ALF18

I heard a rumour from a fairly reliable source that it might be before Christmas. I also can’t wait. I flew Tutors for 1,600 hours over a span of more than 5 years. ALF

Ouch! Chuck, I saw Mike M. in Ottawa a few days before his surgery, and I saw how much it affected his ability to function (not to mention the pain). You're perfectly correct that it's a good approach to consider that others are living far worse things - that's a sign of a healthy attitude! Time will heal. A guy with your skills cannot be kept away from the bench forever. Speedy recovery, my friend. ALF

Oooh! Better hurry up before an 'accident' happens with somebody vacuuming... Cool collection. ALF

This is an incredible job. I don't know how you do it, making the gear retract. I mean, sure, I see how you did it - but the incredible patience! Good job. One of my friends flew the Luftwaffe G models at Luke AFB (Phoenix) Arizona in the early 80s. He was a Canadian CF-104 pilot, who was on exchange instructing at the time. He took me out to see the jets on the flight line, and they looked beautiful in their polished natural metal with USAF markings. Yours will look fantastic, I'm sure. By the way, the lights on the side of the engine intakes that you're worried about making flush are not formation lights - they are just standard red and green navigation lights. ALF

What can I say, Pig? Colour me super impressed. I am salivating over every detail, and I completely understand why this is a long-term labour of love for you. You're a better man than I, taking the blame for your IP blasting the canopy on the adjacent T-38. I remember the first time taxiing in the back of an F-5B, watching the front canopy dance around and threaten to detach itself with every bump. The pilot (my father) just laughed and said it was the most Mickey-Mouse arrangement he'd ever seen. I wish I could afford to pay you to make a 1/18 F-5A for me... but that would be priceless, just like this model, and I don't know I'd live long enough to appreciate it by the time it's built. Keep it up, bud! The end result will be totally worth it. ALF

What colour are those metal rings at the far back end of the fuselage? They should be a dull silver, very similar to the screens just ahead of them. The exhaust nozzles are a lot darker (gunmetal), but those rings are more silver. ALF

The anti-skid strips and cockpit are looking amazing. I take your point about screens being on, but the flaps are powered by hydraulics, not electrical power. To have hydraulic pressure, at least one engine must be running, or the APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) has to be running in maintenance mode. The APU in maintenance mode can provide either AC electric OR hydraulic power, but not both at one (selector chooses which one it can provide). If you want to leave the flaps up, you can claim the engines were just shut down... ALF

Oh, and for the flaps... Hornet trailing edge flaps and ailerons will bleed down after hydraulic power comes off (i.e. when engines shut off), if they were not already down when shut down. Those are good reference pictures. The leading edge flaps will stay where they were when shut down. Generally, to prevent problems when starting and resetting the flaps, pilots will select flaps down (either half or full) just before shutting down the engines, and the leading edge flaps will go to 12 degrees down. The trailing edge and ailerons will droop 42 and 45 degrees respectively when set to full. So - if flaps set to UP/AUTO prior to shutdown: -leading edge will stay up, flush with wing -trailing edge and ailerons will droop over the course of an hour or so to the fully-down position. If flaps set to HALF or FULL prior to shutdown: -leading edge will be 12 degrees down -trailing edge and aileron will end up fully down within about 30 minutes of shutdown. In other words, it's rare to see a parked Hornet with the flaps up. Leading edge maybe, but trailing edge and ailerons will droop quite soon after shutdown. Sometimes, when loading missiles onto the fuselage stations, techs will push the flaps up with their backs to have better access, but they will slowly droop again afterward. ALF

I agree with Chuck (as I usually always do - he has amazing skills)! Sand the edges down, and maybe reduce the pebbling a bit. The example he's shown is actually very dark for a Canadian bird, and the American C you are making definitely has a very dark anti-slip surface. In other words, I think the colour is spot on, but the thickness and texture is a tiny bit overdone in scale. ALF

