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1/48 Hasegawa F/A-18C


Rich F

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Hi everyone,

New year, new project and I'm starting with Hasegawa's legacy hornet. I've had this kit for a while and built up a collection of goodies for it...

 

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And Danny Coreman's excellent book.

 

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I think I'm going to go with this VFA-105 Gunslingers showbird scheme like this one!

 

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Only managed to finish 2 kits last year hoping to go for at least 3 this year, so will need to knuckle down and get some modelling done.

 

Hopefully have some progress soon.

 

Edited by Rich F
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On 1/12/2021 at 9:23 PM, James G said:

Looks promising, I'm in!

 

On 1/12/2021 at 9:39 PM, corsaircorp said:

Good one Rich !!

May I take a seat please ?

CC 

Thanks for the interest guys, i hope i can live up to your expectations!

 

I said i would have some progress soon and i have manged to paint the cockpit. I'm using the Aires pit, which is well detailed and surprisingly not much hacking to make it fit. I'm still working on the rear decking and 'hell hole' so will post these once i have finished installing the cockpit.

Painting was done with mainly humbrol enamels, although i think the grey is a bit dark, but i think i can live with it.

 

 

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Also started on the hacking the wings ready to fit the wolfpack wing folds...

 

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Thats all for now folks, hopefully have some more progress in the net few days.

Edited by Rich F
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Nicely built cockpit. I find this 30th anniversary painting very eye catching. I did my own decal artwork and drawings for this legacy painting to build one of my 1:72 Hornet with these markings few years ago but till now I had no chance to launch this build because of my never ending other projects:

fa-18c-gladiators-vfa-106-2008-164630.jp

fa-18c-gladiators-vfa-106-2008-164630.jp

 

Serkan

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Happy to report more progress has been made, quite a lot of activity happening on my workbench in the past week, well a lot for me anyway!

 

Pit installed in the fuselage which was surprisingly easy for a Aires pit, next up was the intakes, I was toying with buying some full length intakes but as they will be under the LERX and in shadow I couldn't justify it, however the kit intakes are a wee bit shallow so I came up with a plan! First take a cheap plastic pipette and cut the bulbous end off, this was almost the correct diameter to fit over the rear end of the intake. I then painted them white and then a very thin coat of buff to represent dirt, lastly some NATO black was shot into the end to represent a dark hole leading to the fans.

 

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Once the intakes were fitted it was time to close up the fuselage and fill the offending gaps, I also re-enforced the rear engine area with plastic card as this is a known structurally weak area of the kit (sorry no pics). I then re-scribed and re-riveted the whole kit so it would hold a wash once painted, a tedious job but necessary as some of the panel lines are quite shallow in places. Once this was done I added various PE pieces from the eduard detail set. The strengthen plates just under the rear of the flap area are missing from the kit, I added these using thin plastic sheet from evergreen.

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I then started to work on the canopy and after cleaning up the seamlines I shamelessly stole an idea from a guy over on ARC that is building a hornet, he used the ink from sharpie pens to tint the canopy glass. Some hornets have the windshield with a yellowish tint, I used tamiya clear yellow and a drop or 2 of smoke to simulate this. The rear canopy was tinted with sharpie method. I used a purple sharpie and some IPA with a couple of drops of Klear to break the surface tension once it was sprayed...

 

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Quite pleased with the results, after the tint I dipped them in Klear to seal them, hopefully when the framing has been painted it will look a little less obvious.

 

Having the DACO book is a double edge sword as the detail shown is great but it also shows up the weaknesses of the Hasegawa kit, this is especially true of the pylons, when I compared the kit offerings to the line drawings in the book they were way off. This is where Brengun came to the rescue, they state that they are intended for the kinetic kit but I'm sure they will fit on the Hasegawa kit. Although not perfect they capture the true shape much better and only for the price of a couple of pints, since the pubs are closed I can justify buying them! I also got myself this template for the painting stage.

 

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Thinking ahead to the loadout, I have this in mind, if we have any Hornet experts please let me know if this a viable load. The timeframe is 2005. I would like to use AIM-9X's on the wingtip launchers but my head is telling me that 9L/M's are more realistic. Excuse the poor sketch.

 

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Thats all for now folks, next up will be the wing-folds and undercarriage then I can move on to the painting bit!

 

BTW nice artwork Serkan, shame you aren't planning a 1/48 scale as I could have given you my kit decals, although I think they are for a Navy not Marine bird. 

Edited by Rich F
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Folks,

 

Moving along nicely with this one at the moment, I'm finding myself getting a lot more bench time due to everything outside of the house being a bit crap!

