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

arki- That is gorgeous work, it looks real!  Especially those consoles and IP, incredible stuff.

Long overdue for an update on my end. 

Cockpit is painted with Promodeller wash applied for depth.

Ejection seat is painted, washed, and Eduard placards applied.  Some PE can be fiddley and pointless, but I like the placards.  Nice touch.  Granted, once the seat is installed those on the lower part won't be seen but I still like them.

IP is painted as well.  Not my cleanest work, but I'm resigned to move on.  The rudder pedals are folded PE included in the Aires set.  Nice, but you'll be hard-pressed to see them once everything is installed.

Seams on the fuel tanks has been filled, sanded, Mr. Surfacer 500 applied, sanded again.  Ordnance loadout from the Hasegawa weapon sets has been assembled, seams filled and sanded. 

Next is to fit the cockpit into the fuselage.  Past experience with Aires products tells me sanding to fit is in my future.  We'll see.

Cheers

Nice work Jeff.  Colorful markings, nice loadout.

Some miniscule progress on my end.  Started painting the cockpit parts, all Aires resin except for the seat from Wolfpak.

Installed underside of wings.

Typical Hasegawa kit, contains no weapons.  I've decided upon a weapon loadout, and first up is assembling the Sidewinders.  The ordnance will all come from the Hasegawa weapon sets.

First major cutting involved to fit the Aires cockpit is removing the front coaming, highlighted in blue.

Couple of quick swipes with the X-acto and voila.

(2) fuel tanks are also assembled (kit supplied) but forgot to take pics of those.  Fit is surprisingly crappy on those.

Next is to continue painting the cockpit pieces.  A lot of detail and work involved here.

Cheers

Thanks guys. Steve, its 1/32 so it's pretty freaking big.

Regards,

Jeff

Jeff, Wow what an amazing build and such a good looking bird to boot. Love the looks of this one and its well built and finished and the marking option makes it stand out. Great job my friend and that one is definetly a showcase member. By the way what scale is that thing. Well done.

Steve

Dang Jeff, that really came out NICE!  What an enormous beast, can't believe you finished it already!  I really need to get cracking on mine.

Page 1 updated!

I'm going ahead and calling this one done. Can't really think of anything else to do to her:

This was a really fun build but I'm glad to put it behind me. This is the biggest kit I have ever attempted.. Keep up all the good work guys. Even though I am done, I am still part of this GB and will be popping in to check it out.

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

Regards,

Jeff

Thanks a lot guys

Jeff, that hornet is wonderful and hope to find those decals one day for another hornet build, they have to be one of the most striking schemes Ive seen. Also like the look of the loadout, if you got weapons use em I say. My Revell only came with sidewinders so I bought a Hasegawa set and figured if im going to shell out extra for weapons Im going to load it to the teeth. Great build and cant wait to see it with its canopy on

Steve

Steve, great finish.  I've always liked the Felix markings and the loadout looks serious, although likely hypothetical!   Nice job!

Jeff, great progress and another good choice for markings.

Thanks, Frank and I agree, that kit come with like 5 sprues of ordnance and whatnot. I don't care if it is a CAG bird, I ain't letting it all go unused.

Regards,

Jeff

Great stuff Jeff, that thing is armed to the teeth!  Exactly how a Hornet SHOULD look.

Thanks, Andrew. It's been a mostly fun and pain free build. Having said that, I can't wait to get this big sucker off my bench and move on.

Way to go Steve! I like it!

Jeff! Nice work on the nose decal I like that too.

This one is getting really close. All I have left is attaching a few bits, a final flat coat and then the clear parts. Oh yeah, and some Tamiya clear here and there.

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

Regards,

Jeff

Thanks for all the comments guy's its much appreciated. Of all the decal options I looked at this one caught my eye the most from Afterburner decals. The glue blob was just to the left of the blade antenna on the spine but it cant be seen to clearly in these pics. I painted the spine with semigloss Tamiya and the brush paint touchups are a bit too flat. I will be posting better pics soon and it may be more visable in those.

Steve

Agreed!  That is a stunning example of the Hornet, well done!  I am envious of you, what I wouldn't give to have one that nice in my display case.

I updated page one for you!

Steve, that thing looks really, really nice. Whatever glue blob you were talking about is nowhere to be seen on my end.

Regards,

Jeff

firesmacker, your big ol' bug is coming along nicely.  She is lookin good.  Nice job with the nose decals.

