Lightningboy2000 Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Purchased two of these excellent Academy kits for a fiver each at the 2019 SMW. The first of the two was completed as a Spanish Tiger during lockdown, so I've had this one waiting for an excuse to get started. Thanks to whoever thought of a second F/A-18 group build, this can be added to my infamous ever growing collection of flying felines! Here's the box with all the leftovers from the other kit, still wish I'd bought all the traders Academy F-18's now, I remember these being stacked high & going like the proverbial! Also the Leading Edge Tiger Meet decals. This will be built mostly out of the box, no aftermarket apart from the decals. Primed all the parts on the sprues & fixed the main fuselage parts including cockpit together. All goes together really nicely apart from one small gap just in front of the cockpit starboard side. This was apparent on the previous kit. It seems that Academy has included everything on the same sprues for the standard US F/A-18 as well as parts for the Canadian version. As I'm building the CF version I had to include the port side spotlight. A quick google showed the Canadian requirement for a spotlight to illuminate nighttime intercepts of Soviet bombers. There is an indentation on the inside of the port fuselage, so I just drilled this out for the provided clear spotlight part. The other part specific to the CF version in this kit is part 31 as opposed to 24. Here's the fuselage with some lead weight just secured in place with some bluetac just behind the cockpit area. The next job will be to seperate the control surfaces from the wings. I won't be buying resin flaps as I managed it well enough with the Spanish F/A-18. To be continued.... 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Off to a very nice start, these Academy kits really do look very nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 10, 2022 Author Share Posted January 10, 2022 13 hours ago, modelling minion said: Off to a very nice start, these Academy kits really do look very nice. Thanks mate, struggling to find some calm time to get back into it, but yes these kits really are very nice & go together really well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 18, 2022 Author Share Posted January 18, 2022 Haven't done much to the CAF Hornet as I've been mostly working on a Buccaneer but today after a lot of scoring & slicing I've managed to separate the flaps on one of the wings. Better than searching tinternert for the resin aftermarket. Save the planet and all that! Sorry just the one pic! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filler Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 23 minutes ago, Lightningboy2000 said: as I've been mostly working on a Buccaneer Don’t mention that aircraft. Before you know it your build thread will resemble the Financial Times!! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 18, 2022 Author Share Posted January 18, 2022 4 hours ago, Filler said: Don’t mention that aircraft. Before you know it your build thread will resemble the Financial Times!! I'm not normally that good at motivating myself for build threads. If there had been a recent one that I could have included the Bucc in I would have done. That's why i've been adding myself for future GB's just as a pull of motivation. It's not gone too badly so far. It almost became a shelf of doom dweller though! Give it a couple of weeks & i'll post it in the main RFI section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 23, 2022 Author Share Posted January 23, 2022 Just a little bit more progress on this in between Buccaneer fettling. Got the wings on & cockpit painted. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Very nice work, the Academy kit certainly looks like a good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 6 hours ago, Lightningboy2000 said: Got the wings on & cockpit painted. Very nice work on both accounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vultures1 Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Wings and cockpit both looking great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 23, 2022 Author Share Posted January 23, 2022 3 hours ago, Wings unlevel said: Very nice work on both accounts. 9 hours ago, modelling minion said: Very nice work, the Academy kit certainly looks like a good one. 2 hours ago, Vultures1 said: Wings and cockpit both looking great! Thanks chaps, sadly nothing else done to it today. Buccaneer still in the paint shop getting all the attention, but that didn't get the RFI photographic treatment. Other issues also putting me off the modelling as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 Slowly getting there. Just managed to grab a couple of hours today doing a little to both this & my Buccaneer. Used Vallejo 70.905 on this as it seems to be the nearest match to the bluey grey. Might have to tape the True Decals to the window to try & eliminate some yellowing which was unexpected on such decals. Hope the rest of the decals are OK. Just used some cut up Swann Morton blade packet material for the seat straps & got the canopy closed. Hopefully I'll be able to step up a gear with this during the week. Thanks for looking! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 Undercarriage attached & a little red paint applied to the doors. No red sharpie available! 😉 The Buccaneer makes a cheeky hello! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted February 16, 2022 Share Posted February 16, 2022 Beautiful Buccaneer! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 Scary stuff this! Don't know why I do it??? 🤣 Using the Leading Edge decals. One of the sheets the carrier film had yellowed a fair bit so taped them to the inside of the window for a bit of UV. Applying them this afternoon & it's taking a while to get everything looking "as neat as I can"! Whatever you do, don't use Ultra Decal Fix by that Ammo Mig! Thankfully I've got a little bit of Microscale micro sol, which is a bit less potent. The Ultra Decal fix quickly melted through the decal then the Klear gloss, then the paint. I quickly splashed some water on it before it reacted any further. Goes to show how good Micro Sol is. Another item to stock up with from the local. Here's the horror story in progress! This is where the Ammo MiG stuff "tried" to attack everything! Things are starting to settle down. Scary scary... Might have to give up for the day & have a stiff drink! Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Maas Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 Leading Edge decals need the mildest decal solution you have. Even then they'll scare you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 Have you noticed the female figure on the fin? Scary stuff with the decal solution but it might have worked on my decal problems I had with the special Hornet scheme I wad trying. They would not conform or stay put! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 37 minutes ago, Adam Maas said: Leading Edge decals need the mildest decal solution you have. Even then they'll scare you. Thanks for that! As I quickly discovered! Things all look good now, nicely settled down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 Stressful stuff! Hope the drink helped! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted March 3, 2022 Author Share Posted March 3, 2022 On 2/21/2022 at 12:00 PM, Wings unlevel said: Stressful stuff! Hope the drink helped! The drink must have helped! I'm now done! The Ammo Mig decal fluid must be really potent stuff, but wouldn't recommend drinking it! 🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted March 3, 2022 Author Share Posted March 3, 2022 On 2/20/2022 at 11:19 PM, Paul J said: Have you noticed the female figure on the fin? Scary stuff with the decal solution but it might have worked on my decal problems I had with the special Hornet scheme I wad trying. They would not conform or stay put! Couldn't miss her! I'm sure there's another suggestive lady on there somewhere else as well, either that or I was seing things! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now