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Foreign Hornet Furball


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Heya! 

This thread will document my build of a set of F/A-18 kits in Canadian and/or Australian markings. The first kit will be the recently released Kinetic F/A-18 A/B in 1/48. I'm still hemming and hawing about markings and even version. Either a CF-188B from the box (I'm not a fan of Lo-viz markings, but with wings folded and stuff opened up, it might look interesting enough) or the red tailed Australian demo plane, also from the box. 

I haven't decided on the second kit yet. The Hobby Boss Australian hornet seems like a logical choice, but I'm also kind of toying around with getting an Academy 1/72 kit and building a CF-188 demo bird from it. The Leading Edge CAF demo decals in 1/72 on eBay are bit more reasonably priced (and are a lot more available) than their 1/48 counterparts. I guess I'll make the decision when I get close to finishing the Kinetic kit. 


I'm very much open to suggestions on markings and versions. 

 

Progress photos shortly. 

Edited by RKic
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I've made some purchases, and will be building the 1/72 Academy F-18 as this beautiful aircraft 

Image result for 60 years norad hornet

 

I'm still not sure about the 1/48 Kinetic kit, but I'm inching my way towards this beauty. The Worimi hornet is the first F-18 flown by an Aboriginal Australian pilot, and features traditional Aboriginal artistic motifs in its decoration. It also look bad@s$ 

Image result for worimi hornet

Edited by RKic
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I jumped the gun and started building the Kinetic kit on Sunday. 

I began with the engine intakes and exhausts. 

The exhausts are simple. Just a top and bottom half capped on one end with the butt side of the engines. I painted all of it an off-white color, and gave it a heavy dark wash. No photos, as its not very interesting. 

The intakes each come in two halves. They fit okay, but I did end up adding filler along the inside of the seems. (that was the part I did on Sunday night), and then tried to get things smooth as far as I could see, before applying a thick heavy coat of old white enamel paint. It won't be good enough for a contest judge, but that's not why I build. 

Once the halves were together, I glued on the intake front bits to the ducts, and then I installed the completed assembly into the lower fuselage. The wheel well was installed first, and its roof acts as a support for the ducts. It all works alright, but a bit of sanding and filling will be needed around the intake outside. Not much, but the very light panel lines will probably suffer as a result. 

 

IMG-20190930-213437546-HDR.jpg

 

IMG-20190930-213451570-HDR.jpg

 

 

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Work continued on the kinetic fuselage. The two nose halves were attached together, a bulkhead that acts as a spreader and the front wall of the gear well was then added and the assembly was then glued to the bottom fuselage. Fit here was okay but some sanding was needed to eliminate a small step.

 

Then I glued on the small bay for the refueling probe and added the bottom of the nose. Kinetic also supplies the C nose bottom and an electronics package that goes with the Spanish version. Again fit is okay but not perfect, and a small step will need to be worked out.

IMG-20191001-210901189-HDR.jpg

 

IMG-20191001-210844581-HDR.jpg

 

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In addition to the big Kinetic hornet, I also started the little Academy kit.

 

This is probably Academy's best kit, and this is the third time I'm building one.

 

I've developed a sequence that helps to minimize the tricky fit of the nine piece fuselage.

 

1. Glue the left and right halves of the forward fuselage

 

2. Before the glue has completely set, glue on the two bottom pieces, and push/pull the left and right halves until everything lines up.

 

You may still have some minor stepage, but no gaps and nothing that some light sanding won't fix. Unlike the kinetic kit, this one has deeply incised (but still fine) surface details that won't go away after a few swipes of fine grit sandpaper.

 

IMG-20191001-213257729.jpg

 

3. Once this has more or less set, you'll use some sprue or styrene rod to make a spreader bar for the back of the forward fuselage. 

 

Cut it so it fits in the very front of the lower rear fuselage piece and then insert it into the back of the forward fuselage assembly you completed in step 2.

 

Now the profile of the rear lower and front fuselages will match and you won't have any big steps to fill here.

 

IMG-20191001-220038670-HDR.jpg

 

But don't glue the two halves together just yet. Stay tuned for more.

