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1/32 EA-18G VAQ-132 Operation Odyssey Dawn


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Thx guys!

I have a couple of questions for you - do you have any photos of the radome repair? or a photo of the real thing for comparison?

I'm curious how you did the camouflage work - do you have masks?

-Anthony

Hello Anthony, the radome on the kit presents the same way as it does on all legacy Hornets, which is with a recessed "panel" line denoting the boot tip of the nose. Later Super Hornets and all Growlers no longer have the boot end on the tip of the nose, so all that needs to be done is that the nose needs to be sanded clean of that recessed line.

It looks like this in the end, i.e. a simple, smooth nose:

DSC_0863_zpsbvbq0uop.jpg

As far as the camo on the tail is concerned, that's just a bunch of tedious masking.

Could this F-18 Trump ( pun intended) your Academy F-18D? Hard to do, but time will tell.

:) The Chuck... I think I have learnt a lot since my F/A-18D build but as you know it's hard to beat the surface detail on that Academy kit.

Something else that I just noticed is that the ejection seat warning triangles and the canopy warning "rectangle" are a lighter shade of gray than the surrounds, on Super Hornets it is the other way around. The kit supplies there decals as they would be on Super Hornets and not as they are on Growlers.

1_zpskni8ofuw.png

So I am getting more custom decals done :o

:cheers:

Marcel

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I've been lurking on this thread from the beginning. Just wanted to finally say what a fantastic job you have done. Grey jets tend to get a bit monotonous but this was is a cut above the rest.

Keep up the good work.

John

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I've been lurking on this thread from the beginning. Just wanted to finally say what a fantastic job you have done. Grey jets tend to get a bit monotonous but this was is a cut above the rest.

Keep up the good work.

John

Thx John! Rest assured, the next few projects I have lines up should not be gray...

:cheers:

Marcel

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  • 2 weeks later...

The custom-made decals are mostly on. I'm really pleased with how Keith from Red Pegasus did these :woo: and really love the overall look of this jet.

Getting the scorpion sting on the tail to fit was a major challenge and I ultimately had to make a few concessions... for those very familiar with this particular aircraft, you may notice that the sting doesn't extend slightly over the rudder as it should... this is the best I could do to make things fit. Since taking the picture I have also done a bunch of touching up with black paint.

DSC_0872_zpsbic0j4tk.jpg

Unfortunately I noticed that we missed two crew names in producing the custom decals so hopefully I will get those sorted out asap.

I have generally been pretty impressed with this Trumpeter kit, Trumpeter have come a very long way since producing the Flanker in 1/32. I think shape accuracy is very good and the panel lines are nice and fine. That said, I was really cursing Trumpeter when applying the kit data decals: The slime lights by the nose are incorrectly sized (I ended up scavenging slime lights from a Fightertown F/A-18E sheet which I hate doing), the decals that go on the topside are too dark (so they are almost invisible), the decals that go on the underside are also too dark (so the contrast is too strong) and the instructions only cover about half of the data decals supplied.

Here is where I am now:

DSC_0870_zps5gffabbv.jpg

I will be overspraying some of the underside decals to make them more subdued.

Also note that the areas behind some of the brown decals are a lighter shade of gray, this effect is apparent on the real thing.

:cheers:

Marcel

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Top notch work as usual Marcel. That scorpion scheme is killer! It will be great to see the finished product now that you're so close to the finish line.

Thx Chuck! Yes, getting pretty close to the finish line but all those things under wings will keep me busy for a while yet.

This is looking awesome! It's made me google "EA-18G profiles" and "1/48 EA-18G decals" for inspiration for a future project. More closeups of your work would be great to see!

Thx... and yes, I should snap some more close-up, will try to remember that the next time I take pics.

Sah-weet!

Great contrast between the tan cammo and black scorpion. I agree with the other guys, killa work Marcel.

I hope you're able to get a snap of your two Hornets together eventually. It will be a cool comparison.

Cheers.

Thx Guy. Yes, I will have to take some group pics, seems like forever since I did the D.

Very nice. I like the camo!

Hope to see the Plane once in real :-)

Regards from Basel

Marcel

Thx Marcel... must admit I am a bit lame on the in-person modeling club scene, I really need to get into that again. Are there any military jet, large scale guys at the Basel club? I will unfortunately be missing the Basel model days event.

Awesome work Marcel, it's really looking great. Attention to detail is very important and yours is right on.

Steve

Thx Steve... takes on to know one ;)

Marcel

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  • 3 weeks later...

More extensive work travel for me, including six days in Las Vegas (yes, that was for work), so progress is slow. I did receive some additional decals from Keith, which I have now applied.

Here are some close-ups, as requested:

DSC_0874_zpspt624el5.jpg

DSC_0873%202_zpsiwjomysv.jpg

DSC_0872%202_zpslffvqcwu.jpg

In the above pic, the ejection seat warning and rectangular warning marking are too light--these were also custom made since the kit decals are too dark. I asked Keith to err on the light side with these (better too much contrast than too little), I have since oversprayed these with Dark Ghost Gray to make them blend in a little more.

DSC_0871_zpsgxwamuft.jpg

Again, the light gray triangles and rectangular warning markings have since been toned down.

All in all I am really please with the results. Sure, the color decals have some "digital print" effects if viewed under the microscope (black and white always come out perfect), but the overall look is really cool imo.

Off on vacation for a week and then two weeks of Asia travel, who know when I will be able to update again.

:cheers:

Marcel

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi guys, thanks for checking in. I have been travelling (mostly for work) since mid-September, so not much progress to report.

What I can say is that Tokyo is about the most intimidatingly large city I have been to, NYC somehow seems tame in comparison. In Seoul now, next stop Shanghai. I am actually enjoying the trip, I don't get to Asia much so this is novel.

Marcel

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for all the encouragement!

I finally got some modeling time in, the Growler is now washed and flat-coated:

DSC_0870%202_zpsbi1ows2l.jpg

I ran into a headache after washing: The paint had very fine cracks in some areas, the cracks were too fine to see without the wash, but the wash made the cracks visible. I had run into this before on my Phantom, but since I used Gunze clear before gloss coating with Future, I assumed it was a problem with the Gunze clear.

I have noticed that this only occurs in areas I really soaked in Future, so my theory now is that soaking Gunze acrylics with Future will result in this cracking... I never encountered this problem with enamels. Next time around I will be less liberal with the Future, there is really no need to soak it on since the Gunze Acrylics are very smooth and almost glossy to start off with. Or I will just use a different clear coat.

As for the Growler, I airbrushed the affected areas with gray, I am pretty happy with this save, for a while I thought this will be a bottom-shelfer.

Here is a closer look... BTW I am pretty please with how the red positioning light turned out.

DSC_0871%202_zps370ekd8f.jpg

DSC_0872%203_zps1y1m00s8.jpg

DSC_0873%203_zpskv7eypft.jpg

I'll now need to flat-coat the touched-up areas, and then I can finally remove the windscreen masking.

:cheers:/>

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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