Just completed this comission of the 1/48 Hobby Boss F/A18D two seater #7 aircraft. The kit was very easy to build, having great fit and excellent detail. It was built as a straight OOB build. For the love of God, why do they have to put an ugly seam running along the center of the canopy??? I spent about 2 evenings sanding and polishing out the seam on that canopy but the work was worth it.
The decals are from Cam Pro and were very good, however the yellow striping included in the sheet for the canopy rails are for the single seater and none are included for the two seater that has a longer canopy. I had to carefully match the lines with Tamiya tape then shot white paint (this reduces the number of coats when spraying yellow or red paint) and a few minutes later the MM Blue Angel Yellow went on. The MM enamel paints were perfect matches for the blue and yellow colors.
The paint was glossy and smooth but I shot several coats of clear gloss enamel and put the plane aside for about 2 weeks then used Novus and a cotton rag to carefully polish the paint to a high gloss finish.
The engine cans were painted with MM Metalizers and polished out with a soft rag. My only critique about the model is the lack of intake detail. I decided to paint a semi circle at the rear facing the inside of the intake. This actually fools the human eye as it looks like trunking leading up and to the rear of the intakes.
Double click on the pictures fro closeups.
side canopy stripes were painted and matched to the Cam Pro decals
semi circles at the back of the intakes give the illusion of trunking
paint was polished with Novus for a glass like finish