 

Anyhow onto what I've been up to with the hornet. First up was sorting the wings/wingfolds out. I must say that the Wolfpack set is awesome and fits like a glove, as long as you follow the instructions everything should be a doddle. As nearly all hornets parked have there flaps lowered I did the same, however Mr Hasegawa has left a seamline in the joint between the wing and the leading edge flaps which in reality isn't there, I used a strip of styrene to hide this and sanding and re-scribed it once it was dry.

 

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I also added a some detail to the ends of the leading edge flaps as these will quite visible...

 

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I dry fitted the wingfolds to make sure every fits ok, one fits like a dream the other is a bit loose and will require a dab of CA to hold it in 10 degrees inboard past the vertical.

 

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After the wings in moved onto the vertical stabs, now the kit has you fitting 3 L-shaped brackets the inside of the fins, unless you are doing an A model these aren't here, instead 3 raised square plates are in there place I added these and used some square rod to fill the offending trenches on the rear fuselage. I also added some detail to the rudders and fixed both outboard as is often seen on parked jets...

 

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The avionics bay aka 'the hellhole' behind the pilot is also complete but not glued in place, since Aires went to the trouble of added fantastic detail here it would be a shame not to show it off. During flight a metal mesh cover is normally in place to stop things wandering about but on the deck it often left open as it can be used as a handy place to stow stuff!

 

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Lastly I have been working on the weapons, I used Tamiya's pavement effect to replicate the ablative coating on USN ordnance. Hopefully it wont look to OTT once painted. I am using hasegawa's GBU-12 which are quite good apart from the seeker heads, I modified these by drilling them out and also repositioning them so they droop. Sidewinders and GBU-38's are from the spares box, IIRC these are from kinetic, however the GBU-38's had seeker's for USAF but luckily I have some USN spares which I'll add.

 

 

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Brengun's pylons cleaned up and ready!

 

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One more thing, HUD in place. This was extremely fiddly to fit, I dont mind saying the air was blue whilst this was fitted! Its a bit wonky but it'll have to do as it's staying put! Ignore the bad canopy joint, I have a cunning plan how to hide this!

 

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Getting closer to the painting bit now, just need to assemble/detail the undercarriage and then we can add colour, well lots of grey anyway!

 

Thanks looking, cheers.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Morning All! 

I'm glad to report painting has begun, I like to use Mr Hobby's black finishing surfacer as a primer to start with as it tends to show up any seams that need any more attention. 

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I then needed to deal with that nasty windshield joint, this is where adhesive foil tape comes in handy. I had cut some to shape before I glued the windshield, it was then a matter of very carefully running it around the seam and bedding it down with a cotton bud, i then ran my riveting tool around it. 

 

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Next up a bit of preshading with Tamiya white..

 

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At this stage I thought I'd experiment with some colour under what can be a very boring grey scheme, looking at USN jets they can get very dirty and weathered and no two jets are the same so i thought I'd try some blue and brown to simulate this. My thinking is that I can modulate the amount of colour that shows through the grey by simply spray more or less grey to the affected area, will thats the theory anyway!

 

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Hopefully in the next few days I can get the greys on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evening chaps, the grey coat is now complete, I used Mr hobby aqueous 307 and 308 thinned liberally with IPA. The pre shade is just visible which is the effect I was going for. 

 

  

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I have started post shading with some well thinned tamiya smoke. I'll see how this turns out but I may need to go over everything with a lightened coat of 307 and 308 respectively to blend the shading a bit. Also I will add some random lightened patches to replicate paint touch ups that is often seen on sea going jets.

 

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This is the effect I'm aiming for...

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Fins have a coat of gloss black enamel on ready for the decals :)

 

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Thanks for looking!

 

Cheers

 

Edited by Rich F
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I'm back again with a bit more done.

 

This time I was eager to try out my new mottle effect stencil from AK. I must say I'm a fan, really easy to use and really adds some nice subtle effects if you take your time and make sure your paint is well thinned!

 

To create the mottle effect I used the opposite paints so for the top which is painted in GSI 307 I used 308 and vise versa for the lower surfaces.

Next I created the touch up effects often seen on Navy jets to stop them corroding. I used the same method of reversing the paints and mainly applying it to random seem lines.

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I managed to find another pic of the real thing and noticed that some touch ups were done to the vertical stabs. I've added this as well although I don't like the effect its on the real thing so hey ho! Linky

 

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For a bit of a break from the jet I decided to work on the bombs, still need a bit doing to them but at least they have some colour now, quite pleased with the ablative coating though!

IMG_1265

 

Its ready for the gloss coat and decals now.

