DaveJL Posted February 7, 2022 Author Share Posted February 7, 2022 A bit more done. We're getting there, albeit slowly! All the undercarriage doors were painted, detailed and decals added where necessary: Now, the red trim around USN undercarriage doors is one of my biggest hates, it's such a pain to do. So I picked up one of these: And what a difference it makes! Glides over those pesky edges without the brush drying out, or paint seeping and so on. Thanks to whoever's build thread I read (forgive me I can't remember who!) that suggested the idea. On a side note, images from the detail and scale book show that the front undercarriage doors only have the lower edges painted; the leading and trailing edge remain white. Note also that if you're building an F from the G boxing, use part V1 as called out in the instructions. This later style door is fitted to most F/A-18E/Fs now. I believe it has a reinforcement panel of some description and the old antenna is now removed. Undercarriage done: Exhausts - I just attached the resin parts to the kit cans: Painted Tamiya Gun Metal as this looked about right in terms of metallic shade. You can just about make out the white dots on the inside of the exhausts. These were added with the aid of a toothpick dipped in thinned XF-2. Main airframe and remaining parts have been primed but unfortunately I'll need a little more tidying up as some of those blasted seam lines are still visible: Should get that sorted tomorrow and hopefully get a pre-shade done. More soon and stay safe Dave 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 5 hours ago, DaveJL said: Now, the red trim around USN undercarriage doors is one of my biggest hates, it's such a pain to do. So I picked up one of these: And what a difference it makes! Glides over those pesky edges without the brush drying out, or paint seeping and so on. Thanks to whoever's build thread I read (forgive me I can't remember who!) that suggested the idea. On a side note, images from the detail and scale book show that the front undercarriage doors only have the lower edges painted; the leading and trailing edge remain white. Note also that if you're building an F from the G boxing, use part V1 as called out in the instructions. This later style door is fitted to most F/A-18E/Fs now. I believe it has a reinforcement panel of some description and the old antenna is now removed. I love it!!!! I've never thought of using one of these before, it just makes so much sense! Normally it's either a masking nightmare or dodgy hand painting! She's all coming together very nicely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Coming on very nicely Dave, I can see that Sharpie trick being copied by quite a few of us dealing with USN/USMC subjects. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Great hack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arfa1983 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Yes I did that too. So easy. Red is not as brilliant as painted but it actually looks better in my opinion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coneheadff Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Great job Dave! Unbelievable how fast you're building Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted February 8, 2022 Author Share Posted February 8, 2022 17 hours ago, trickyrich said: I love it!!!! I've never thought of using one of these before, it just makes so much sense! Normally it's either a masking nightmare or dodgy hand painting! She's all coming together very nicely. Cheers Rich. We're getting there! 6 hours ago, modelling minion said: Coming on very nicely Dave, I can see that Sharpie trick being copied by quite a few of us dealing with USN/USMC subjects. Cheers Craig. The Sharpie certainly helps. 6 hours ago, Wings unlevel said: Great hack! Can't claim it was my idea but definitely a good one! 1 hour ago, arfa1983 said: Yes I did that too. So easy. Red is not as brilliant as painted but it actually looks better in my opinion! Easy = better 51 minutes ago, coneheadff said: Great job Dave! Unbelievable how fast you're building Thanks Alex! Cleaned up the seams, again, and think they're about done. Truth be told I can't be bothered doing them again . So I re-primed the sanded areas and, once dry, polished back the primer before pre-shading. My usual rough job but does the trick. I painted the entire nose black as these weather differently from the rest of the aircraft and tend to look quite faded at times so I'll try to go a bit lighter on the top coat here to get the effect I'm after. Will hopefully get the greys on at the weekend. More soon and stay safe. Dave 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 Paint on. MRP Light and Dark Ghost Grey. As usual, they sprayed perfectly. I post shaded a few panels in various greys and sprayed the cannon muzzle and exhaust parts in Tamiya Gun Metal. Fins and stabilisers also done: You may have noticed the radome is a bit darker than the rest of the airframe. The Block II Super Hornets have the AN/APG-79 radar and the energy output of this discolours the radome, something called 'AESA burn'. To achieve this, I sprayed over the area in thinned down Tamiya Smoke. Some oil weathering toward the end will add to the effect. The Weathering on the 'pizza box' just aft of the radome ins dry brushed Tamiya XF-4 Yellow-Green; again I saw this sort of weathering on a few images both in the Detail and Scale book and online. I didn't go too heavy with the radome, but you can see the effect in the below images. Will get some gloss on over the next couple of days and hopefully get the decals started. More soon and stay safe Dave 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 21 hours ago, DaveJL said: Paint on. MRP Light and Dark Ghost Grey. As usual, they sprayed perfectly. I post shaded a few panels in various greys and sprayed the cannon muzzle and exhaust parts in Tamiya Gun Metal. Fins and stabilisers also done: You may have noticed the radome is a bit darker than the rest of the airframe. The Block II Super Hornets have the AN/APG-79 radar and the energy output of this discolours the radome, something called 'AESA burn'. To achieve this, I sprayed over the area in thinned down Tamiya Smoke. Some oil weathering toward the end will add to the effect. The Weathering on the 'pizza box' just aft of the radome ins dry brushed Tamiya XF-4 Yellow-Green; again I saw this sort of weathering on a few images both in the Detail and Scale book and online. I didn't go too heavy with the radome, but you can see the effect in the below images. Will get some gloss on over the next couple of days and hopefully get the decals started. More soon and stay safe Dave Looks great - I am using MRP and did a test spray, the colours are so close! Can I ask what colour you did the fins? The decals seem to show dark on some light on others - not that it means too much as they are so similar - just for me in the future with my E version! