CF-18 2008 Demo Jet - 1:32 Academy

[ALF18]

Hello all.

This is my first group build, so be gentle. It's also my first attempt at posting pics from Photobucket... :lol:

I started this build back in June, and I have not yet finished. In the next several posts I'll show you where I am so far, and explain why it's stalled (decals still coming in).

Look for a full explanation of why this jet in this scale as well.

First, the real life version:

I will start telling the tale tomorrow.

Dan

[ALF18]

Second and last pic for tonight - this is what the stand will look like (in-flight, of course).

This was another build I did last year, same scale, similar stand.

Tune in tomorrow, same bat channel...

Dan

[Eastern]

Looks nice!

Have a nice start with the new one!

Cheers!

Alexander.

[ALF18]

Now for some additional planning info: Why this aircraft, and why in this scale?

I work at Canada’s Eastern fighter base (Bagotville), managing the CF-18 simulator. In the spring of this year, the demonstration pilot (Billy Mitchell) was in practicing his airshow routine, prior to starting the season. Demo pilots go through quite an extensive work-up – they start with simulators (under supervision from a previous demo pilot), then go into two-seat training, supplemented with more simulator missions. During one of his visits to the simulators, Billy asked me about the possibility of me building him a model of his jet in 1:32.

Billy had seen one I built for another instructor here, and wanted his own special model. Tail number 779 was built last year for a pilot who ejected from it after a mid-air collision over Germany several years ago. That model is the one you see in the picture above, showing how the stand will look for Billy's.

My next step was to find out if somebody was going to make decals for this jet in 1:32. Leading Edge (Dave Koss) had announced the intention to create the decals for the 2008 demo, and a quick e-mail to Dave got his confirmation that he would be happy to do 1:32 as well. Armed with confirmation that I would have the decals (which are quite complex, given the tail art and forward fuselage roundel art), I went to Billy and confirmed that I could make this jet for him.

I would also like to acknowledge the help from Richard Girouard, our local historian/photographer. He has given me numerous reference pics that have proven very valuable. Although I have taken several walks across the street from my office to the hangar to look at the airplane itself, having pics on-hand has reduced the need to keep going back, and has allowed me to get the weathering and other details pretty close. Richard’s pics have been used by Dave Koss to supplement the decal application instructions.

[ALF18]

Design aspects – finding out what he wanted

Having built 3 large Academy Hornets already, I was quite familiar with the details available. I sent Billy a Word document with every available option, and highlighted the options that I thought he might want. I asked him to check each, and change highlighting as required. If anyone is interested in what options I supplied in the document, I'd be happy to send it to you. For those who have not yet built the Academy 1:32 scale Hornet, it can give you some ideas of the kinds of options you will have to dream about as you plan your own build. Examples include control surface positioning, blanking plate vs ID light, camouflage line variations for Canadian jets over the years, legacy vs post-upgrade (ECP 583), etc.

Given that this was a known airplane, I already indicated the tail number (703) and blanked out the options for differing dark grey upper fuselage camouflage lines – this would be done exactly as per reference pics.

You’ll see the results of his wishes in each build photo.

[ALF18]

In-flight stand

Billy wanted an in-flight depiction of his airplane. This is the third one I do like this. I have always found it tough to come up with a stand without acquiring expensive tools and learning how to deal with metal and acrylic parts. I love building models, but I am basically lazy when it comes to going outside what comes in the kit (besides decals, usually).

I have settled on a stand that consists of two metal poles inserted into the back of the tails. These poles are held in place in a press-board base. I chose scrap pieces of press-board because it was cheap and heavy. After getting the store to cut the pieces, I glued them together (this time 3 layers deep; previous stands had been 2 layers deep). The dimensions are roughly 27 cm by 17 cm, 6 cm high (10 in by 7 in, 2.5 in high). The poles came from a single 1-metre long rod cut in half.

I drilled holes in the base to allow the poles to come out at slightly different angles. This would allow the jet to be banked slightly. In one application, the owner of the model has put little twist ties in place to hold the bank angle he wants. Of course, you'll never know if this was really deliberate, or just giving myself some wiggle room...

Here you can see the differing angles clearly.

