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F/A-18D VMFA (AW)-224, 1/32 Academy


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Step 1: Comprehensively mask. I used the plastic bag technique pioneered here by Chuck. Masking is key, since this stuff will go absolutely everywhere.

Marcel

Haaaa! I'm glad I could be of service. I use that technique all the time because there's always some addition or repair to do after you think you're finished painting. Meanwhile, You just taught me how to do walkways. EXCELLENT idea!

Meanwhile your Hornet looks great so far. One other tip I might offer is to NOT mount the Sparrow missiles along the fuselage near your lowered flaps, like I did in the pic below. They won't fit with the flaps down, which means a lot of trimming of the flaps. If you know this ahead of time, it's easy to trim the flaps before you glue them on, but after is not so easy.

F-18-10.jpg

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WOW, Marcel, fantastic work on that! I am still trying to get my intakes to be flush. Its a pain in the butt, but I have the inside nice and flush and seamless but that outside is causing me grief! Any pointers?

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I really like your Hornet! Fortunately my bug won't be acrrying any Sparrows. Those flaps do kinda suck though, when fully extended, they extend to below the bottom of the fuselarge,which is wrong. Unfortunately, I only read about that once mine were already in place and I wasn't going to rip them off.

Yeah, the walkway trick is actually very easy to do :cheers:

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Gregg, Angels 49, Guy, Quian, Ken, Jman, thanks for the comments.

I must say I have to keep staring at the result of using that textured paint, the rough walkways are really making the model come alive, I cannot believe my luck. Best of all, it's very easy to do. :cheers:

Guy, I'm glad I posted this in time for you to consider it on your Cat.

Cheers,

Marcel

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I've wonered about using that paint for USN/USMC bombs in 32nd scale. What do you think?

Chuck

I've actually done it and it works really well. The bomb in question will go onto this hornet, I'll post a pic as soon as it's done.

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Thx for the additional comments, guys! :cheers:

Chuck, I have used the same method to simulate the fire retardent coating on Navy/Marine bombs, have a look below. The bomb is of course not finished yet but you get the idea. I used several coats of ordinary paint over the textured paint to dull the effect, since those coats don't seem all that rough. Incidentally (and somewhat miraculously), notice how it is still possible to apply a decal over that rough surface if Future is used as the decals softening solution.

DSCN9029.jpg

Cheers,

Marcel

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  • 3 weeks later...
Hey Marcel how about an update? When you gonne give us one?

Hey Jman, thx for asking. Work has had me travelling quite a bit, so progress has been slow. I should have my gray coats done in the next few days, I'll post an extensive update then.

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Hey Jman, thx for asking. Work has had me travelling quite a bit, so progress has been slow. I should have my gray coats done in the next few days, I'll post an extensive update then.

Great looking forward to it Marcel! BTW, when were you thinking about taking a look at my Hornet? I am sad now that you havent even looked at it yet! :explode: :)

Cant wait for the next update buddy!

Edited by JMan
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Great looking forward to it Marcel! BTW, when were you thinking about taking a look at my Hornet? I am sad now that you havent even looked at it yet! B) :cheers:

Cant wait for the next update buddy!

Dood! Sorry about not hooking up with your update... I just missed it. I haven't been on this forum every day lately, with the number of posts going down, it's hard for a guy to keep up. However, I have made up for my miss as I'm sure you'll see :P

Cheers,

Marcel

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Great progress so far, which is especially interesting to me since I think this will also be my next build.

One suggestion, which I'm sure you've done already, is to hit those bombs with Future again to smooth out the decal edges prior to dull coat. I used the stippled glue method for the ablative coating on Navy bombs before, but your method is WAY better. :cheers:

Edited by chuck540z3
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Great progress so far, which is especially interesting to me since I think this will also be my next build.

One suggestion, which I'm sure you've done already, is to hit those bombs with Future again to smooth out the decal edges prior to dull coat. I used the stippled glue method for the ablative coating on Navy bombs before, but your method is WAY better. :D

Thx Chuck! Thx for the heads up on hitting the bomb decals again with Future, I may actually have overlooked that, haven't touched the bomb in months. In general, I only have two key suggestions with the kit (both things I screwed up): Get a resin intake set that doesn't have the intakes throttled (you've probably got hose already) and don't drop the flaps past the underside of the fuselarge (I'm sure you're on top of this already).

Cheers,

Marcel

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Get a resin intake set that doesn't have the intakes throttled (you've probably got hose already) and don't drop the flaps past the underside of the fuselarge (I'm sure you're on top of this already).

Marcel

Yeah I learned this stuff on my last build the hard way too. I now have 2 sets of Seamless Suckers and 2 sets of the D-Mold intakes. I also have a couple sets of the SAC landing gear like you, but I just ordered the G-Force gear from Fightertown for comparison because the kit gear looks terrific, but it always sags. I'm pretty sure when I get into it, I'll be putting some Seamless Suckers and SAC gear on ebay. :monkeydance:

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