dmthamade

Long weekend, weather has been rain and rain. Star Wars marathon on tv, so have been able to spend time at the bench. Did manage to get all parts glued together for the lower fuselage parts. The two parts that make up the front inner intake parts needed an insane amount of work to fit right without causing fit problems to other parts. After all the work, that center piece fell into place nicely, no squeezing/hacking needed, just sits right!! I will need filler at two spots, at the intake and the fuselage. No big deal. I'm thinking of the weapons loadout, and it includes an AIM-120 on a shoulder mount. Dryfitting shows a very poor fit. Now, the kit doesn't include the mounts, but there shouldn't be this big a gap. There should be an indent on the fuselage side where the upper front fin of the missile should fit, not present on the kit...missile won't look right or fit right without reworking the fuselage....big boo to Revell. Did manage to paint and add the front fans to the intakes, and painted and weathered the exhaust. Nothing really accurate about the exhaust, after market would be best if you care. After many dry fit sessions, i decided to glue the wing bottoms to the lower fuselage. Much easier to get a solid glue joint this way. Alignment is a concern, the groove the fuselage locks into pretty much sets the alignment, just be certain where the fuselage sides, inner intake and wing top meet all align like this. Have to say, the part in the instructions where it says to remove material from the three ribs is comical, they should be instructing us that removal of material from pretty much all parts will be necessary!! Looking at adding the upper fuselage next, mine has a bit of twist/warpage, so will be a little work to fit. Don

That's a crazy amount of work you've done on the interior!!. Have to ask, how do you cut the horizontal ribs, one at a time, or do you cut a batch all at once? Don

I've gone through the thread.....many times, have to say, this is a kit that's a "Battle in a Box". I've run into issues at identical spots, lots of work to sort things out!! Looking forward to seeing paint and decals on the build. Are you planning on any weapons? Don

Nope!! Not doing that!! Don

Man, and that rigging is just the tail!! Have to ask, how long did it take to do that? Don

Yup!! I think the complex assembly and parts count is necessary due to all the shapes and sculpting of the F/A-18E. The Trumpeter kit really is no different, just their way of engineering a kit to ensure all the shapes and curves are accurate. This isn't a slab sided fighter like a F-4 Phantom or a basically round long tube like an F-104, it's full of complex shapes and curves. Did a dry fit with a few parts, taped together the bottom, intakes and sides, then fitted the top, fit looks....pretty darn good!! I did go ahead and glue the sides onto the intakes at the front, managed a tight fit here. Everything lined up with the bottom, so it's good to go. You can see the alignment with the bottom wing grooves is good, will have to build some supports between the fuselage top and the wing bottom to help with alignment. Isn't a great kit, needs more work than it should, but i think it'll be ok. Don

That's great paintwork/detailing on the pit!! Is any of it aftermarket or is it all kit parts? Don

More fit stuff. The side pieces alignment is better after scraping away excess plastic on the intake/lower fuselage parts. Some parts need minor work, some need a good amount of scraping. I've highlighted areas to work by brown Sharpie. Inner intake parts needed a bit of work, fit was not too bad. That center part seemed to fall right into place, but i won't glue this to the intake walls until the upper and lower are assembled and the forward fuselage is installed. Fit looks ok, gaps are due to not being clamped. They do align well. The lower wing surfaces key into the fuselage sides, fit at the front is important as the intakes meet here, too. Get this area right to prevent problems later. The lower wing is supposed to key in, but doesn't. The groove is too narrow for the fuselage side fo fit, sooooo.....more scrapping!!! This should end up like this. Make sure of this fit now before gluing on the side pieces, trying to scrape the side when installed would be difficult. Looking forward, i'm trying to decide if it would be better to glue the lower wings onto the fuselage, then glue on the top, or glue the wing bottoms onto the upper piece first. I'm leaning towards the second idea. I have to say, if your on the fence about buying this kit, do so now while the moulds are fresh. If the flash is bad now, when the moulds are old it means even more work. Don

