1:72 F-18 "Blue Angels" Revel 'snap tight' build log.

Following with interest. I did the Hobbyboss "simplified" Blue Angels F-18 which, while not snap-tite, was about the same degree of difficulty (or lack thereof). Should be fun to see what you do with yours.

Should build up ok; there may be some gaps in the fuselage that you'll want to fill in.

There will be gaps, large ones.  I built this with my daughter as a toy for her to play with (spent all of about 5 minutes snapping it together and applying the "decals" [pronounced stickers]).  The canopy was pretty loose as were the vertical stabilizers.  With some effort you should be able to make it into a pretty decent aircraft, but it will definitely require effort.

Groot

Gah those are 'stickers' did not notice. I am not sure how far I will go with this kit.

Assembly went so fast I kind of skipped some things but as you can see in the image above its pretty rough fit.

Really rough! :)

That is the top I will get some practice in with the putties !

But I saved the best for last! The grand canyon of gaps!

So I taped it off and reached for the green putty and a few other tools!

After the tape was removed and the smaller gaps filled with PPP.

I suspect that the kit represented one of the prototypes/pre-production aircraft at some stage. These actually did have open slots (boundary layer air discharge slots) in the leading edge extension. They were solid on later aircraft except for a short open section near the intakes.  

Interisting, thanks for all the responses and input.

Well as you can see it is too late to go back now! LOL

I am nearly done with the putty work. I am not going to do the bottom part as this is just kind of a cast off practice thing anyhow. More pics coming either tonight or tomorrow.

Hats off to you for even trying this!

We've used this kit for Make & Take events and it has some 'sticky' points in the construction.  Plan on using a bit of shim material and glue to get the tails to seat properly.  Bit of 'fettling' of the mating surface will improve the fit.  Not too bad really for a snap-tite kit, though, being as it is fairly accurate (well, does as you noted have some "pre-production" airframe features like the slots...) and has good looking landing gear (but the main wheels need some modification to fit tight & at the correct angles.)  But for the money and a litle bit of work, it is a cheap clothes-horse for that stack of Hornet decals hiding in the corner!

Oh yes, if you *do* use the Blue's stickers, recommend cutting the larger ones into smaller sections & cutting the 'clearance holes' a bit larger.  The adhesive works, well, TOO well & doesn't really let you re-position 'em.  I didn't try the ol' soapy water trick, but it may work in this situation to allow some sliding around before squeezing the water out to bed the sticker down.  But they are awfully thick and so tend to 'ride' above any surface details like panel lines. However, there are a few aftermarket B-A sheets out there if you can find one that would be easier to deal with than these beasties.

That is one thing I really like about the 1/48 WWII range by Pegasus Hobbies - they come with stickers AND waterslide decals.

Have fun, regardless!

Regards, Robert

That's for the tips Robert, the vert stabs were rather a sad fit. I modded them a tad see the images below. I think the fit was good enough for this build. Also this kit does not have any landing gear?

Progress pics!!! Weeee!!!

Fist pass on the sanding

Now were getting there. Mix of Green and PPP putty. Oh yea the canopy got masked and attached. There was some scribing on the interior of the canopy but it was very very light. But I hope it was enough for a guideline.

That's a shot of the 'snap' vert stab as they come off the tree. The nippers give you an idea of what's next.

I  removed a lot of the tabs side and bottom, for one thing they could be dry fitted, another I could adjust the dihedral (if that's what its called for verticals).

The resulting fit was not too bad. In fact I did not even bother to putty them. I am almost over this experiment anyhow!!! LOL

After the last bit of putty work the last touch up of primer. Yea the canopy fit is sad, I could have taken time to tighten it up but I did not.... so there

That's "Blue Angel Blue" by model master. Seems like a good match.

Good luck on your build. In general, these are pretty decent kits, all things considered.

Here's a tip I have found that sometimes helps on snap type kits. Either remove, or enlarge the holes where the pins fit into the press fit holes. With them removed/enlarged, it is sometimes possible to get a better fit by gluing conventionally with the pins not in the way.

There have been indeed changes to the molds over the years on these kits. The F-14 Tomcat did initially come with landing gear in its early releases, and the mold was converted into its current wheels up-stand configuration.

More progress last night.

Found a pretty good match for the yellow "Chrome yellow" by model masters.

Probably spent more on tape than I did for the kit price!

First coat of yellow trim. It almost matches the tape but I can tell already as usual with yellow it is going to take several coats!

After three or four coats of yellow the masking was removed and found this! That will teach me to not bother to 'seal' the masking. Oh well it was easy to touch up and hide. The blue is pretty solid color and a little with a brush made short work of it.

Got the symmetry down fairly well.

After touch up. I don't know why the canopy trim sort of came off towards the bottom. Probably because I did not 'treat' the canopy with cleaning and future, etc. I don't know if I will bother to go back and fix it or not.

Pretty much finished except for the stickers! I will post some pics of the finished project soon.

Not looking bad at all there

This is a fun little build to watch. UM, I almost bought an EZ-Snap kit today at the LHS because of this thread. I still might...

This is the very kit my wife wants me to build.

We attended an air show / museum in Melborne Florida and she fell in love with the F-18 Blue Angel they have there.  

I appreciate your posts and the heads up etc. by everyone, and now I am prepared to undertake my SWMBO'S request.  so it's off to the LHS to buy the kit and lots of putty.

Wow, that's a lot of work for a snaptite.  Still that's a great job you've done to correct any imperfections.

Toshi

I used MM "Chrome yellow" as mentioned before and it was nearly a dead on match to the decal colors.

The coverage was fine but took 3 or 4 light coats to cover.

But as you saw in the photos I 'forgot' (read lazy) to seal the taping before I applied the yellow and paid the price. If I had it to do over I would treat it with a coat or two of the blue first to pre seal the tape edges.

Good luck!

Wow, that was some crazy gaps. Nice save there. Starting to look like a nice kit. Gotta love the F18.