 

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On 9/30/2019 at 12:31 PM, RKic said:

 

....The Worimi hornet is the first F-18 flown by an Aboriginal Australian pilot, and features traditional Aboriginal artistic motifs in its decoration. It also look bad@s$ 
 

 

I might correct you there, the Worimi schemes commemorates a Warrant Officer Len Waters, he was the first Aboriginal Australian military aviator, and the only one to serve as a fighter pilot in the RAAF during World War II. The Williamtown base were most of the RAAF Hornet fleet is based is on Worimi tribe land which is the link to the Worimi name of the scheme.

 

Fortunately Kinetic got the kangaroo roundel orientation right, Hobby Boss recently released a kit in the 30th Anniversary markings and supplied all 4 kangaroos oriented in the same direction.

 

Looking forward to your progress, I have this Kinetic kit in the stash, interested to see how it builds.

Edited by Trojan Thunder
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7 hours ago, Trojan Thunder said:

 

I might correct you there, the Worimi schemes commemorates a Warrant Officer Len Waters, he was the first Aboriginal Australian military aviator, and the only one to serve as a fighter pilot in the RAAF during World War II. The Williamtown base were most of the RAAF Hornet fleet is based is on Worimi tribe land which is the link to the Worimi name of the scheme.

 

Oh!  thanks for setting me straight. I'll update the original text.

Do you know if the Worimi hornet ever carried bombs and missiles? Or was it a paint job for an airshow? 

Edited by RKic
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11 hours ago, RKic said:

Oh!  thanks for setting me straight. I'll update the original text.

Do you know if the Worimi hornet ever carried bombs and missiles? Or was it a paint job for an airshow? 

 

The Worimi Hornet (A21-23) is just another line jet. It is currently on Ex BUSHIDO GUARDIAN 19 in Japan with 77SQN.  Not sure if the squadron has done any bombing since the jet was repainted but you could quite easily load it up.

 

The images I have seen so far are with wingtip ASRAAMS and external tanks, this shot after the transit from Australia. While on the Ex it has the ASRAAMS and a centrelne tank.

 

70996111_1395772803915124_49871937163315

 

heading off for 77SQN  77th Anniversary flypast

 

65949714_843421099371090_751043605153447

 

On display at the Avalon airshow back in 2015

2597895.jpg?v=v40

 

 

2601085.jpg?v=v40

Edited by Trojan Thunder
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A bit more work on the 1/72 hornet.

 

Here I'm adding spacers to the bottoms of the LERX. These parts leave a bit of a gap around them when fitted. Since they are very springy, any filler in the gap has a good chance of cracking. I put in these little bits of plastic to act as supports in the springiest parts of the piece. Then I glue them in with CA, which also acts as a filler.

 

 

 

IMG-20191003-220749023-HDR.jpg

 

The next step will be to sand things down, and use a mix of CA and talc in that rear corner to level out the step. I should have been more careful gluing the part in.

 

IMG-20191003-221030965-HDR.jpg

 

 

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In addition to the LERX work, I also began building up the rear fuselage. Not much to do here besides adding the side pieces. If you're careful, they fit very nicely. I added a tab of sheet plastic to act as a backstop for the part, and to give it more surface to adhere to. 

 

Notice also that I fit the intakes to the side pieces before gluing the assembly to the rest of the fuselage.

 

IMG-20191003-224826914-HDR.jpg

 

More to come.

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Good idea on adding the intakes now, that should let you get a better fit on what's probably the worst fitting spot on an otherwise brilliant little kit.

Gotta say, as much as I do like the Academy kit, I would not be averse to Kinetic scaling down their version if it maintained the same basic layout as the 1/48th version.

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Hi.

 

It's been a very busy work week, so not too much modeling, but I did get the cockpit more.or less done.

 

I'm going with a closed canopy on this model, so I didn't go too crazy with details.

 

IMG-20191005-225719443-HDR.jpg

 

IMG-20191005-225824110-HDR.jpg

 

And all buttoned up now. Despite my best efforts, there will be a bit of sanding to eliminate steps.

 

IMG-20191006-203125121-HDR.jpg

 

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