Revell Super Hornet with lessons learned

[Shawn M]

great work, keep at it!

Love the display idea as well, down n durty about to slam onto the deck!

[Out2gtcha]

Ohhhh that pilot looks great!     Im hoping my F-104 pilots turn out as good.

 

Keep going! 

[hpetiers]

thanks for your support in this one gentlemen! it loos like the most risky work has been done by now.

 

in the mean time the cockpit is as good as ready. pilot and seat got a coat of flat varnish:

 

and a set of resin wheels were delievered to my house. I noticed that the Revell wheels are much too square and have no thread on the tyres:

 

Just finished the primer on the fuselage:

surface detail is quite good, no seams visible anymore!

[themongoose]

Oooh this looks great. After all the work you must be thrilled with how the primer looks!

[hpetiers]

hi themongoose, indeed when all is in one color you always appreciate the surface detail and smoothness of the surface more!

 

now that I was almost ready to close up the cockpit, I took one last chance to make up my mind about the following. Look at what the postman brought me this week:

 

pilot with JHMCS system. I figured that this is the last moment I have to make up my mind on it. Putting him in the seat looks like this.I think he is a bit better to scale than the Tamiya pilot because hiw helmet does not stick out from above the ejection seat (and with ejecting through the canopy that would not be such a good idea, would it?):

 

 

Not bad I would think, although the head is considerably narrower that the Tamiya pilot:

 

 

In all fairness, the Tamiya pilot looks a bit bulky even if you don't compare him to the JP productions one.

 

I think I will paint the JP pilot anyway and see how it turns out. My guess would be that if the Super Hornet went on a combat mission, the logical thing to take for the pilot would be to use  this JHMCS helmet.

But if anyone knows what the most accurate scenario would be here, I'm open to any comments!

[easixpedro]

17 hours ago, hpetiers said:

 

I think I will paint the JP pilot anyway and see how it turns out. My guess would be that if the Super Hornet went on a combat mission, the logical thing to take for the pilot would be to use  this JHMCS helmet.

But if anyone knows what the most accurate scenario would be here, I'm open to any comments!

 

Honestly, it depends. Helmets were introduced circa 2005ish. Took awhile to outfit, and even then pilots don’t always fly with them (depends on a lot of variables, including qualifications etc). I’d take a look at the www.navy.mil photo gallery and go after what squadron your looking for. You can even see the pilot and WSO wearing different helmets in the 2-seat squadrons, when both have the capability to use it.

 

another detail is the sensor system in the cockpit...am guessing the Revell missed that detail. Jake Melampy’s Book covers it quite well.

HTH

-Peter 

[hpetiers]

Hi Peter, thanks for your explanation! My version of the Super Hornet is of the year 2011 so that makes it more likely to have the JHMCS. Now that I have painted the figure after the hottest days of summer, I can say that I will go for this one!

 

This is the figure painted:

 

this is a comparison with the much larger Tamiya figure. I made the overall a bit more pink to match the picture from mr. Melampy's awesome book better:

 

the cockpit has the ejection seat installed and is ready to get the pilot on board:

 

and then finally the pilot is in his seat, time to close up the cockpit!

for the fact that he is smaller than the Tamiya one, I think he fits just right.

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by hpetiers

[Shawn M]

looks great!

[hpetiers]

Hi Shawn, indeed it took me long enough to get this far. Time to get the canopy on and start some serious painting!

[Out2gtcha]

Pilot looks excellent! 

[hpetiers]

While I am writing this update I notice that it has been a month since I posted last. Many things happened but not stuff that would make a photo interesting. Meanwhile I have decided to put all weaponry, hardpoints and other things together (except landing gear) and get everything primed.

this required a lot of sanding, filling and sometimes swearing. Boring job but in the end it would make the priming effort much more efficient.

quick overview

 

By the primer it is very easy to see imperfections that still need work, but now also Revell's nice surface structure is visible much easier.

 

 

The canopy has been closed and blended in with the fuselage:

Next step is to paint the whole thing black and to fill all panels with irregular clouds of white paint. this way some of this contrast will show through when I apply the final layer of grey, giving my Super Hornet a faded and used look. At least that is the theory!

Edited September 10, 2019 by hpetiers

[hpetiers]

somehow I had to delay the paint job again because I wanted to check the pilons and some of the ordnance... and that was a good thing to do!

 

First I painted the bombs with some thick Revell aqua paint and a flat brush to mimick the fire resistant coating. Then I checked the position of the bombs on the pilons. Turns out that each bomb is mounted 3mm too far back. See below, first the photo, then how I positioned it, then how Revell proposed it. Someone at Revell has been sleeping!

 

 

Also the AMRAAM rails are too far backwards.

 

So I removed all the inserts and added new pins in the right position. Bit unnecessary really.

 

I also concluded that the gap of the tails would haunt me further in the build, so I decided to mount them now. I think it was a good thing to do. 

 

filled and sanded:

 

and in primer:

 

hopefully now REALLY ready for paint!

[hpetiers]

and we have the first colour on!

Painted the tails red on the outside, then put on tape for protecting it against the next layer of black. Though there is a decal for the black tail stripe I do not trust it to conform well to the features on the tail. It is also made for the Trumpeter kit so i have no idea how well it would fit.

 

next is the black:

 

Always a magical moment when the tape comes off, isn't it?

Also the surface structure is nicely visible here. I think this is where the Revell kit really shines:

 

Too bad that there wasn't any decal for the stripes of the fuel tank included. Luck wants it that I also have the revell super hornet in 1:144 in my stash. After enlarging the decal sheet 4.5x I could use the stripes as a template.

 

With a sheet of plastic on top of the printed sheet I could put some tamiya tape on and cut out the stripes:

 

 

It will be ok!

[chrish]

After all the other work you’ve done making your own masks is just one more step hey!?

[Mel]

Thanks for this, is the kit really worth it? between revell and trumpeter ...

Some time ago I made the super trumpeter hornet and the kit ... honestly the kit could improve, but no wonder it is trumpeter, I'm still dreaming that one day Tamiya will surprise us