CF-18 902: as an early-production 410 bird

[ALF18]

I have been making slow progress, but lax in posting pics.

The fuselage has a lot of parts. Here I have assembled the top and bottom rear fuselage halves.

I can't imagine how I would have managed to get the resin intakes to be exactly the right length, and in the right spots. Here are the kit ones, held in place by the locating pins.

The kit calls for the side panels to be installed, then eventually the intake lips. I opted to glue the intake lips to the side panels first, then install the side panels.

First, though, I need to prep for the intake lip installation, so I skipped ahead and glued front and rear fuselage parts together.

Next came the wings. Note how I have pierced holes in the lower fuselage for the centreline pylon, before gluing the top/bottom rear halves together.

Next, I glued the side panels and intake lips in place. Started by doing the rear portion of the side panels, leaving the forward section loose until later.

ALF

Edited September 21, 2014 by ALF18

[ALF18]

This is the fit from side wall to intake lip. Very nice.

Rear portion glued, front portion flapping in the breeze. The gaps will be along these lines, but easily filled and invisible when model is on display. This allows me to attach the fiddly little parts between the intake splitter and the fuselage as I clamp the intake in place along the fuselage.

Before the LEX extensions are installed. Intakes in place.

Overall view, prior to installing the other intake, and before clamping the intake in place.

That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by.

ALF

[ALF18]

I glued the LEF in place at zero degrees (Flaps UP/AUTO position), which is where we used to set the flaps prior to shutdown back when we got the aircraft. After some experience with the aircraft, we started leaving the flaps down (at least half, sometimes full down) so that when the flight controls were reset after start, the LEF would not get "locked up." After start, the flight controls are in "off" mode (we used to cycle the stick in a circle before starting engines, so that the FCS would declare itself failed or off). This was to check the mechanical backup on the horizontal stabilators as we started. When hydraulics and AC power were available after starting both engines, we would then press the "reset" button, which drove the flaps to the position of the flap switch. If the LEF were at zero, there was sometimes a small bump to a position slightly above zero degrees, which would then cause the FCS to declare the flaps as failed. It was then necessary to go into a "maintenance" mode, to regain control of the flaps. When units were inexperienced with the new aircraft type, this could even lead to ground aborts as nobody knew how to recover.

With experience, we got into the habit of selecting flaps down (half or full) prior to shutdown, to ensure the LEF were deflected down; then we would reset on the next flight with the flap switch at half or full, thus ensuring the LEF would not go into this fail mode. It was even more important on a cold winter day to do this. When 902 came into Moose Jaw in that summer (1983) where I first saw it, the pilots left the LEF at zero (up/auto).

The TEF would have drooped all the way down, despite the flaps being up on shutdown. I glued all the flap and aileron actuators in position, and left them to dry solid. Note that I ensured the little divot on the thick one (aileron inboard actuator) was open to the outside, where the position light will go. Easy to get these backward.

The hard part is getting these properly lined up.

And, on go the TEF and ailerons.

ALF

[ALF18]

I am using Canuck Models early CF-18 tails for this. The resin is very nice, and the fit is great. Just a small gap to fill on the inside top on one side. What's nice is that I don't have to fill in the gaps where the reinforcements go; these weren't added until the LEX fences were, in 1989 or so. I also like not having to shave off the bulges on the F/A-18C tails. The pouring blocks are nicely positioned, making it super easy to get a great-looking part out of these. Well done David, from Canuck Models!

Note there is a bit of a gap (vertically) on the side panel. I realized afterward that it had to do with something forcing inside the intake... Filler needed here.

Like I said, generally a terrific fit for the resin tails.

Looking more Hornet-like! More later. Have to go get supper.

Thanks for stopping by.

ALF

[ALF18]

Rudders installed. I canted one of them inward slightly. When hydraulic pressure is off, these can move in any direction, depending on gravity and/or wind. In Moose Jaw, where I saw this beast the first time, it is always windy! I've also done a bunch of filling here and there.

Filling in the mounting plates for the F/A-18C antennae (ECM) that are behind the cockpit. Not present on the A or B.

Filling in the small gaps where the LEX join with the upper wing, and the little holes for the LEX fences. At this time, there were no LEX fences installed yet.

Filling the small gap by the resin tail.

Sprayed some white into the intakes, and the wheel wells. Gaps to be filled aft of the intake lips later.

ALF

[ALF18]

Gear legs mostly assembled, and painted with Tamiya white primer.

The gear will be installed late in the process. Poorly lit shot, but those gear wells are in fact white.

