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

[chrish]

Great work! And quick!

[Crew Dog]

4 minutes ago, chrish said:

Great work! And quick!

I tend to work in bursts as and when I have needed supplies and parts, my next wait is for the shipment from the states re: my latest order. At least now, I can work on other sections while I'm waiting

[Piero]

On 6/17/2020 at 11:36 AM, Crew Dog said:

The second LERX has been attached, and it looks like the curves match. I was able to shim the left one, making the rear of the LERX match the rear fuselage.

 

 

 

I also puttied the lower nose section due to major gaps I saw just forward of the gear bay

 

 

The order for my CM dispensers, slime lights, HUD glass and targeting pod/LST pod lenses have shipped, so I expect them sometime next week. I also am changing my livery, as @Piero is doing the same squadron that I was planning on. Rather than steal his thunder or have competing birds from the same squadron, I decided that I'll go with something at least I haven't seen done very much if at all: a CO jet. I found a set of Two Bob's decals for VFA-94, and they have both the CAG jet and the CO paint scheme, so I'll still be able to do one that would be dirty, but with a little bit of flash. As Always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

Hello my friend, if you want to build a VFA-22's plane... go!

When I started the Hornet I was mumbling which one between the VFA-22 and the VFA-94 I'll do... because I have both the Twobobs's decal sheets for the VFA-22 and the VFA-94.

I'll build the CO jet for sure.

 

CIAO!

Piero

[Crew Dog]

2 minutes ago, Piero said:

Hello my friend, if you want to build a VFA-22's plane... go!

When I started the Hornet I was mumbling which one between the VFA-22 and the VFA-94 I'll do... because I have both the Twobobs's decal sheets for the VFA-22 and the VFA-94.

I'll build the CO jet for sure.

 

CIAO!

Piero

Totally fine, you crack on with the line bird! I haven't ordered any decals yet, and VFA-22's are out of stock where I normally get my stuff from, but I can still get VFA-94's

[Crew Dog]

Short of adding the countermeasure buckets, the putty work is, for the most part, all done! Surprisingly, it went very straightforward, and no major panel lines or rivets to rescribe. Now I just wait for my shipment to arrive, then that will be the final step before sending her off to the paint barn. As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

 

 

 

 

[Crew Dog]

My shipment from the States came in on Wednesday, do I've added the countermeasure buckets after work, and must say, they went on far easier than I expected

 

 

After that, putty work continued as I saw more areas that needed blending, specifically the fuselage immediately aft of the LERX. Once the step joints were removed and blended smooth. I added the leading edge flaps, using a reference photo of an aggressor Bug that was powered down (they don't droop nearly as far as I thought they would!)

 

 

 

 

Now she should finally be ready for her alcohol wipedown and off to get primed! As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

Edited June 28, 2020 by Crew Dog

[Crew Dog]

I think we're at about the halfway point for this beast, primer work on the main body is finally complete, minus one or two areas that will need brush application. If only primer black was an official USN color, I like it this way! Decals have also been ordered, so I'll give them a couple of weeks to make it across the pond. There are a few spots on the nose gear that will need to be re-shot with white, do to overspray when doing the primer, but I figure I can do that after putting the main color on, rather than fix them now just to have to spray them again when I put the gray on. Besides, makes it look like a realistic shadow, in my eyes anyway. As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

 

 

 

 

[spyrosjzmichos]

Some nice progress!

[Squizzy 78]

Awesome looking hornet! In my opinion it’s one of the nicest kits to build, it’s big, but not too big, great detail, a mountain of aftermarket gear is available, but still good out of the box! 

[chrish]

looking good

[Crew Dog]

Thanks y'all! I'm having a blast with it so far. Based on my quick n dirty comparison, it looks to be about as big as my Revell MiG-29

[Crew Dog]

Sorry for the long delay in the updates, but I was waiting on items to be ordered/shipped the past month. But I now have enough to continue while waiting to order the last bits I'll need to finish her off. These beauties showed up around a week and a half into last month, and I can say just by my inspection of them, I am thoroughly impressed!

 

 

 

As stated earlier, I'll be doing the CO jet, so the second sheet will be my main go-to (unless I can find the Bort Number decals on their own, then I MAY consider going back to the original plan of doing a line bird  .) And yesterday, the second main shipment came in, consisting of my airbrush cleaner and thinner (the two items that were holding me up) and these guys:

 

 

It looks like I'm going to have fun with them, just need to figure out how to do the fire-resistant coating for the GBU-12 without Mr Surfacer. This morning, I tried my first attempt at the black-basing technique, and for a Navy jet, this method just can't be beat! In my eyes, it perfectly replicated the weathering and spot touch ups that would be done while the squadron is underway.

