1/72 Academy hornet progress thread

[Mark M.]

I opened my box up to take pics for an in-box review for ARC, and afterwards also started assembly. Seems a little overly-complex in the nose area forward of the intakes, and dry fitting 5 parts at once to get an idea of the shape and fit when they're all together is rather hard without liberal use of tape!

I will be building this with the ever-colorful "Aflac" decals from TwoBobs. I have moderate progress on the nose area, and some on the cockpit.

Quick question: Is the deck behind the seat really supposed to be black? I wouldn't have thought so, but instructions say otherwise.

I'm thinking of decking it out with mixed arms. It comes with 2x VERs, 2 intake pods, 2 AIM-9s and 2 AIM-7s (modern ones, you can see the data pipe going down the side -- very well formed), but I think I'll dip into my stocks a little.

So the main question is "what *could* it carry -- what is in our arsenal in common use now that other planes do use, so that I could hang under these pylons in any way I see fit.

- I take it AIM-7 Sparrows on the intakes are outdated? It's more likely to just use the sensor/targetting pods, right?

- Do they still use Mavericks these days? Or have laser and GPS bombs replaced them entirely?

- I have a couple of TV-guided bombs from a Hase weapons kit, GBU-8 and GBU-15. Do the hornets carry either?

- other than drop tanks being inboard, are there any limitations on which bombs go on inner/outer pylons?

[CraigSargent]

Welcome aboard. Look forward to seeing progress.

The deck behind the seat is black. That is correct.

AIM-7 is still used as are the pods, so up to you. Depends on whether you are doing AA or AG loadouts. AG tend to utilise the pods or the FLIR at least with a missile on the other side. AIM-120 is also used there now too, but AIM-7 seems more common.

GBU-15 was carried, but IIRC is no longer in the inventory. GBU-12 and 16 are flavour of the day along with JDAM. Maverick tends to be carried more by USMC Bugs. GBU-8 (if it is the same one in the GBU-15 set) is the old Paveway I and would not be correct for the AFLAC jet, being Vietnam era.

AIM-9L and AIM-9X are appropriate for the wingtips, but AIM-9X was not introduced to VFA-82 use before they were BRAC'd.

[Mark M.]

Thanks! As far as AIM-9s go I don't have any -Xs anyway, so that wouldn't work for me. I don't have any JDAMs so I guess I'll go mixed iron/LGB for this one.

[Mark M.]

You know, the cockpit is pretty nice as-is, but on top of that they included some decals. They really are nice!

There are color MFDs for the cockpit (although, only 2 of them are color, but you get 6 all-green, I'm guessing 3 front 3 back for 2-seaters or something). There are stencils either side of the seat headrest as well. There are decals for the left/right consoles, but they don't have buttons. What they do have is transparent lines built into them between the black panels. By painting the part the same color as the rest of the cockpit (grey) you can then place the black decals on top and get these nice almost-perfect looking lines telling you where certain panels start and others stop. It's a subtle but sweet-looking move.

Using microset I got them to snug down and added some dry brushing to bring out the details.

Not much for subassemblies yet. I'm still kind of fighting the nose section (I need to reinforce my joints -- the glue didn't touch all surfaces evenly and through my own fault the seams popped), but I've got the sides cemented on the aft body. These went on nicely, but I could have been lucky. They seem fiddly when fitting. No locator pins, only 1 brace tab, almost no help placing the sidewalls.

Seat and stick sitting in-place for pictures:

So far it's a beautiful build. Not a fan of the nose assembly, but overall Eric Cartman said it best "Dude, this is totally sweet!"

[Mark M.]

Bit of a lack of updates, but have made progress.

I made some plastic card "tabs" inside the upper fuselage area (jsut forward of the intakes) so that the lower cockpit fuselage would line up properly. There are no pins on this joint except for the alignment tabs on the nose by the gun details.

Overall it's a decent fit, but not perfect. Especially with the complex layout of parts, even a minor flaw is hard to correct without breaking seams or sanding off surface detail.

