Finally back at the bench with Hasegawa's 1/48 F/A-18 Super Hornet Completed!

Welcome back!  Not near as puffy as W7 but great progress.  The pit looks great.

Well done.

Nice seeing you back in the hobby after a long break! That workplace of yours looks real nice compared to mine...

Welcome back Keyda. I took a little break myself. That cockpit is looking wonderful. Keep up the good work

Keavdog, lol.  It's funny because I struggled with that a bit while making the plush.  I'm so used to the real thing, or the models the puffiness of the plush was bugging me a bit.  I just had to accept it's a plush!  It's supposed to be puffy.  Thank you!

Thanks Jeaton!

Teenage Modeler, Thank you!  I started out small at my dining room table several years ago.  Which got annoying having to pack everything up and put it away to eat dinner.  So I moved upstairs to my bedroom.  I've had to reorganize, and move things around several times, and it's a little cramped, but works for me.  Here's a pic of my corner. 

Thanks lawdog!  Summer was just so busy with me working.  Was supposed to be a part time job, but it landed up being over 30 hrs a week.  Which didn't leave me much time to take care of my household duties and the museum stuff let alone have any bench time.

Some slow progress yesterday.  Things didn't go exactly as planned either.

I started fiddling with the resin intakes I bought.  Honestly the one side I was messing with didn't fit very well.  Left some gaps I wasn't a fan of....

I decided to put that side down, and see how the other side fit.  After messing with it for a minute, and it not going together properly at all I realized it was the same as the opposite side.  I had two intake tubes for the same side.

So that ruled out using those.  Back to using the kit intakes.  Which I wasn't happy with how those fit either.  So my last ditch effort, which I try not to resort to, but usually do anyway is making FOD covers.  I use fabric, and coat it with modge podge then let it dry.

After a little trimming, and a coat of dissolved putty to harden them up more.

Where I left off last night.  Got the landing gear pieces put together and painted.

Slow progress the last couple of days.  January is a month that sucks the motivation right out of me.  Too many would be birthdays, and death anniversaries. 

Anyway.  I have an airplane, and at least a few more rounds of putty, sand, prime, repeat.  Nothing too serious, just a lot of seams that need to vanish.

Looking great!  I'm shopping for the kit now.

Looks good so far,I really enjoyed that kit,I had to build it when Behind Enemy Lines came out.

Thanks Don!  The price varied quite a bit when I was hunting down my kit.  Weird how some kits are like that.

Thanks Tojo!  It is going together decently enough. 

I am just about done with the putty, sand, prime, repeat phase.  I missed an area thinking the flaps were going to conceal it, and remembered I am putting the flaps in the down position.  So a bit of work in that area, and I should be ready for paint.  Hoping to have it painted before the weekend.

I got the two main colors painted today.  Even though it looks like they are the exact same color.  I even darkened the top color with some Gunship gray.  Instructions called for Dark Ghost gray, and Light Ghost gray, so that is what I used. 

I played around with the panel lines, and went over them with a gunship gray, then toned it down some with the base color.  It is hard to tell in the pics, but I think it looks pretty good.  Hopefully the start of some detail painting tomorrow.  One of my favorite parts, masking off areas for a different color.  It's also one of my least favorite things, cause it's stressful thinking I'm going to screw it up when I pull the tape off, lol.

Some good progress today getting most of the detail painting done. 

Going to the museum tomorrow so I likely won't get back to working on this until Sunday. 

Lot's of progress!  Ya, the modern grey camo is tough to see much difference. The Osprey I finished last year... you can barley tell there's 3 greys on it.

keavdog

Lot's of progress!  Ya, the modern grey camo is tough to see much difference. The Osprey I finished last year... you can barley tell there's 3 greys on it.

 

It's horrible.  I could barely tell where the heck I was painting.  On the plus side no one will see if I made a mess.  I have an Osprey in the stash, Italeri's 1/48 offering.  I really should get to that one soon.  So many projects so little time, lol.

That's the same kit I built for Modelcrazy's VTOL GB.  I had a build thread that I forgot about as I was updating the GB thread.  It's here if you care to look - decent kit overall. 

https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/p/187806/2184840.aspx#2184840

Can't get it to hotlink... maybe more forum issues so you'll have to cut and paste :/

keavdog

That's the same kit I built for Modelcrazy's VTOL GB.  I had a build thread that I forgot about as I was updating the GB thread.  It's here if you care to look - decent kit overall. 

https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/p/187806/2184840.aspx#2184840

 

Can't get it to hotlink... maybe more forum issues so you'll have to cut and paste :/

 

 

I'll check it out thanks! 

It took me almost all day, but I got all the decals on, and a gloss coat on top to seal them.

I used a combination of kit decals, and an aftermarket set.  I really like aftermarket ones.  So far I've never run into the issues you sometimes get with kit decals.  My only problem with aftermarket is how they cram everything together, and I have difficulties cutting in between them.

I'll be working on weathering and final assembly tomorrow.

Its lookinggood keyda.

lurch

Its lookinggood keyda.

 

Thanks!

Managed to finish up after dinner.  I've spent basically the entire day working on it.  Heres a bunch of pics, lol.

It is so much dirtier than it looks in the pics.  I still need to learn the art of taking pictures of completed models.  I always seem to wash out my wearthing. 

Up on the wall with the Phantom, and Tomcat.

Yep it turned out great.

Looks great!

Do you have any kind of photo or graphics software on your computer?

Thanks lurch!

rocketman2000

Looks great!

Do you have any kind of photo or graphics software on your computer?

 

Thank you!  I do have an older version of Photoshop.  Not that good with it though, lol.

Finished up real nice

Wow, great work. I would have that in my display case for sure. Well done.

BK

Turned out great.  Those markings a quite striking

Nice job.  I hope my Meng Hornet turns out this nice.  Hanging them on the wall is different.  Very cool.  

Thanks Tojo!

BrandonK, unfortunately I don't have much room for a display case.  Only thing in a case is Mini Whiskey 7, and Mini MMB.  They don't collect too much dust being hung from the wall though. 

Thanks keavdog!

Thanks wpwar11!  I have several hung up on the wall like that.  Takes up less space that way. 

That is real nice, Keyda81. Maybe you should be thinking about adding a room or a bigger house! We certainly would not want you to stop building just because you ran out of space!

Great looking Hornet!  I really like the markings that you went with.  I have a buddy who displays all of his aircraft hanging on the wall like you do.  He also says that it takes up less shelf space and they don't collect dust as much as they would sitting on a shelf.

TJS

Shipwreck

That is real nice, Keyda81. Maybe you should be thinking about adding a room or a bigger house! We certainly would not want you to stop building just because you ran out of space!

 

Thank you!  I still have room, lol.  I still have several builds that are just not up to par anymore, so I will build a new one, and toss the old.  I could start hanging them in my bedroom if I wanted to as well.  So I still have plenty of space.

Thanks Mr Tom!  Anything I don't have to dust I'm happy about, lol.