F/A-18A Kit Bash

Have you already glued the wings in place? The simplest method would be to make the LEX fillers with sheet plastic and sand it smooth to match the surrounding area. You will also address the wing and stabilator snags, making both leading edges straight for a production aircraft.

Thx Stikpisher. The wings arent glued in yet So I definitely have some flexibility with how to address this. Hasegawa original design was 2 pieces and a hollow area under just half the root extensions. Weird, but I’m assuming the real YF had something like this as part of the prototype program. I’ll have to see if adding thin sheet plastic will work without adding thickness to the edges. A definite work bench project for tomorrow 

Yes, the development Hornets had all those features. Flight test showed the problems that they created, and they were removed for full scale production. An old early 90s issue of FSM has the same kit being modified into a production bird and shows exactly what to do. The old Detail & Scale book on the early Hornets also shows the changes to make. 

I have a 1/32 Revell Hornet that I will be updating in a similar manner with somebody else’s cast off Academy parts and sheet plastic surgeries. One day...

I doubt you can actually make a YF-17 out of that kit.  The YF-17 was a Northrop only project and was physically smaller than the F-18 which was a joint Northrop/McDonnell Douglas project.  Whole new airplane, similar to the F-18E/F morphing out of the F-18A/B/C/D.

Hasegawa kit SO23:5800 is supposed to represent the first 5 development airplanes.  It's also 1/32 scale.  I has the development decals also, of course.

Haven’t found that FS article yet. I’ve got the more recent 10yr series I guess.

making more progress tonight!

Working on the vertical stabilizers tonight. Took awhile at home depot to find some 1/16” wire. Once i did i was all set. Here’s the 1st one. The other is in front of me and almost done. It’s just sitting at a little angle but I should have it lined up shortly 

next up tonight is to get rid of the slash on the horizontal stabs. Dandiego sent me a piece for that which is probably the best piece yet because I didn’t know how much work it was going to be to get the leading edge correct.

That leading edge snag filler piece is cheating... 

but to quote somebody that I once knew, “ if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t trying”... 

that looks great!

After some advice about how best to glue the odd wing joint on this one I’ve made some great progress this weekend. Here’s the first pic of it starting to take shape.

this one shows some of the amr reaver vents. still some clean up to do but thought I’d show it as it’s turning out pretty nicely i think.

i decided on a full military power near vertical takeoff for the presentation of the model. To do that the tabs needed cut off the stabilators so they could be repositioned. The plan is to duplicate the rotation from the Tamiya F-16. Ordered a bag of o-rings today. Once they come in the surgery starts again. Looking over some pics i believe the rotating center is in line with the circular marks on each of the stabilators. It all seems to line up on the fuselage too based on what I’m seeing. If you see something out of whack here let me know. Below is a picture of the markup.

jeaton01

I doubt you can actually make a YF-17 out of that kit.  The YF-17 was a Northrop only project and was physically smaller than the F-18 which was a joint Northrop/McDonnell Douglas project.  Whole new airplane, similar to the F-18E/F morphing out of the F-18A/B/C/D.

Hasegawa kit SO23:5800 is supposed to represent the first 5 development airplanes.  It's also 1/32 scale.  I has the development decals also, of course.

 

I would agree- the size problem would be a real issue.

One package of o-rings from McMaster Carr, 1” of icemaker tubing, 2 nails, and a couple slabs of evergreen strip and viola, instant stabilators! Plus while things were drying between steps i shot some pool with my son. Everybody’s happy :-) 

Checking the alignment and fit Of the collar I made. Modeled this off the Tamiya F-16. 

Once it’s dry tomorrow I’ll try an action shot and see what it will look like on the base. Will have to check the droop with the tape off, hopefully the dry fit i did tonight was accurate. Overall it seems to fit the part but let me know if you see something off as I still have time to change it.

Here it is using my handy iphone level app lol i hate finding new uses for this stupid thing. After a double check I’ll spot glue them before using epoxy to lock them into position. Let me know if you all see anything goofy in this pic?

While I’m filling and sanding the lerx area my goal is to finish up the cockpit this weekend. To that end I’ve got some detail added to the upper movable canopy deck. Making use of new skills in straightening wire and pin drilling here.

Not as far as I’d like but had more family stuff to do than i thought :-)

the upper movable canopy is done and drying in the canopy now. Made up 3 rear view mirrors but still need to install them. Found i didn't have the right paint for a Marine so will make a pit stop at LHS after work tomorrow. Hopefully done tomorrow 

Looked at this pic and realized some paint chipped so i got that fixed. The HUD frame came from the Hasegawa kit, cut them off and made a tab on the bottom to mount in the Academy coming. The green light is one of those sticky backed jewels from the art area at walmart.

Hit a milestone today, the cockpit is done and ready for a final check. Let me know if you see something I should correct before I seal it up and get ready to primer the whole plane. I'm very happy I didn't launch one piece into the stratosphere! I masked the canopy while I was waiting on paint to dry. Wish I hadn't been so productive now that I had a chance to borrow my son's camera with the wide angle lens or I could have gotten some shots with it on too. The pilot is Vallejo's Green Grey which seems to be the match to sage green. I lightened the color with white and yellow for a few different tones. I darkened it with black and didn't like it at all, seemed to come out a deep grey instead of a green tone. I'm debating if a black wash would make it look any better. Let me know your thoughts. 