I know exactly what you mean about endless deployments and family sacrifices. Hats off to you and others who have lived this as well. I'll have to look into that anti-slip stuff from Mig. On Canadian Hornets, the anti-slip panels are often faded and indistinct, unlike the one you're modelling. I just scribble some soft pencil on the area, wet my fingertip, then rub it until it's uniformly darkened. I use the same technique to apply hydraulic oil stains and other greasy stains to the surfaces. What I love about this technique is that if I overdo it, I simply take a pencil eraser and erase it, then try again. In this pic you can see how it looks when finished. I do the dirtying up before applying the gloss coat on the matte paint. You can also see the colour PE in the cockpit. I think the Quinta/Red Fox ones look even better. I built this kit for another pilot's son (a former instructor and Snowbird), who flew Hornets in Cold Lake recently. ALF

All military service is worthy of respect - we all know just how much we sacrificed to live that life. I say 'live the life' because it is a life, not just a job anyone does, and all roles are important. I must say there are many military jobs I wouldn't want to do, and I consider myself privileged to have done what I did. I'm curious - has your Eurofighter pilot friend also flown Hornets? What does he think of the comparison between the two? I'm loving your attention to detail on the exterior. This is a fantastic kit, and a good modeller can really do it justice (like you). The weathering in the gear bays is looking quite realistic, as are the screens. I suspect they are simply the ones moulded on the kit, but nicely painted. I did a cockpit with colour PE on the same kit. I think yours looks better. ALF

Nice job so far. The cockpit looks great. The D model comes in two flavours: two-stick pilot trainer, or night attack with WSO in back. The pilot trainer has a control stick like the front cockpit (like in the reference pic, showing the black rear instrument panel from the model next to it above). The night attack version would have a joystick on each side console, that the WSO uses for weapons aiming. That version is not intended to be flown from the back, and the backseater is a true weapons operator, not a second pilot. I found a good picture on a DCS forum site that shows the left console controller, and the fact there is no pilot control stick in the back on that version: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/200160-fa-18d-usmc-night-attack/page/2/ I flew CF-18 A and B Hornets for 10 years in Canada, and I followed the upgrades closely with the C, D, D night attack, then E, F, and G variants closely. Anything with a centre-mounted control stick in back is a pilot trainer, not night attack with the specialized avionics and joysticks on the side panels. For the displays, unless AC power was available, they would be dark (i.e. off). AC power is only available when at least one engine is running with its generator on, or when external AC power is connected on the left side of the nose. They do look nice when they're all lit up, though! I love the big Academy kit, and I have some of those Red Fox instrument panels for three kits I have to build soon. I'll be following this, to refresh my memory on the details of the build. If you have any questions about details, etc, you can send me a PM. ALF

Nice job. My father flew CF-104s, his favourite aircraft. I like your bomb load, typical but tiny and ineffective by today's standards. Dad used to call it ''delivering pizza in a Cadillac'' referring to the poor capacity of the aircraft to deliver effective weapons, but how much he loved flying the jet at low altitude. ALF

Good move to have the speedbrakes closed. My father used to fly them. He told me that they were always closed on the ground when parked (some sort of automated action, I believe). The only time they could be opened with the engine off is if external hydraulic power was applied by maintenance personnel. ALF

Now, I'm struggling with the fuselage join. Talk about terrible fit!! I'm not sure how much can be attributed to the kit itself, and how much is due to having glued the interior stuff together nicely. In any case, it matters not. I will be using tons of putty on this one! Starting from the front of the nose, with CA glue. Why is ALF complaining, you say? Well, look at what's happening underneath. Now for the tope rear fuselage. A look at the lower rear fuselage. Nothing is simple on this one. Taking a short break - gluing the fuselage took me a couple days, and will need a bunch more work. I'm going for a swim the apartment complex's pool while I look for my motivation to continue on the intakes. ALF