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Balkan Rat and 439 Tiger meet joint build


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That looks great! I like the shade of medium grey you used. I wish I had lightened the grey I used on mine a little more. How did you tone down the NO STEP decals?

I just use the same top colour (MM medium gray mixing with light ghost gray) but with more thinner. The I spray light mist coats over the decals to tone them down. You have to be careful not to overdue it though, patience is the key.

Cheers!

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So here I am waiting for the new decals from Leading Edge and what do I find on top of the desk this morning? An unopened package that we recieved Thursday. As my wife mentioned "oh yeah there was something for you, forgot to tell ya before I went to work." - must be the blonde roots.

So I have the new decals and they at least look thinner, a comparison will be in the future.

In the meantime another view of the Balkan Rat.

CF-18012.jpg

A comparison between Medium Gray's I used. The Hobby Boss colour is right out of the bottle, the Rat lightened a lot. In real life the Tiger Meet colour is way darker, I am going to do some sanding and repaint the HB kit to more match the Balkan Rat colour. Wish me luck...

CF-18016.jpg

Thanks for looking

Mark

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Fine work on your Hornets Mark. That really blows about the Tiger Meet decals. I had similar problems with some of Leading Edge's older offerings, namely the 421 Sqn CF-104 'Toothbrush' markings and the Golden Centennaires markings. Dave's recent stuff has been top notch though. I hope your able to recover the Tiger Meet bird. I look forward to the completions.

Mike

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I just got a chance to see these two birds in person tonight. I can certify that they look even better for real than they do in the pics here. The weathering on the Balkan Rat (which hasn't yet shown up on this thread) is looking really nice so far, and the paint job passes the TLAR (that looks about right) test.

Thanks for the chance to fondle (erm... examine? appreciate?) your various in-progress builds today. Let me see - I remember two Tomcats, a huge F-16, the two Hornets, a B-1... did I get most of them? I don't know how you keep it all together, with the dogs and the kids enough to keep any normal human being occupied! My hat is off to you for the patience and skill you have, given all the real life distractions.

ALF

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I just got a chance to see these two birds in person tonight. I can certify that they look even better for real than they do in the pics here. The weathering on the Balkan Rat (which hasn't yet shown up on this thread) is looking really nice so far, and the paint job passes the TLAR (that looks about right) test.

Thanks for the chance to fondle (erm... examine? appreciate?) your various in-progress builds today. Let me see - I remember two Tomcats, a huge F-16, the two Hornets, a B-1... did I get most of them? I don't know how you keep it all together, with the dogs and the kids enough to keep any normal human being occupied! My hat is off to you for the patience and skill you have, given all the real life distractions.

ALF

Hey thanks ALF, hopefully you are back home safe and sound. Give me a ring anytime you are back in Moose Jaw I will be here a while like I said, Hawk course doesn't start till the end of May. After you left I actually made a list of in-progress builds so like you mentioned 2 revell 1/48 Tomcats (with scribed in detail now), 1/32 F-16 Arctic Agressor, the 2 hornets of this build, a 1/72 B-1B in the Star of Abilene scheme (with 14 external cruise missiles), a Macross VF-1S Strike Valkyrie, an assembled Star Trek USS Enterprise awaiting paint, 1/72 B-2 awaiting paint and a B-52 awaiting paint.

So the plan over the next couple months is to finish the Hornets, Tomcats, and the F-16. The remainder will have to wait, but having said that I do have a 1/32 scale F/A-18 that is sitting in the corner saying BUILD ME! So we will see what happens.

Real life distractions, well modeling is a nice break from those, well that and the workout rountine I am doing now. The P90X program (1.5 hours a day) plus 20 km a week in running with my husky. Need to be fit, the Hawk cockpit is pretty small for a 6'1" guy like me.

Thanks again ALF

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As ALF had mentioned I am a bit further along I just need to get around to posting pics. I did the exhaust nozzles with alclad and some dry-brushing to bring out the detail.