 

 

 

 

The plan is to leave the mating area for the burner cans primer black, then once I move on to the gloss coat, they'll also get hit with it to do the metal surfaces. Once it's grimed up, I think she'll shape up to be a decent representation of her full size counterpart. As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

Edited August 6, 2020 by Crew Dog

[Crew Dog]

Work continued today after leaving the upper surfaces to cure for a few days (due to the humidity we're experiencing here in the UK, and I still had a couple of spots fleck off) and finally shot the undersides. I can't see any difference between the two colors ( even after verifying that I did shoot the correct FS numbers,) but I've had a friend look at the pictures, and he can clearly see the contrast, so maybe my eyes are just going.  She's shaping up nicely IMO, and after leaving this to cure for a few days, she'll be ready for her antenna work then gloss coat!

 

 

 

 

As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

Edited August 9, 2020 by Crew Dog

[Crew Dog]

More work has been done on the paint scheme, starting with recoloring the antennae on the spine and nose (quick reshoot of primer, followed by FS36495 Light Gray.) My next areas of focus were the vertical & horizontal stabilizers, the outer wings, and the pylons.

 

 

 

 

After touch-ups for the upper color, I moved on to the undersides and shot them  and the pylons

 

 

Following that, I moved on to what I consider to be another milestone in the construction: attaching the verts to the fuselage

 

 

 

 

 

She's definitely moving along at a nice pace now, and looking at the progress so far, I wont need to do much panel highlighting, both thanks to black-basing and the fact that in all reference pics that I've seen, the panel seams are not that prominent on modern US jets, mainly just where they would normally be removed or where sealant was applied.

 

As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

 

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Crew Dog

[Crew Dog]

Considering, (for the most part as far as base coat painting goes) the main fuselage, flight control surfaces and pylons done, I next turned my attention to stores, bang seat and the burner cans. The first plan of attack was the AGM-65E Maverick from Eduard Brassin, and I am blown away by the detail included on the missile (plus, they come two in a kit, so I have a bit of a stash accumulating  ). The overall missile body was painted in FS36375, and the rear was detailed in Rust, Zinc Chromate Yellow and Aluminum.

 

 

 

The GBU-12 was also given an overall color of FS36375, with the aft band of the guidance kit and forward fins painted Olive Drab, since during this timeframe there was a bit of mixing of parts for Mk.80 series of bombs between Olive Drab and Light Compass Ghost Gray.

 

 

Next came the SJU-17 NACES ejection seat, which was included in the Aires Cockpit set. It was mostly done early on in the build, with only the harnesses left to do (mainly due to me dreading threading PE). After painting the straps in Olive Drab and clasps/buckles in Chrome Silver, I assembled the straps and attached them to the main assembly.

 

 

After I was happy with that, I moved on to the boarding ladder from Flightpath UK. This is my first time working with anything they've made, and seeing this, if I can use anything from them going forward, I definitely will be! The outer faces of the latches and ladder have been shot in FS36375, with the inner latch faces and guts of the ladder sprayed with matte white (which will be glossed during the decal phase).

 

 

 

Lastly are the burner cans. The inner ceramic petals were shot with matte white, the fouled with a dark wash from Ammo by MiG and a fine coat of Jet Exhaust, mainly around the outer edges

 

 

For the outer turkey feathers, the base coat was Gunmetal, but realizing that they didn't have the copper tinting that the real thing has, a thin mist of Jet Exhaust was sprayed over it.

 

 

 

 

Seeing this as too light in tone, I sprayed Gunmetal mixed with black to darken them up, but my mix was off and they ended up just looking like Gunmetal again. So, since I was priming my drop tanks at this point, I sprayed a very fine mist of primer black on the petals, both to tone down the metallic look and to overall darken the petals. I am very happy with this result, and know that the right one in the picture will need to be darkened more.

 

 

The inner plates will still need more carbon fouling, but beyond that, the nozzles are done! My apologies for the photo dump, but I got my momentum back, possibly due to being so close to the decal/dirty up phase. In any case, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

Edited August 27, 2020 by Crew Dog