Hornetto
Nice finely engraved details, plastic has some sort of peach fuzz on it and required some sanding.
I built the undernose sub assembly a tad fast, which resulted in a slight misalignment problem. Nothing a clamp couldn't fix.
Intakes were a bit tricky to get to conform.
A mix of Tamiya white putty on the LERX, CA glue with graphite on the intakes and Vallejo plastic putty for the hard to reach joints.
Flaps down. In hindsight, I should have removed more material from the front of those pieces in order to get a wider slot.
Hinges installed, had to redo one piece that had vanished, only to reappear once the glue was set.
Joining the project backlog for canopy masking.
Primed with Surfacer 1000, preshaded some with XF-18 & painted with Hataka lacquers. Went down fine, but the liquid mask I used in some spots actually lifted the pigments when I took it off. Hataka dark & light ghost greys seem very close in shade.
Decals applied straight to the paint. Very pleasant sheet to work with, no silvering. Not sure the softer did anything though.
Glossed with 2 layers of X-22 + SLT. Tried sanding the decals in between coats, didn't do much but the carrier film is not too visible anyway. Well I still should have removed it on the big tail pieces, but I'll live with it.
AK PLW for grey and blue, which I now find a bit too contrasty. Played some with XF-82 to test out my newly received Aztek airbrush, then matt coat of XF-86. Canopy unmasked, now to work on the cockpit, gears and load!
Cockpit done.
Gear done. Applying small decals to tubular shapes was a real chore, not sure how to do that properly. Now I just hope that they don't peel away.
Load almost done. Some weathering and assembly required still, and that will be it.
Loaded for bear. Few bits to glue on and some painting touch-ups needed. Noticed too late that sidewinders were supposed to be gray 😄
Comments
16 18 June 2018, 14:38
CuajeteFantastic painting and weather work. Maybe decals has something of silvering effect.
6 July 2018, 19:58
PierreCheers!
@Cuajete: I don't think it's silvering, it seems it's just the carrier film showing under certain angles, although I'm not sure since it's hard to tell on a grey background. At least it doesn't look too bad, I've had way worse results before 🙂
7 July 2018, 12:26
PierreThanks guys! The plane is now complete, feels good to finish a kit for a change. Will shoot proper pictures soon.
23 July 2018, 09:47
Patrick HagelsteinReally nice to see it painted up, especially in those markings!
23 July 2018, 14:25
PierreThanks again! Found some time for some pictures. I will probably try some more matte varnish to try and kill off that sheen, especially on the decals.
All in all, a really nice kit despite a few shortcomings. I was not a fan of the Hornet before, and building this made me change my mind, it is a nifty looking plane afterall.
26 July 2018, 07:27
PierreYeah, still in the learning stage for that, much like with scalemodelling 🙂
26 July 2018, 13:58
Album info
Very pleasant kit. OOB, goal was to get to painting asap. I did saw the wings though.
