ESzczesniak

I see, thank you! For some reason, I thought ATFLIR and self lasing were part of the Hornets mission loadout and capability for OEF/OIF. Seems its an easy choice for me now...the kit AAS-38/Nitehawk.

I have the Wolfpack set on the way, so I guess I'll see how the adaptor works on a legacy birds once it arrives. If it doesn't fit, would it be fair to assume the closest way to accurate would be to use the AAS-38 adaptor included in the Kinetic kit since it's only slightly different?

I am building Kinetic's 1/48 F/A-18C for a bird aboard the Conny in 2003. The kit does not include the AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR, which I believe was the standard ship board pod. It does include the AAQ-28 (which I believe was for land based birds mostly), AAS-38, and Sniper XR. First, am I correct that a shipboard bird in 2003 would be using the ATFLIR? Secondly, would it use the same pylon from the kit as the Litening II and AAS-38? I'm trying to figure out which of the kit pylons to glue on before painting.

Would anyone have some personal tips to share? I moved from Tamiya/Model Master to Vallejo a couple years ago. Vallejo has worked well for me, but the color accuracy is terrible and sometimes instead of mixing pain, you just want to spray dark ghost gray or whatever. So I've kept Model Master around for this. I was interested in trying the AMMO paints since they seem to do better for color accuracy and got my first bottles a few days ago. I have not messed with them a lot yet, but was unimpressed on my first go. It was not the worst/roughest surface, but nothing like the silky smooth surface I can get out of a Tamiya or Model Master Acryl flat paint. I sprayed as recommended straight from the bottle at about 18 PSI through a H&S Infinity 0.4 mm nozzle in about 3 coats total to get full coverage. It wasn't a full orange peel surface, but not all that smooth. And I got a fair bit of tip dry. Lowering the PSI actually made the problem worse and raising it did not help much. It seems they in fact do need thinning (they look thick out of the bottle) and maybe some retarder. A Google search turned up some other people with similar experience, but most of them seemed to just stop using the paints rather than sharing solutions So I was wondering if anyone had some of their personal tricks? What thinner's work well, PSI, etc?

Yes, exactly that way. There’s a flare on the out nacelle, but in terms of the interface for the new nozzle, exactly what you show.

Apologies about going MIA. Work got buys for a few days. I can try to get a quick iPhone picture posted later, but at the moment here are the measurements. Measurements are with a bargain ish digital caliper (good, but not amazing) at 3 locations around the diameter and averaged. Outer diameter (flush with nacelles): 0.397" (0.402", 0.395", 0.395") Inner diameter (to slide nozzle in): 0.326" (0.329", 0.326", 0.324") Depth: no hard stop There are locating tabs at 12 and 6 o'clock that are 0.036" to a depth of 0.242"

Thank you and yes. I was planning to give OD, ID, depth, and anything else that seems useful when I have a chance to look at the parts.

I couldn’t wait and ordered the Doyushou boxing from Japan. About halfway through two of them. I’ll try to measure the exhaust openings when I have a chance and report back.

Understood, no GBU-38 then (2002-2003 time frame with VFA-151 for me). Now I just need to figure out the single vs double chaff/flare dispensers on the intake. Otherwise she’s just about ready for paint.

Thank you again! Think I'll be doing the goofy tanks, ATFLIR, GBU-12, and likely AGM-65 (but I've liked the couple with the GBU-38 instead). Any sense as to weather or not Hornets of this time frame would have the dual chaff dispensors on the intake? I think that's the last option I need to pick out on the Kinetic Hornet.

Thank you both!

Has anyone finished the Kinetic 1/48 F/A-18C and found if nose weight is needed? None is called for in the instructions and with nearly everything attached it is not a tail sitter...but it's very close and not every little bit is attached. The one online build I found that mentioned nose weight added it out of caution, but it's unclear if needed.

Thank you!

Thank Collin and GW8345. The photo GW linked has the centerline fuel tank on, but the link of navy.mil for the VFA-151 bird off the cat seems to have an empty centerline station. Is this possible/reasonable? It's not a great camera angle admittedly to determine that. I thought they almost always loaded goofy double fuel tank, not just a single starboard tank.

Just got two of the Dyoshou off HLJ. Early in the build process (one in flight, one on the ground), but going well so far.