Busy with stuff, but managed to get the main wheelwell assembly done. Lots of parts go into this, and after a lot of cleanup of parting joints of flash, the parts fit....really well. depth of the bay seems accurate, not shallow, bulkheads thin, l do like how the side panels interlock with the front and rear bulkheads...What's missing are all the small hydralic lines and wire bundles. Personal preference would have been simpler parts with more moulded in details. Not one to add a lot of stuff, simpler build with more detail would be OK with me. Much has been said about the complex fuselage parts, especially the lower and intakes. After doing a dryfit with cleaned up parts, i find the fit here is...remarkably good!! There is one area that will need some thought, that being between the intakes. There is a large part moulded with the lower part, its fit with the intakes is a little problematic. There is still a lot of areas to clean up to improve the fit here, i may just cut it off, work the intake fit, then add later. Another option is to cut it off and glue it to the front lower fuselage halves and work the fit later. On the Trumpeter kit, the fit here was crucial to the fit of many parts the fit of the lower wing parts interlock with the lower fuselage sides, so the fit of the sides ic also crucial. Don

Well, I have to say, this kit reminds me a bit of a limited production kit, like the Czech Masters T-33. Working on the exhaust parts, I find cutting the tailpipes separate was a good idea. The fit of the two halves require scraping away at the parting joins, and trying to fit the rear turbine, well it's too big for the opening. There is no way you could join the two halves with the turbine in place, you have to scrape away plastic either on the turbine or the opening, and it's not a small amount. The flameholder is not well moulded, flash, uneven moldings mean these need a lot of clean-up. If there is one saving grace, you really can't see any of this afterwards, the opening of the tailpipes is small compared to an F-15. Trying to do all this as the instructions show would be very difficult. The intakes are a different story. After cleaning up the parting lines, the two halves fit surprisingly well. Don't think they will need a lot of cleanup/fill, though I haven't tried to fit the front fans, yet. Really, nothings too bad to do yet, though I've only worked with 10-12 parts....and there's a lot of styrene in this big box.... Don

And it starts!! Before. After. The bulkheads that seem to be causing so much angst don't really seem to do much, may add a little support to the upper fuselage, but i may have a workaround for that. There is moulded on detail on the upper part of R6 that is seen through the early ECS(?) parts, i'm using the late parts so i can lose the part i cut out. Cutting apart the intakes allows me to work on the seam all the length of the tube, and after trimming the locators at the end i will be able to easily add the engine faces. All the locators are on the bottom of the tubes, so positioning these parts is no problem....i hope. Don

Well, my Phantom build is currently on the stalled shelf. Nothing wrong with the build, i've just lost interest...A lot has been written and shown what a disaster the new Revell Bug kit is, I've been waiting for the release, so against all recommendations i did buy the kit. I have done the Trumpeter kit, and like the Revell kit it has many ways for things to go wrong. Reading through the instructions and looking at the parts, i can see where thought and planning will be needed to complete the build without having things go bad. Mouldings look good, details look crisp. Cockpit is pretty sparse, seats look funny, can't vouch for accuracy. I see the parts where bulkheads have to be trimmed, may have a workaround for that. Weapons look OK....so far so good!! I have to say, these are some of the biggest sprues i've seen, and there is a lot of plastic in the box. Very large/colorful decal sheet, printed in Italy(cartograf?) Kinda a toss up who did it better, Revell or Trumpeter.... Everything on the wall. Don

I've built the Academy Legacy Bug and the Trumpeter Superbug E, they both had complex assembly sequences where it was mandatory you did a LOT of dryfitting to get the kits to fit, I think passing on the Revell kit and taking up the Trumpeter kit may be a rude awakening for some. I recall when it first came out there was a lot of angst and hand wringing along with the " i'll have to pass, it's an impossible build!!" comments. When I built the Trumpy kit, it was very challenging, but with careful planning and dryfitting I was able to build it almost fill free, and i'm a mediocre builder. I've seen what you guys can do, i'm certain you'll get great results . Build thread http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/224276-trumpeter-fa-18f-132-build/ Don

Yup!! The funny thing is, I know Trumpeter did it that way on other kits (Me 262) so it isn't a new concept to them. Don

Thanks for the ideas, guys!! I have used Future to glue in small clear parts, I guess clear coat may work, too. I'm concerned about the size of the part being held in with Future/Klear. Painting the edge sounds like a good idea, maybe tint the Future with the color. Masking off a small area as a frame sounds like a good idea, too. I'm thinking a combination of all the ideas is the winner. I have to say, this is a really nice kit, how they chose to do the clear parts is the only letdown for me. Thaks again, guys, much appreciated!! Don