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Eduard (Hasegawa) F/A-18E VFA-31 Operation Inherent Resolve 2017 - Finished!!!


airbus320

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Hello everybody, 

 

I hope you don’t mind me joining in with the fun? I have a few Hornets in the stash…

 

Dncf6nP.jpg

 

I have decided to build this one, if there is time left before the end of the GB maybe I’ll build another!


SuUaqBH.jpg

 

Here is the marking option I want to build. It’s not the most spectacular but when weathered and tooled up with a full ordnance load it should look the part.

 

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I believe these will be required

 

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Hopefully I can get stuck in shortly!

 

Chris

Edited by airbus320
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Well I thought I would get straight in and make a start. I really wasn’t looking forward to fitting the new ECS pipes so I decided to do that first. Wasn’t as much of a hassle as I thought! A little rescribing and all will be well. I’ve primed the cockpit parts too but not much to see here!
 

axygzxx.jpg

Chris

 

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I've built this model, it's a really nice one to build!

 

Those ECSpipes weren't the best fit for me... I stuffed up the mounting of them!  :wall:

 

This Hasegawa based model is such a nice one to build, it has to be one of their top models in 1/48th.

 

Gotta give extra thumbs up for the scheme!!! :thumbsup:

 

I have trouble doing plain old grey.....  :D, this is the same boxing but with extra "Rich AM" added!! 

 

IMG_5356-L.jpg

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Wow Rich that’s a beauty! Beautiful Tomcatter CAG bird! :thumbsup:

 

So today I ordered some GBU-32s to hang off my Rhino. They will take a couple of weeks to arrive which should be about the point where I will start getting paint onto it! I’ve managed to get the cockpit done (not the bang seat yet though) and started gluing together the wings. Going to fold this one up, for two reasons - 1) it’s the normal parked config on a carrier and 2) I don’t have much shelf space left!!!!

Chris

 

jWZrQ1w.jpg

0lmQPSa.jpg

 

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Yes very nice indeed!! :thumbsup:

 

Remember, glue the wings to the upper fuselage first, I didn't originally I ended up with joins that were a bit of a pain!

 

I see you're folding the wings, nice, I did for reason #2.

 

I don't know if you know this or not (just incase not), but that extra perforated section actually sits proud of the outer wing when folded. Plus it has 5 hooks on the underside the give extra strength to the outer wings when unfolded. From memory there was an issue with the outer section drooping during development so they came up with this hook arrangement. I'll have to go digging for al the details. But for mine I made some mount brackets and some wee hooks, not 100% correct but looked the part.

 

It's a wee bit of work but it's not hard and I think worth the effort.

 

IMG_4373-M.jpg

 

These bits need to be thinned back quite a lot for them to loo right.

 

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Looks a lot better than just gluing that piece to the outer wing.

 

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Good luck, I'm enjoying your build!  :popcorn:

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/16/2022 at 2:49 AM, trickyrich said:

Yes very nice indeed!! :thumbsup:

 

Remember, glue the wings to the upper fuselage first, I didn't originally I ended up with joins that were a bit of a pain!

 

I see you're folding the wings, nice, I did for reason #2.

 

I don't know if you know this or not (just incase not), but that extra perforated section actually sits proud of the outer wing when folded. Plus it has 5 hooks on the underside the give extra strength to the outer wings when unfolded. From memory there was an issue with the outer section drooping during development so they came up with this hook arrangement. I'll have to go digging for al the details. But for mine I made some mount brackets and some wee hooks, not 100% correct but looked the part.

 

It's a wee bit of work but it's not hard and I think worth the effort.

 

IMG_4373-M.jpg

 

These bits need to be thinned back quite a lot for them to loo right.

 

IMG_4398-M.jpg

 

Looks a lot better than just gluing that piece to the outer wing.

 

IMG_4399-M.jpg

 

IMG_4400-M.jpg

 

Good luck, I'm enjoying your build!  :popcorn:

 

Great work Rich and thanks for the tips! I’ve started work on thinning the cover plates and I’ll make some hooks up too I think 👍

 

Apologies for the general lack of updates, I’ve had family over from the UK and not had that much time to work on the superbug. I’ve also been grappling with the intakes which have been an absolute mare. I filled the seams of the white sections then used the house paint pour method. That worked well enough however there were sizeable gaps between the inner sections and the grey outer sections…Cue much filling and sanding, multiple break aparts, sanding, re-filling and re-pouring. After about four attempts I finally have something acceptable (not perfect, note!) so I’ve joined the fuselage halves. The fit is naturally terrible, however I feel I’ve got past the biggest hold up with this kit. Hopefully I can start to make good progress when I get back from my trip to South Africa on Monday! 
 

Chris

 

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P.S? Does anybody know if these (sparrow?) fin recesses are fitted to the real thing? They don’t seem to be there on my references…

 

lCzmaYf.jpg

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5 hours ago, airbus320 said:

P.S? Does anybody know if these (sparrow?) fin recesses are fitted to the real thing? They don’t seem to be there on my references…

 

Nah they stay there, sort of help when fitting a AIM-120's but those have an extra C shaped mount...... the instructions sort of show you.

 

oh yeah i have forgotten about the lovely fit of the intake ducts!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all, haven’t forgotten this one! Just lots and lots of tedious filling, scribing and joint work getting everything to fit. The airframe is now pretty much complete, just the fairing in of the ATFLIR mount on the fuselage plus a couple of other bits to tidy up and she will be ready for paint. Having checked my references I removed the sparrow fin-shaped indentations on the intake shoulders using milliput. Having had its seam line polished out, the canopy is now taped on to prevent the photo etched HUD getting crushed. I took Rich’s suggestion regarding the latches under the wing fold cover plates. Mine are a little bit less refined but they look ok! The in-laws are here this week so hopefully I will get some time at the bench, might work on the ordnance - not related to the in-laws coming honestly!! 😈
 

Chris

 

hUhbcyf.jpg

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another small update, all the joins have been smoothed out and the black primer (mr surfacer) applied. Will see tomorrow if my seams are actually ok or not! The canopy is on and the whiz-bang things assembled. The GBU-31s are aftermarket but the -38s are kinetic items from the F-16 kit, I added some texture using mr surfacer to represent the fire retardant coating on navy bombs. The whole thing looks kind of fetching in black! 😎

 

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As fetching as the all black Super Hornet looks I decided to press on with the original plan!

 

I bought a new mottle mask so decided to give it a try. I sprayed a mottle of white over the black basing then added some highlights in brown. The top and bottom ghost greys were applied and then I mottled over a lighter version of both colours until I got a low contrast, varied finish. It looks good in the flesh but I wonder if it’s too subtle? It should make a good base for the weathering to come later however.

 

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I would have thought the mottle mask would be more effective as a post-shade technique 🤔 maybe it's the photos but I can't really see any beneficial effect from all that hard work before the paint job :shrug:

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On 3/10/2022 at 11:48 AM, Alan P said:

I would have thought the mottle mask would be more effective as a post-shade technique 🤔 maybe it's the photos but I can't really see any beneficial effect from all that hard work before the paint job :shrug:

Yes the pre-shading was a waste of time! I used the mask to do some post shading instead and it was much more effective. Oh well, lesson learned I guess!

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