Started my first black basing trials tonight! The MCW paint is thinned 50/50 with gunze leveling thinner. One of the guys at our local club suggested this to get a smoother finish and to be able to control how much paint is going down. One of my best lessons yet has come from this experience. Probably the first time I’ve been able to get a fine line and this method is helping me learn how to put the paint down n layers rather than an overall spray that tends to be too thick. Below is just the mottle coat. Will do more over the weekend following some more practice before i spray a cover coat and some other shades. 1st I’ve got to get the whole thing together tho lol

Hey Mongoose,

I'm interested in seeing how your paintwork turns out. Please post pictures of your progress. I'd love to compare notes when you're done.

So far your build's looking great. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

Cheers!

-O

oortiz10

Hey Mongoose,

I'm interested in seeing how your paintwork turns out. Please post pictures of your progress. I'd love to compare notes when you're done.

So far your build's looking great. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

Cheers!

-O

 

O sounds great. So far I've learned that setting the stop on the back of my airbrush to limit travel is IMPORTANT lol at least for me. It was really easy to splatter paint. Now I'm figuring out speed and control. I still have some "dots" where it seems I'm stopping and staying in 1 place for too long. Did you have these when you did the random spraying? If so did they cover up with the next several coats? 

One thing I tried was to vary the black coat. It's not so heavy in spots like on the top side of the tails and on the trailing edge of the flaperons. Will see how that looks once I put a few different shades on it. I tried white on the top side of the tails and it didn't have the affect I thought it would so it may be that solid black is the best.

More on where I'm at in the build below...

So I took a day off work for this. Originally this was supposed to be for a Marine tribute at our local IPMS club meeting in September. Since the water dripping into the family room from the upstairs bathroom took over my late summer lol, it has become a December meeting goal...So I took a day off work for this because it still felt too far from done to make the meeting on the 17th. 

Here is the overall state of things today (did some weapons too but no pics of those till they're done).

Does anyone have experience with how the filler looks once you start putting color on the aircraft? The black primer shows it way too well. When I use grey primer it seems to blend in pretty good. Will end up testing things out on the stabilator before I do the main plane so any advice ahead of time would be great.

One thing I can conclude, I must do a better job blending in the filler. Jury's out on how I'm doing at black basing. Let me know what you think good or bad? Some of my mixed opinion is that the paint is really glossy after applying the top coat with 70% thinner. The thinned coat is hard to lay down because it's hard to see the paint. Took aswhile to find the right reflection and set up the airbrush different than for the mottle coat.

1st off I'll show two stabilators side by side. On the left are 3 coats, primary color and a lightened mix and darkened mix. I used white and black to change the shades. 

Here they are with all 3 coats prior to doing the thinned cover coat with the base color.

And whenever I had some paint still in the cup I threw it on the hornet :-)

It’s a model fest weekend!!

heres the gark ghost grey and lighter dark ghost grey mottle coat. After the kids christmas carol concert tonight the darker dark ghost grey will go on mist likely 

I also redid the stabilators. Used bondo glazing putty instead of perfect plastic putty.it looks much better. Pics later once i get them repainted.

Who hoo thanks for the encouragement Anthony! 

This morning the bottom mottling is all done. Starting with th small parts was definitely the wayto go. If for no other reason this method is great for impoving air brush skills. Recognizng when it needs cleaned out and when my strokes are getting sloppy, like going too fast. So heres where I’m at plus a shot of all the different mixes and a bonus, had a few pieces of cork board left from my daughters room decorating request that were put to good use.

It's been a completely uninterrupted day in the paint booth  Another 2 hours gone and the bottom is done in light ghost grey. The tails were supposed to be LGG too which I almost missed. Glad Dave Roof has the graphics with his decals for sure as I kept that sheet right next to me all day.

Calling it a day. Time for a beer and some nfl football. I see Hornets over Hanoi is updated so maybe I’ll read a few build threads first...

Here she is with a gloss coat on her, ready for weathering. The last one is a collage of all the small parts i did as well.

the mottling really shows up under the gloss clear. Assuming it will fade when the matt clear goes on. Anyone with experience with this that could confirm how it looks with matt clear?

Hey Mongoose,

I think your paint looks great. Looks like a well used USN line jet. I agree that one of the benefits of this method is how easy it is to fix boo-boos. When there were a few spots on my build that I had to go back and address, the ensuing paint touch-ups just added to the overall effect. Even after final assembly! Some freshly painted spots ended up looking just like the random cover-ups we'd see on the real jets. 

As far as the mottling goes, yeah, it'll tone down a bit under the flat coat. I think that's one thing I'll do different with this method. Next time, I'll let the black show through a little more. I think that spraying my top coats a bit thinner will give a bit more contrast after the flat coat.

Anyway, your build is shaping up. Keep up the good work!

-O

I've been following along, but couldn't comment, got locked out, lol.  I've never tried the black basing, or pre-shading.  Haven't gotten into either one yet.  I might have to give something a try with the current build though.  Looking good!

Keyda it’s worth trying on anything that’s seen some rough service. My camera and location for pics isn’t the best so it’s hard to capture the tone variations accurately. They’re either too harsh or soft it seems in the pics. I tell you being able to fix my goofs here and there without feeling like i ruined the paint has been awesome. It really seems more realistic in person. My son stopped over and that was one of his first comments about it.

Looking like i may get this done for the local club meeting! Finished the major weathering under the fuselage tonight. I decided on oil dot filtering to match the brown tones seen in photos of desert storm Hornets, except my oil dots are actually acrylic dots as I’m using water based artist paints. Here’s a few transition shots.

Just one pic tonight but it represents about 10hrs of work. Always surprising how much time passes when you sit down and do decals! Flaps are on and weathered, gun burn marks on, exhaust painted but not on yet, landing gear doors ready to go on, and pylons ready to go on (all sitting on left side of the booth).

Here’s a teaser for today! I’m chained to the bench today on a mad dash to finish her up...

She's looking real good man. Great job on my favorite fighter!