hpetiers

Hi Keith, indeed it was from Aires. It was a perfect fit just as it was!

for those who are thinking about building the newly released -F variant: has anyone seen any build reports on that one?

hi Tom! last year I had made the same adventure with a happy ending, see also but the kit has its oddities, especially beware of the 2 mm height the Revell somehow lost between the inner structure and the outide shell. I wish you lots of fun with building this kit! hugo

to all Tomcat fans, here is my take on the F-14D in 1:72, it's a great kit of an epic fighter aircraft. Decals came from Hasegawa, cockpit from Aires, avionics bays from Black Box: That was fun! Now, where is this Hasegawa kit whose decals I robbed, might as well build it in the toned down version!

Hi Chek, thank very much for thinking about me! indeed I saw that the Revell F/A-18F has been delayed AGAIN, not coming out before june or something. It makes you wonder what makes them decide to delay again since the casts have already been produced. At least good to see that they opted for a better box art, in this case the Black knights squadron. I think I will have a go at is once it comes out!

thank you gentlemen for this feedback! And specifically to Starfighter, having seen your wonderful interpretation of the Rhino from Trumpeter, that really means a lot to me. btw still planning to try out Revell's F/A-18F when it comes out in October

Hi all, thanks for that! lsp ray, that would be Nice, Thx for that honor!

indeed Shawn, a beast it was in behaviour and still is in size! thanks for your support Stokey Pete and chrish. In the bombs I put 1 steel wire stubs that can be pushed into holes in the pylons. For that price you cannot expect any Tamiya-like features!

it took me around one year, then could not get enough of it so decided to add a piece of carrier deck, but in the end completed it last week. please find below my interpretation of Revells F/A-18E with the best of my modeling skills and patience. Added aftermarket ejection seat, pilot, cockpit interior, wheels and decals and did quite some adjustments on the inner structure to make all parts fit. the Maverick missile came from Academy. The build thread can be found in the works in progress section. Thank for looking!

hi Derek B, thanks for your compliment, appreciate it! SO now I have finally finished this project. Took nearly a year but it was worth the effort. Can't wait for the -F to come in October! anyway here is the last in progress pic of the carrier deck, everything put together now: more pics will follow, lets see if I can make some photo's from my back garden in the sunlight tomorrow. Thanks for hanging in with me, it was an amazing adventure! Now, where is that Strike Eagle that I only half finished last year?

today the mail man delivered the decal that i had printed. next step is clear coat!

thank you gentlemen for this encouragement, this deck is really a paint drainer. Boy, did I underestimate the amount of work for this large a diorama! Needed to take the side wall off my paint booth to make it fit Luckily I got some things done this weekend, put on a layer of varnish and then dabbed on some very thin, very dark grey artist oil paint with a sponge. Then the result was a bit too dirty, I decided to put on a thin, diluted layer of the original colors. I think the result is realistic enough now:

indeed, the cut that I made gives some room to show the very back end of the ship with some of the netting and other bits. this is what I have worked on: mounted against the back of the ship this willlook something like this:

it took much more paint and tape than I expected, but by now the deck has been painted. I have now a squeaky clean, new-looking aircraft carrier deck: next step: making it filthy!

in the mean time I have made the frame for catching crew members if they get blown off the deck. On this frame I will apply netting by means of some medical gauze. Also did some pre shading on the deck: I dared to put my Rhino on its feet. It is almost a tail sitter!

Hi Kai, wow. thanks for sharing, particularly on an open platform like this one, takes courage. Good point, when life gets complicated, make sure you have a stable home base. Makes this build just a bit more meaningful and inspirational to me. Thanks for your offer, I will surely reach out!

