Mike C Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 While waiting for the gloss clear coat on my 1st entrant to dry/cure overnight, I thought I'd make a start on my 2nd entrant for this GB: one-half of Hasegawa's 1/72 "D" Hornet Marine Combo. I will be using the VMFA-224 Bengals markings for this. My, my.... this is a perfect example of how much difference a couple of decades of progress made on quality (and cost) of a product. :lol: Putting this kit next to the Academy's "C" Hornet I'm currently building made it look so.... crude! Surface details are quite basic. It seems to be a typical Hasegawa mold from early 80's. Flash, injection pin marks. There are even seam lines on "whole" parts such as main wheels and FLIR pod. At least each bird comes with pilots, and two different options of vert stabs (I assume 1 option for "B" and the other for "D"). I took some sample pics of the parts to show only some examples of the somewhat lack of details compared to Academy's. Very barren tub. Side consoles look way too narrow too. Main undercarriage strut is... well, doesn't even compare to Academy's. The inside of burner 'cans will be a bit of a challenge to paint and "weather".... Hasegawa's half-arsed attempt to put some "details" in the wheel wells. Sparrows completely devoid of surface details whatsoever! These will go straight to spares box. I will probably use more of my AIM-120C from the Italeri Raptor, or use Academy's Sparrow. Haven't decided yet. I'll most likely build this bird wheels down, but with closed cockpit. Not quite sure if I'm gonna bother with the pilots at this point, might save 'em for future in-flight projects. I decided to start off this project by gluing the gas bags. What a joke! Oh well... hopefully the semi-gloss black colour and the colourful decal will make 'em look somewhat respectable. There'll be lots of work required to clean up those little buggers! Thanks for looking! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike C Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 Some updates.... Forgot to update this thread... Now, I'm not very picky about cockpit most of the time, but.... Hase's Hornet cockpit is ABSOLUTELY USELESS! Especially those shocking ejection seats! They're so bad that I now have to use the pilots. I hate painting figures! I completely screwed this one up... Didn't glue the left engine nacelle properly, resulting in a huge gap when installing the intake lip. I'll try to fix that using Milliput. I think I'll have some issues when gluing the top and bottom fuselage halves later, too. BTW, the plan is to make this bird in-flight. Covered all the gear wells. Fit of the gear bay cover was not bad, except the left main gear bay, which might be my fault anyway. Thanks for looking. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike C Posted July 29, 2011 Author Share Posted July 29, 2011 Somehow, I managed to pull apart the incorrectly glued engine nacelle... Decided to glue the wings to the upper fuselage half first. Once cement is dry enough, I'll glue the fuselage halves together, and then re-attach the engine nacelle. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike C Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 Since last update, I've glued the fuselage halves together and found more problems. After many many rounds of putty-sand-putty-sand, I got really really frustrated. At this stage, I think I will work on the 2nd airframe that came with the Hasegawa Marine Combo for this build, and put this problematic one aside for future "off-the-cuff" project. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike C Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 Right.... I thought I'd have one last go at "fixing" the problematic airframe before ditching it. Good thing I did! Managed to salvage it enough, I think. The radome on this Hasegawa kit is pretty bad. It's a fraction of a millimeter wider than the nose section. So, I whipped out a 400-grit sandpaper, along with plenty of elbow grease, wet-sanding it down. Pretty happy with the result! I'm trying out LifeColor Matt Black on this kit... Sprayed it around the cockpit area. Also decided to use it as primer, especially in "puttied" areas. Discovered a few places that needed some more putty and sanding. I must say that the finish on LifeColor Matt Black is pretty darned good. Thanks for looking! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike C Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 I've been working on this thing on and off but nothing worth taking pics for. Also, life and work have got in the way quite a bit lately, especially since I started a new job a couple of weeks ago requiring me to travel quite a lot. Anyway, managed to put in some more work today, and decided to take a few update pics to share with you all. Sprayed the gas bags with Tamiya X18 (Semi Gloss Black). I actually installed and sprayed the vertical stabs with Tamiya X18 a little while ago. Today, I masked 'em off with Tamiya tape. Sprayed the bottom half of the fuselage with Gunze Aqueous FS36375. Thanks for looking! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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