Saguanay Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 That is a fine bit of detail on the Bug. The pic of the two CF18s just a few posts above, there is a loadout with 2 GBU and 6 Sidewinders...actual loadout? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted December 10, 2009 Author Share Posted December 10, 2009 (edited) Thanks Guys! A few more brass gear updates. The F-18 main gear doesn't appear to have a lot of plumbing, but there quite are a few hydraulic lines that travel along the inside of the horizontal lower leg and climb up the rear of the main strut and exit at the top into the gear well. There's also a very weird and LARGE line that has a fairly large squarish form just inside the wheel. It almost touches the wheel brake, so I'll be shortening the axles to get the brake a lot closer and attach a line to them. Another large line originates under the gear at the L-shaped hinge and travels up to the top. The front nose gear is fairly simple, with a few hydraulic lines on the port front side that travel down to the wheel and a few electrical lines on the starboard side. It's a lot more complicated than what I've done, but this works for me..... In order to get a good white paint job and to detect assembly flaws, I like to paint one coat of white to accomplish both. This makes all the brass and glue goofs show up, since clear CA glue against brass is almost impossible to see. Once these blemishes are fixed, I'll spray a final coat of gloss white enamel. Meanwhile those plumbing lines will be re-painted in steel and I'll add some brackets and fasteners when everything is dry. The piston part of the front gear is taped off, because for some reason it came out silver with a little sanding. A small mulligan! Looks like that shock still needs some work.... Those other small brass bits are not needed yet, but I like to paint them at the same time so they are nice and dry later. Here I used a simple sprue and CA glued them on with the visible side upwards and the fuselage side downward. When it's time to use them, the CA glue comes off fairly easily with a hobby knife..... Thanks for your interest. Edited December 10, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dpwatson Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Nice idea using the CA glue. And good job on that wiring! David Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted December 13, 2009 Author Share Posted December 13, 2009 (edited) I’ve made 2 discoveries over the last few days, both concerning the main landing gear area. While I’ve been waiting for my gear legs to dry, I’ve been gluing in the Aires main gear wells to the lower fuselage and doing a little research. Here’s a pic of the gear bays put to bed. With a little sanding and dry fitting they fit fairly well...... As you know by now, I’m very paranoid about sagging gear, so I checked a few things on the gear position and angle in the new bays, based upon a tip I learned in John Wolstenholme’s build. Discovery 1. There are 2 problems with the gear hole angles in the Aires bays, which must be drilled out anyway. First, both holes angle outward and the right/starboard side angles out more than the left/port side. To demonstrate this angle, I put some glue applicators in each hole as below to demonstrate…. The kit gear bays are almost completely vertical, shown below with the cut out parts. A check of a new kit shows the same thing…… A check of the kit gear metal core vs. the new brass gear indicates that vertical is the desired angle, since both parts compensate for vertical placement with a bend at the top. Here’s a pic of the kit part. Note the slight bend at the top, which assumes a vertical hole….. To fix this wrong gear angle, I simply drilled out the hole in the vertical position, then I inserted the brass gear for a dry fit. To do this you must cut the pin at the end of the leg about half way and also cut the solid hole of the Aires gear bracket, or you’ll never get it in. When I get to the stage where I’ll glue these legs in, I’ll use lots of CA glue then re-paint some of the white, because the Aires resin is much more fragile than plastic. No point using strong gear and then have it crumble in the gear bay. Also note that I have cut down the axles a lot to get the wheel closer to the leg, because the kit and brass parts are way too long. I'll be weathering and decaling the gear legs later.... Edited December 13, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted December 13, 2009 Author Share Posted December 13, 2009 (edited) Discovery 2. Again using a tip from John Wolstenholme’s build in his post (#44) above, I was about to cut the gear bay doors to match his edit of Parts J 23 and J 24, where the lip was cut off the bottom of the door like the pic below. Part J 24 is for the right/starboard side and J 23 is for the left/port side. I really should have placed them in the reverse order, but, whatever.... Checking some pics of the some Canadian F-18’s, I was very surprised to find that maybe John’s edit was not necessary, since I could clearly see the lip that should be cut off in the following pics: Note front of the right/starboard door in this one: http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/luc_col...0Lake%20020.JPG Another angle…. http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/luc_col...0Lake%20021.JPG Thinking this might be a Canadian thing, I PM’d John to ask him why he made the edit. His response was that he could clearly see the lip missing in the Daco F-18 book, p110,111, so I did some more checking. As it turns out we were BOTH right, because the lip is missing on the left/port side. Check these pics out of an F-18A on