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VFA-14 90th Anniversay CAG Jet


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Well! Seeing as how I am one of the dudes running this shindig, I figured it was time to post some progress photos of one of my builds. I have started the 48th Revell F/A-18E Super Hornet. I'll be using decals from Fightertwon, and building the 90th Anniversary CAG jet from VFA-14 "Tophatters".

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I'm pretty much sticking to building this one out of the box. The cockpit has been painted and installed. Nothing fancy here as I'm mostly building this jet purely for the scheme itself.

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One thing I thought I would try was to modify the assembly of the intakes. Here, you'll see what I mean. I was fiddling with this last night, and wanted to get a smooth transition between the intake parts. Right now, I'm just working on smoothing out the putty, before adding the other half of the intake trunk.

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Once the intakes are done, I can get on with assembling the fuselage. I'll post more photos as I make more progress!

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Thanks. While it doesn't really address the horizontal seams that you get once the intake pieces are glued together, it does help with the seams towards the mouth of the intakes. I'll try and post a couple photos of the finished product later.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, I have made significant progress on my Super Hornet. Seams were filled and sanded, and paint has been flying!

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I did a bit of pre-shading on the model. I hope it kind of shows up here.

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Skunk stripe has been painted and masks pulled off, literally 15 minutes ago.

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Just have a couple of spots to touch up, as the masking tape lifted a small area of paint. Gloss coat in a couple of days, and she will be ready for decals!

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I have that kit in the stash..... Nice decals. Will be watching this.

Elmo, i ***might+++ have the F-18E markings on this sheet. If you want them and I still have them you can have them. I built the Tomcat as it was AJ marked.

Looking good thus far Colin.

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More progress!! Decals have been applied, and a final coat of gloss has been applied. So, now, I'm ready for a wash, before I apply some flat clear. Still a ways to go as I have landing gear, doors, pylons and some sort of load to put together.

The decals from Fightertown were great! Went on nicely and I used MicroSet on them.

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I have to say, this is quickly becoming one of my favourite CAG schemes on a Super Hornet.

Edited by Colin K
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Colin

Looks good bud!!!! The funny thing is that I have that kit and decals. I started it way before the group build was thought of. Need to get it back out and finish it. I plan on donating my build to local Navy Recruiting Office. That's if I ever finish it!!!! Keep up the good work!!!!!

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Colin

out of curiosity, how did you decide and go about painting where the angled part of the skunk stripe goes. Hope this makes sense to you!

Honestly, I just followed the panel lines on the spine that run from behind the canopy.....don't know if that makes sense. Looking at photos of the real thing though, the black, from the canopy to the red chevron should not be at an angle, but a flat line. It's been bugging me, but at this point, I think I'll just leave it as is.

Anyhow, more progress to report. Decals are all on, wash applied, flat coat sprayed, stores and pylons painted, and the jet is on its wheels. Load I am going with, I'm not sure if it's even an approved load, but I'm doing it anyways. Station 1 will have an AIM-9X, Stations 2, 4 and 8 will have a single Mk 83 low drag bomb, Stations 3 and 9 will each have a single AGM-88 HARM, Station 10 will have a single AIM-7 plus the ATFLIR on Station 5. The AIM-9X and AGM-88s , I stole from one of my Tamiya F-16kits, the Mk 83s were in the kit, along with the ATFLIR and the AIM-7 came from the spares box.

All that's left is to paint the canopy and ejection seat, then it's done!

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