McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet (Hasegawa)
The venerable old Hasegawa Hornet kit which I'll use for this project.
Plastic still looks pretty good. The sprue on the upper right contains the F/A-18C specific parts.
Not crazy how the fuselage bits are broken down, but it's common.
Nice decal sheet from Cartograf (which I won't be using).
This sheet from TwoBobs has the US Naval Aviation Centennial scheme that I'll be doing (the three colour scheme at bottom).
VFA-122 painted one of their Hornets in this retro scheme for the US Naval Aviation Centennial.
I'll be using a bunch of aftermarket goodies.
The intake trunks are nowhere near deep enough, but they should be much better than what's in the kit.
Crazy detail in the Aires resin for the wheel wells. I see some grinding and sanding in my future.
And a new cockpit with far more detail than the kit.
Not sure if I'll need these stiffeners or not.
All the shaded areas of the resin castings MUST be removed.
Otherwise the parts won't fit. Trust me on this one. 🙂
Compared to F/A-18A kit on left, you can see how much plastic must be removed to make way for the resin.
I got a little too close when sawing off the casting block - but we're still OK.
I'll use styrene card stock to cover up the holes.
Like so. The styrene sheet is 0.127mm (0.005") thick.
The instrument panel coaming had to be removed as well.
The sides of the resin cockpit and the sidewalls of the fuselage both needed to be sanded to allow a fit.
The resin instrument panel and coaming are a drop-in fit. Much nicer than the kit parts.
Looks like a wee bit of filler needed for the cockpit rails and to blend in the coaming.
A quick test to make sure everything fits OK. It is a tight fit, the cockpit is right on top of the wheel well.
For the main gear wheel well some more styrene butchery is required!
Not just the fuselage - all those ribs on the sidewall need to go. This is not mentioned in the Aires instruction sheet.
This shows how much grinding to do. Ugh.
I also had to reshape the resin wheel well to make it match the contours of the lower fuselage.
But you have to admit the amount of detail is amazing.
Note how the trailing arm of the main landing gear is nearly parallel to the ground. Hasegawa have this wrong in my opinion.
The Aires resin seems to have fixed that. Aires in front, Hasegawa in rear. Big difference.
I added a triangular bit of card stock where the Sparrow missile fin will go. Note how much I had to thin the fuselage for the intakes to fit.
A lot of sanding required for the intakes as seen here.
I've read online that the intake and wheel well interfere, but there seems to be enough room.
The engine faces with some Mr. Color Super Metallic 2 Super Fine Silver and a bit of a wash.
The other wheel well in place.
I added a spreader to help reinforce the sidewalls. I think this is a weak area of the kit.
I sprayed a little Mr. Hobby Flat White to get a better idea of the extra detail the resin provides.
Who ever made the casting master is a genius. For the detail, not so much for the fit. 🙂
A wash will really make this detail pop!
I don't know how accurate all this is, but it looks quite close to photographs. Fine detail painting in my future!
The inside of the intake trunks were also painted white, and the engine face added.
This looks so much better than the kit.
Once all the sanding and grinding was done, the intakes fit nicely.
I cut the Hasegawa instrument panel decal into 16 separate pieces, and applied them to the Aires resin. I like it!
Finishing up the cockpit - resin throttle will be added later.
The ejection handle came from a leftover Eduard PE fret. Hornet cockpits are kind of boring.
The Hasegawa cockpit decals were dismembered and applied over the resin consoles.
Everything posed with my weekly allowance for scale. Note the PE rudder pedals.
Filling the four sink holes present on every 1:72 Hasegawa Hornet.
I added a lip to help hold the aft end of the deck behind the cockpit. The resin deck is much nicer than the kit's.
I used the deck to help position the cockpit longitudinally.
The deck drops right in. I'll leave this off until later in the build to help when masking off the cockpit.
The instrument panel and rudder pedal assembly drops right in too. This will be attached prior to the windscreen as I'll need to add the HUD.