Soon it will be time to prime this beast with Tamiya light grey, which also does nicely for the bottom grey final colour (FS 36375). I will answer a question that Emvar (I think) had asked me earlier; did I fly 902? I checked my military log book, and found that yes, I flew it while it was at 410, in October 87 and other times around then. Then, it was sent to 425, and I happened to take 902 on a trip to Vancouver Island and back from Bagotville (all the way across the continent). Our dual (924) broke at 433, and 425 lent us theirs (902) for the trip. With another 433 pilot, we flew first to (coincidence coming here!) Moose Jaw! The point of our trip was to "motivate" student pilots there to go on to fighters, just as I had been motivated by seeing the CF-18s come in 5 years previously (this was now October 1988). Ed and I flew in to the flying area to the south of the base at Moose Jaw, and looked for Tutors on the radar on the Friday afternoon. We found several, and intercepted them, hoping to cause a buzz at the School, and get the guys to flock to TGIF at the Mess and chat with us. To be careful we didn't disturb them, we flew to a mile behind each one, then came up on the right side about a mile away and parallel in track (on the instructor's side).

Mostly, they would stare over at us, and we would waggle the wings, plug in the burners, and do a vertical roll away until we found another "target." After a few, one of them turned hard into us when we set up beside them. "Cool", I said to Ed... "he wants to play!" I zoomed vertical, turning hard to get into his six (a Tutor turns really tightly, but has very little power so can't go up with a Hornet), but he jammed me. After about one circle, he suddenly reversed his turn, making things easy for us to slide into his six... that's when I disengaged, knowing it wasn't quite right.

After we landed, I saw an instructor (with his signature red turtleneck shirt, as opposed to the student white colour) come stomping down the ramp to where we were parked, at the same place as the Hornets in the pics at the beginning of this thread. I turned to say hi as I was putting intake covers on the aircraft; he was furious! He asked what the hell we were doing. He said he had been conducting a flight test on a student, doing minimum radius/maximum rate turns, and that the student had turned hard into us without noticing we were there. He said he would have to fail the student for poor look-out. I split a gut laughing, having been an uptight standards officer myself a few years previously... and managed to convince him to pass the student anyway, saying that the grey camo made it hard to see us, and by the way, students were never expecting to see a CF-18 when they looked for traffic!

So, I find it a funny coincidence. I started this thread doing 902, knowing the tail number was familiar to me (I found I have flown it many times over the years), and that it was in fact one that had these early tails, and was the one I had seen in Moose Jaw in 83. What I didn't know was that I had also flown the same jet into Moose Jaw to do the same kind of motivation exercise 5 years later! It could have been any one of a few Duals, but happened to be this particular one. What are the odds?

All for now. Back to work correcting exams, then more pre-painting prep.

ALF

[ian_maw]

Hard to believe that you guys had to "motivate" students to go into the fighter stream, but it was always nice to see visiting aircrews show off thier aircraft.

It must have been frustrating for the Sea King guys who had to try and talk them out of it.

[ALF18]

Hard to believe that you guys had to "motivate" students to go into the fighter stream, but it was always nice to see visiting aircrews show off thier aircraft.

It must have been frustrating for the Sea King guys who had to try and talk them out of it.

Love that Sea King comment.

One of the "challenges" for fighter recruitment is that we fly very few hours each year, compared to transport or maritime patrol. Those students who joined the "Air Canada training program" (the ones who are just getting experience for a civilian airliner job) are not very interested in fighters. They would rather fly 500 to 600 hours of 4-engine Herc each year than about 200 on the Hornet.

ALF

[RKic]

Looks very nice Alf. I never considered building a jet in 1/32 but reading your thread is giving me ideas :o

Can any of the avionics bays be posed open on this model?

[ALF18]

Looks very nice Alf. I never considered building a jet in 1/32 but reading your thread is giving me ideas :o/>

Can any of the avionics bays be posed open on this model?

I have a love/hate relationship with 1/32 jets. I absolutely love the level of detail usually present in a good kit like this one. I also love the ease with which they can be made to look good. I hate how huge they are on the shelf, though... as does my wife!

This kit comes with a detailed radar in the nose (looks like an APG-65, but most people could not tell an APG-73 from a 65 anyway), and the nose can be posed open for that. The avionics bays on the sides of the fuselage are not represented in any way, and I am not aware if there are any AM bays available in this scale (there are in 1/48 for the side bays).

I have a resin cockpit set that includes a really nicely-done avionics bay behind the seat. These sets are available in both early (A and early C) or later (ECP 583 or late C) versions; the later versions are jam-packed while the early ones have a lot of room in them. I used to store my luggage in that avionics bay, because there was more room than there was in the old Pontiac Fiero for luggage. The resin cockpit set looks really nice for that detail.

