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Green Hornet - *Finished*


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  • 2 weeks later...

The RAAF centenary year seems an appropriate time to add the jet that has provided Australia’s air defence for the last 35 years to my collection.  It is also fitting that I build one now as the type is currently being replaced by the F-35A.  At this time only 75 squadron is still operating the “legacy” Hornet ( I hate that term), 77 squadron having just ceased Hornet operations to convert to the F-35 ; and 3 squadron and 2 OCU now flying the Lightning II.
 

To get the ball rolling on this build let’s have a look at what’s involved.  Firstly, Hasegawa’s plastic:

 

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nice crisp mouldings, a little flash around the tops of the fins and some ejector pins on the inside of the gear doors.

 

and a few AM extras:

 

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Quickboost intakes and ejector seat, some very nice ResKit wheels;

 

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Eduard canopy masks, Brassin ASRAAMS and 3D printed ACMI pod from AIM.  Mig AMMO set of USN greys to paint it with.

 

The decals:

 

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Not sure about the large green decals, I might paint the green and cut around the designs on the tail, if I can match the green to the decals.

 

I am going to build the plane as per the box top photo which was taken on the arrival at Chitose JASDF Base for exercise Bushido Guardian 2019 (more on that later) with three tanks, an ASRAAM on the port wing tip and an ACMI pod on the starboard wing tip.

 

Everything has been given a wash, but plans to start today were scuppered by the temperature being around 40C here this weekend, which is not conducive to modelling.

 

AW

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Made a start this morning cutting parts from the runner, cleaning up and dry fitting.  Filled some ejector pins inside the gear doors:

 

50872777287_fbc6977b7e_b.jpg

 

As I will only be fitting the inner pylons, the holes for the outer pylons were filled with plastic rod that will be cut down and sanded flush:

 

50872776292_0ece8bfb6e_b.jpg

 

first pieces glued, cockpit rear deck and airbrake:

 

50871972098_d4f6d382db_b.jpg

 

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Finally I gave the canopy a bath in Pascoe’s Longlife.  Thanks to the rising humidity and threat of thunderstorms I retreated back to the house for the rest of the day.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

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What a cool scheme! I've never seen that boxing. 

 

Good luck and stay cool! It's too hot over here too, though not quite 40 (near enough). Today I went for a bike ride at 715pm and an hour later I was so hot and nearly dead that I jumped in the Lake (as a long time Canberran, that took some doing, to get me in that lake). These summers - I hate them! :)

 

Looking forward to this build!

 

 

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Time to post an update on the little I have done on the Hornet this week.

 

The cockpit tub was painted light grey and the instrument decals were applied, I still have to complete painting of the control column.

 

50886058343_a9ae2acbba_b.jpg

 

The part number moulded on to the cockpit floor (!) will be hidden under the seat.

 

The instrument shroud and rear deck were sprayed black.

 

50886889852_846ccd8f0f_b.jpg

 

Engine fan faces were sprayed aluminium and then given a light wash to highlight the detail.  I’m not sure how much of this will be seen once they are buried in the fuselage.

 

50886782126_429b7a6cea_b.jpg

 

Similarly, the afterburner rings were painted dark aluminum, masked off with a small paper disk (technique copied from @TheRealMrEd), then the insides of the cans were shot with a Vallejo a Jet Exhaust.  Finally, a thin black wash was applied to the burner rings.

 

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Trust me, there are two of these.

 

The intakes were sprayed Light Compass Ghost Grey:

 

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and while I had that colour in the airbrush I painted the ASRAAM as well:

 

50886054058_c1e9fc480d_b.jpg

 

Finally, I sprayed a spoon with Gunze H6 and compared the result with the decals:

 

50886056818_178c03f362_b.jpg

 

quite a good match, so I can paint the green parts of the livery rather than using Hasegawa’s decals.

 

Next major task is to paint the seat, then progress should speed up.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

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1 hour ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Good match on the green, I always try to paint when Im able to. Harder work on the masking but saves on trouble down the road. 

Exactly.  And I was worried about the ability of the very long decals for the spine to conform over their entire length and meet up evenly in the centre.  Oddly, after providing all those large areas of green, there are a couple of small vanes or fences above the leading edge extensions that are green with a small logo or inscription that only the words have been provided and the instructions tell you to paint the vanes with Gunze H6.

 

AW

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There are days when it seems that nothing goes right and one should just give modelling a miss.  Today was one of those days.  Thinks started out well enough but ended in a monumental Fubar.