The model end of the poles obviously needed to be strong enough. In the case of the large Academy Hornet, I have drilled holes in the turbine disc in each engine, which allows the poles to be inserted a long way, thus minimizing the stress on one small point in the tail area. The model ends up resting on the rods inserted far into the hollow engines, and it can be removed anytime. This pic is the other previous kit, showing the mounting rods clearly.

[ALF18]

Pilot figure and cockpit

I used all parts from the kit – no aftermarket here. There was no point in putting in an after-market seat, because the pilot would obscure the details anyway. I put Billy in his standard khaki green flying suit and his standard (non-JHMCS) helmet. A happy coincidence was bumping into Billy at lunch as he was getting ready to leave for an airshow right as I was painting the pilot figure. I noticed he was wearing the colourful Hornet and 425 Squadron patches instead of the toned-down monochrome green normal ones. To make the patches, I painted small white discs on his shoulders, then used permanent markers to make shapes vaguely reminiscent of the Hornet and 425 patches. First an example of the toned-down Hornet patch:

Now the colourful one worn during shows by Billy:

And the 425 Squadron patch:

Here is what it looks like:

The Academy instrument panel is pretty good, and using dry brushing and a magnifying glass with toothpick I managed to make some semblance of the cockpit detail. Reference pics from previous buys of Leading Edge decals helped with the colour scheme, as well as the Dasco book. I made shoulder straps out of painted masking tape, and taped them into place.

Of interest to those who will build the same jet, Leading Edge has included some special decals for the seat and landing gear. Because I finished the cockpit and closed it up in July, then received the decals in October, I couldn’t use the seat decals that Dave Koss has included with the NORAD 50 Years special decals used here.

[ALF18]

Note that in the last pic above you can see where I shaved off the two extra F/A-18C style bulges below the leading edge extensions. Canadian Hornets don't have them.

Fuselage and wing assembly

This kit goes together very well. The areas I have problems with normally are the air intake to fuselage side fit – it is very hard to get this right. I did an acceptable job here, but it still isn’t perfect.

The landing gear doors are a great fit, even closed for in-flight. I have had bad experiences with other kits in this area (1:48 Classic Airframes F-5A was the worst, for example) when building them in-flight. Kudos to Academy for the excellent fit of these doors.

I left off the vertical stabilizers pending receipt of decals, in anticipation of being challenged with such large decals fitting onto the outsides of the tails. In retrospect, I am very happy to have left these off – the decal application would have been much harder after gluing the tails in place.

Trailing edge flaps are installed drooped 20 degrees, with flush ailerons. Leading edge flaps are drooped about 10 degrees as well. When a Hornet is manoeuvring hard, the leading/trailing edge flaps come down automatically. I have always thought of this as being like a cat’s claws coming out as it corners on a carpet. Ailerons only droop when flaps are in half or full mode (only during landing/takeoff phases). The kit comes with trailing edge flap/aileron actuators in 0, 20, and 45 degree options. I used the 20 degree option because I have not had lots of success modifying these with previous kits.

The engine nozzles are wide open – this reflects the full afterburner state.

[ALF18]

Painting

Humbrol 127 and 87 were used for light and dark greys. I prefer to use acrylics, but am trying to exhaust my stocks of enamels when I can. I used masking tape for demarcation top/bottom, and for the canopy. After finishing off the paint, I applied a small strip of tape to the top of the canopy to protect it from scratches for the remainder of the build.

I am not brave enough to correct the longitudinal seam in the rear canopy – there are no good hobby shops where I live, and materials that I have seen mentioned elsewhere are not readily available. The main reason is fear – I didn’t want to destroy the canopy and not have a part to use.

[ALF18]

Parallel Work - Weapons

Demo jets don't have weapons. Academy kits come with LOTS of weapons. I can always use some nice quality air to air missiles, as well as laser guided bombs, so I used time waiting for things to dry to build some weapons up. I made about 6 AIM 7s, 8 AIM 9s, and about 10 AIM 120s using parts from this kit and previous kits. Lots of work for these little kits, but I love the way they look when they get painted and decalled. Academy's decal sheet for weapons markings is excellent! I remember trying to hand-paint missile colour bands with a shaky hand on previous models

The one problem I often have with these colour bands is getting them to stick in place, wrapping around the missile body. My solution is to put a ring of Future where they will go (wet), then apply the decal with a brush soaked in Future, thus basically "glueing" it in place with the floor polish.

