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F/A-18F Super Hornet VFA-213


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Hello,

Here is my next project after the VFA-102 Super Hornet. I will use this boxing

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I am still unsure as to which markings I will apply but I will probably go for the "normal" markings as seen here or here rather than the flashy markings seem here

Quite irritatingly Hasegawa provides the old-style ECS and ACS when both aircraft have the new-style items...

The old style ECS provided in the box:

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Fortunately I received last week this AMAZING reference book:

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as well as this excellent item from RES-IM:

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so making the new ECS should not be so much of a problem. The ACS will be scratch-built. More coming soon...

Arnaud

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Hello,

The ECS pipes are done. First they are separated from the main body with a fine saw and then individually cut out. Not the easiest thing but it goes pretty well. Just be extra carefull as these things really want to fly and are pretty hard to find in the carpet monster... Once this is done, I cut and riveted the support plates from .25mm plasticard and glued the pipes as regularly as possible. It does not look so good up close but from a distance it is quite sufficient :)/>

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All comments welcome,

Arnaud

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  • 2 months later...

Time to get re-started on this project after this little guy arrived:

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Since I want to depict the Bug in flight the landng gear wells need be closed, always a tricky part for me. I usually struggle with

1/ Getting the doors flush with the fuselage

2/ The doors are often a poor fit with the openings as they are meant to be mounted open, where fit does not matter.

In order to help a bit with #1 I glued small strips of plasticard in the wells to support the door edges

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The long, thin door is too short and was extended with a small plasticard square before assembly. Once the doors in place I filled the gaps with plasticard. This still needs some putty and re-scribing but I'm mainly there.

8439840551_0941c4840c_z.jpg

Cheers,

Arnaud

Edited by arnobiz
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A bit of work on the nose now. First, I glued some strips of thin plasticard inside the parts (before assembly of course!) to help with adjustment as sanding the nose is annoying considering the panel lines on the top surface: The better the adjustment the less sanding required :)

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And the result before any sanding:

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Cheers,

Arnaud

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

Some progress on the intakes. First I prepared the kit's parts to accept my intakes: mark and thin down as much as possible to compensate for the intakes wall thickness:

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Glue the intakes in place

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After some puttying. I use Milliput White, which can be nicely and easily smoothed down with a Q-tip, something very appreciable in this tight area where sanding is best avoided.

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Next I put the flaps down a bit, as commonly seen on navy.mil for in-flight Super Hornets. For such a small angle no need to cut the parts off, simply cut half way through, fold carefully and fix in the desired position with super liquid cement. Then fill the appearing groove with thin plasticard, cut it flush and fill whatever gap remains with liquid putty.

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Cheers,

Arnaud

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Thanks for the support guys!

I modified the Hasegawa spine, which is wrong because they wanted to make both the -E and -F kits from the same top fuselage. As a consequence they put a panel line where there is none and forgot one.

Here is a picture from my first SH, where I had not noticed the problem and thus left it as it was:

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And here is the corrected spine. First time I engraved a new panel line and put rivets on it, it will be straighter next time :)/>

8498942515_355f9a1ee4_z.jpg

I am now working on the cockpit, more to come ;)/>/>

Thanks for watching,

Arnaud

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