CF-188 Hornet

[zebra]

I'm building the Kinetic 1/48 Hornet as a CF-188 in a special scheme marking the 60th anniversary of NORAD. So it's an interceptor in a special scheme commemorating its interceptor role!

 

Here's the open box shot and the two bits of aftermarket I'm using - the Leading Edge decals and Eduard steel seat belts:

 

It's a big box with a lot of plastic in it, all of which looks very nicely moulded. The Leading Edge set is more than just a decal sheet - there are three pages of instructions, a page of walk around photos, two sheets of masks, and two sheets of decals. Looking forward to using it.

 

I got to see this Hornet performing at RIAT 2018 the last time I visited the UK - here are a couple of my photos:

 

 

I've made a start by assembling the cockpit and a few other parts and getting a first coat of paint on it. Not really worth sharing any photos yet but I'll crack on and share more soon.

 

cheers

Julian

 

 

 

 

 

[Col.]

Glad to see this one in the GB Julian and looking forward to your progress It's certainly a colourful one as your personal reference photos show  

[PascalPati]

Looking forward to see the progress on this one. Please also let us know your thoughts on the kit as you go along.

 

 

[Dansk]

I bought this kit last year with the intention of building it for this GB but, in the end opted for a tomcat.

So I’m excited to see how it goes together and what you do with it Julian. 

[zebra]

I've been pressing on with this and forgetting to take photos. Here's the story so far:

 

Cockpit went together quite nicely. It's nicely detailed, and the decals were surprisingly good - they conform to the detail pretty well with a bit of micro set and sol. Here's the assembled cockpit:

 

 

Next up are various bits to go in the lower fuselage. The instructions want you to add the exhaust nozzles before the fuselage is assembled, but it seems they'll go on just fine after it's closed up, so I've left them off for now to make painting easier.

 

There's quite a nice pair of intake trunks (although there are seams on the inside to deal with) and the instructions would have you stick them to the top of the wheel well before adding the intake lips. It seemed to me it would be better to add the intake lips and then attach the intake trunks to them so as to position them properly before fixing them to the wheel wells - this seems to have worked ok. There's a bit of a step between the intake lips and the fuselage though - should be easy enough to sort out. 

 

I've also assembled the nose - you get a choice of nose parts to deal with the differences between versions, including the light on the side of the CF-188's nose. Just a bit of filler needed here, which is down to me overenthusiastically sanding off the sprue attachment. Here's everything so far, waiting for me to clean up the intake joins before adding the top half:

 

 

thanks for looking

Julian

 

 

[Col.]

This one certainly looks to be going well for you Julian. Nice progress  

[modelling minion]

Nice work Julian, this one is lurking in my stash too so I am very interested to see how you get on with it.

[zebra]

6 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Nice work Julian, this one is lurking in my stash too so I am very interested to see how you get on with it.

Thanks - I really like the kit so far. It's a much better experience than any Kinetic kit I've built before.

[zebra]

Much progress today - basic airframe assembled. It really goes together nicely. Seems like I'll be painting before too long.

 

 

cheers

Julian

 

[Col.]

Tidy work Julian. Older Kinetic kits had a difficult reputation but your work on this one makes it look a more impressive prospect.

[Paul J]

Splendid!   I have the 1/72nd LEM decal sheet and spare Hornet kits, so will probably add this for the forthcoming Canadian GB. Can I borrow the GB signature please?

[zebra]

5 hours ago, Paul J said:

Splendid!   I have the 1/72nd LEM decal sheet and spare Hornet kits, so will probably add this for the forthcoming Canadian GB. Can I borrow the GB signature please?

 

It's still only a GB proposal, not enough sign-ups to get in the poll yet, but take the signature and use it to spread the word! If there's anyone else reading this who's interested, pop over to the GB chat section and sign up!

[modelling minion]

She's looking great mate, gone together very quickly and very nicely too.

[Lex77]

Some very good progress. Looking forward to the rest.

Working on the Kinetic F-104 myself and it seems they are making some nice kits nowadays.

 

[zebra]

Ready for paint. All pretty straightforward so far.

 

 

[modelling minion]

Swift work Julian, and very nice too.

[Jfgred1]

Beautiful subject and you are making really good progress. 

 

Please, keep it coming.

[exdraken]

Great work!

And fast work!

[Hewy]

 I've  got  adversary decals and a hb f-18 only need an excuse ...Looks good Z , looks ready for paint , are you going gear up?

[Col.]

11 hours ago, Hewy said:

 I've  got  adversary decals and a hb f-18 only need an excuse

Adversary equipment is good for this GB  

[Hewy]

13 minutes ago, Col. said:

Adversary equipment is good for this GB  

I've  got one on the go , 😁 I'm  not enzo 

 

[zebra]

Two coats of paint done. The grey on the lower surfaces is AK Real Colour, which I really love using. The blue is a Testors colour that the Leading Edge instructions recommend. Next job is to mask and spray the white bits - this is where the masks included in the Leading Edge set will hopefully make life a lot easier.

 

 

cheers

Julian

[zebra]

More paint on today. The Leading Edge masks worked very nicely. Should be able to get the gloss coat done tomorrow, then on to the decals.

 

 

[Ale85]

Lovely paint work on your Hornet!

I have this kit in my stash, what about the assembly and athe fit of hte parts? It's easy to build or there are some assembly issues?

 

[zebra]

25 minutes ago, Ale85 said:

Lovely paint work on your Hornet!

I have this kit in my stash, what about the assembly and athe fit of hte parts? It's easy to build or there are some assembly issues?

 

I've had very few issues with this kit - it's gone together very quickly. It's a very nice kit. Only a few things to watch out for (so far):

 

Intakes: The instructions are a bit vague as to how the intake trunking fits - the instructions would have you glue them to the top of the wheel wells - and it's not obvious from the parts. Instead of fitting the trunking first, I attached the outer intake parts then attached the trunking to them, then once they were in place I glued them to the top of the wheel wells.

 

The canopy needed a little adjustment to get it to fit. Not a big problem.

 

There are a few wrong part number callouts in the instructions, in particular a couple of the undercarriage struts are on a different sprue. Not a huge problem once you've found them.

 

The only other thing is that the outboard flap hinges are apparently a couple of millimetres too close to the wingtip - probably not an issue for most builds but in this one they got in the way of the masking for the white wingtips. I've removed them and set them aside to reattach later.