Kinetic Models 1/48 CF-188 Demo Team 2017

Thank you for kind words gentlemen

That paint scheme is quite something! That red really pops. Quite beautiful. Very well done from start to finish. A clean paint job like that has have a perfect finish underneath or it'll show. Kudos on being dilligent. =]

Looks great!  Great decal work and photography too.

The Goo Gone was a life saver :)

That diecast looks pretty good!

That is a striking bird!  Nice job.  And interesting trick with the goo gone

That is beautiful work. I love it.

I have one with the same scheme in my collection but in diecast 

Thank you so much!

I'll think twice masking over decals next time haha

Wow! And a fantastic job recovering those decals, I learned the hard way to never tape over decals, even with clear coat, they are very susceptible to pulling up; their adhesive is too weak. Again, super job!

Here some build photos

Kinetic Models did not include decals for cockpit, ejection seat, or landing gears which they do in their other FA-18 kits and their instruction manual was very vague.

Had some fitment issues with nose, intake, fuel prop, and the canopy.

The antenna disc behind the canopy was missing, so I used this thumbtack in the draw.It's been sitting in their since the 80's for this moment lol.

Used Cricut machine to cutout masking. This was a test fit with Green tape. Used Tamiya one for actual masking on White base coat.

This was a OH F#%k NO moment.

I masked the top gloss area to dull coat the bottom and a chunk of decal came off with the Tamiya masking tape. I guess there wasn't enough clear coat.

So I took those decal pieces with tape into Goo Gone bath.

Then came back from lunch.......Phew!   Saved it.  It still broke into pieces but I was able to manage.

The other side, I just sprayed it and used the extra White strip decal and it was rescued.