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My very own Big Hornet


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So, I've been a very good boy this year apparently, so my wife got me my very first 1/32 scale model. And it's a Hornet :D

It's been sitting in my stash for over a month now, and I guess it's time to start this beast. Right now I'm in the proces of deciding what aftermarket to procure. I'm thinking about either getting SAC mlg, or assembling kit gear using some epoxy glue. I've read somewhere, that SAC Hornet gear may bend over time, but from what I gather, a lot of modellers choose this replacement gear.

Next thing that is bothering me are the intakes. I've still not decided wheter to put covers on them, or to procure some Rhino Modelworks intakes.

For the cockpit I'm going to order two SJU-17 seats from Aires... I hope they will be of proper size for the kit, as I've had some issues with the size of their seats in 1/72.

As this will take up much space when finished, I'm probably going to have only one. So I've decided I'll make it as a tiger striped Hornet of VMFA(AW)-224 from OIF. There are some difference to the tiger scheme that I've noticed, so I guess I'll have to be extra carefull when painting it up. Hopefully all will turn out well :)

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At some point I've decided I'm going to include my 1/144 Hornet in this WIP, just to make things more interesting ;)

This one will also bear the Bengals markings.

Quite the difference in sizes, eh?

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Thanks for stopping by, if You have any coment, especially on the aftermarket items I've planned, please leave them :)

:cheers:

Edited by Thadeus
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Thanks a lot for the info guys. I only have a way of getting SAC Gear, so I guess thats what I'm going to have to get.

Still, I'm going to try and use some epoxy glue that I use to fix pipes and mufflers and pretty much whatever I need :

I'm begining to feel the Hornet itch again :)

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So, I've been thinking about getting some resin intakes. Figured those Academy intakes might not be that bad after all. I've dry fitted major airframe components of my two Hornets. The 1/72 one is there just for the scale reference. Wish I still had my 1/48 Bug :(

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After taking a quick look for myself, I've ordered a set of D-Mold intakes today :)

I took some time to assemble one of the seats, just for fun. That rod on the backside seems to extend a bit too high. Still, I'm not going to use those seats. I'll either order SJU-17 from Aires (but I'm afraid of the Aires shrinkage) or the ones from Legend.

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One more thing I'm thinking about right now, is the loadout. I'm going with exactly the same loadout as on my 1/72 Bug. This means I'll have to source out a couple of GBU-12's So far I've seen the ones from CMK, which look more like a little anemic GBU-49's. I figured I could mate GBU-10 seeker head with mk-82 bomb body and build the aft fins from scratch. Still, I'm not too fond of that idea.

IMG_0386.JPG

Thanks for stopping by :)

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Thanks guys! I'm already enjoying it :) It's something new, but with a familiar feeling to it :)

When I taped my beast the fit was pretty ok, I anticipate some filler is going to be needed on the fwd fuselage/aft fuselage joint and on LEX.

I'm going to arm it with 2 aim-9m's, a single agm-65 under the port wing, and 2 gbu-12's on CVER under the starboard wing. Two gas bags under wings and a Litening pod on centerline.

The small one is going to be a problem, since I've only one gas bag. But I guess it can't be that hard to scratch one in 1/144, can it? If I manage this, I'll go with 2 gbu-12's under the port wing and a single agm-65 under the starboard with gas in goofy configuration.

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The small one is going to be a problem, since I've only one gas bag. But I guess it can't be that hard to scratch one in 1/144, can it? If I manage this, I'll go with 2 gbu-12's under the port wing and a single agm-65 under the starboard with gas in goofy configuration.

THad what about getting some Alumilite mold and resin kit. It wouldn't take much mold making silicone to do it.

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  • 2 months later...

Since all other obstacles on the road to completion are gone (except an IRIAF F-14A I've got on my bench), I've done some work on my Hornet.

After dry fitting the cockpit I noticed the aft part doesn't touch the sides of the fuselage. At first, I decided to add a little plastic card to make the rear pit wider, but eventually I decided on doing the sidewalls for that part from scratch. They're not 100% accurate though.

After that was done, I figured I'll add some details to the cockpit bulkheads. With my sausage fingers I've managed to put out something in the ballpark of what I was going for.

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Here's how it looks with some paint, wash and under a matt coat.

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I'm not too happy with the instrument panels. It's not that they're bad, I just thought I could do them better.

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Also, I've painted up the front wheel well, didn't apply wash though, as I'm going to do this at a later stage.

IMG_0527.JPG

I've begun to cut the flaps on the smaller Hornet too. Still have to figure out how I'm going to do them.

Thanks for stopping by!

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  • 1 month later...

I've been super carefull dryfitting everything ten times over, hence my snail pace.

I've been figuring out how to build the gbu-12 trying to do some drawings. Suddenly on my lhs site I've found those:

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Talk about good timing!

I've ordered some aires exhaust, since I was already at it.

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There are 4 in a set... so I guess I'll have to sell two of them... or perhaps I should buy another Hornet ;)

I've also assembled and painted up the intakes. I was a bit worried that they would not match and some filling would be required, but frankly they fit perfectly!

Currently I'm in a proces of putting it all together. Finally I've decided on folding the wings, as I might have enough shelf space for one more.

Thanks for stopping by!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Those bombs are great. I was extatic when I found them in my lhs newsletter. My attempts at making GBU-12's from kit parts and some styrene failed. At some point I was so desperate I even considered buying an F-16i to rob of GBU-12's and AN/AAQ-28. I thought if I couldn't sell it afterwards I could still build it as a Polish F-16D. Well... in the end before I decided, all the Sufas I could get cheaply were sold out.