Two more sink holes. That's six sink holes on the LEX. Should we call it hex LEX? 🙂
I added an additional spreader near the intakes. The sidewalls are much more solid now.
And some filler to blend in the resin intake lips.
I used a razor saw to cut off the stabilizers. The stumps were then removed with a Dremel.
Note that the innermost edge of the stabilizers must remain - it's part of the fuselage sidewall.
The resin retraction arm looks more like the real thing than the kit part.
I think I ha a short shot with the nose gear. Sheet styrene to the rescue.
The retraction arm needed to be shortened by 2mm to use the resin wheel well. After cutting, I pinned it to maintain strength.
Main gear on - I believe I have the splay angle correct. Note the braces added to the intake splitter plates.
No pylons or armament for this show bird. I filled the holes with styrene rod and putty.
Still working on the seams, but the fuselage is together.
Northrop designed a really sleek and sexy airframe. McDonnell and Northrop built it - don't get me started calling it Boeing.
The RES/KIT wheels are beautiful - very close to the actual size and have radial tread. The kit nose wheels are oversize.
The resin tailplanes from Quickboost. Even if I don't break it off, the tiny pivot arm won't be strong enough.
So I pinned them. This is 0.018 in. rigid wire - you can't go any larger due to the thickness of the tailplane.
And a tiny hole to match. The drill is 0.022 in. - need to leave room for the glue!
The HUD has two combining glass elements. The CMK photoetch provide the brackets.
Almost looks like the real thing. Very fiddly to put together though, especially in 1:72 scale.
Sea Blue 15042 and Intermediate Blue 35164 - you don't see too many Hornets like this.
The actual aircraft had a flat finish, so I expect the blues will lighten up a bit with a flat varnish.
The first decals are on - no problem here.
The port intake warning triangle - note that the letters are "clear."
On the port side, the letters are white. Big mistake by TwoBobs, as the letters should be white on both sides.
The decals are designed for the Academy kit, and there is a huge difference between that and Hasegawa. Look how much I have to trim.
After trimming, everything looks OK to me. TwoBobs give you a bunch of black stencils, but no instructions on where to put them. Photos don't show any stencils like that.
I had to shorten the exhaust tubes to fit, but I think they'll be OK.
Nobody can tell they're not deep enough!
Electrical greeblies added behind the cockpit.
A light wash in the gear wells helps bring out the detail.
The gear bays were freshly painted on the actual aircraft since it was for the big celebration.
Elevators added and posed. Hasegawa forgot the pitot tubes, so I add some from True Details.
Big difference between the resin canopy actuator (above) and the kit part.
I ran out of parts so she must be done! Enjoy the rest of the photos! 🙂
Much better view than looking into the kit intakes.
Here she is posed with a tiger-striped Canadian CF-188 that I built about ten years ago.
Comments
34 22 April 2021, 12:09
Bill GilmanFor my next project I'll be building the Hasegawa 1:72 F/A-18C Hornet in the special US Naval Aviation Centennial markings applied by VFA-122 "Flying Eagles" at NAS Lemoore in 2011. I'm also using the Aires resin sets for the wheel wells and cockpit as well as the Quickboost seamless intakes. As you can see in the photos, there was a lot of grinding and sanding needed to make the resin fit - much more than I typically have to do with Aires resin. The time spent was worth it, though, as the extra detail is just superb. Have a look at my progress so far - all comments are appreciated. Cheers, Bill
22 April 2021, 13:24
Spanjaardaires detail as wonderful as usual. and crazy sanding also as usual. but it is looking great. i love what you have done with instrument panel decals on the aires panel.
22 April 2021, 13:28
Bill GilmanThanks! Yeah, it seems there is always a lot of sanding with Aires. I sometimes wonder if they ever try using their own products - but then again I completely understand why so much modification is required to the kit.