CF-18model004.jpg

Here is the back of the engine with the burner ring a tan colour to simulate the real deal.

CF-18model009.jpg

And the finished product on the jet. The HB kit will be using the Aires open exhaust so I didn't build the kit nozzles, I did notice inside the burner cans of the HB kit they have the "line-up pins" which are very noticable. 1 more point for the Hasegawa kit.

CF-18model013.jpg

The top view of the jet with some weathering done on the wings, beside the gun ports and walk-way. I still need to weather back between the tails where there usually is leakage from the top engine holes. The flash in this pic also washed out the top of the spine, so it seems less detailed, I will have to get some pics in the natural light.

CF-18model011.jpg

Thanks for looking

Mark

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think its about time for an update just got back from Toronto, riding on DRDC's centrifuge was fun!

So pylons are done for the Balkan Rat:

003.jpg

Landing gear and pylons attached

004.jpg

The Tiger Meet jet resanded and repainted with a more accurate shade of 35237, more closely matches the Balkan Rat bird.

005.jpg

Another angle:

007.jpg

The new Tiger Meet decals from Leading edge are great, from this:

cf-18041.jpg

To this:

023.jpg

Next up the top side of the Tiger Meet jet decaled, landing gear rebuilt and LGB for the Balkan Rat

Thanks for looking!

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I think its about time for an update just got back from Toronto, riding on DRDC's centrifuge was fun!

So pylons are done for the Balkan Rat:

003.jpg

Landing gear and pylons attached

004.jpg

The Tiger Meet jet resanded and repainted with a more accurate shade of 35237, more closely matches the Balkan Rat bird.

005.jpg

Another angle:

007.jpg

The new Tiger Meet decals from Leading edge are great, from this:

cf-18041.jpg

To this:

023.jpg

Next up the top side of the Tiger Meet jet decaled, landing gear rebuilt and LGB for the Balkan Rat

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Nice, Mark!

Did you get "g-suit rash" all over your legs from the centrifuge?

ALF

I didn't get the rash the other guys did though, but I did get a bruise on my left leg (outside). Besides that it wasn't bad I guess I have a good g-tolerance. I rode it to 5 on the gradual without any symptoms.

-Mark

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Those CF-188's are looking great.

On a side note, the coincidence fairy visited me today..this was the first post I clicked on after getting home from work and right before I left work, I marshaled 188776 off of our ramp...shes looking pretty beat up these days.

Sean

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Here is the Hobby Boss landing gear with corrected shocks.

011.jpg

LGBs for the Balkan Rat almost done.

024.jpg

After a few days of on and off again decaling the top is almost done.

020.jpg

Another view, flat coat has not be applied yet so some decals still have a slight shine to them.

018.jpg

Thanks for looking!

Mark

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Thanks guys! The decals this time around are thin but very strong. The biggest decal is the one that stretches from the back of the cockpit all the way to the tail. I had no problem repositioning it many times to get the right position, all without ripping.

cheers

Mark

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  • 1 month later...

Alrighty, its been a while since I updated but life's projects got in the way. Shingles the garage took 2 weeks of vacation in Alberta and I am now studying for my next phase of flight training. But I have to finish these two hornets before the deadline so here are the updates.

Both CF-18s as they are today. Decals are done on the Tiger meet and flat coated using Mr. Hobby Mr. Super UV Clear (very nice product but expensive), need to paint it's landing gear. Need to finish the rest of the weapons for both. Also need to finish the canopy for the Balkan rat, it has a bunch of metal etch pieces and the canopy will be in the up position.

006.jpg

The canopy of the HB kit is a more challenging story, unlike the Has. kits one piece canopy which has a better fit if you want to close the canopy, the HB 2 piece is a bit more demanding to get a nice fit.

001.jpg

Has. canopy has a nicer fit, as can be seen here even in a loose fitting.

008.jpg

so I added thin pieces of styrene and will sand to fit.

003-1.jpg

And finally the afterburner ring off of the Aires exhaust.

012.jpg

Thanks for looking.

-Mark

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