I still need that Litening Pod. Wolfpack does one, and I ordered it from Luckymodel, but it seems like it's oop now.

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Those bombs are great. I was extatic when I found them in my lhs newsletter. My attempts at making GBU-12's from kit parts and some styrene failed. At some point I was so desperate I even considered buying an F-16i to rob of GBU-12's and AN/AAQ-28. I thought if I couldn't sell it afterwards I could still build it as a Polish F-16D. Well... in the end before I decided, all the Sufas I could get cheaply were sold out.

I still need that Litening Pod. Wolfpack does one, and I ordered it from Luckymodel, but it seems like it's oop now.

KF-16D contains same plastic as Sufa and can be found for about $110. Does this fit into your idea of "cheap"?

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You don't need the SAC gear IMO - the Academy one is just fine and looks better than the SAC parts if properly assembled and cleaned (the SAC gear is only a crude copy of the kit parts, as usual). The problem is the wheels, not the landing gear! On my old Hornet, it's the wheels that can't handle the weight, the landing gear itself is just fine and hasn't even moved half a millimeter over the last 10 years. The plastic is getting soft where the wheels are glued to the main landing gear legs (around the hole, if you see what I mean), causing some 'stance' which might look good on a race car but not on an aircraft... Resin wheels could be a solution IMO.

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KF-16D contains same plastic as Sufa and can be found for about $110. Does this fit into your idea of "cheap"?

Thanks for the info! I might check it out. Actually, the Sufa I was able to get was aroung 370 pln equal to about 95 usd. Frankly, I'm not in such a hurry with that Litening anymore. I can always add it at a later stage.

You don't need the SAC gear IMO - the Academy one is just fine and looks better than the SAC parts if properly assembled and cleaned (the SAC gear is only a crude copy of the kit parts, as usual). The problem is the wheels, not the landing gear! On my old Hornet, it's the wheels that can't handle the weight, the landing gear itself is just fine and hasn't even moved half a millimeter over the last 10 years. The plastic is getting soft where the wheels are glued to the main landing gear legs (around the hole, if you see what I mean), causing some 'stance' which might look good on a race car but not on an aircraft... Resin wheels could be a solution IMO.

I'd rather avoid what's in this picture.

You may be right about the wheels. Luckilly it's something I can change at a later stage.

I tried to assemble the kit gear using epoxy glue that I use for various tasks, but I just made a mess. I might try to superglue kit parts, dryfit them to my model and leave them for some time.

BTW. I'm getting closer to the painting stage. Here's how it looks right now.

IMG_0607.JPG

I've spent a lot of time filling and sanding seams. Now it's time to do some rescribing and riveting. Yesterday I polished the seam on the canopy. Before painting I'll have to finish the cockpit, and mask everything. I've yet to figure out if I'm going to use kit decals for unit markings or try to cut them out from masking tape.

I really enjoy working on this one. I've done a lot of mistakes along the way despite copious amount of dryfitting. I even got myself an Academy F/A-18C that I hope to build one day too.

Thanks a lot for stopping by guys!

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What you see on the pics is poor assembly and wheels damaged due to the weight of the model. It's your choice of course, I still think there is no need to replace the kit's landing gear which has a metal core - it's only necessary to replace the wheels.

Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing more of your progress!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for the kind words Guys.

The last bit of work I did was attaching the canopy frame and painting it. So I guess it's time for the paint barn? Did I mention that this part terrifies me?

IMG_0625.JPG

Right now however I'm having a handfull with a certain 3,5 kg, 4 day old boy that really likes to scream at night :) Once I'll have everything figured out I'll try to squeeze in a little modeling time in my daily routine.

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Thad

Didn't know you all just had a little one! Congrats my friend, you have a reason to slow down on this build. Spend as much time as you can with the little one. Those days will soon pass and you will wish you had them back. Congrats again my friend!!! :cheers:

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  • 8 months later...

Hi guys, I'm back. In between the day to day activities I've found a little time to do some modeling.

As I mentioned before, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the paintjob on this Hornet so I've been trying hard to postpone it. As if it's going to be any easier later ;) I've found that I attached leading edge flaps incorrectly. Looking at the pics of parked Hornets I've noticed they're hinged, and the way kit makes You attach them is simply wrong.
So I took a new knife blade and detached those flaps. To my great surprise this caused only minor damage to the parts.

 

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Having finally settled on the SAC gear since my kit gear broke under model weight a while back I also assembled them with almost all the parts.
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Right now I'm applying first layers of paint. Here comes another suprpise, this model will take a LOT of paint. Gotta think about how I'm going to handle these tiger stipes.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Edited by Thadeus
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So the basic paint is done. I decided to forgo the primer and just shoot it straight on a model. One of my best paintjobs so far. Or maybe it's just because it's been so long since I've tackled any model, let alone a Hornet.

 

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Some minor boo boos were found on the stabs so I've filled them, and around the intakes - they're handled too.

 

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So here's the thing - looking at F/A-18 walkarounds I've noticed there seem to be no panel lines around the intakes. At least on Charlies and Deltas. Is there any rule to this?

Other thing is I've noticed that Deltas seem to have retained the 5r door on the nose. Weird. Did not check on C's but I always thought they were deleted on all C and D models. I've not any closeup of 164884's nose so I can't confirm wheter my jet should have it, but I'll probably go and scribe the door on the right side of my model.

 

Hopefully next weekend I'll start to paint the tiger stripes. I'm almost set on outlining them with pencil and masking them. Other option would be just to do them by hand with a brush.

 

So, till next time!

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