ANZAC GB Sept 2012 to Sept 2013

Hi Mikey,

I think that was the 1960's scheme that was carried into the early 70s. The scheme I showed took over and was in use until the early 1980s, when they replaced it with this scheme.  I think that was about 1981.

And then that scheme persisted until the mid to late 90's when they changed to their latest scheme which they used until the whole operation fell over in the mid naughties.  (2000's)

There was this one too, introduced middle to  late eighties. No wonder I keep building Ansett jets.

If Ansett stopped repainting their aircraft they might have stayed in business  Also if Air NZ had kept their nose out both airlines might have been better off.

I have some free time during finals week (gotta do something n between cramming for tests, lol) and have decided to begin work on my F-18.

got a question, though. What was a typical load-out for an A? I have AIM9s, GBU-12 Paveway II's with vertical ejector racks, 330 gal external fuel tanks, AN/ASQ-173 LDT/SCAM pod, AN/AAS-38 FLIR pod, AN/AAR-50 TINS pod and AIM-7M Sparrow's.

I can totally deck this thing out, but want to know what a load out would look like instead of me just randomly assigning weapons.

Directly copied from wikipedia on the RAAF hornets.

The RAAF's Hornets have been fitted with several different types of air-to-air weapons. The aircraft are equipped with an internal M61A1 cannon for use against air and ground targets; 578 rounds can be carried for this weapon.[41] During the initial years of the Hornet's service, the aircraft were equipped with AIM-9M Sidewinder short range air-to-air missiles and AIM-7M Sparrow medium-range air-to-air missiles. The Sparrows were replaced by the AIM-120 AMRAAM in 2002, and in 2004 the Sidewinders were replaced by ASRAAMs.[42] The older missiles are occasionally used in training exercises, however.[43]

A variety of unguided and guided weapons can also be used against ground targets. The Hornets carry Mark 82, Mark 83 and Mark 84 bombs, as well as GBU-10 and GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bombs.[44] In addition, the aircraft have operated bombs fitted with JDAM guidance kits since 2008.[45] During exercises the Hornets carry BDU-33 and BDU-57 LGTR training bombs.[46] Since November 2011, the RAAF's Hornets have also been equipped with AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles.[35][47] The F/A-18s main weapon in the maritime strike role is the Harpoon anti-ship missile; the RAAF initially operated the Block IC variant of this missile, but purchased Block II variants in 2003.[48] In addition to these weapons, the Hornets can also be fitted with 330-US-gallon (1,200 L) drop tanks to extend their range.[49]

Depends on the time frame and mission role.

hmmm....

can you find pics of a typical load?

This pic is noted as being an unusual loadout of 10 Mk82's

From what i can see standard loadout is a pair of droptanks and a missile on each wingtip.

what about a strike mission?

These sites may help.

www.clubhyper.com/.../opfalconerhornetskb_1a.htm

www.ausairpower.net/air-superiority-1.html

thanks scorp!

No worries, youll find NZ and Aussie airforces dont usually hold stock in symmetry ot standard loadouts. Its usually the best weapon for the job that goes on.

Thought you guys might appreciate a photo from the good old days. Its rather apparent this is from before Occupational Safety and Health.

is one of them IN the intake?!

Hahahaha!!

Yes, yes he is. And believe it or not that was standard summer uniform for the groundies in the 60's. Unless the big chief was in town lol.

Ok it's been a very busy period for me so progress has been very slow but had some quality time today so I got some work done. The cockpit while being a real improvement over the kit one has been a real learning experience for me. The instructions aren't great and with no real attachment points it's been quite difficult and with numerous breakages of the photo etch. Most of it is pretty much invisible so I'm putting it down in the experience column.

The fuselage has gone together with really only some light sanding needed on the engine scoop, but this panel join is quite surprising compared to how well the rest of the kit has gone together.

I finally taken the next step up and taken the scriber and dremel to those damn raised panel lines. 

Ok they're a bit rough and look like they came from an armour model but I'm thinking a little putty and some sanding will solve that problem. The scribing is still a bit wonky but it is an improvement over my previous efforts so I might just putty and try rescribing the bottom half of the panel again. 

The wings and tail was a real cinch, but the wind and fuselage joint may need some work. I also wonder why Trumpeter decided to go with metal for that part at the back of the wing. I don't see what difference that would make compared to plastic, and being metal makes it harder to paint more than anything else. 

That kit seems to have a few curveballs in it. Im a little confused about the metal flaps?

Is this a/c only or is armor allowed?  If so, please, put me down for Academy's 1/35 M113 APC?

Armour's all good. Which army are you building it as?

updated

Scorpiomikey

Armour's all good. Which army are you building it as?

Aussie....B Sqd, 3-4 Cav in UN white from Rwanda

Yeah the ball is certainly swinging around a bit but nothing too unplayable so far. It looks like that is most of the difficult build sections, before I start on painting and decaling.

Any updates from anyone? Ill be doin a bit more over the Christmas break. Ive got 2 weeks off and its gonna be hot as all holy hell here.

I just havent uploaded pix yet. Ive been slacking on that part, but the build is really close to being finished. Plenty of free time on break :)

I just havent been able to find the time. But now that im on holiday i should be able to get a rattle on.

I've pretty much finished the construction of the fuselage. Only small amounts of filler was required for the wing to fuselage fit so I went ahead and primed it. 

Now the fun really starts...... Although I'm also starting to think about my next build too...

wow, very nice so far.

I've got a week and a half off work between Christmas and new years, and it's been a pretty good week so far in terms of progress. I've used Vallejo paints for this model and they have sprayed on very well. The underside and topside have been sprayed so far and only the dark brown colour needs to be sprayed which will go on tomorrow. 

The propeller and spinner has also been assembled and painted, as well as the landing gear. I've added brake lines to the landing gear.

I haven't quite decided how to weather the plane yet, it will probably be some paint chips and paint fading somehow. 

Two days in a row, it's definitely been a great break so far, and this is the before shot.

I used blu tack for the masking which was easy enough, but for some reason the Vallejo paints that were so great yesterday gave me a real nightmare today as the dark earth colour gave my airbrush a major case of dry tip, every few minutes giving me sudden bursts of gritty paint that landed in areas where it wasn't supposed to.

So out came the middle stone colour again and I resprayed the areas which weren't supposed to be and decided to also give a light overspray to the dark earth areas to try and fade the colours as the contrast was too stark. This is the result .

I'm not quite sure how to go about fading the yellow areas though because now those areas are too smooth. Being eager to see how the rivet details come up I decided to apply a wash to one of the wings to see how the rivets come up.

I think it comes up pretty good, and had a lucky side effect of breaking up the flat yellow areas so I might spend my next lot of model time applying a wash to the rest of the model before starting with the decals.

hey i like that. One thing you can do is spray some satin or semi gloss along the colour demarkation lines. You see that alot on real aircraft where the paint overlaps and gets worn down with the weather.