Hasegawa and Hobby Boss F/A-18's + a Kinetic one!

[Thadeus]

Hi folks.

 

Apparently, when it comes to Hornets, all the fuss is about the new Meng kit (and to some extent Hobby Boss kit).

And I'd love to build them both (even better, along the Revell, Hasegawa and Italeri kits). However, I noticed I have a lot of good to say about the Hasegawa legacy Hornet, even being as good as much more modern Kinetic kit. Considering I've built one and a lot of time ago, I suppose its finally time to put my money where my mouth is, right? And it just happens to be a time when I ran out of stash storage space so I need to get rid of some boxes!

The plan is to build one Hasegawa F/A-18C alongside the Hobby Boss F/A-18D. Why Hobby Boss and not Kinetic? I've built a Hobby Boss F/A-18C once, and really enjoyed it. Some issues with the kit are sort of preventing me from building another one (I can't stand that canopy - it's way oversized) so I did some corrections based on parts from the long scrapped Hasegawa kit

The double seater suffers from the same windscreen issue, but a large canopy sort of hides the issue.

 

Besides, I can fit the Hasegawa box inside the Hobby Boss box basicly from day one of the build. No. That is not the reason. Why would it be? There is however a spot I could fit a neat Hornet or Super Hornet box. And that Meng SH has really small box for such a kit. huh. Kinetic Hornet would fit there too. What a coincidence, right?

 

I always liked that Hasegawa boxart.

 

 

Look at al that empty place in the box.

 

 

For the Hasegawa kit I got an Aires cockpit. The kit was pre-owned and it came with some resin wingfold. Neat. I love to fold wings on Hornets.

I really dig the VMFA-312 markings from 2009/2010 cruise. I built this jet in 1/72, but lost it in an accident. Why bother re-building it in 1/72 when I can do it in 1/48? So far there is only Authentic Decal sheet, hopefully not for long. Just in case I've some back up sheets. I dig the VFA-86 and VFA-25 markings. I just like the ones for VMFA-312 better.

 

 

Image source: Wikipedia. What a lovelly shot.

 

And for the Hobby Boss? I originally planned it as a F/A-18B from VFC-12, Gray/dkgray scheme. I could do it as a VFA-125 blue /blue jet. But what I really would like is the splintered VFC-12 F/A-18D:

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9265722

That is a neat option, as the HB kit is the only one that has correct-ish F/A-18D aft panel, and the VFC-12 Delta is one of the later lots, and has the missionized cockpit. Just not the proper aft IP cover. If all else fails I guess I can always build it as a VMFA(aw)-121 jet. I've some decals.

 

 

 

In my previous build I did some comparison shots of the Hasegawa and Hobby Boss kit. I did not want to separate Hasegawa pieces as to just do some checking. Now I reshot some of that comparison. There are a lot of subtle differences in both kits, some of which are quite interesting with the difference in location of elevators being my favourite one. The biggest one is the size of the cockpit. It's a little bigger on the C and much bigger (longer) on the D. Overall, the fuselage halves are very similar to oneanother. They do not mix however, ie You can't fit the lower Hasegawa piece to the upper Hobby Boss piece without some additional fitting. Upper is Hasegawa, lower is Hobby Boss.

 

 

 

 

See what I mean about the elevator attachment point?

 

Elevators are almost identical. The HB part is thicker though.

 

 

What is interesting, the HB cockpit is almost entirelly different. It consists of two pieces - front and rear, while in the Hasegawa kit it's just single piece. Detail is different too. I'd count on Hasegawa being more accurate, although I like the separate throttle on the HB kit.

What strikes the most is obviously the length of the entire cockpit assembly, that is mostly converging on the area in between the tubs.

 

 

The Instrument Panels are a bit different too. That aft IP could almost make it's way to the Hasegawa kit, with some modification to the UFC.