Oh, and I also built the landing gear for my next Academy Hornet, which will be with wheels down for the first time in 4 builds. What detail in this gear!

[ALF18]

Weathering

I was still waiting for decals in July when the paint was done. For weathering, I wanted it to be subtle, like the real jet. I experimented with panel lines, emphasizing them by drawing along panel lines with a fine point mechanical pencil. I then did some small scribbling with pencil in areas where there are typically grease/oil stains on the airplane (like the leading edge flap actuator outboard of the wing fold, the wing folds themselves, etc). After the scribbling was done, I wet my fingertip, and smudged the pencil marks in the direction of the airflow to make them look more realistic. All of this happens before the Future coat is applied for decaling. The matt paint makes for a better medium for the pencil marks to stick to. In some areas (like around the nose refuelling or electrical panels), I have put smudge marks to represent dirty smudges from groundcrew gloves on the door catches.

These airshow jets are freshly painted – that is why I kept weathering and panel lines to a bare minimum.

For the leading edge extension (LEX) tops, there is an anti-slip coating applied that ends up being a little darker than the top paint, but far less obvious than most USN anti-slip panels I have seen. I created these by scribbling longitudinal pencil marks, then smudging them with a wet finger.

All of this pencil work is very low risk – any mistakes can be corrected either with hard finger rubbing, or with an eraser, and the effect redone.

[ALF18]

Decalling – tails

Dave Koss sent me decals as he finished them. Here is a pic of his first prototypes for the tail art, being held by Billy in front of the real jet parked at Rocky Mountain House early in the airshow season.

One very important point is to ensure the raised detail for formation lighting on the tail is scrubbed off prior to decal application. This is noted on the Leading Edge instructions, but it could be easy to miss as a modeller eagerly starts the job. The raised detail and the tail art depiction of formation lighting do not exactly match.

I found the large decals went on very well. I was terrified that they would tear or otherwise misbehave, but they were just thick enough to survive normal handling very well. I used Micro Set to get them to suck onto the tail detail. The tail decals need to be trimmed all around, because they are printed on one large bit of film with white borders filling in the rest of the paper. This avoids having to trim off any clear border around the tail shape afterward. The fit was excellent – I shaved off about 1 mm of extra decal at the top of one fin (because I put it on a little too high up), and when I did the other tail I just applied it slightly lower and it fit beautifully at the top. The small amount of extra decal will tuck nicely under the tail at the bottom as it is glued into place.

After the big decal had set for a few minutes (as I worked the bubbles out and saw the surface detail start to appear), I carefully trimmed around the rudders, and the decal hugged the rudder shape nicely, getting rid of the odd ‘bridge’ effect present before trimming. I also cut rectangular holes for the fuel vents, and let the decal settle into the hole. The little tabs around the protrusions at the top rear of the tails sucked nicely into place with Micro Set as well. All in all, this makes for a great looking tail for such a big decal.

Those modellers who want to make the rudders canted at an angle can trim off the extra portion from the stabilizer itself (where the rudders will go), and apply the rudder decals (included as shown). When all is dry, the rudders can be glued into place.

[phantom]

The decals work just ducky. The normal Leading Edge high quality product.

I just trimmed the tail from the white. In 1/72 (Hasegawa) the tail fits perfectly. AND in the baby scale Dave even gave us the option of Hasegawa and Academy sized decals. Excellent Dave!!!

Here is what a finshed but very tiny version comes out like.

Ands speaking of excellent , your big scale Hornet is so far coming excellent. Your tiny Capt. Mitchell with the 425 squadron patches is looking spot on!!!

[ALF18]

Here is what a finshed but very tiny version comes out like.

Shawn

Thanks for the comments. Your "little guy" is nicely done. I've always found it tough to get it looking that right in 1:72, especially the fit around the intakes on the Hasegawa kit.

I'm curious - the Leading Edge instructions say insides of tails should be FS 36118 (same as false canopy). The real interior tails look the same shade as the remainder of the top of the airplane (FS 35237), just as your small model does. Has there been some kind of correction published to that comment?

Dan

[phantom]

I'm just going by the photo. I think it IS close to 36118 inside the tail. If nothing else the contrast makes some nice difference from the other 30 some odd Hornets on my shelf.

[ALF18]

I'm just going by the photo. I think it IS close to 36118 inside the tail. If nothing else the contrast makes some nice difference from the other 30 some odd Hornets on my shelf.