22 April 2021, 13:49
Patrick HagelsteinWhat I think it is with Aires is that their measurements are actually the correct ones. They measure their products 1:1, but in real life aircraft skins and dividing panels are a mere couple of mm thick while kit fuselages are also a couple of mm thick, but in 1/72 or 1/48. Sometimes one has to sand the Aires and/or kit walls back to being translucent, that would actually be those couple mm thick aluminum sheets in real life. That's just how accurate they are. 😉
22 April 2021, 13:56
Patrick HagelsteinBill, why did you go for the Hasegawa kit and not for the newer Academy one? I basically switched out all my Hasegawa Hornets in my stash with Academy ones because of their ease of building and very fine surface details.
22 April 2021, 14:02
Spanjaardare those Academy kits that good Patrick?... my only F-18 in stash is a Hasegawa.... 🙁
22 April 2021, 14:12
Bill GilmanI've never seen the Academy kit other than photos so I can't really compare. I've had the Hasegawa F/A-18A Blue Angels kit in my stash since it came out, and the F/A-18C kit I'm using for this project was a gift. What is the saying - "run what you brung?" 🙂
I've ordered resin wheels and elevators (stabilitors/horizontal tailplanes - whatever they're called). I thought about dropping the flaps but I think I've already done enough cutting, grinding and sanding! Besides, I have several photos that show aircraft parked with the flaps neutral - I assume they're locked somehow in that position.
22 April 2021, 14:50
Ingmar StöhrThe instrument panel is a real eye catcher. Sadly those details are hard to see in 1:72 scale.
22 April 2021, 15:11
Bill GilmanTrue that is, Ingmar. The details will be difficult to see when the fuselage is closed up. But at least I will have the canopy open. I wonder how many hours I've spent adding details that no one will ever see? Ha, too many! Even the resin wheel wells on this Hornet won't be easily seen. That's modelling!
22 April 2021, 17:01
Patrick HagelsteinOh yes, those Academy kits are good! 👍 My only let down is the inserts on the LEX undersides. Somehow I never manage to install those flush and without noticeable seams. Well, the upside is that's it's the underside. 😉
22 April 2021, 18:50
Bill Gilman@Es-haq, you are right! I will always know they are there (and how much work it took to put them there).
@Patrick, I had a good look at photos of the Academy kit, and it looks very nice. Someday I will get one, but I have to build this one and the Blue Angel bird first. Come to think of it, I already have a Canadian CF-188 Hornet in my display case - I'll end up with Hornets everywhere.
britmodeller.com/for..uglas-cf-188-hornet/
Those tiger stripes are all individual decals. I question my sanity sometimes. LOL
22 April 2021, 19:31
Bill GilmanThanks, @Spanjaard. That was built quite some time ago. I like tiger schemes, and I have an F-16 project coming up with a Belgian tiger scheme. Should be fun.
22 April 2021, 20:39
Patrick HagelsteinThat Canadian Tiger does look (p)aw(e)some indeed! I feel we have a connection here Bill as I 'bumped' into you on Britmodeler while looking for some SHAR information and saw your request for 1/72 information. Also, I'm preparing to build the 2018 Belgian entry to the Tigermeet exercise by converting the 1/72 Tamiya F-16C to an F-16AM using the Revell decals, intake trunk and fuselage spine to get the panels right for an early P&W powered F-16. Everywhere I look on internet, there's a Bill Gilman entry on a forum! 😄 What's your brainwave frequency, so it's easier to directly chime in? 😉
23 April 2021, 15:32
Bill Gilman@Patrick, I'm old school. You need a wire to connect. The plug receptacle is behind my right ear. 🙂
Did you find my finished FRS.1 on Britmodeller? It was a fun kitbash of the Fujimi and Hasegawa kits with a bunch of aftermarket. Come to think of it, it's on here too. For the FA.2, I'll be kitbashing the Hasegawa and Special Hobby kits. Hasegawa will contribute the wings because SH does not have any vortex generators. The Hasegawa FRS.1 wings fit perfectly, and only need a slight mod to the leading edge. It's quite obvious that the SH kit was "inspired" by the Hasegawa kit. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
I only do two forums on a regular basis, Scalemates and BM. Once in a while I submit a Gallery article to Hyperscale. If you see me on any other forums - it's an imposter!