 

Ok to get things going, I glued the tub into the lower fuselage half and the IP into the coaming:

 

50893407621_2625b8d6fa_b.jpg

 

Then the two halves of the fuselage were glued together, after first adding two lengths of plastic tube into the rear into which skewers can be inserted into to act as handles during painting, and a couple of tabs were added to augment the  join 

of the two halves:

 

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The fans were attached to the rear of the intakes:

 

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So far so good.  Dry fitting of the intakes and the fuselage side walls showed that a lot of thinning of the resin intakes was required to get a good fit.  Eventually these were CA’d into place:

 

50893408586_978b162378_b.jpg

 

Then it all went pear shaped, the side walls were glued in stages starting from the back and working forward, but the fit was still bad, a lot of pressure was required to keep the front in place and over enthusiastic sanding of the parts has left a large gap.  Worse, one of the intakes shifted and the CA set with it at the wrong angle.  At this point I stopped as the model almost took a premature maiden flight.  I will reassess tomorrow to see whether this build can be saved or not.

 

I wonder if it just my lack of skill, but I am getting well fed up with after market parts, other than simple things like wheels, seats, pitots and the like that don’t fit without a major battle.  I think I might stick to OOTB in future.

 

AW

 

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In truth I think it’s a case of me fighting myself.  I set high standards for myself and try to improve on each build, but I am essentially clumsy and impatient and my brain writes cheques that my hands can’t cash.

 

AW

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A ton of filler slapped onto my mess up, I think I may be able to save this build, but it won’t be one of my finer efforts.  Also noticed a step in the front right, which is strange because the corresponding join on the other side is near perfect.  I also put the nose on after filling it with blue tack.  I’m fairly confident that it wouldn’t have been a tail sitter, but a little insurance won’t hurt.  We’ll see how it is after I sand down the filler.

 

50896360783_e2f01e7fec_b.jpg

 

AW

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What little time I had for modelling this week has been spent sanding away at the intakes and I am now much happier with how this is heading:

 

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a bit more to do and then a polish and some primer, but getting to where I can live with it.  Good thing is under the LERX and behind the tanks it will mostly be hidden.

 

AW

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As my modelling room is situated in a seperate “studio” at the end of the back garden I am sometimes constrained by the weather.  At the end of last week we were subjected to monsoon like rain which kept me in the house on Friday.  On top of other things needing to be done meant little modelling time last week.  Anyway here is an update on where I am at.

 

Wings and canopy on:

 

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The AIMs ACMI pod is a 3D printed part, the first time I have used printed after market.  A set of two pods, one with and without ballast are provided, I need the ballasted one for this model.  The parts come in a cage of supports which are part of the printing process and also provide protection for the delicate parts themselves.  Needless to say, separating the parts from the lattice of supports has to be done very carefully.  Despite great care, I magic to break two of the small sensors off the front of the pod.  So these were replaced with small pieces of thin wire glued into holes drilled with my smallest drill.  The front “spike” was bent so this was cut off and replaced with wire also.

 

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Canopy was masked and sprayed black, then the airframe was primed, which has revealed a couple of seams that require more attention:

 

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I have left the fins off to be painted and decalled separately.

 

Tanks and other parts primed:

 

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Thanks for looking.

 

AW

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A little background to this model.  77 Squadron replaced its Mirages with Hornets in 1987 and operated the type until December 2020 when they were retired.  77 will re-equip with F-35As this year.  The squadron badge features a Korean Temple Lion(nicknamed “The Grumpy Monkey”) to commemorate the unit’s service in Korea, where it flew Mustangs and then Meteors and were credited with the destruction of 5 MiG 15s.  The subject of this model, A21-039 was originally issued to 3 Squadron where it spent most of its service life, including a deployment to the Gulf in 2016 as part of Operation Okra against ISIS in Iraq.  This is where the mission tally on the nose was applied.  In 2017 it was transferred to 77 sqdn when 3 sqdn transitioned to the F-35A.  It then gained the green tail to celebrate 77 squadron’s 75th anniversary in 2017.  In 2019 for the 77th anniversary, the special colour scheme was extended to the spine and inner faces of the tail were painted with the large temple lion.

 

Today I did a bit of pre-shading, a bit of an experiment for me, we will see how it turns out.  The gear wells got some white sprayed in them also.

 

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That white on the wings is not as heavy as the lighting makes it look.