Shawn

Looks like you're right! My first attempt was to walk across the street to the hangar, only to find that the airplane is away today

So I looked into my ref pics from Richard Girouard, and found a great pic that clearly shows a very dark inside tail surface, that looks like 36118.

Now I am faced with a scary prospect - repaint the interiors of the tails, after I have already put on the fancy NORAD 50 Years decals on the exteriors. Anybody have any suggestions on how to protect those huge decals from overspray?

ALF

[phantom]

I did mine by just spraying straight on. 0 degrees straight on no screwing about. Not meant to sound mean, but I should not (famous last words) think you should have any overspray.

But if your worried.......put post-it notes over the fancy marks. Low tact enough that they "should not" do any damage on removal.

[ALF18]

Yes, I can confirm that the interior of the tail is 36118. Talked to Jim Belliveau this summer and he confirmed that the inner tails are the same shade as the false canopy.

Thanks to both the Phantom and Colin. I was going to do exactly what Shawn suggested, and the post-it idea may be just the insurance policy I need to calm my nerves. Airbrushing is my "bête noire" - masking, bleeding, etc. I have already coated the outsides with Future over top of the big decals, so the post-its should definitely do the trick without damage.

And thanks for the confirmation of the FS number. All my good reference pics were here at work, while at home I only had some that were a little inconclusive because of angle or lighting. I am taking the pics home on the memory stick now, and will post the best one through Photobucket from home tonight.

ALF

[ALF18]

Well, maybe I should get my tail moving on mine then. I already started scribing a Revell kit and I dropped the flaps on it. I still have 3 weeks to finish it, right?

Well, duh... What could be more important than doing that?

Will this be the dual that you promised to show off in this GB, or another one?

ALF

[ALF18]

Decals are here!

Today (just in time for the weekend) the last sheet of the decals arrived from Leading Edge!!!

They look great, and they came with the long-awaited false canopy mask. Now the only obstacle to getting this beast done is accumulating enough brownie points by doing chores early Saturday to get a "kitchen pass" that allows me to attack the painting of the false canopy, and the repainting of the interiors of the vertical tails.

There is hope I won't miss the deadline... :blink:

ALF

[ALF18]

Decalling done, dull coat applied (Testors spray can). The model is finally finished. I have left a phone message with Billy to see when he wants to have his model. It is now sitting in my office. Hopefully (if the stars align properly) I can get a pic with him and the model in front of the real jet on Wednesday morning.

Look for pics of the finished bird tonight, when I can get a Photobucket from home.

ALF

[ALF18]

Wow....that was quick!

Colin

Yup, it was a delicate balancing act doing just enough around the house to keep my wife happy, while obsessing over decal application and finishing touches. I am trying hard to meet the 18 November target for gallery articles mentioned by the group build moderator, so I would dearly love to get a pic with Billy and the model for inclusion there.

The Leading Edge decals are of course incredibly complete - it took me hours to get all of them on.

Today I've had a few 425 pilots stop by as they finished up sim missions, and they all loved the look of the finished product. One of them said "when I become demo pilot, can you build me one?" You gotta love the confidence these guys have. That's what got them where they are, and that's what keeps them alive.

ALF

[ALF18]

Reference photo for dark (FS 36118) tail interiors:

[ALF18]

False canopy painting

Using the Leading Edge Models masks, it worked out very well. I used Model Master Acryl FS 36118, and it matched the decal colour pretty closely (the decals include a small triangle at the rear of the false canopy that makes a close colour match important). Sticklers would note that the paint was a tiny bit lighter than the decal, but given that it is at the bottom of the fuselage, I didn't get wrapped up about it.

Spraying the inside of the tails was trouble-free - I made sure to point the airbrush perpendicular to the surface, or even a little beyond vertical to ensure the overspray went beyond the already-decalled exterior surface. Turned out ok.

There was a tiny bit of leakage under the masks in one corner. I think I twisted one portion ever so slightly, and it lifted a bit. A little more care and it would have been perfect, but I was in a rush to get this done.

[ALF18]

Decalling

One thing about Dave Koss, he's a perfectionist! There were endless stencils here, and the overall effect is very realistic. It took hours!

This pic shows the model esconced in the front seat area of my car, ready for transport to the base in Bagotville.