 

 

Fins have some shape difference at the top. There is a panel line missing on the HB kit. There is a significant difference in detail - HB kit has much heavier panel lining.

 

 

Even noses are not identical. Aside from some difference in detail, the HB is a bit more sharp, and by tiniest bit shorter.

 

 

One of the dead giveways of the HB kits are the intakes. The right ones are HB, left ones are Hasegawa. Most people would use either covers or resin intakes. That would be the wisest choice for both.

 

 

Wing pylons are mirrored on both kits. I can't find some decent shots of them, to chech which panels to fill where, as they are not supposed to be mirrored.

 

 

What is adorable, neither kit gives proper SJU-17's. Hasegawa kit has two nice SJU-5/6's and HB has something resembling the SJU-5/6 and a MB mk10 from Mirage 2000's. I guess. Close, but not close enough.

 

 

Intake splitter plates. Yes. These are intake splitter plates. Aaaaand we're walking....

 

 

to the fuselage sides. HB has fatter Sparrow launcher bulge.

 

 

With this long introduction, I suppose I'm done for a short while. I'm a bit further in my build, and there is multitude of ideas that come to me right now I did not think of earlier.

Thanks for stopping by. All coments, advices and such, are welcomed.

Edited July 2, 2023 by Thadeus
changed title

[Flight Line Media]

Awesome projects, Thadeus. I look forward to seeing these builds completed.

[phantom]

We had a group build couple years ago which compared different companies kits in side by side builds. I did these two and found the Hasegawa FAR superior. 

[Thadeus]

On 10/1/2021 at 5:46 AM, Flight Line Media said:

Awesome projects, Thadeus. I look forward to seeing these builds completed.

 

Thanks Flight Line Media. I can't wait for them to be finished either.

 

On 10/1/2021 at 11:32 PM, phantom said:

We had a group build couple years ago which compared different companies kits in side by side builds. I did these two and found the Hasegawa FAR superior. 

 

Honestly, I fully expect Hasegawa kit to be better. But in all fairness, my previous Hobby Boss Hornet, doesn't look half bad, even placed right next to Kinetic Hornet. Granted, I changed the windscreen and canopy, so this makes the biggest flaw of the HB kit a non issue. So I kind of keep checking the HB Hornets out. Perhaps If I had the uncorrected one on my shelf, i'd not feel this way.

Kinetic fore, HB to the rear.

 

HB Hornet could be a neat, cheap alternative to the Hasegawa kit. But that canopy and windscreen looks massively out of proportions. Double seaters don't look that bad.

At least that is what I keep telling myself.

 

First order of bussiness will be the cockpit. I'm going to reuse the Hasegawa IP coaming on the HB kit, as it's a very nice item. Almost as detailed as the piece in Aires cockpit.

 

 

After a bit of drama, a lot of sanding, and my first ever wet sanding of resin parts (which is apparently the way to go, due to harmfullness of the resin dust) I managed to squeeze in the pit. It's about 1mm too short but I'm going to try and either stretch it, or perhaps move the rear turtledeck a bit to the rear, flush with the fuselage insert part. No drama here.

 

 

Next part prepped - intakes. I've used 5.5cm long tube made out of some thin plastic - this time I used Tamiya 0.1mm plapaper. I did not like the way it behaved on the 1/72 scale Hornets I did sometime ago. Perhaps this time I'll do it better?

 

 

Engine faces are F110's from Fujimi 1/72 scale Tomcat. They are a bit too small and have the wrong, super long shock cones. Just cut them out, find a sprue of a properish diameter, and voila!

 

 

You can see the entire assembly, including the new and upgraded fan face.