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 5 minutes ago, Tim Moff said: Looks great - I am using MRP and did a test spray, the colours are so close! Can I ask what colour you did the fins? The decals seem to show dark on some light on others - not that it means too much as they are so similar - just for me in the future with my E version! Cheers Tim. The fins were sprayed Light Ghost grey. The decal instructions suggest the inside faces are DGG but from looking ay my references, the insides look LGG too so I'm happy enough with that. Once some weathering goes on, it'll be hard to tell. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 looks very nice Dave, the paint job is really nice. I would suspect the the tail fins are or were originally the same colour and because of the angle of them the "insides' tend to fade more that the "outsides". Those are great photos.... it'd almost be impossible to over weather one of these, grey certainly doesn't like the sea air! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 27 minutes ago, trickyrich said: looks very nice Dave, the paint job is really nice. I would suspect the the tail fins are or were originally the same colour and because of the angle of them the "insides' tend to fade more that the "outsides". Those are great photos.... it'd almost be impossible to over weather one of these, grey certainly doesn't like the sea air! Cheers Rich! The weathering seems to be getting more and more pronounced over the last few years, certainly when compared with earlier cruises. From images of VFA-103 I’ve seen, they seem to be ‘somewhere in the middle’ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 Really nice smooth painting Dave, great work. The pictures of the Super Hornets in your thread show how weathered and filthy these aircraft get, shows that you can't really get it wrong with however much weathering you chose to apply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 On 14/02/2022 at 05:06, DaveJL said: The Block II Super Hornets have the AN/APG-79 radar and the energy output of this discolours the radome, something called 'AESA burn'. I’d noticed that in photos without making the connection to the AESA radar. Makes sense of course, and nice work replicating it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 4 hours ago, modelling minion said: Really nice smooth painting Dave, great work. The pictures of the Super Hornets in your thread show how weathered and filthy these aircraft get, shows that you can't really get it wrong with however much weathering you chose to apply. Thanks mate! I'm not going to go too heavy with the weathering, certainly grimy, but not overly so! 2 hours ago, Wings unlevel said: I’d noticed that in photos without making the connection to the AESA radar. Makes sense of course, and nice work replicating it! Thanks mate! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted February 16, 2022 Author Share Posted February 16, 2022 Decals on. No issues other than a lot of the small stencils are nearly invisible! So I cheated and left a few off Sealed in with a top coat of gloss. Will let that cure overnight then I hope to get a panel wash on and the weathering done tomorrow. More soon and stay safe Dave 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 Looking great - decals really bring it alive... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted February 17, 2022 Author Share Posted February 17, 2022 3 hours ago, Tim Moff said: Looking great - decals really bring it alive... Thanks Tim! Was able to get a good few hours at the bench today. The Flory wash went on first thing, with the excess removed after an hour or so. Always tedious, but worth it! I then gave the model a flat coat before going to town on the weathering. A mixture of Abteilung oils and Tamiya weathering sets across the entire airframe. I used a few pictures for references and went 'somewhere in the middle' with the level of weathering. Some of those Super bugs look like they've been pulled through a muddy field! I used a cotton but dipped in thinner to rub around a number of stencils to give them a 'clean' look. Again, a lot of the reference pictures show this. FOD covers went on as did the Arrestor hook. I'll pop the pylons on later and let them set overnight. Aiming to get the landing gear and associated bits attached tomorrow. More soon and stay safe Dave 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 Superb work Dave. The decals have gone down a treat and the weathering is superb, I like the touch of cleaning around the markings, very effective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coneheadff Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 Great job Dave! Love the cleaned up spots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted February 17, 2022 Author Share Posted February 17, 2022 Thanks chaps! Quite pleased with it myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 Gosh your weathering really does look effective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 Great weathering job, „it tells a good story“. I really like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted February 18, 2022 Author Share Posted February 18, 2022 20 hours ago, Wings unlevel said: Gosh your weathering really does look effective. 19 hours ago, Sam said: Great weathering job, „it tells a good story“. I really like it. Thanks chaps! A few hours today seen the landing gear fitted to begin with. I used super glue to attach the struts as they were a bit wobbly. Once that had cured, the wheels went on and then I was able to attach the ordnance, stabilisers and exhausts. Not much left to do, most of the work is with the canopy, but hoping to get it finished by the end of next week. More soon and stay safe Dave 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 Good to see her with her legs on Dave. Very close to the finish line now mate and she is looking very nice indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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