Hey gentlemen, thanks for your encouragement that really means a lot. And hello mr Wolter! wow, to get this reply from you really means a lot to me! Having actually been multiple times on an aircraft carrier and making such good photo's is really something that I admire, so thanks for your input here. Your website has been a big inspiration for my model aircraft building projects in recent years. Even Jake Melampy published the ultimate super hornet guide with some of your photo's in it if I'm not mistaken. That must make you a real celebrity in the aircraft modeling world! Nice to read that you are also building a Rhino, I wonder if you also keep a blog of it on any of the forums? If there is only this that I would need (and probably the people that use your website as a valuable source of info), is your insight into the question: why have you stopped updating your website? there is such good and useful material on there! Any carrier visits planned for the future? Anyway thanks once again for your support!

hi Chrish, thanks for sticking around this far into the build. I don't know about Canada, but over here they call it social isolation. I call it more time to do model aircraft building. My project is coming along a bit faster than in the last months. I finished the inlets with use of some small plastic parts to imitate the retraction mechanism: then mounted it on my Rhino: Sprayed the burner cans with Vallejo metallic steel and with Tamyia smoke on each edge of each blade: then mounted them, after which I could also glue the ailerons. the carrier deck has been primed with Tamyia primer, the anti-slip coating came out quite well, as did the tie-downs that I had printed by Shapeways:

Hi Chrish, neither can I! I am indeed postponing this build quite a lot my my plan for a piece of carrier deck. But nevertheless making good progress: Put the lines on the deck and pre drilled the tie-down holes. tie downs have been printed by Shapeways in the mean time. The weld seams between deck plates were made with Vallejo putty: Then I used a yoghurt-like primer to glue tiles onto tiles. I had that stuff as left over some years ago, already then I saw how there is very fine sand particles in there and how its structure would make a good anti-slip coating. By combing it with a very fine comb I made the orientation as you see on carriers: structure is accross over the seems, and length wise on the rest of the plates. after a successful test I put the stuff on the piece of deck, half an hour later this was the result: anti-slip coating on the deck!

Hi Mark, I see your point, I selected only a part the size of the aircraft out of the whole print: I just ordered some extra tie down points at shapeways, that will take a few days before I can progress.

Thanks for that! in the mean time I have been thinking about a stand to hold this big beast. I have been looking at phto's of the beginning of the runway of USS George Bush. But it was the USS Theodore Roosevelt, on which the crew had painted 'IF YOU CAN READ THIS ADD POWER' that caught my attention. Good sense of humor of them! I think I would like to go for that too! some very good pictures from Kai Wolter and US navy btw. I made a print of a piece of flight deck, which I had drawn in CAD some years ago: \ Indeed that is my feet in the photo, gives you a sense of the size of this thing. Went to the DYI shop on saturday to get some wood and plastic. My project was just extended by a month!

thanks gentlemen, your encouragement helps really to race towards the finish line! iPainted the Wheel struts and weathered them. Mounting them with all these actuating arms was not easy! then mounted the landing gear doors: now that the Rhino is 95% finished, I am thinking about a base for it to stand on...

the finish line is coming into sight! landing gear in primer tails finished: weapons pilons: flaps: removable armament: just a few more weekends!

yup, the way things have been going so far I tend to build the F too. Revell has announced if for October or so, I will surely be ready by that time. in the mean time I have finished the weathering: this is the underside. Might make that a bit dirtier still under the nose: at the air intakes, including patched up stains: lower wings: upper wing: on the walk ways. the black spine will remain glossy, after polishing I taped it off before the matt coat: then sealed everything with a final cote of gloss varnish. After drying I applied 3 thin layers of matt coat from Ammo MiG, left part are matt, right still glossy: you can easliy see the difference of the gloss with the matt layer weapons are matt now:

Hi Pete, I wanted a big Super Hornet and I did not want to pay 130 Euro's, so this was the only other option. Was I disappointed that the kit had so much more potential that was not realized? Absolutely! I started the kit as a nice challenge to see how these missed chances that I already read about could be easily overcome (I thought: how bad could it really be in this day and age of high tech model making? boy was I wrong). But over time and now seeing the intermediate result, plus now that I know how to fix the most crucial fit issues, I am really having a blast. Needing to do the things that I did might scare some people to attempting this model, so realistically, for the same money you can buy many other models that will give you more satisfaction and less stress. In short: if you want a German Super Hornet in 1:32 for nearly half the price as a Chinese Super Hornet and put up with the consequences, this is the kit for you!