 

 

Once in the model, You won't be able to tell it's there. Unless You look in the intake, that is. Still, I feel this quick mod is a better alternative to using intake covers. No worries, it'll fit over the wheel wells. HB kit gets similar treatment. On Hasegawa I attached the tube to the intake part, and on HB kit I left it off. Reason being, both intakes have different diameter. However, the wheel wells on HB kit and Hasegawa kit are almost the same height. This means, on the Hasegawa kit, the tube has smaller diameter and passes over the wheel wells easier. Less stress on the intake to fuselage joint. I'm not glueing the tube anywhere to the wheel wells. On HB kit it's much harder, as You can see the top of the wheel well through the intake. This means it's better to first attach the intake lip part and only after the glue has set add the tube.

 

 

So, next part? Cockpit painting! Wooohooo! Thanks for stopping by!

[speedlimit]

Wow, this is so much interesting to follow since I have been building hornets now.

[HOLMES]

WOWZER ..

 

SUPERB  workmanship. 

 

 

https://drawingdatabase.com/mcdonnell-douglas-fa-18-hornet/

 

 

[Thadeus]

On 10/8/2021 at 4:37 PM, HOLMES said:

WOWZER ..

 

SUPERB  workmanship. 

 

 

https://drawingdatabase.com/mcdonnell-douglas-fa-18-hornet/

 

 

 

Thank You very much! And thanks for the drawings.

 

Some update time?

Did You folks ever had that idea of building a model, being aware of its flaws, deciding just to go with the flow, not bothering? I very often get it. I thought this time will be the same. I mean, what are 2mm in 1/48 scale, right? Hardly noticable, no big deal. Right now, my build is looking more like the Hobby Boss and Hasegawa, than other way around. I seem to be taking a lot more pics of the HB kits "progress".

 

First things first. The aft cockpit of the HB kit suffers from some high floor problem.

 

If You look closelly, the depth of the Hasegawa and HB cockpits is different in the aft sections. I'm going to take a wild guess at which one is more accurate. I thought this had potential to become a major problem later on. But I disregarded my initial distrust. Because, You know, If I fix another HB Hornet I'll want more of them. Kit cockpit it is then.

 

 

THIS is the reason I'm so in love with cockpits with side panels attached to the sides of the cockpit tub. I have to make my own here. Not the best of ideas. And then I'll attach the cockpit to the upper half of the fuselage, instead of lower half. This will only emphasise the floor issue. But look at that side panels! How low they are. That is absurd.

 

 

So, how about some ejection seat love? Here are some of my possibilities. First, the Pavla SJU-17, in the middle, kit ejection seat, and the Hasegawa SJU-17 from a Super Hornet. I'm pretty sure the seats should be of similar height.

 

 

So if I fit the pit to the upper fuselage half, I'm left with a problem - the ejection seat is too high. I will not close the canopy, but I don't want the seat to be too high.

Here's the kit seat.

 

 

Pavla.

 

 

Hasegawa.

 

 

Generally, I'd rather use the Hasegawa seats. But they are just too high. So the next option are the Pavla seats. Hardly a real SJU-17, albeit a nice ejection seat.

So the simpliest solution would be just cut out part of the tub flooring. 5 minutes later... Honestly, I could have added more plastic to the underside. But I figured this is ok-ish.

 

 

The aft IP cover needs some work. A few cuts with a saw gets me this. Somehow I sense a problem coming. Or coaming?

 

 

I also cut out this fine piece of plastic to accomodate a transfer from Hasegawa part.

 

 

And with some paint slapped on and some rudimentary sidewalls done.

 

 

That was pretty ok. But really, there is no comparison to resin. Even with my painting skills.

 

 

And the pit is in place. I added some material to make the aft pit sidewalls thicker.

 

 

Honestly, I was expecting a little less putty on intakes.

 

 

And with all the stuff in place, here is the completed fuselage.

 

 

See, barely any mention of the Hasegawa kit. And both are pretty much on the same stage.

With fuselage buttoned up, I'm starting to feel the canopy issue bugging me. I took some comparison shots, gotta figure out what I'm gonna do about it.

Thanks for stopping by! Untill next time.

