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

dupes

Frank - I hear you about those Twobobs sheets! 229 and 230 especially...according to Twobobs' Facebook page, there won't be many left after all of the preorders go through. Buy now before they go the way of the dodo like all of Twobobs' other awesome sheets!

Don't forget Fightertown Decals is also covering the Centennial schemes.

Linky

And so is Afterburner Decals.

Linky

Quick progress update.  Finally managed to get the seams squared away, or at least to where I'm willing to move on.  Reapplied primer and then preshaded.

Now that paint prep is finished, I can begin the real painting.  Painting the wheel wells, gear doors, landing gear and sundry white is next.

Daywalker

Kevin- Excellent stuff, they certainly do look like jets now!  What schemes are you planning to use?

Thanks Daywalker!  The kit includes markings for VFA-2 "Bountyhunters" and VFA-102 "Diamondbacks".  I will probably use one of each for these builds.  I like both schemes so it works out pretty good. 

Julez72

Kevin, Making good progress there, both builds are looking very nice

Thanks Julez72!  Much appreciated.

I started the Revell F/A-18E last night.  I will get this kit caught up to the 1/72nd scale kits and paint them all at the same painting session....I hope.

The detail in this kit looks pretty good.  I may not need the Eduard PE set.  The fit so far is not too good but better than some other Revell kits out there.

I was thinking today about my planes payload.  Originally I had planned to get the Hasegawa smart bomb set and load the pylons with those.  I started having second thoughts about that when I was looking at the 4 drop tanks that came with my kit.  The cost of the weapon set vs. just using the tanks is what I'm debating right now.  When I searched for pictures of the plane, it seems like the common tank setup is to use 1, 2, 3, or 5  but conveniently not 4.  Can anyone comment or share a picture link where 4 are used?

Update time!  In the painting stage and have managed to make some good progress.

Wheel wells and gear doors have been painted Reefer White.  Underside color Light Ghost Grey has been applied.

Top side color Dark Ghost Grey has been shot (very subtle difference vs. Light Ghost Grey).  Insignia Blue CAG markings have been applied to the LERX, tanks and vertical stablizers.  Have some accidental overspray on the fuselage that sneaked under the masking, but that's an easy fix.

Tanks and ordnance painted, ready for decaling.  Technically this is a USMC loadout, but I like it so I'm using it.

Landing gear and Royale Resin wheels are painted as well.

Still have a bunch of detail painting to tackle, but the big chunks are now behind me.

Cheers

Nice work arki!,   Thats gonna an awesome looking Hornet.  I really like the blue on the vertical stabs and on the LERX.  Despite the little bit of overspray, which seems inevitable, the masking would be deemed successful in my book.  Everything looks symmetrical.      Great job!

Excellent work!  You are really moving fast now on this one, well done!

Gracias, gents.

If I don't have overspray or paint pull-up from mask removal it doesn't feel like a real project.

Looks good Arki, what squadron is it?

Well, I finally broke sprue on my Hasegawa Hornet last night.  Right now, deciding whether to use an AM bang seat or build the kit OOB.  Decisions, decisions!

Christian Theodotou

Looks good Arki, what squadron is it?

 

 

VFA-83

Whoah, you're going to bang out a centennial scheme? SWEET!

Who's decals do you already have in your possession?

Wait, who's that directed at dupes?

Me?  If so, nope no centennial scheme.

Hey everyone! Well I have been working on my Hasegawa Blue Angel off and on. I was thinking that this would be like most Hasegawa kits with a good quick fit! Not so much! Some of it is my own fault. But some things just need to have some extra TLC to get them together. I started by putting a Quickboost seat in with the pilot but I didnt like the look, so I am going back to the kit seat. Has anyone built this kit? One thing I am worried about it the decal sheet. I have Testors Blue Angel Yellow and it appears a lot brighter than the color in the decal. I have to paint the sidewinders and was planning on painting as much as I can then adding the long arrows and stripes from the sheet! Here are the pics:

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Thanks. More to come. I have put it aside to get some "easier" builds out of the way!. Should still finish within the time line!

Travis

Hey Travis, that is the exact thing I did with mine. I painted the sidewinders and wing tips and fins and then used the kit decals for the rest. The problem I had was that the decals were a bit translusent and the paint was a lot brighter and solid. If I had to do it again I would use the decals as masks for painting. In other words, I would paint the entire aircraft yellow and mask off the tips and fins. Apply the decals and then paint the blue. When it had dried then use tape to rip off the decals revealing the yellow stripes and Navy etc. Its not a fool proof method but I have used it one before and it worked. You may have to use a toothpick or knife to get all the decals off and may have to do some touchups. Just my thoughts on the subject

Steve

Nice work Travis!  You're going to town with that one now.

