Enzo the Magnificent Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 It's about time I weighed in on this GB. I'm afraid I've done my usual trcik of working on the model without updating a build thread. I must stress that although this build may seem to be proceeding quickly... it isn't! I have been working on this sing the first day of the GB. I shall be building the new Academy kit. A lot of people like the hi-vis Rogers schemes - and special schemes in general. To be honest, I am strongly ambivalent about special schemes due to personal experience. In 1987 I was involved in designing and painting a special scheme for the first production Harrier. I soon found out how much work is involved keeping the special jet clean. Special schemes are all well and good but I'm much happier with standard line jets. For that reason, I will not be using the decals scheme provided in the box. I shall be using CtA Decals Sheet 5... ... to build one of these line jets. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 Hooray for grey! I’m as partial to a special scheme as the next kid but they’re certainly not representative of 99% of jets on the flightline. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 I do enjoy the special paintjobs. They look best when in the midst of ordinary grey flightline birds. Personally i wouldnt enjoy my vitrine full of special liveries only. But then again, who would build 10 grey Hornets to emphasize a Tiger Meet or CAG bird. — oh, wait a minute…. 🤔 — naahh! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted January 29, 2022 Author Share Posted January 29, 2022 Let's look at the parts. The first thing to remember is that this kit is one of Academy's new concept easy build kits. It can be built as a snap-together. This means that some of the parts are slightly simplified, but there is nothing untoward. It is certainly not a toy. Academy have also taken a leaf out of Matchbox's book. The parts are moulded in different colours so that the model does not need to be painted. There is even a sheet of stickers which can be used instead of the decal sheet. The first time I saw this concept in an Academy kit was in their F-4J. I had my doubts about the snap-together aspect but it all worked very well. The only downside for me was that the canopy was a single part making it very difficult to seperate and display open. I solved that problem with the large number of Fujimi and Airfix closed canopies that I have in the spares box. I used the fixed parts from Academy and the opening parts from spares. The canopy on this kit is likewise moulded closed but it will be far less of a challenge to seperate the canopy and windscreen. The fuselage and wing uppersurface is moulded as a single part. You can see the large holes in the lower wing for plugging in the pylons. This will be a very robust assemble withbe no accidental knocking off of components. The tanks are moulded onto their pylons. The lower fuselage, lower nose and nose cone are moulded seperately and bagged. There are two ejection seats moulded in black. Smaller sprues moulded in black and white. Oddly, there are two sets of fins in this kit - one on a grey sprue and one on a black sprue. As far as I can see the components are identical. I assume this is to facilitate the no-paint aspect of the kit. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted January 29, 2022 Author Share Posted January 29, 2022 The first thing I did was to build up the lower fuselage. I sprayed the interior of the fuselage, the gear bays and the intakes white. I then masked of and sprayed the grey areas of the intakes and weathered the gear bays. Then I assembled everything. at this point I would like to say that it is always a good idea to read the instructions carefully. I just glanced at them and so missed the fact that there are decals for the intake interiors. It's not too much of a proble as the intakes are wide and I can simply apply the decals later, but it would have been even easier had I followed the instructions... The cockpit components were sprayed Dark Gull Grey Lifecolor UA-033. There are decals for the instrument panel displays, but they look to be far too bright a green. Instead I painted the panels and just applied the kit decals to the side consoles. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted January 29, 2022 Author Share Posted January 29, 2022 Okay, here comes the stupidity... The vast majority of photographs that I have seen of parked Super Hornets shows them with dropped flaps and slats. Obviously the kit does not supply these. There are resin sets which will allow the modeller to drop the flaps. I have one by Air Graphics. It is intended for the Hesegawa kit but is claimed to be suitable for the Academy kit "with some modification". The resin set provides the whole wings. The "modification" to make it fit the Academy kit would involve chopping off the complete wings and I was not confident of my ability to properly conceal the joing line. I have the feeling that Air Graphics really mean the Academy first generation Hornet kits, which have seperate wings. So, I left the resin set in The Stash and considered how the flaps could be dropped. The blue line indicates the extent of the upper surface of the flap. The red line indicates where it needs to be cut. The area in between is a large flap shroud. This is where is gets scary. Mess it up now and that's 25 quid's worth of kit down the pan. I just have to keep my nerve... Alea iacta est. There's no going back now! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted January 29, 2022 Author Share Posted January 29, 2022 So... after that traumatic experience I had a lie down in a darkened room. Then it was back to the carnage. The lower wing parts also require some modification as part of the flaps are moulded into them. In this photo you can see the difference between the upper and lower parts, I just carried on cutting until I got to this... It's amazing how little of the wing is a fixed surface. So now we have the upper fuselage/wing assembly, lower fuselage and cockpit/lower nose assembly ready to go together. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 Coming along nicely Enzo, mind you, it appears to get interesting from here. I'll be watching. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 Woohooo our lord and master is here!!! Nice looking model, pity about the multi-colour plastic..... not for me, but understand why they do it. Gosh "the "not reading the instruction" virus is spreading! Eeeekk!! You were brave/silly with your modification work, that could have gone horribly wrong! Rebuilding them shouldn't be too hard, though fiddly. Nice work so far.... and glad you remembered to do an update before finishing her! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted January 29, 2022 Author Share Posted January 29, 2022 1 minute ago, trickyrich said: and glad you remembered to do an update before finishing her! It's a problem I have. I'm aware of it... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Masters Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 Looking good Enzo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 Very nice work Enzo, a brave decision to drop the flaps and you have done a great job on it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted January 30, 2022 Author Share Posted January 30, 2022 After all the carnage, it's about time to repair the damage! The main fuselage was assembled. The flaps were then dealt with. The missing bits were built up from strips of plastic card. This does not have to be particularly neat as the area will be hidden by the flap shroud. It is better to go for sturdiness than neatness. Likewise with the leading edge flaps. In this case though, neatness is quite important as there is no shroud to hide the joint. The tail fins are just plugged in for the moment. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 looks good, I had wondered if you'd finished it yet. The flap mod looks good, though you do know there is a couple of small flap sections between the wing and the main flaps? I don't have any other build photos of them, but you can see here where they are meant to go. These are them, easy to replicate with plastic sheet..... least you won't have sink marks in them, unlike what Hasegawa gives you! They should look like this when fitted, they should be simple to duplicate. Attaching them to the back of the main wing will give you the look you're after. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 9 hours ago, trickyrich said: The flap mod looks good, though you do know there is a couple of small flap sections between the wing and the main flaps? Indeed. I referred to them as flap shrouds in the post above. As you suggested, I used 10 thou plastic sheet. They cover up all the untidiness quite nicely. However, with regard to sink marks... I fitted them using tube cement and created my own sink marks! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 for a line jet. It makes me happy to see people build "plain grey" jets. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 4 hours ago, Enzo Matrix said: Indeed. I referred to them as flap shrouds in the post above. haha that'll teach me not to read thing properly! They look the part, nicely done. Most of the time thin plastic sheet doesn't like glue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Wow, fortune favours the brave! Very impressive plastic surgery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted February 3, 2022 Author Share Posted February 3, 2022 I have fitted the nose. The wing is still in the process of being cleaned up. The fins and tailplanes were fitted temporarily to see how it looks. I'm now considering the weapons load. I'd like to do an assymetric load. Extreme heavy drop sounds good. What do you think about the following: Stn 1: Aim-9X 2: Empty 3: GBU-31 JDAM 4: GBU-21 Paveway III 5: ATFLIR Pod 6: Tank 7: AIM-120 8: Tank 9: GBU-31 JDAM 10: Empty 11: AIM-9X 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 23 hours ago, Enzo Matrix said: I have fitted the nose. The wing is still in the process of being cleaned up. The fins and tailplanes were fitted temporarily to see how it looks. I'm now considering the weapons load. I'd like to do an assymetric load. Extreme heavy drop sounds good. What do you think about the following: Stn 1: Aim-9X 2: Empty 3: GBU-31 JDAM 4: GBU-21 Paveway III 5: ATFLIR Pod 6: Tank 7: AIM-120 8: Tank 9: GBU-31 JDAM 10: Empty 11: AIM-9X Looks great - not seen many references with both AIM-9X fitted - but why not !! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Nice work mate, VF-103 certainly is a popular squadron! Re the weapons load, is the GBU-21 you refer to a 2000lb weapon? I would maybe be inclined to go with a GBU-31 on both 3/4 with a 500lb weapon, GBU-12 or GBU-38/54 on 10. Check out sea forces.org or the USN website for good reference pictures. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Masters Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 Interesting Enzo. A much different kit than what so many of us are building. I like what you're doing with it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted February 26, 2022 Author Share Posted February 26, 2022 There comes a time when one has to stop faffing around and just get on with it! I've spent a lot of time refining the flaps and wing on this one and just wasn't getting anywhere. Enough is enough. Time to move on. So I primed the whole thing with my usual grey plastic car primer from a rattle can. Then came the painting. The scheme is 36320 Dark Ghost Grey uppersurfaces with 36375 Light Ghost Grey undersurfaces. I have always had problems with this scheme. The two colours are distinct but I find that if one uses the two colours from the same manufacturer they contrast between them is minimal. This is certainly true for Xtracrylix and Lifecolor. I also find that the Xtracrylix 36320 is too blue. After a lot of experimentation, which will pay dividents in the F-15 STGB later in the year, I settled on Xtracrylix XA1136 for the Light Ghost Grey. I used Vallejo 71.120 for the Dark Ghost Grey. I also used Lifecolor UA-026 for some mottling on the uppersurfaces, with even a bit of Xtracrylix XA1006 Ocean Grey. The walkway areas were masked and sprayed with XA1006. I then used decal strips to highlight the flap and slat area and the walkway markings. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 16 hours ago, Enzo Matrix said: The two colours are distinct but I find that if one uses the two colours from the same manufacturer they contrast between them is minimal. Definitely found this with AK Real on my build. Good tip for next time mixing manufacturers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 come on Enzo!!! I would have thought you'd have finished this and another one by now...... what's with all this faffing around huh???? Mmmm I had the same issues with AK Real Colours too, using MRP paints the difference is a bit more noticeable. 🇺🇦 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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