the left side. No lip...... http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/bill_sp..._162843_053.JPG http://data3.primeportal.net/hangar/azrael...12_78_of_92.jpg Now this pic is the best, because it shows both gear doors that not only confirm the above, but it also shows that the “lip†might well wrap around the fuselage and not fit within the gear bay. Note the red mark just behind the chaff/flare dispenser (credit to John for noticing this one)..... http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/bill_sp..._162843_068.JPG A check of all sorts of F-18C’s and F-18D’s confirms that this difference in gear doors is not confined to the earlier A/B versions, but all legacy hornets. Even the NASA F-18A I took pics of at Nellis last year has it….. So, it would appear the “correct†thing to do is to cut off the left gear door lip, Part J 23 and leave the right side, part J 24 alone. The gear bay corners should also be straightened out, because the kit parts have a curve for the lip on both sides. Here's a pic of the modified Part J 23, with J 24 unaltered..... Thanks to John Wolstenholme for helping me figure this little detail out. Edited December 13, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Mine is all painted now, but Ill see about trimming the gear door at least. Thanks for the heads up guys. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Marcel111 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Chuck, great attention to detail on thos gear doors. If only you had built your Hornet before I did mine I must say I'm looking fowwrad to the comparitively piece-of-cake gear of my next build (F-4). Cheers, Marcel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted December 16, 2009 Author Share Posted December 16, 2009 This landing gear has been a challenge, but I think I've got a good result now that I've painted it twice to get rid of the brass imperfections, added some plumbing, decals and placards. I didn't get them as dirty as I normally do, because most of the pics I have of the CF-18 show the landing gear to be fairly clean, except for the lower leg, especially on the inside of the wheel. What do you think?.... The nose gear..... .....and now the main gear. The placard on the modified Canuck shock is an F-18C placard with about a third of it cut off. Good thing you can't read anything..... That wire running out the top will be attached to the gear well later..... That tie-down ring at the back of the leg was taken from a few links of one of my wife's earrings. Shhhhhhhh! I sure hope she doesn't find out! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dpwatson Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 Nice plumbing mate! Looking good. David Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 Beauty. Very real looking. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 (edited) Thank you Gents, Due to Xmas activities and a difficult fit of the resin cockpit and front gear bay, the front fuselage has taken more time than I anticipated. Before I fit everything together, I got rid of those nasty mold marks that are on every kit. To protect the fine detail of the hinged panels, I use masking tape before I sand.... Now my first real "save" of this build. The Black Box/Avionix cockpit does not fit in the rear pit very well. There is a noticeable gap between the side panels and the pit in the back, which is quite noticeable. To fix this gap, I used some Evergreen styrene and shaped it to the cockpit side walls. Here it looks "before". Note the kit side details were ground off before the Avionix panels were glued into place. Getting the panels to fit perfectly with the side walls of the pit is very tricky.... .... and now the "after" pic with some paint...... ....and now with the pit installed. Voila, no gap..... The other side needs the same thing. I also used CA glue to glue the top panel on, since it also acts as a "putty" to fill the gap left by the panel. Sanding, of course, will be done later..... The Aires gear bay needs some work too. The sides of the front needs to be sanded down to a razor edge to get them to sit flush with the kit parts....... The gap under the front, however, has to go. I've dry placed Part B 16 on top to show how much of a gap there would be. Part B-16 is used on "A/B" versions over Part E-14, which is for the "C" model. It also requires some mods to make it Canadian accurate.... The back of the gear bay also shows too much lip, since the gear bay is too short compared to the kit. Fortunately, the front gear door on the nose wheel support will hide this flaw. You may have noted that for all my work on the gear legs, I didn't put the nose gear on as per instructions. After some careful dry fitting and rotating this part, I can add it and the rear support at the end like most builds. This should make a lot of future building a lot easier. Thanks for your interest- and Merry Xmas! Edited December 23, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kurnass77 Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Great progress mate! A very clean and effective paint job! I have a little brother in 1 / 72, I will follow with great interest ... Cheers,Gianni Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tilt Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Looking very good. Looks to be lots of little areas to correct at this stage - but it looks like you're on the job. I'll be watching. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AlienFrogModeller Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Uhm...hopefully you get this b4 u go much further...there are no "yellow buttons" Maint circuit breakes in the rear seat. I will confirm with pics if ya need but my time in the front seat as run up guy, I dont think there is. Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 Uhm...hopefully you get this b4 u go much further...there are no "yellow buttons" Maint circuit breakes in the rear seat. I will confirm with pics if ya need but my time in the front seat as run up guy, I dont think there is.Cheers Hey, I can use all the help I can get! I'd love some pics of the rear pit, since there's really nothing out there on the 'net. The little panel you refer to was from the Eduard F-18D photo-etch set, so maybe it's a "D" thing. I can easily pop it off, but I'd like to see a pic to figure out what to do in that area. Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AlienFrogModeller Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Am looking now but if you look at the pic u already posted look carefully there are two curved blanking panels on the left side...blanking panel is used loosely here looking thru my pics now. Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AlienFrogModeller Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 BTW the kiit looks great...hit me up I'll send you a pic. Have no Idea how to post pics ne more. hornetphixer@msn.com Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 hit me up I'll send you a pic.hornetphixer@msn.com Cheers email sent. Thanks! Now a little progress, with one picture telling the whole story. The main mods were: The removal of the AN/ALR-67 "udder" antenna, since my CF-18B is "old school" and doesn't have one- or at least it didn't in 2007 when I touched the plane. I shorted the little antenna next to the udder, the moved it slightly inward. I don't know if this is really necessary, but it appears to be this way in a few pics. The removal of the AN/ALQ-165 antenna, then replacement off to the right side (left in pic). I used part B-26 for the new one, since these will not be installed and it's very close to the correct size. The gap at the front of the gear bay was eliminated using 0.06" styrene, then I just placed part B-16 on for fit. With a little sanding, it now fits flush, although in real life you don't see this lip. I don't think this is fixable, because lengthening B-16 to cover the lip would mean the gear doors wouldn't fit. I suppose there's always a way, but I don't really care. I still need to cut off another couple of AN/ALQ-165 bumps and eliminate the setting where part B-26 goes. BTW, I get all my antenna lingo above from Steve's excellent article on the CF-18 found below. When it comes to this stuff, I know squat, but I can follow directions and try to replicate what I see in pics.... http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1...ford/tnt100.htm Happy modeling. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Saguanay Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Awesome looking job. Some web gear pics Im sure you already have, but shows some dirt and wear on the mains. http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/luc_col...0Lake%20021.JPG and the front http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/luc_col...0Lake%20027.JPG Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AlienFrogModeller Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 The Utter was not installed due to an EW config...depends on the type of role it was playing. Largely due to the pilot courses in house at certain times of the year. So there is no right or wrong for this config, play it ne way you want to. Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 Awesome looking job.Some web gear pics Im sure you already have, but shows some dirt and wear on the mains. http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/luc_col...0Lake%20021.JPG and the front http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/luc_col...0Lake%20027.JPG Thanks- I've got those and already dirtied up the inside of the mains. The rest of the gear looks fairly clean from the outside. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Saguanay Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Do you have the DACO book on the F-18? Lots of pics of the pits and the rest of the aircraft. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 Do you have the DACO book on the F-18? Lots of pics of the pits and the rest of the aircraft. Sadly no, but I have a lot of pics of other areas of the aircraft. One really big problem is that I don't have an accurate "B" pit anyway, since I was shipped a "D" pit instead. I could have tried to send it back, killing 6 weeks in the process, or bought another which might also be wrong, so the rear pit will never be totally correct anyway, so why worry about the odd small detail that's wrong back there? With the canopy in place, all your attention will be directed to the front pit which is still OK. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and move on! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AlienFrogModeller Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 I have more than that book on CF-188 can ever give you...make sure u have lots of space tonight as your in box will be full. Just be sure to ask for very spec shots. I only have half my photos electronically. Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 I have more than that book on CF-188 can ever give you...make sure u have lots of space tonight as your in box will be full. Just be sure to ask for very spec shots. I only have half my photos electronically.Cheers Thanks Man! I'll be sure to upload them to my site so that we can share them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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