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First project on here (Kinetic 1/32 F/A-18C)


Crew Dog

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It's not far at all, she's just down to the dirty up phase, which luckily having been around jets both when I was in the military and now with my current job, I know how filthy they get and where the hot spots are :D

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Today started the filthy phase, and it's something I have both been fearful of and looking forward to. I started with the outer wings, mainly to see if I could do it and see how to progress with the main fuselage.

 

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Once sufficiently happy with the results, I moved on to the main fuselage, doing the top and verts this morning.

 

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I let those sit for the rest of the day, and moved to the underside tonight, having just finished that section up.

 

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Next step will be to make the drop tanks absolutely covered, as that's how I saw quite a few in reference pics, and had confirmation from a friend who is currently in the FRG training on the F model. I will also need to snag some powder to do the gun and APU exhausts.

 

As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

Edited by Crew Dog
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Work is, for the most part, finished on the dirt phase, and we are now in the home stretch. After griming up the drop tanks to a level that shows they've been on the boat for a while, I attached them to the fuselage.

 

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My clear orange came in the other day as well, so I was finally able to finish off the AoA indexer on the nose gear

 

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That now has its coat of Krystal Klear on to cure for the lens. Once the tanks were attached, I moved on to finishing up the doors, and they will never be pure white again!

 

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Some minor touch ups are still required on them to add the red border where I clipped them from the sprues. The two front nose doors have been added as well, complete with rods from the Aires set. Speaking of the wheel bay set, a word of caution to anyone else that gets it: the door rods like to come off the casting block before you are ready for them. I found this out when I was priming them, and luckily still had the box the set came in, which is where they ended up. I put them on a bit of masking tape to hold till I was ready for them, but this time the part monster struck with a vengeance. The whole bit of tape with the rods decided to take a walk into the nether. Also luckily, I had some stock 1.0mm rods, so using my trusty pliers, I fashioned myself a new set of rods to replace those that have vanished.

 

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As we say in the military, adapt and overcome!

 

As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar! 

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My GBU-38 set came in on the 12th, and I am definitely impressed with the casting quality! The ablative coating looks spot on, and contrary to one review I saw for them, the instructions were simple and to the point (not hard considering there are only four pieces per bomb.) I cut the tail fin kit and main body from their respective casting blocks before I went to work that day, and primed them when I got home.

 

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The next day I put the coat of Light Compass Ghost Gray (the instructions even call the FS number) using the black basing technique on the main body, while the tail kit and nose strakes were done more evenly.

 

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I let those sit to cure all of yesterday, and today added the yellow stripes on the nose to designate a live bomb, decals (the instructions call for the main body stenciling to be parallel with the bomb direction, but all reference pics I've seen show it perpendicular, so the choice is yours!), GPS antenna on the tail and DSU-33 proximity fuze on the nose (again, the instructions call for the fuze to be gloss black, but reference pics show it as Radome Tan, and even say the black is for a DSU-57 lazer guided proximity fuze that goes on a GBU-54, so check your references!)

 

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While I was waiting for the GBU paint job to cure, I finally put together the HUD, using the PE from the Aires cockpit kit and glass from Flying Leathernecks.

 

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As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

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  • 3 weeks later...

All ordinance is now on the jet, save the AIM-9M that still needs to be ordered from Zacto, and the dull coat has been applied

 

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I have also added the nav lights, and vert stab strobes at this point. I'm really happy with the way the decals look under the dull coat, they really look painted on now! My next step was to add the slime lights from Steel Beach, and while the color I think is spot on for the strips, they come in one solid strip, so minor cutting is required. I attached them at their designated areas, ran my nail over them lightly to find the separations, and then took my knife to them to make the necessary cuts.

 

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As you can see, I've also added the windscreen to the model, and will hang fire on the canopy itself till final assembly. I am also using Piero's technique to better simulate the wing fold mechanisms that will be exposed when she's all done (he was kind enough to send me close ups of his scratch build mechanisms, so many thanks @Piero!)

 

As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

 

 

Edited by Crew Dog
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Many thanks sir! This was definitely a labor of love, just a shame she's near completion. I will say that if you can get your hands on one, it builds up to a spectacular model, even without all the AM I threw at her, so give it a go!

Edited by Crew Dog
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  • 3 weeks later...
15 minutes ago, Cicciuzzo said:

Beautiful colored fingers in gunmetal :lol:

Joke, great job;)

It was actually burnt iron :D Many thanks, still waiting to get the 2.5mm round stock so I can do the wing fold rollers

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  • 3 weeks later...

After a long break deciding what to do with the wing fold mechanism, I finally opted for using the kit-supplied parts. While not nearly as impressive as some of the offerings on here, I was more tired of seeing my Hornet being neglected. The kit offerings fill the role as intended, though studying numerous reference pics there is a lot to be desired. On the teeth that form the outer seal when the wings are spread, there are three stand-offs on the outer wing, and four on the inner. I constantly dry fit the roller to these teeth, and couldn't shake the fact that the standoffs cause the rollers to be too far from the wing itself. Luckily, the standoffs are marked even with the rest of the inner workings, so I took my chisel blade to them and made the whole inner section even. I then attached the rollers to the outer wings and saw that they did indeed mover closer to the wing. After letting the glue set for the outer wings, I carefully attached the assemblies to the main kit. Even with my modification, they still don't want to sit perfectly like they're supposed to, but once the glue set, it was a solid bond.

 

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I then added the hinge cover plates, and they seem to be adding a bit more of structural support for the outer wings.

 

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After everything was set, I went ahead and dirtied up the hinge areas. I can't believe that she's nearly done now, but the next steps are to finish off and attach the canopy and horizontal stabs, finish the boarding ladder and add the last antennae that I held off adding due to knowing I'l still be handling her.

 

As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

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