 

 

 

 

 

[Thadeus]

Hi there. A little update on the Hobby Boss. Again.

Here's the turtledeck issue. The HB kit gives this fine piece as the turtledeck behind the RIO seat. Detailwise, it would probably fit better an 1/72 scale F/A-18 A or C.

 

So I sanded off almost all the details in the hopes that my meager scratchbuilding skills would allow me to add some rudimentary details. I chose Kinetic part as the template as it has some very nice details. But honestly I got myself another boxing of Kinetic Adversary boxing, generally for the decals, as I'd love to build the F/A-18A scheme out of them too at some point. Add to this the windscreen/canopy issue that's bugging me. And as I compared parts it became obvious there is really no way I can pull off something on that level. Practising skill is good. Having good detail is much better.

 

 

 

So just for fun I took the rear turtledeck and the piece behind it, stuck it on some blue tack and compared the detail. Obvioulsy, the HB kit has no detail, as it's sanded flush. What struck me is the lenghth of the aft fairing on both Hasegawa and Kinetic parts. Its more than twice the lenghth of HB part.

This will make the ECM blisters aft of the canopy to look totally out of place. The angle of the canopy isnt really so bad, but I'll get to that later. Another thing of note is the lengtht of the turtledeck on the Hasegawa, and both Kinetic and HB kits. I will get to that later on too.

 

 

Here's the shot without the turtledeck. Just the fuselage inserts, as apparently, they all sort of start at the same place, as the HB kit has longer cockpit tub. This is really getting to me. So out with the canopies of the Hasegawa and Kinetic kits. We are taking some measurements.

 

This is the Hasegawa canopy on the Hobby Boss fuselage. If I take this as a benchmark, and I will, the HB canopy angle is not bad, as it almost lines up with the Hasegawa canopy. It's just missing a section of plastic. This also means, that aft IP cover is massivelly too long. So, indeed, a problem was 'coaming'. And I'm really out of spare Hasegawa double seater canopies.

 

 

But I do have one surplus Kinetic canopy. However, it's even shorter than the Hasegawa canopy. And it doesn't line up so good with the HB fuselage part. Had I taken these measurements prior to glueing I'd shorten the middle section of the cockpit tub, or just used the Hasegawa part, then add the Kinetic canopy, fuselage insert, turtledeck, aft IP cover. I'm getting a pattern here.

 

 

It does however line up nicelly with a spare Hasegawa Super Hornet windscreen. Neat! But if I'll fix the HB canopy issue I'll probably want one more.

 

 

So we're talking clear parts, right? Here's the windscreen comparison. The windscreen is probably my biggest gripe with HB kit.

 

Top is Hasegawa, Kinetic is down. Kinetic seems a bit too pointy.

 

 

OTOH, Hobby Boss canopy is noticably too wide and too high. HB is to the bottom.

 

There is really no real modeling on the HB kit, isn't there?

It's utterly different with the Hasegawa kit. The nose part seemed like a nice fit with all the clamps and rubber bands. Once they were off, the joint gave up and here's the result. I'm more or less familiar with 4 languages and there is only one word in all of them that is appropriate for this ocasion. Yes, it's a Polish word indeed. And I used it quite a few times once I removed all the clamping.

 

 

 

Luckilly I managed to persuade the joint to give way completely. And really with only minimal damage. Now the nose is reattached and I'm ready to clean the join. See, not so bad.

 

 

Well, with an astonishing succes that my Hasegawa progress was, a good balance is the HB cockpit/canopy/windscreen drama. I'm contemplating going in, prying the fuselage open and cutting the entire HB cockpit short. Not the brightest ideas mind You. Frankly, quite a terrible one. But there is that itch... If I'll succeed there will be nothing stopping me from getting more HB kits if I find them at a low price. OTOH, the decal scheme is so nice I'd hate to waste it on a kit that annoys me this much even before completition.

I'll have to make some more dry fittings once I'll break out my modelling gear on the weekend.