Great build sidure.  I like the paintjob and decal selection.

Well Im calling this one done and just in time for the big day. I took a few quick shots for now but will do some better ones in a few days plus with the details. So heres a few pics

Thanks for looking everyone and I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy modelling next year.

Steve

Know what you mean Arki, thats why im rushing to finish this one by friday. Look forward to when you get it started

Steve

Thanks Frank, I am going to do some touch up paint on Fri and see how it matches. I got the bombs sorted out tonight. I made some pins from stretched sprue and drilled corrisponding holes and took care of them like that. All I have to do to finish is some touch up details here and there.

You have Christmas Jolly Rogers decals, bet they are cool. I just bought Jolly Rogers decals for my F-14 that I am just about to start

Steve

Liking the X-mas Felix Steve.   Progress is halted on my end for the holidays.

Cheers

Awesome looking Hornet Steve, love the season-appropriate markings too!  I have Jolly Rogers Santa markings somewhere, may have to get those for Christmas NEXT year (I'm really slow...LOL)

Bummer about the glue blob, been there-done that!  Hope you get it sorted out without too much difficulty.

Nice looking sprues Arkii, so when do we see some construction on the beast.

I have been plugging away on my kit and should have posted some more pics but its almost done and hope to have it finished by Christmas. A few minutes ago I just had a disaster when I dropped a blob of glue on the black spine area of the fuselage and I want to cry now. I dont know if I can match the sheen of it. The aircraft has its decals and gloss and dull coats applied so I am a bit upset right now. Oh well I will do some touchups tonight and hope its close. Here are the latest progress. All work on the fuselage is done and im working on matching the Hasegawa weapons to the Revell pylons right now and of course they dont match. So I am supergluing metal pins in the bombs and attaching them that way. I have no idea if the loadout is correct but I am arming this thing to the teeth, if I have to pay extra for weapons im going to use them.

and here is a pic of the tails, I just had to go with the Christmas option in the spirit of the season plus they are very cool I think. Hope to have this one done by Christmas day if the weapons co-operate

Thanks for looking and any comments welcome

Steve

As noted, all the sprues have been washed and I've sorted through the aftermarket to determine what exactly I'll be using.  First up, the obligatory sprue shots.

This particular kit must have been a special edition or something as it came with some bonus "detailing" parts.  Contained within a separate Hasegawa box inside, I assumed some PE for seats or such and never bothered to look.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered not only some standard Dragon USA PE for seat, canopy and cockpit but also some white metal landing gear!  Nice!

Royale Resin wheels, slightly blurry picture, very clear and detailed resin casting.

Aires resin cockpit.  Nothing appears broken or missing which is a nice change of pace for an Aires set.  I'll be using everything in this set except for the seat.  This is a late model F/A-18C and the seat is an early version.  I'll put it in the spares section for another Hornet.

As mentioned, the particular markings I'll be doing from TwoBobs are for a late-model F/A-18C, whilst the kit is an early C-model.  Wolfpak to the rescue.  Set provides late model antenna, updated weapon pylons, and late model SJU-17 NACES bang seat, and an entire replacement nose section with the 5 IFF "bird-slicer" antenna.  Frankly the IFF antenna could be scratched, but this saves me the headache and provides an easy way to display the refueling probe extended.  Hopefully there won't be any resin shrinkage at that nose section.  We'll see.

Last but not least, I have a set of Eduard placards for the Hornet. 

As far as a weapons loadout, I have no idea.  I'll figure that out later.

I'll be starting on the cockpit first, naturally.  Progress pics to come.

Cheers

The more I see that jet Jeff, the more I like it!  Great work so far, and glad that the decals worked for you.

All the major work is done. Ordnance is finished and all the gear bay doors are drying. I should have this one wrapped up in the next week or so.

The landing gear consisted of a whopping 78 parts including tires but not including any of the doors or support struts.

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

Regards,

Jeff

Looks good, Steve. Real sharp masking job. I have quite a bit done and will post some pics tonight or tomorrow.

Regards,

Jeff

Thanks for the comments guys its appreciated. I have had little bench time but have managed to get some of the decals on. The main squadron stuff is on but the tons of stencils are still to go and that might drive me crazy. I may skip some here and there as a lot of them will blend with the paint job anyway. Sorry for using up all the clamps but I needed every one of them and I swear if you sneeze on the nose section it will fly off, its under a lot of tension to get it to fit right. Hope to have some progress pics after the weekend

Steve