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Putting on the Ritz - 75 Sqd. RAAF - Finished


Andwil

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Place holder for:

 

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Which be built as A21-029 with the top hat and cane

 

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Box contents:

 

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and a few extras:

 

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I may not use the AIM-132s as all the photos I have of A21-029 show it unarmed.

 

I have ordered a replacement set of decals from Hawkeye as the kit ones don’t look particularly accurate, especially the side flash and magpie which look far to pale.

 

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AW

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6 hours ago, Sam said:

Arrrghhh breaks my heart that you‘re not building the Staffel 17 Falcons J-5017! 
 

😉


Happy building!

 

5 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

It's killing me too. 😪

I must admit, that falcon is very tempting and I did see a Swiss F/A-18 display very impressively at Cosford in 2019...Maybe I’ll do it one day.

 

AW

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9 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

With your thumbnail, how can you not?

A falcon? A mere falcon?  I’ll have you know that is an Eagle! 
 

AW

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I have read a few negative comments regarding the Italeri Hornet, so I decided to take a close look at the kit.  I cut the major components from the sprue had a good look at them and did a dry fit.  The upshot of this is that this kit will not get built, and will probably be binned.  Frankly it’s awful.

 

Academy Hornet on order from BNA.

 

AW

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1 hour ago, Andwil said:

I have read a few negative comments regarding the Italeri Hornet, so I decided to take a close look at the kit.  I cut the major components from the sprue had a good look at them and did a dry fit.  The upshot of this is that this kit will not get built, and will probably be binned.  Frankly it’s awful.

 

Academy Hornet on order from BNA.

 

AW


I've built it. It's buildable, but a putty monster.

if you want bad, try a Testors Hornet in 1/48, that's one of the few kits I've ever binned unfinished. Same engineering, worse fit and terrible plastic.

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Sad to hear about the issues with the kit. Still maybe sometime you get around to use these Swiss decals at least. They are quite amazing. In the meantime I look forward to another RAAF Hornet. I believe we have about a half-a-dozen of them ATM and no two are the same!  

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In a novel twist, no kit, but I’ve made a start on the model.  Quick boost seat and Reskit wheels painted and made up.

 

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Wheels need a bit of touching up (and dusting!) but that’s my least favourite part of any build pretty much out of the way.

 

E-Mail from Australia Post tells me to expect the Academy kit Tuesday to Friday next week.  In the meantime, in best cooking show tradition, here’s one I made earlier:

 

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Hasegawa kit in 77 Sqd anniversary scheme built on last year’s ANZAC GB.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

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No progress yet I’m afraid.  The Academy kit was held up in the postal system thanks to Covid induced staff shortages and, naturally, they attempted to deliver it yesterday when I was out.  So now I’ll have to pick it up from the post office which I won’t be able to do until Monday.  At least the Hawkeye decals have arrived.

 

AW

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Collected the Academy kit from the Post Office and have given the parts a good wash.  Even at first glance the kit is an improvement over the Italeri offering by several orders of magnitude.

 

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I hope to make a start tomorrow, however this is a busy week for me so might not get much done.

 

AW

Edited by Andwil
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After a couple of busy days, getting my Covid booster 💉buying a new barbecue and having friends over for lunch and a coffee morning with neighbours, ai have finally cut plastic and started spraying paint.

 

Cockpit tub and IP:

 

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The kit has decals for the side consoles, but I didn’t think much of them so I painted the consoles black and gave the buttons a dry brush of light grey.  I think this is good enough for 1/72.  Similar treatment for the IP, with the MFDs painted Tamiya clear green and a spot of clear in the dials to represent glass.

 

Exhausts, cans and burner rings painted Vallejo metal colour Steel, Jet Exhaust and Magnesium respectively.  There actually isn’t a great difference between the three colours.

 

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Landing gear painted white with the oleos picked out in Chrome.  A light grey wash was applied to bring out the detail, the photo doesn’t show it as well as it looks to the eye.

 

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I realise I have made an error with the mlg and have since repainted the chrome section on the upright in white.
 

Gear well sprayed white and given a heavy wash of black and some pipe work picked out in aluminium:

 

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I may have overdone the wash a bit, but it doesn’t look so heavy to the naked eye.

 

The rear part of the canopy:

 

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Finally for today, first parts glued:

 

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Thanks for looking.

 

AW

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Cockpit finished:

 

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and a few other sub-assemblies done and out of the way.  Firstly the exhausts were put together and the cans given a spray with thinned sepia wash, this imparts a bronzy look like burnt metal.  Naturally very little of the internal detail will ever be seen.

 

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Landing gear decal led and put together, one of those jobs that usually come late in a build and slow everything down.  Now I won’t have to bother with it later.  The ResKit resin wheels that I originally bought for the Italeri kit needed drilling out to accept the Academy “axles”.  Those pins in turn needed to be shortened for the main wheels to sit in the right places.  The landing gear is a nice firm fit in the gear wells so I was able to clip then in to line up the wheels correctly while the glue dried.

 

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I also made up a painted a pair of tanks and their pylons.

 

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I have been debating with myself whether or not to drop the flaps and slats like others have done, it’s not something I’ve done before and am a bit wary of ruining a good kit.  Following some practice on the wings of the junked Italeri kit, the results of which I am not happy with, I don’t think I will be going down that route.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

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13 hours ago, Freester said:

Very impressive cockpit at 1/72... 👍

 

10 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Really nice job on the cockpit, very convincing.

Thanks chaps, I appreciate your kind words.  I am reasonably happy with how it turned out.  Now I will try to match it with the rest of the build.

 

AW

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Moving on to assembly of the fuselage, yesterday I put together the front section, a bit tricky with the two side pieces having minimal contact and consequently quite flexible, but very strong once the two bottom pieces are attached.  Care must be taken when aligning the two sides as it could cause problems further on if the angle is not spot on (see below).  A little filler required on a couple of small gaps but otherwise fit is quite good.

 

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The inserts under the LERX did not fit quite as well requiring a bit of filler.

 

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The rear fuselage underside fits quite well, again taking care with alignment and not applying too much pressure to avoid slippage and steps.  The two side pieces then slot in, the port side was a little warped on my kit, requiring a little persuasion to stay in place.

 

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Then the front half is attached, and this is where I hit a problem of my own making.  When assembling the front half I got the angle slightly wrong “pinching” in the top.  This meant that the cockpit was a bit tricky to wiggle in and more importantly the top opening was too tight to slide in the tabs under the top part of the nose.  I had to prise the sides apart and glue in the top.  When this was set I worked back along the join toward the back.  A rubber band was put on to stop it from springing apart before the glue set.  I think the joint will be OK, most of it will be hidden behind the intake splitter plates anyway.

 

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Feeling confident and with a little time to spare, I took a deep breath and

 

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The flaps will  be dropped!

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

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Wings on today which revealed a triangular gap where the flaps were excised.  Small pieces of plastic glued on to cover the hole, treated on the right, untreated on the left:

 

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Then the rest of the airframe just fell together.

 

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The port LERX infill has opened up again, it is very “springy” and wants to sit well proud of the opening. I have re glued it and clamped it in place.  I don’t understand why these pieces have to be seperate anyway, anybody know the reason?

 

The rudders were scored gently along the hinge line and bent inwards.  It looks wrong, but is frequently seen on parked Hornets.

 

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The fins and stabilisers will be added after painting to make masking the upper/lower demarcation easier.

 

Finally for today some corners on the flaps which were damaged during the cutting out have been repaired with little bits of plastic card glued on and sanded to shape.

 

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Thanks for looking.

 

AW

 

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