The Hornet's Nest GB 10/10-10/11

Darren, sorry to hear of your wowes. As you know I am building the same kit and have been building behind you and keeping track of the pitfalls etc. Now you have me scared to death of what I am about to get into but I am stedily beating it into submission.

Jeff, really nice looking progress. love the decals of this bird and I have been trying to find the same set in 1/48, they are way too cool. Great work

Steve

Darren, Thats a real shame about your build... I do understand where your coming from, we all have a kit or 5 thats been reboxed i think

Jeff, Decals look sweet, well done

Darren- Sorry to hear about your Super Bug mate!  I think putting it aside is the right thing to do.  A quick, mind-clearing build can work wonders.

Jeff- I am quite relieved to hear that those decals are behaving!  I was a bit worried that they might act the same way as the first ones.  Glad that is not the case.

Great Work! That does look like a challenging nose decal.

With some big help from Frank, this one is really starting to come together. The one he sent me were a complete 180 from the ones in my kit. In fact, they adhered so well I was starting to tear them moving them into position. There is a slight gap between the nose band and the flag decal. I will touch that up before the end. Any ideas on a color match?

So far, only the right side is done, I'll get to the left side tomorrow and start with the myriad little decals that go everywhere.

Thanks for looking. As always, any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Regards,

Jeff

Hello Chaps!

after much fiddling and tweeking I still cannot get my Superbug to look right. Basically, it was a mistake for me to chop the wings, if I left them alone the build would look a lot cleaner, as it is I am just not happy with it so I am going to source another F-18 and start again. 

I am going to treat myself to a quick, easy build in the meantime to cheer myself up. I will return!!

WOW! I am starting to feel very BEHIND!!!! I am still trying to finish an H-19 for the Korean War GB. Plus I have 3 vipers to get started on for my own "Viper GB." and this Blue Angel. Luckily for me I have received the Resin seats for all my upcoming builds. Once that blasted helo is finished I can get started on these guys.

Oh how I wish I had an actual room to build in. It is always a bummer to have to clean and put away your build from the dinning room! I think if I had it sitting out with all my supplies ready I would be a building machine.........Probably not!

Travis

Firesmacker, excellent progress, well done

Great work so far everyone!!!!    I have a few other GB commitments to finish/start before I get working on this one.  I hope to get 2 of the Hasegawa 1/72 F/A-18F's and a 1/48 Revell F/A-18E built for this GB. 

Keep up the good work. 

Frank, PM inbound

Jeff- Dang, painted and cleared already?  That's freakin amazing my friend.  Sorry to hear about the decal woes, but honestly I have not heard many good things about Academy decals.  Earlier this year, there was a guy over at LSP who was releasing (supposedly) a set of AM stencils for this kit, including (I believe) weapons stencils.  Never heard though if it ever actually happened sadly.  Hard to believe none of the AM decal manufacturers ever did a set in 1/32. 

Is this the sheet in your kit?

If it is, you're welcome to the plane-specific ones from my kit.  I need the gray walkways and stencils, but if you want to experiment a little with the red white and blue ones I'd be happy to send you mine if you need them.

All the painting is done and she has a coat of Future. I had to hit her with some Micro-Mesh since being a smoker with 3 dog and 2 cats to boot means for a lot of dust and crap flying in the air that always seams to land where I don't want it to.

I've had a lot of heart-ache with these crappy Academy decals, especially with the ordnance. The Mk.82 ones went on fine but the Sidewinders are giving me fits. So I'm trying a different approach before I mask and paint everything. I coated them all with Micro Scale liquid decal film. I did the same with all the big decals and they have set for a few days. I have some AM sets I can use but I really want to do the All American Bug.

We'll find out tomorrow if that's in the cards or not. Wish me luck.

As always, any comments or suggestions are welcome (especially as regards to the decals)

Regards,

Jeff

dupes

 

 

 

Holy smokes Arki! Wasn't the Has Hornet expensive enough on it's own?? Can't WAIT to see what you can pull off with this monster.

Got a show I'm wrapping things up for on Sunday, the HB Hornet is next up in line.

Meh, I've had the kit for years.  I seem to recall getting it on sale, so it was nowhere near Hasegawa pricing now for these birds.  Which is ridiculous by the way.  All the AM I've slowly bought piecemeal when I could get a good deal.

By the way, good to see you back on the forums.  How do you like the new TT bike?  Yep, checked out your log and you've completely crushed my effort this year.  

Steve, nice progress on cockpit. 