23 April 2021, 22:25
Peppy Wow, Bill, you get that much?
I gotta' look for a better job.
'Run what you brung'.
Yep, it's the poor musician that blames his instrument.
The add-ons take it to another level. Nice.
23 April 2021, 22:26
Bill GilmanSlow, snail-like progress. I've added some new photos - as you can see I'll soon be closing up the fuselage. I think I should remove the stabilizers first as these will be replaced with some resin items that I've ordered. Cheers, Bill
27 April 2021, 00:03
Patrick HagelsteinYep, I did! I'm building the old 1/48 Airfix kit for a club member. Not a very detailed kit by today's standard, but for 1983 it's quite good in the main details department. Airfix really did their homework. Either way, I wanted to check some things and came across your 'investigation' over on Britmodeller and from there I kept looking further. Let's see where we meet on that Belgian Tiger then. 😄
27 April 2021, 01:52
Łukasz Gliński"Go for the Academy bug, they said. It'll be fun they said" and then Bill is going to prove Hasegawa can look better 😉 Following. The OOB camo looks cool too.
27 April 2021, 12:21
Bill GilmanBoth Hasegawa and Academy do not have the level of detail that is provided by these aftermarket sets. It's been a lot of work so far, but I think it will get a bit easier from here on out. I hope so anyway!
27 April 2021, 14:24
Bill GilmanHi mates - today I removed the horizontal stabilizers in anticipation of the Quickboost resin replacements arriving from Kitlinx soon. This will allow me to pose the stabilizers in a more natural position. It's a bit tricky removing the stabilizers from the upper fuselage - the innermost edge of each stabilizer is moulded as part of the fuselage sidewall. This portion must be preserved after you're finished with cutting, grinding, and sanding. I added a couple of pictures to show what I mean. Cheers, Bill
28 April 2021, 00:32
Bill GilmanCatching up with my progress - several new photos have been uploaded. I think she's coming along nicely, and it won't be long before I start painting. Let me know if you have any questions. Cheers, Bill
8 May 2021, 01:01
Bill GilmanWell, I finally got the HUD together. You need steady hands for sure. The brackets were tiny! Check out the photos. It's a reasonable facsimile of the real thing. Cheers, Bill
9 May 2021, 00:45
Bill GilmanThanks, @Spanjaard. I appreciate the compliment. 🙂
OK, here we go - painting has commenced! I added the windscreen to the fuselage and blended it in with a bit of filler. Then some foam was put into the intake to mask off the engine face, some masking tape placed over the cockpit and we're spraying. The white is going down first, followed by the medium blue and finally the dark blue. All demarcations will be by hand - no blue-tac etc. Paints are all Mr. Hobby. Cheers, Bill
9 May 2021, 20:34
Bill GilmanThe painting is finished, and the decals have been applied. The new photos I've uploaded show the progress, and some of the issues I found. One was a printing mistake by TwoBobs and the other a big difference in the size of the tail fins between Academy and Hasegawa. After a little trimming, all was good but it makes me wonder which kit is right. Probably neither! Cheers, Bill
21 May 2021, 22:18
Bill GilmanHi mates, my Centennial of Naval Aviation F/A-18C Hornet is finished and I've uploaded many more photos. The project was bit of a challenge with the Aires resin parts, but it was a lot of fun. I really like anniversary and display schemes, and when they're also retro that makes it even better. I think the USN was going for a "supersonic Hellcat" look when they chose this scheme from VF-17 in 1945. I think it looks a lot better than low-viz grey, but then I'm not the one getting shot at! Cheers, Bill
28 May 2021, 22:44
Łukasz GlińskiAs I mentioned - better than many Academy builds. That Hellcat 2.0 camo is a real eyecatcher 👍
29 May 2021, 08:51
Hanno KleineckeThat traditional livery suits this bird very well, Bill. Very impressive detailwork like always, especially that gunsight is unbelievable !
30 May 2021, 18:04
Album info
1:72 Hasegawa kit with a bunch of aftermarket goodies.