GRRRRR!!   I just took a closer look at the canopies on my Hobbycrap F-18D and found seams running down the center of both pieces. Anyone knows what's the highest number sandpaper to start using so to smooth them out? I shoulda took out the Academy 1/32 F-18D for the build .

It's become pretty commonplace on today's jet models to have seam or mold line along the canopy, even Tamiya's newest F-16's have it.  May have something to do with with the newer slide-mold technology.

Anyhoo, take a sanding stick to it first.  Then progressively move up in sandpaper grits to 8000-12000 range.  If you have some polishing grit, use that as your final sanding effort.  Dip it in Future and voila, seam gone.

Archangel Shooter

 I shoulda took out the Academy 1/32 F-18D for the build .

So...let me get this straight.  One measly mold line, easily polished out with a little elbow grease, is so demoralizing that you'd rather start a whole different kit?  Seriously? One mold line is all it takes to declare a kit unbuildable?

Man up, dude, it's just a mold line. 

I was just venting...been a rough month around here what with my mother first falling thus fracturing a shoulder and hip and dealing with the doctors and the rehab home than for her to passed away from terminal liver desease just the other week. I wiped out that canopy seam in just a few minutes, it runs deep and still show slightly but it looks better than when I first seen it. Next would be to spray gloss over the plane and get it ready for the decals, deciding to either use the kit's or order a set? Didn't like the seats in the kit so I got the True Details seats from Squadron and they look pretty good.

Sprayed the top and bottom with Model Master enamels.  Top is dark ghost gray, bottom is light ghost gray.  Like Arki said, the difference between the two is very small as can be seen in the second picture just aft of where the horizontal stabilizer should be.  Even then, this difference shown is exaggerated by the lighting.  Gear bays were painted with insignia white.  You might also notice my rudders being a bit "off".  I'm in the process of building a carrier deck to accompany the plane and I will be setting all of my control surfaces to what they would be right as the plane is launched.

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Can someone post a pic of a F-18C with this loadout. I am officially starting this build, and this is the only possible loadout I can use lol.

Some good work going on here.  Gotta get started on mine soon.  Here's some pics I shot at Air Expo 2011 at Carswell JRB in Fort Wort.  They even had a Growler!

Great stuff guys, keep those pics coming!

I apologize for my recent absence, but family issues have come up and it looks to be a while before things settle down.  In the meantime, my phone is my main source of Internet and unfortunately FSM does not support posting via smart phones.

I will do my best to keep up here and keep any changes to page one current, but please understand that it could be days before I can get to a computer to update here.  Thank you for understanding!

I just busted out my Hasegawa 1/48 F/A-18C about a week ago.  Getting it done pretty quickly.  I am using Eduard photo etch and the Wolfpack folding wingtips.  I'll get some picks up shortly.  Don't know if I'll be finished by May 31, though.

I never officially entered into this GB but here are some progress picks of my Hasegawa 1/48 F/A-18C:

So for this kit is mostly good.  There have been a few fit issues.  The intakes didn't line up to well.  The nose section took a little wok, too.  And the top and bottom fuselage halves didn't line up exactly as they should have.  It's all manageable, though.

This is just going to be a "plain Jane" Hornet...no colorful decals on this one.

I noticed that I need to touch up the paint under the seatbelt on the ejection seat.  

Nice build Fly-n-hi. 

I managed to get all 4 of the 1/72 scale True Details ejection seats painted up.  They look ok I think. 

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Great looking seats Mac

Question for everyone/anyone...I saw this video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUltbapMQxU&feature=related ) and at  ~0:35 the tomcat lowers its nose right before takeoff by shortening the front landing gear strut.  Since I am building my plane on a deck, and hooked up to the catapult, I was wondering if the Super Hornet has a similar mechanism because some of the pictures I've seen look like the front of the plane is slightly lower than when it is taxiing.  Anyone know if it does or not?

I believe they do.  I would also like to say hi.  I am a hornet junkie as well, and this is my first post as well.  Here are my 2 most recent builds and I am gearing up for a F-18D that I would love to share.  If you look on youtube there are some vary good videos of hornets launching.F18Supersrhinos