Archangel Shooter

Add me to the list, I have chosen the Hobby Boss 1/48 F/A-18D.

You got it, list updated!

BTW, awesome avatar!  I just recently acquired my custom made 1/48 A-6A Intruder VMA(AW)-242 decals for a special project!

Steve, nice job on the office, well done

Add me to the list, I have chosen the Hobby Boss 1/48 F/A-18D.  I was considering doing the 1/32 Academy kit but doubt I'd finish it in time. 

Well as promised I have the Pit somewhat completed and im ready to put the fuselage together and then onto the fun stuff. I painted the pit and IP as best I could with as much detail as these old eyes could manage. Revell provides two very nice decals for the IP, one that is in operation and one that is shut down ( very nice touch btw ). I cut the decal into 7 pieces and had to use a gallon of solvent to make them conform to the raised detail. Then I did a little touch up paint here and there and painted one of the screens. All in all Im pleased with the results

Hope to work on the fuselage tonight

Steve

arki30

1/48 Hasegawa F/A-18C

Black Magic canopy and wheel mask

Eduard PE placards

Aires resin cockpit

Royale Resin wheels

Wolfpak late F/A-18C update set

TwoBobs decals, VFA-83 Rampagers CAG

Holy smokes Arki! Wasn't the Has Hornet expensive enough on it's own?? Can't WAIT to see what you can pull off with this monster.

Got a show I'm wrapping things up for on Sunday, the HB Hornet is next up in line.

Great stuff Steve, looks like you are well on your way too! 

Oh yea, I forgot. The oval sanded area on the wing is where Revel printed its made in China and 2005 in raised detail. Why do they still do that so dumb

Steve

As promised I have a few progress pics, dosent lok like much but all the sub assemblies have been built and sanded and as soon as the cockpit is done it should move along very quickly.  The trunnks went in well and I needed just a little filler here and there. I just finished sanding them down. I cut the IP decal into 7 parts and applied them and have put a gallon of solveset to try get them to conform to the raised details but all in all it looks good to me.

I slapped on some putty inside all the joints to make sure there was no gaps

Steve

Julez72

Tango, very nice work, well done...Man that kit sounds like a dog, i'm glad i went Hasegawa

I wouldn't call it a dog.  I've built the same kit with exact same Wolfpak resin mods and didn't have many issues, truth be told.  Yes, the nose area is fiddly, and the intakes are tough to fill and sand (as well as too short), but overall it's a good kit for far less money than the Hasegawa. 

It could be the user.

Thanks for the headsup on the intakes. I was just playing with the fit a few minutes ago. There is internal ribbing on mine and it prevented the rear from sitting in so I cut and sanded all the ribs off and dry fitted again and voila, they snaped into place almost perfectly. There is a few gaps at the intakes so tonight I will apply some putty and hopefully that should do it. I am not taking the trunks out as they are seated so well so I will run some liquid cement into them, dont want to go through that again. I am finally at a stage where I think I should post some progress pics so hope to take some later

Steve

Steve,

we've all had bad kits, its what we do to them that counts!

As for those intakes................ I found the best thing to do was super glue the sub-assemblies together and leave them to dry hard. Then, very carefully slot the internal trunking into the intake frame. When its in, run your glue around the fuselage sides. Make sure you have four strips of masking tape on hand before you do this-when you start gluing you will be able to hold the intake in place as my previous WIP photo.

Hope this helps, Good Luck!!

Tango, that was too funny what you posted up there, reminds me of a few kits ive built. Loks like you got over all the fit problems though and shes looking good. I am building a E model but the instructions in the bacground of your pics are the same as mine. I still have the seat and ip to finish then its on to the fuselage joining. How did the intake trunks go BTW they look awufully fiddly assembly, any advise

Steve

Looks like you tamed the beast, Tango. I've working on ordnance the last few days and hopefully will have all of it finished by today the ordnance I mean)

Regards,

Jeff

Thanks for your encouragement lads, I appreciate that. If I buy another Superbug, I will definitely go the Hasegawa route.

Revell's Typhoon was a joy to build and a new tool kit like their F/A-18F, so I cannot understand why the two kits are so different in quality of fit. I have an early Italeri F/A-18F in the stash, I may just build that one as well out of curiousness.

Tango, very nice work, well done...Man that kit sounds like a dog, i'm glad i went Hasegawa

Tango, man I know how you feel. I just finished a Revell Tomcat. I don't know how they mess it up so bad. Great work by the way.

Great work Tango! Very clean work for the surgery you've performed!