy but it will be quite uneven in colour and having the flaps fitted will make this process a bit simpler.

 

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I’m having a few days away from this build to see if I can finish my M1 ABV by the weekend.

 

 

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The AM stuff's looking great Rich and very skilfully applied :thumbsup2:.

I'm not sure that I approve of all these plastic kits that you seem to be building now though (just my impression).  I miss the clouds of the resin dust.

 

Cheers

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14 hours ago, CliffB said:

The AM stuff's looking great Rich and very skilfully applied :thumbsup2:.

I'm not sure that I approve of all these plastic kits that you seem to be building now though (just my impression).  I miss the clouds of the resin dust.

 

Cheers

I promise normal service will resume shortly! :D If I can knock this one out of the way I may start my Fisher Model F9F-5 Panther.....1.32nd of resin goodness.

13 hours ago, exdraken said:

Nice!

Did not know about the wing drop issue before!

Thanks, great work on the hinges!

I didn't either, but it was a real development issue with the early test aircraft and ended up being a simple fix with this ventilated panel with the locking hooks.

 

Just a note with this hasegawa model, I think these panels sit too proud of the wing when compared to the photos, they actually sit a lot flusher.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok it’s been a while since I’ve updated this build (had to go to pg 4 to find the thread!!), but I have had a wee break from her so as to finish a couple of other builds.

 

That said I have been doing a bit on her at the same time, mostly filling, sanding, priming, filling sanding, priming……..repeat many times….felt like Groundhog day!!

 

Right yesterday it was back to normal service on this build, first up I wanted to complete the wing hinge covers. I made up a set of wing hooks for it from plastic strip. 

 

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After sitting over night for the glue to cue properly I sanded them into shape. They fit perfectly and look great in place, worth the time and effort to get this area to look right.

 

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That done time to mask her up ready for priming her.

 

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Primed her and found even more issues!!! More filling and sanding…….I actually had to do her second time as well  :wall: ……. 

 

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…..finally she’s ready!

 

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So I’m solely using lacquers for the painting (mostly Mr. Paint my fav), I can do lots of coats and I won’t lose any details, these are the main colours….

 

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….and for the pre-shading pretty much all of these and maybe some others too! I’m going for an uneven weathered finish but not quite to the extreme you see on F-14 Tomcats.

 

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One thing is, with this scheme, the rudders are painted red and black, not issue here will prime the red area with white. The spine though has to be painted black then a red strip is added using decals, with the rear part where the black and red taper together being done with decals. I’m not to keen doing this as I just know decal strips can be a real pain and they often never look right. Plus I have to do something similar with the drop tank!

 

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So I’m going to do this a bit different and paint the whole lot. To do this I’ll mask off the spine area, once the main colours are done mask it up and paint the red. Then mask up the red strip part and then paint the black. This should look much better……..the masking should be pretty much straight forward.

 

The masking is all done, I’m masking the red area off as I done want a patch look to it, all the photos show this colour (and black) to be pretty solid, I’ll just do the panel lines later. Plus I’ve masked off the areas on the flaps and spoilers that would normally be covered when they’re retracted as I have notice some colour variation there in photos.

 

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An hour or so later and she’s done!  The great think about using lacquers is that I can do all this in one painting session, spray one colour, load up the next spray, load up the next…etc etc….. it just dries so quick and the finish is super smooth. I’ve removed some of the masks and you can see the “un-faded” areas.

 

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So tomorrow the main colours. I may also get around to doing some post shading and fading as well. I’ll let it then cue for a good 24 hours before starting on the spine.

 

Oh here are the projects that I was also working on…..

 

M1 ABV "Shredder"

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with the Panzerhaubitze 2000

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F-22 freebee

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The F-22 I got for nothing at my club meet last year, it had been start, but they didn't want to complete it!

 

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 Smart bit of shading on the super bug ,I like your m1 shredder too , Great job , suprising how big those f22s are ,they're big buggers in 48th , I've  got the academy version in the stash, is yours the hasegawa one? I look forward to seeing the have glass finish on the f22 rich,

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