When it comes to resin cockpits for this kit, most reviews I've read suggest that you use the kit main instrument panel, because it is very nicely detailed. I agree with that assessment.

ALF

[AX 365]

Excellent work on you build while I was away ALF. Judging by your favourable commentary, it would appear that the near empty glass of red is a 'nice to have' and not a 'need to have' during this build. I like your assessment about the use of kit intakes and optional resin ones. Very objective for anyone wanting to build one of these kits. BTW, loved the little barb about the Fiero. Funny, but true.

Later, dude!

Mike

[ALF18]

Yes Mike, the glass of red was indeed just a little supper-time treat as I laid down tools at the end of the afternoon, and not in frustration. Nice to have you back on ARC; you were enjoying far too many glasses of European red over the last few weeks!

I have made some progress. Since this is filling/masking/painting time, it is not apparent, but here goes.

Gaps filled around intake lips. Note for Emvar: this is not accurate for 902 in this time period. I have used the ALE-39 part showing the tubes for chaff and flares; at this time, there would have simply been a grey blanking plate installed, since the duals at 410 did not have chaff or flares for quite some time after entry into service (nor did their singles, for that matter).

Primer (Tamiya light grey, which makes a great FS 36375 facsimile) sprayed everywhere. Looking more like a dual Hornet!

A cruel close-up, showing where I filled in the panel lines for the ECM bulges aft of the canopy, and the holes for the LEX fences. Minor work to be done on them.

Starting to do the false canopy shape. Decals, while nicely shaped, just don't conform to some of the complex shapes in this area, and tend to flake off the gear doors with age. I made some very minor changes to this profile as I checked references. AX_365's excellent hint to use Johnson's medical tape for this kind of line is being put to good use. In fact, this roll of tape was one that Mike sent me in the mail.

Note for Emvar: check the shape of the false canopy carefully. The more modern ones (after the ECP 583 upgrades) are more flattened on the sides; the original shape was more bulged like this one. The shape is identical for both duals and singles. At the speeds and distances where this becomes a factor (and believe me, I barely missed a mid-air collision more than once because of this), the size difference is not significant enough to warrant a different shape. On the CF-5, though, the duals had a longer false canopy than the singles.

Forgive me the nostalgia, but I always like the thin curve of the darker grey on the vertical stabs, compared to the thicker squiggles on modern versions of this camouflage scheme. The medical tape does nicely here.

More masking to come, then back into the paint shop.

Thanks for stopping by.

ALF

[kurnass77]

Great job mate, now I think to add also a Canadian Hornet to my collection,maybe a DS bird but in other way, a more recent Sniper-equipped one is attractive too...

Keep up the good work ALF!

Gianni

[ALF18]

Great job mate, now I think to add also a Canadian Hornet to my collection,maybe a DS bird but in other way, a more recent Sniper-equipped one is attractive too...

Keep up the good work ALF!

Gianni

Thanks Gianni

Any Hornet you choose is a good Hornet!

ALF

[ALF18]

We are now out of the paint shop phase. Here is the underside. I used Tamiya light grey primer for the bottom colour, and Modelmaster Acryl for the false canopy.

The top side. I used Tamiya acrylic silver for the metal parts forward of the nozzles.

The gun area was painted with Tamiya metallic grey (XF-56), as were the nozzles. I used a silver pen to do the inside of the ID light. I'm leaving off the lens until I've done the matte coat.

Now it's up on its legs. This thing is huge!

Main gear. For detail freaks (rivet counters), I inverted the shock absorber, but in reality it is not quite right this way. The Canadian oleo is far less visible; typically there would only be a small sliver of silver visible at the bottom of the shock absorber.

Here is the top of the fuselage. The grilles forward of the nozzles have been coloured with a silver sharpie-style pen. I may add some pencil lead to that area, to tone it down closer to the right colour.

I've used a red Sharpie for the gear door borders. Next steps are to glue the doors into place, then attack the canopy and cockpit area with the final bits of PE, then the decals. The finish line is in sight. Which means I have to go back and fix up the seats... oh well. Another update later this weekend when I get around to it. Thanks for stopping by.

ALF

[Bigasshammm]

Going much faster on this big bird than I did. Looks good. Makes me want to build another one.

[ALF18]

Going much faster on this big bird than I did. Looks good. Makes me want to build another one.

Thanks... but faster usually does not always equal better... I hope mine looks as good as yours did.

ALF

[ALF18]

Progress time, from the weekend. I finally got the seats done, and installed. First thing that is obvious: this beast is big! Bench space is at a premium. I am using the instructions a lot at this stage, because I am trying to get the PE for the cockpit and the final details for the canopy parts and cockpit trim to go together properly. As you can see, the instructions barely fit on my work table. Maybe I should clean it up a bit... :rolleyes:/> Not going to happen!