[Mark M.]

Sorry, didn't finish in time. Been sick as a dog for an entire week. Literally my brain has been adled by this super-cold. I'm still rather miserable today!

Didn't get any time to finish the model. It sits where we last left if.

[ALF18]

Sorry, didn't finish in time. Been sick as a dog for an entire week. Literally my brain has been adled by this super-cold. I'm still rather miserable today!

Hope you're feeling better soon!

Cockpit looks nice, as does fuselage assembly. Looks like I have to pick up one of these kits - my Hasegawa 1:72 kit is not that nice.

If it's not too late, you may want to make some minor corrections to colours for seat/stick. The seat back (upper portion, the part that contains the parachute) should be all black, with only the two parachute risers (straps) in a brownish colour. The seat cushions (back rest and seat pan cushion) should be more of a khaki green.

I see three red buttons on the back of the stick. The airplanes have only one red button (the one on the left, which releases air to ground weapons), and the other two are black (centre one is the "sensor control" selector, kind of like the top of a rook in a chess game, and the one on the right is the aileron/elevator trim switch, kind of an asian conical hat shape).

I may be able to help with weapons load-out questions (I flew Hornets in Canada for 10 years). If you have a load-out in mind, just PM me with your ideas and I'll tell you if there are any impossibilities there. For example, fuel tanks can only go on the centreline and inboard wing pylons, but not outboard wing, etc.

Looking forward to seeing more progress - good so far.

Dan

[Mark M.]

You mean the top part behind the headrest? That's the parachute?

On the stick buttons, I think I can correct that. It's a bit annoying, though, as it was pretty hard getting them red like that in the first place

[ALF18]

You mean the top part behind the headrest? That's the parachute?

The whole headrest is a big box that contains the pilot's parachute. It is the whole section of the seat above the pilot's shoulders. All 4 sides of the headrest box are black, as is the rest of the seat except for the straps and cushions and ejection handle. It looks like you painted the front panel brown, perhaps assuming it was some kind of cushion. The very top of the headrest (the cover of it) is actually some kind of khaki green cloth. The little X that shows on the Academy seat top represents the brownish metal parts that hold the parachute in and deploy it when seat/man separation happens after ejection.

I have some pics that I can't attach because Photobucket doesn't work here in my office (our network administrators have denied access from here). If you'd like, send me your e-mail address by PM and I can send you the pics. That's better than my feeble attempts at describing things...

And you're right - the red dots are esthetically awesome - they stand out nicely, and look very well-defined in shape. Great work in this tiny scale!

Dan

[Mark M.]

I see what you mean. Yes, I was assuming the upper headrest was the same padding as the rest!

I think I can fix all that with some corrective painting. Now the only issue is that I've been sick so long (over a week) and haven't touched the model; I can't remember if I've glued the seat in place or not! I don't think I did but will have to check.

[Joe Hegedus]

Welcome aboard. Look forward to seeing progress.

The deck behind the seat is black. That is correct.

GBU-15 was carried, but IIRC is no longer in the inventory. GBU-12 and 16 are flavour of the day along with JDAM. Maverick tends to be carried more by USMC Bugs. GBU-8 (if it is the same one in the GBU-15 set) is the old Paveway I and would not be correct for the AFLAC jet, being Vietnam era.

GBU-8 and GBU-15 were never used by Navy or Marine aircraft, they are USAF weapons. Neither is a Paveway weapon, PWI, II, and III are laser-guided bombs.

[Joe Hegedus]

The very top of the headrest (the cover of it) is actually some kind of khaki green cloth. The little X that shows on the Academy seat top represents the brownish metal parts that hold the parachute in and deploy it when seat/man separation happens after ejection.

This is true for the SJU-5/6 as seen in the FA-18A/B and early C/D, but the NACES SJU-17 has the top of the head box a black metal panel. That kit seat appears to be representing the NACES seat.

[Mark M.]

But the NACES still has a black headrest pad?

[Joe Hegedus]

But the NACES still has a black headrest pad?

Yes.