mawz

And tails are on the Italieri, I'm going to hold off on the tails for the Academy due to the paintwork. Italieri F/A-18C 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr The Academy got the hinges and actuators for the wings after filling in the pylon holes since it will be clean. Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Next up for the Italieri is finishing the cockpit. I'm going to use the spare Academy seat in there with the rest of the Italieri bits. This one will be posed with a closed canopy so I'm planning on getting the cockpit complete and closed up before any painting. On the Academy, I

Even though I participated in Aeroscale's recent Mustang GB, I could get into this one. Got too many P-51's in the stash (and one P-82 too)

And things are coming along steadily, on both the Academy and the Italieri, the latter of which I think I'm going to use the rather nice Academy sheet on. 2 Hornets by mawz_models, on Flickr There's no comparison in the quality of the two models, the Academy not only goes together much better but the detail is FAR superior. Query for the Hornet experts, I'm going to use the Academy weapons on the Italieri bird, in a strike configuration. AIM-9's on the wingtips for sure, but I'm not sure about the rest. Are the twin racks OK for the LGB's? Both targeting pods? fuel tank config? I'm thinki

Note Academy also does an F/A-18A boxing for foreign service. Comes with A/B tails, the searchlight (you drill the hole) and 3 schemes, Canadian and Australian standard schemes and a Spanish Tiger Meet scheme. Everything in the C box is there as well.

I built one of these a few months ago, a nice little kit, one of Airfix's best of that era. The decals on the other hand were atrocious, thick, stiff and fragile. One of these days I'm going to grab another one to build with the PE set that's available and a sheet of aftermarket decals.

I think you're significantly overstating the difference in markets and business cases for the two aircraft. What we're arguing over here is the iconic American fighter of the European Theater vs the iconic American fighter of the Pacific Theater. They're both huge markets. One thing to remember is with younger modellers who grew up on shows like Black Sheep Squadron/Baa Baa Black Sheep, the Corsair is simply _the_ WW2 fighter. And as to users and markings, it's irrelevant. 90% of the market for either is going to build whatever comes in the box or an aftermarket scheme for either the US or

The Academy bird is building up pretty quickly DSC04164 by mawz_models, on Flickr DSC04165 by mawz_models, on Flickr Academy F-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Some fit issues on the overly-complex nose assembly, but nothing like the gaps in the Italieri kit.

Great choice in subject :-) and it looks like it's coming along nicely.

Tamiya unfortunately doesn't make a RLM66 in their paint line so they gave the closest equivalent in their line. It's not a good match so I'd suggest going with another paint line. Vallejo and Model master both do good matches for RLM66.

Actually, there's a couple serious caveats here. First off there were few carrier engagements mid-war, the primary engagements were land-based, especially in the southwest pacific. The idea of carrier battles as key in the pacific is a popular myth, while they mattered a lot in 1942 the carriers were pretty much relegated to support roles until the push into the Marianas and the Phillipines. The Corsair never racked up the kill ratio of the Hellcat, but it was far more involved in CAS work through the entirety of its service in the Pacific theatre and was a much more significant contributor to

And here's the old but good Hasegawa F-8E in 1/72 Hasegawa F-8E 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Hasegawa F-8E 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr This build was great fun, looking to do some more.

And we're done Hasegawa F-8E 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Hasegawa F-8E 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

Thanks! It'll get a coat of semi-gloss, but overall I tend to leave aircraft shiny.

Decals on, a bit of a fight on the belly strakes, next time I'll paint those. Hasegawa F-8E 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

Been fighting with the paintjob on this one. But it's pretty much done. Hasegawa F-8E 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Next is a gloss cote and decalling. Then I just need to finish off the nose cone and transparencies and hang the fiddly bits.

Gotta love the Crusader, it's easily my favourite of the USN jet fighters

I promised pics, and here they are: Basic scheme down: Hasegawa F-8E 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr And painting the walks, or at least I think they're walks over the engine: Hasegawa F-8E 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

That's looking very good, especially considering you're building the Testors kit, which is a real challenge.

I've currently got the Italieri in progress for the On Canadian Wings GB. Replacing it with the Academy as it's a minor disaster.

Gotta thank ALF for the reference pics, they've been a help. The build has been a little challenging though, in fact I've decided to simply replace the Italieri kit with a Academy F-18A kit (the Australian/Canadian/Spanish boxing) and I'll finish the Italieri sometime when I feel like I need some frustration, I'm not about to waste those LEM decals on the Italieri kit. Should get started on the Academy Hornet this weekend and will post pics as soon as I can.

I like the BMF, looking forward to seeing it with the full scheme

That's looking GREAT! I'm going to have to track down one of these, always had a soft spot for the Whale and the kit looks like an interesting build.

Looks like it's coming along nicely, and the tips are always useful.

The basic scheme is now down, just need to paint the dark grey panels on the tail and the black bits for the cockpit. More pics coming soon.

Yep, Airfix decals are all over the place. The Hawk kits seem to have trash for decals. I know the 1/48 Hawk 100 I'm still in the process of decalling has awful decals. Out of register, poor density reds and missing some markings (the sheet is missing some of the no-step markings). The 1/72 Devastator I recently built had even worse decals but I also recently finished a 1/72 Fulmar that had some of the nicest decals I've ever seen.