Here is an overall view of the cockpit, before paint touchups.

Here's a close-up of some of the PE around the transparencies. In this case, you get the rivets inside the windscreen, plus the trim at the back of the windscreen. I have painted the borders of the canopies that brick-red colour that they had when they were new. In later deliveries, all the CF-18s were delivered with grey paint over these areas, and as the older jets went through repaints, the red was covered with grey paint.

Here's the front cockpit area. You can see the dry-fit windscreen, with its red border (but missing the rest of the grey paint so far). Note the seats. The two seats are different resin sets. I considered using two other seats I had lying around that were identical, but I decided to use the different seats for a reason. Rarely do two seats get arranged the same in a dual, especially when the pilots take it away from home base, so having two identical resin seats would have been either artificial, or look like a neatly-kept jet that the maintainers' work had not yet been corrupted by the dirty hands of nasty pilots... :woot.gif:/>

That's why I used different seats. The rear resin seat came without belts for some reason. I used wine-bottle foil to scratch-build some facsimile straps, and attached them in a lazy manner as they might be post-flight after the instructor had shrugged off the harness and moved it out of the way so he could get out of the seat.

On the inside of the rear canopy, you can see some PE for the red and black placards. Amazing little details!

On the inside, there are PE strips to add detail that looks very realistic to the canopy insides. They even have little hand-holds that I have yet to install.

Very loose dry-fit of the canopies. I have to add the decals to the rear seat, and finish up the PE on the rear canopy. Still lots of fiddly work to do.

Here are some PE bits still to be added to the canopy. Part 80 is the seal at the front of the transparency, and part 83 is the inside-front part that contains the little mirrors and hand-grips on the forward canopy, as well as the mirrors for the instructor at the half-way point (parts 89). Incredible detail - did I say that already? :thumbsup:/>

Hopefully I can do this all justice. Thanks for stopping by!

ALF

Edited October 21, 2014 by ALF18

[Colin K]

Looking really good, Dan!!

[Bigasshammm]

THAT is a lot of pe. At least this is big scale and the or is somewhat larger. Imagine it in 1/72!

Flying along looks great.

[ALF18]

Looking really good, Dan!!

Thanks Colin! The end is in sight, finally.

THAT is a lot of pe. At least this is big scale and the or is somewhat larger. Imagine it in 1/72!

Flying along looks great.

Amazing, isn't it? I don't usually invest in PE; when I bought this on ARC, the kit came with the PE. I am starting to wonder if I should have bought one of those little bending tools, but I don't use enough PE to justify it to myself. I am driving my eyes crossed with it though; I can't even imagine in 1/72. I know I HATE doing the Hasegawa HUD PE in 1/48. Those tiny flaps that hold the glass in place are super-hard to bend right, and even harder to glue together without fogging the transparency up.

I sure like the look of it, once it's done... worth the hassle.

ALF

[AX 365]

She's looking really nice, Mastro. I wasn't aware of the red colour around the glass. What is that?

[ALF18]

She's looking really nice, Mastro. I wasn't aware of the red colour around the glass. What is that?

That, Mike, was the original colour of the canopy frames. In these CF photo section pics, you can just make it out. By the time we got a couple dozen aircraft delivered, MacAir started painting over this red portion with the topside grey colour, and all aircraft that went into repaint had them covered, so this was only true for very early in-service aircraft, for a short period. If you look carefully at old pics of F-15s, they have the same canopy borders in this rusty red brick colour.

(Photo credit: DND. Licence: free for non-commercial use, can be freely copied for personal use, as long as DND is credited).

ALF

[Bigasshammm]

I don't use a lot of pe either but I got one of those Small shop benders and it's fantastic.

I used to do re-siding houses when I was younger and I was always the break guy that bent up all the trim pieces. Using the full sized version made me appreciate more the design of the small shop one. Definitely add it to an order sometime.

[ALF18]

I don't use a lot of pe either but I got one of those Small shop benders and it's fantastic.

I used to do re-siding houses when I was younger and I was always the break guy that bent up all the trim pieces. Using the full sized version made me appreciate more the design of the small shop one. Definitely add it to an order sometime.

Solid advice. I just might do that, and jump onto the PE bandwagon. I doubt anyone will invent that shrink ray we all want before it's too late for us to use...

I have done some painting of the canopy frames in grey, and some dry fitting. It's coming along very nicely. I still have more PE to add to the rear canopy, but having painted it a bit it gives me the motivation to push it further.

I have started to add some pencil-lead rubbings to weather very lightly. Might be a bit heavy-handed here, for a newer aircraft. Will erase some of that from the wings. After weathering, Future coat next.

ALF