 

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Thanks for looking.

 

AW

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Time to post a catch up on progress with Hornet, but first a little more background on the model.

 

Exercise Bushido Guardian was held in Japan in September/October 2019 and marked the first time the RAAF had taken part in an exercise with the JASDF, illustrating the new security arrangements in the Asia Pacific region in response to the emergence of a certain Asian super power’s more  assertive foreign policy.  For the exercise, 6 77 Sqdn Hornets supported by a KC-30 Tanker, a C-130J and 3 C-17 loads of ground equipment deployed to Chitose JASDF airbase on Hokkaido for air to air exercises with Japanese F-15s and F-2As.  A21-39 was flown by the detachment CO Wing Commander Easthope.

 

Undersides painted light compass ghost grey:

 

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Tanks also painted and glossed:

 

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Thanks for looking.

 

AW

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Topsides painted dark compass grey:

 

50940913433_9f2f85aea0_b.jpg

 

the difference between the two shades of compass grey is very subtle.  Bit of a boo boo as I was spraying the masking came off the aluminium ring at the back so I will have to res pray it later.  Serves me right for using c**p cheap tape!

 

Green next.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

 

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Today I finally got some green on the green hornet:

 

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Happy to get no bleeding of overspray but I have not got the demarcation quite right so I will need to remark and touch up.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

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Nice work AW,

 

  • The TCTS pod only has three antennas on the front (not four) and they angle back slightly. The body is FS36375 with cream coloured antenna
  • Your  AIM-132 looks too dark, they are a much  lighter grey (close to FS36495 or light sea grey) with a light pink band near the seeker head
  • I don't see holes for the LEX strakes, I assume these are being painted separately and will be added later?

 

Nice work matching the green  :thumbsup2:

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

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15 hours ago, Pappy said:

Nice work AW,

 

  • The TCTS pod only has three antennas on the front (not four) and they angle back slightly. The body is FS36375 with cream coloured antenna
  • Your  AIM-132 looks too dark, they are a much  lighter grey (close to FS36495 or light sea grey) with a light pink band near the seeker head
  • I don't see holes for the LEX strakes, I assume these are being painted separately and will be added later?

 

Nice work matching the green  :thumbsup2:

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

Thanks for the info on the pod.  As it happens I managed to knock off one of the antennas and lost it.  Now I don’t have to make another!  Yes I forgot to drill out the holes for the LEX strikes, they are being painted separately for attachment later.  I will have look at the ASRAAM, I don’t  think it’s as dark as the photo makes it look.

 

AW

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I have tidied up the green/grey demarcation and the couple of small oversprays.  Incidentally, the green is Gunze H6, which is a near perfect match for the decals.

 

50951469833_a50ca42182_b.jpg

 

A couple of panels (antennae?) under the nose were masked off and sprayed light grey:

 

50952172386_0c76e3ab0b_b.jpg

 

Thanks to @Pappy‘s observations and advice, the AIM-132 was resprayed with FS36495 light grey:

 

50951469598_25035cc758_b.jpg

 

The TCTS pod with its three antennae angled slightly backwards:

 

50951469458_99be1fdc6d_b.jpg

 

it’s not really bent, just some lens distortion from my phone camera.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

Edited by Andwil
Replaced a duplicated photo with the correct one!
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1 minute ago, Andwil said:

I have tidied up the green/grey demarcation and the couple of small oversprays.  Incidentally, the green is Gunze H6, which is a near perfect match for the decals.

 

50951469833_a50ca42182_b.jpg

 

A couple of panels (antennae?) under the nose were masked off and sprayed light grey:

 

50951469833_a50ca42182_b.jpg

 

Thanks to @Pappy‘s observations and advice, the AIM-132 was resprayed with FS36495 light grey:

 

50951469598_25035cc758_b.jpg

 

The TCTS pod with its three antennae angled slightly backwards:

 

50951469458_99be1fdc6d_b.jpg

 

it’s not really bent, just some lens distortion from my phone camera.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

 

Much betterer!

 

If you really want to be clever, you could use some of the decal ID numbers on the TCTS pod. The pod S/Nos should be prefaced with "RAAF" e.g. RAAF001 etc but I won't tell if you don't  :P

 

Pappy

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Oh yeah, I’ve seen those stencils on the pod in photos.  I think in 1/72 I can live without them!  Although the Brassin AIM-132 comes with some decals that include some stencils that are too small to be legible, I may use some of those.

 

AW

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