F/A-18C Hornet (WIP)
Starting to file the details, to receive the Eduard PE
Nasty join line there
Used some acrylic putty and water...
...end result was a little sloppy, but it will barely be seen and it is better to have it like this than to have an extremely visible line on the insides
Dry fitting
Intakes glue
The fit of the intakes is terrible!!!
Eduard PE installed
Tamiya white putty
More corrections to make...
Intakes glued in place
Cockpit glued
Some fit aids...
Ready to close
Closed
Tons of putty...
Second round of putty - this time with Liquid Green Stuff, from Citadel
Bird slicers cleaned, because VFA-25 planes do not have them (what a pity)
Using white putty to cover the holes for the Lot 19 double chaff dispensers, which I do not see on these planes (VFA-25 F/A-18C CAG)
The holes I covered were not for the double chaff dispensers... so I had to drill them again and glue the antennas in
Eduard photoetch on the cockpit top
More Eduard photoetch...
Front glass fit not so good...
Canopy with central seam line
Removing the central seam line in the canopy
Lots of photoetch!
The kit's PE HUD is too big
The kit's HUD not fitting the windshield
Fortunately I have the Eduard PE HUD, which is smaller than the kit's one and it fits the windshield!!! :-/
Ejector mark in the front leg oleo
Covering ejector marks in the gear struts
More putty.....
Additional work, fit is not perfect
Pre-shading
Gunze H308 (FS36375) applied below
Some marbling with Insignia White - a little exagerated, to be toned down a bit
Painting the tail with XF-69 NATO Black
Painting cables with acrylics
Using a pen to make the black lines on the cables
Ready for the wash
Decals are very good, but not numbered, which means I have to spend hours searching for reference photos and looking for the right decals on the enourmous (superb) decal sheet
Very difficult decal setting challenge here, let's see how it goes
Working with a lot of Micro Sol, pressure, scalpel and Vallejo Matte Yellow
Parts
More parts
Yet more parts
Another part
Airplane decal saga is over!
Metalics painted with AK Xtreme Aluminum...
...and AK Xtreme Gun Metal
Pin wash on the gears with AK Neutral Grey Wash
Painting black stripes on the black tires
Very light weathering with oils applied, the F/A-18 is now ready for the final phases
Adding the legs
Wheels are on
Standing on its feet
Finished!
Comments
30 September 2017, 18:02
Stephan RyllI'll take a seat 🙂 I have the same kit an big ed set in my stash
30 September 2017, 19:01
Ricardo ReisYep. Although it's a shame to sand all those nice details to apply the Eduard PE.
30 September 2017, 21:39
Michael PhillipsOooh, count me in!!!! Got a couple Kinetic Hornets in the stash and eager to see you have a go at it!
30 September 2017, 22:35
Adam GudynowskiI've just read about PE HUD not fitting the windshield. Can you imagine that exactly the same problem is with Kinetic's Su-33?
17 January 2018, 10:59
Ricardo ReisYes, unfortunately you are very right. I saw Doog's Models' video on Youtube last year and he *cuts* the PE to fit (!!!). I was expecting that he had done something wrong, but it was not the case - the PE really d is too big.
17 January 2018, 12:56