 

BTW thanks to those who left kind comments, much appreciated ;)

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers

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15 hours ago, Rich F said:

 

This time I was eager to try out my new mottle effect stencil from AK. I must say I'm a fan, really easy to use and really adds some nice subtle effects if you take your time and make sure your paint is well thinned!

 


I’m with you, there. I used AK’s mottle masks on the NMF for my recent F-89 Scorpion build. The base coat was Xtreme Metal Aluminum, I then sprayed Polished Aluminum through the mottle mask. The resulting effect looks very much like the well-worn bare aluminum surface often seen on in-service aircraft of the 1950s & 60s. 

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5 hours ago, billn53 said:


I’m with you, there. I used AK’s mottle masks on the NMF for my recent F-89 Scorpion build. The base coat was Xtreme Metal Aluminum, I then sprayed Polished Aluminum through the mottle mask. The resulting effect looks very much like the well-worn bare aluminum surface often seen on in-service aircraft of the 1950s & 60s. 

 

Yep, much easier and a lot less messy that the salt method!

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23 hours ago, Rich F said:

Well I'm back again with a bit more done.

 

This time I was eager to try out my new mottle effect stencil from AK. I must say I'm a fan, really easy to use and really adds some nice subtle effects if you take your time and make sure your paint is well thinned!

 

To create the mottle effect I used the opposite paints so for the top which is painted in GSI 307 I used 308 and vise versa for the lower surfaces.

Next I created the touch up effects often seen on Navy jets to stop them corroding. I used the same method of reversing the paints and mainly applying it to random seem lines.

IMG_E1246

 

IMG_E1247

 

IMG_E1244

 

IMG_E1245

 

IMG_E1243

 

I managed to find another pic of the real thing and noticed that some touch ups were done to the vertical stabs. I've added this as well although I don't like the effect its on the real thing so hey ho! Linky

 

IMG_1249

 

For a bit of a break from the jet I decided to work on the bombs, still need a bit doing to them but at least they have some colour now, quite pleased with the ablative coating though!

IMG_1265

 

Its ready for the gloss coat and decals now.

 

BTW thanks to those who left kind comments, much appreciated ;)

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers

Fantastic thus far, also lots of paint effects I'd never thought of :)

 

Thank you .. following this one with interest 

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Gday Rich, some really nice work there, and some special techniques I'll try out in the future !! I particularly like the bitumen finish on the bombs, it gives at a more realistic look.

 

Saving this thread for future reference, cheers mate.

 

JJ

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/17/2021 at 8:18 PM, MarkdipXV711 said:

Fantastic thus far, also lots of paint effects I'd never thought of :)

 

Thank you .. following this one with interest 

Thanks Markdip, this is my first US Navy jet for a long time so I have picked up a lot of tips from watching guys on here and over on ARC, always learning ;)

 

On 3/18/2021 at 5:20 AM, JJ2016 said:

Gday Rich, some really nice work there, and some special techniques I'll try out in the future !! I particularly like the bitumen finish on the bombs, it gives at a more realistic look.

 

Saving this thread for future reference, cheers mate.

 

JJ

 

Cheers JJ, I like the finish on the bombs too, although looking at my latest pics I'm starting to worry the effect is a bit too much, oh well too late now!

 

I'm glad to report i have finished the decaling, all went well up until the VFA-105 stripe along the spine decided not to play and wrinkled badly. When I tried to lay it down again it decided to disintegrate into a million pieces, probably to do with the gallon of decal softener I had previously applied!  Luckily I managed to get another set of decals for a fiver which I was toying with getting anyway as the set only comes with enough decals for 1 drop tank when I needed 2. Not sure why decal manufacturers do this as most Hornets carry two tanks! 🤨

 

This how she looks at the moment...

 

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The vertical stabs are just dry fitted and are way off the correct position, couldn't resist fitting to see how it looked though. 

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The walkways are the only thing I'm concerned about at the moment, they are way too shiny. I'm planning to lay a very flat coat down and maybe even stipple it a bit to roughed up the texture a bit.

 

Bombs and undercart details done...

 

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Next up is a another gloss coat to seal everything in then a wash to bring out the details.

 

The finishing line is in sight now!

 

Cheers

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  • 3 weeks later...

Evening All,

 

Just thought I'd share with you my progress on the bug. I'm still working on it although probably not as much as i would like. Finishing off all the dangly bits before I attach them. I keep forgetting how much time this takes. 

 

I also have finished the main weathering and a final coat of satin varnish has been applied, so its just a matter of sticking it altogether now!

 

I'll make these the final pics before the RFI as your all probably getting bored of this tread by now! 😄

 

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Hopefully I will have it finished by the weekend so I'll put the finished article in the RFI section ;) 

 

Cheers

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