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1/72 F/A-18A Hornet, Blue Angels - Build No.1 ## FINISHED ##


nimrod54

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  • nimrod54 changed the title to 1/72 F/A-18A Hornet, Blue Angels - Build No.1
3 hours ago, modelling minion said:

The Academy kits are quite popular on here John, I will be interested to see what you can do with the kit.

Does this boxing come with weapons as well?

 

Sprue E (x2) carries the weapons and pylons Craig, there is a TIALD pod on one of the main sprues. There is also a two seat cockpit that is blanked over for the single seater, but only a single instrument panel and canopy.

 

51808579674_023f0a0efa_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Cheers.

John

 

2 hours ago, Anatol Pigwa said:

Welcome to the STGB. Good to see another Angel. Are the dacals printed by Academy or Carotgraf? If the former you might want to use extra care appying them!

 

Thanks Anatol. The decals in this boxing are printed by Cartograf so should be OK.

 

51808218826_146288b34d_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Regards.

John

 

 

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4 minutes ago, nimrod54 said:

Sprue E (x2) carries the weapons and pylons Craig, there is a TIALD pod on one of the main sprues. There is also a two seat cockpit that is blanked over for the single seater, but only a single instrument panel and canopy.

Thanks mate, good to know as you sometimes see this kit at reasonable prices but I don't want a Blue Angels one.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

With one build nearing completion for the Matchbox GB and a second for the Bomber/Strike/Ground Attack GB waiting for paint to arrive, I decided it would be a good time to make a start on this Academy F-18. Whilst having a rummage through my box of AM parts I came across this etch set for the Academy kit (probably bought for another kit - but not used) so I thought that I would use some of it on this build where I feel that it is an improvement over the kit part. The first area to receive some etch detail was the cockpit, and I spent yesterday afternoon adding the screens, instruments and side console detail, along with a small bay to the nosewheel area.

 

51931717538_97292285a0_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

 

51932252945_3ec32bdf7f_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51931965544_5801aa9654_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

After a test fit of the cockpit/lower nose assembly, I had to fit a small piece of sprue to spread the parts to ensure that they would align correctly with the upper fuselage section, that was set aside to dry before the parts fit was checked again.

 

51931965629_86f2ddfd32_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51932252765_0fb8352c87_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51932253120_a36386c5ef_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51931965329_77bf61a608_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

John

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I spent some time tidying up the fuselage and removing more moulded detail not applicable to a Blue Angels F-18A before adding the wings a twin tails.

 

51934303536_250eee0cce_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51934373783_2c0155aba3_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Just as an aside, I thought that I would share my last Hornet build which was this Dragon EA-18G in 1/144 scale, built getting on for 4 years ago now. The kit came with the Carrier Launch Deck, vehicles and figures, a fellow Britmodeller supplied some spare figures which I used to busy up the deck a bit more. After studying several pre-launch videos I configured the model going through final checks and with all control surfaces in a similar set up, here's the end result.

 

42704970684_c934a29a92_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51934972040_33ed86ee22_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

John

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got some primer on this yesterday, tacking the canopy in place first then masking it off. I will paint the canopy up before the end of the build. Today I sprayed on some Xtracolor Blue Angels blue and that has been set aside to dry.

 

51957710117_b369798a3b_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51958993699_9ea79b23a5_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

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Here is a photo of the model with the Xtracolor Blue Angels paint on and it has been left to harden off for several days. I now need to give it a wet sand to smooth things out a little before continuing with the detail painting.

 

51969468539_995f9eff3a_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

John

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  • 2 weeks later...

I apologise for the lack of updates to this build, but I have been trying to wrap both builds up over the past week or so. I wasn't happy with the finish on this, so after a wet sand I resprayed the model and things turned out much better, I think that I thinned the paint too much first time around.

 

Here is the end result.

 

51996199120_399a7ee9af_b.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51995930459_c1ff8d6227_b.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Cheers

John

 

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  • nimrod54 changed the title to 1/72 F/A-18A Hornet, Blue Angels - Build No.1 ## FINISHED ##

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