Worimi Hornet

[SoftScience]

Howdy,

 

Something a little different from me. I'm not a huge fan of modern aircraft, but I'm a big fan of Australian Aboriginal art. This aircraft was painted to commemorate WO Leonard Victor Waters, a member of the Worimi people, and Australia's first indigenous aviator.

 

WO Waters flew 95 combat missions with the RAAF in the southwest Pacific. On account of intense discrimination against Aboriginal peoples in post-war Australia, WO Waters was unable to find support for his efforts to launch an airline, and was not even allowed to practice as an automotive mechanic (even though he was a mechanic in the RAAF prior to becoming a pilot). He became a sheep shearer and died in 1993.

 

 

The commemorative hornet is a long overdue albeit small gesture acknowledging Mr. Waters and the other Aboriginal men who fought during WWII and were then long forgotten.

 

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On to the build.

 

 

The kit for this project is Kintetic's FA-18A+B/CF-188. I bought it in 2019 and started gluing some of the fuselage together, but abandoned the project frustrated by mediocre fit.

 

The kit is only about 5% built, so I assume its eligible for this GB.

 

The decals are by Model Maker, a firm I'm not familiar with, but they look nice.

 

One of my modeling goals for this year is to finish up long abandoned builds, and this will be a fun way to do this one.

 

Here is where I currently stand. Step one will be to add more filler to some of those joints and clean them up a little better.

 

 

 

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello SoftScience the model looks like its under the 25% mark by a good measure. The markings are colorful and albeit they're late a somewhat fitting tribute to brave men. 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[exdraken]

cool looking Hornet!

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

Best of luck with the Hornet @SoftScience there is something very satisfying about rescuing a part built stalled kit.

Best of luck

Cheers Pat 

[mark.au]

Great choice of subject, both the aircraft and especially the markings.

[SoftScience]

Hello again, after a long absence. I had been solidly in an AFV modeling mood over the last month so this project was set aside. But over the last few nights I started playing around with the cockpit.

 

Here is where I'm at. I first painted the details but then decided to use the kit decals, as my cockpit painting skills are not the greatest. The decals look pretty nice, and conform to the surface details quite well.

 

I'll blast them with a slightly gray tinted flat coat and add clear gloss to screens and instruments to add a little more depth.

 

 

And here is where I got with the seat, so far. Nothing fancy, yet. 

 

I'm debating whether to add a figure or just some led foil harnesses. 

 

[Ray_W]

Just catching up with this and hopefully you will have the enthusiasm to press on. I have this kit and will definitely built it later this year.

 

Very interested in your comments on fit. I am currently building the Kinetic Mirage IIIO in this GB and found I have had to do a lot of work to get a good fit including re-thinking the proposed kit assembly process. A lot of parts preparation and dry-fitting but once done the assembly was smooth as. It seems the Hornet will be the same.

 

I solved my problem of unfinished builds by never shelving anything. Only working on one kit at a time - either that or bin it and thankfully I have not binned anything. In fact, the whole hobby has became more pleasurable.

 

I like your cockpit. It has come up very nice. 

 

Ray

 

 

[SoftScience]

Thanks, Ray.

 

 

With the cockpit installed, the time came for getting the large fuselage halves together.

 

The sections of iffy fit are the same as on most hornet models I have built.

 

Not a huge deal to fix, but a little surprising, considering the price of admission.

 

 

The LERX sanding will be easy. Thing may be a bit more dicey on the back, as there is a slight step between the two halves. I tried my hardest to glue things one bit at a time to minimize it, but it's still there. 

 

Sanding above the slime lights is going to be tricky, too. 

 

 

And this, folks is why I've been building mostly armor, recently. Life is too short for all this filling and sanding.

 

[Ray_W]

A very useful build thread. It certainly highlights the problem areas. Sadly, does not help your build, but one I will certainly be referring to later this year, when and if I can get back to Australia and pull my Kinetic F/A-18 out of the stash - and, it is top of the pile.

 

You're right about life being too short for filling and sanding. I now get enormous pleasure in the challenge of trying to build without filling and sanding and this kit looks like it was made to order. 🙃

 

Ray 

[JOCKNEY]

Hi @SoftScience

Have you fingertips grown back after all that sanding ?

Cheers Pat 

[SoftScience]

Yes, but I have more sanding