 

See You next time!

Edited October 26, 2021 by Thadeus
some post error - missing text

[HOLMES]

SUPERB  start Sir.

VERY NICE work. 

 

[Aigore]

Ohhhhh.....sweeet! Really interesting comparisonbuild! You make really good points and this thread will be a good reference for coming builds.

Good stuff mate, keep up the goid work.

 

[Thadeus]

On 10/30/2021 at 2:49 PM, HOLMES said:

SUPERB  start Sir.

VERY NICE work. 

 

 

Thank You very much! Hope the finish will be as good.

 

22 hours ago, Aigore said:

Ohhhhh.....sweeet! Really interesting comparisonbuild! You make really good points and this thread will be a good reference for coming builds.

Good stuff mate, keep up the goid work.

 

Thank You very much. I really like side by side builds. Really puts things in perspective for me. Especially if I can tell which kit is the benchmark. I'd love to add Kinetic kit (or a Monogram for that matter) to the mix, but that'd take just too much time. I did something similar in 1/72 with six Hornet kits and it took me a year to complete.

 

 

There is also one thing with such projects. It's often that I start with big plans, and then resort to mediocre means to complete them. Or just I get fed up with them.

So keeping up with tradition for this thread, I've no real progress on the Hasegawa Hornet. Well, the cockpit/canopy/windscreen issue generally bugs me, so that comes as a priority. What's good is I regained my senses and I am no longer pondering total cockpit butchery. I am going to settle on kit parts for the windscreen and canopy...

This is good. This is what I started this kit for. Yes.

 

Let's start from the other way around, shall we? Using highly sophisticated methods I managed to eyeball the "proper" shape of the canopy fairing. I drew it on the kit, and again, using 21st century technology, I did some measurements. Be carefull, not a lot of computers/tablets/phones can handle what I'm going to show...

 

 

That is a lot of reshaping that is not matching canopy curve. Oh, and If You are seeing a plastic mini sponge - I'm sorry, that is the Lo-Res picture for You. The Hi-res has all the bells, whistles, a unicorn jumping all over the place.

 

 

Seriously, though. This got me thinking... I took my "measurements" with the small antennae to the rear of the fairing, just where the stick is touching. What is the possibility that I'm trusting HB poor research? I have one good piece of reference right next to me. The 1/32 Academy kit. And while it's just a kit, and not a real jet, I did not find a shot like that in my library, or online for that matter. The small antennae is in direct middle of the shot.

 

 

 

Both shots show jus by how much the HB canopy and cockpit section is too long, and also show how the antennae are moved to the rear. This makes the ECM spine antennae too far aft. You can take the LEX... ummm... hole? I guess, as a reference point - the small blade antennae is not paralel with the beggining, but to the front of the opening (line 3)

Also, note how the vertical slanted panel line is just at the bulkhead of the rear cockpit (white arrow).

Tthe panel line perpendicular to the LEX fence is parallel with the end of the canopy (line 1)

Take the double panel lines perpendicular to the LEX fence, just fore of the vents to the side of the LEX fence, and how they are relating to the end of the fairing behind the canopy (line 2).

So that kind of means HB Hornet would greatly benefit from 1) Hasegawa cockpit tub 2) Kinetic canopy. At least taking proportions from the 1/32 Academy kit as the proper ones. Which they may not be - to be fair.

Well, at least now I'm 100000% sure I'm not messing with this area too much. In the end, I suppose all this stuff will not be noticable too much, unless someone is really looking for it.

 

So, back to windscreen? Or forward to windscreen...

 

I've been toying with windscreens from Hasegawa legacy Hornet, Super Hornet and HB Hornet a lot. To a point where I just put on a windscreen, and thought I'm just imagining things with it. It's not really too big, hell, it looked awesome. But I realised that was the Hasegawa legacy Hornet part. Armed with a spare Rob Taurus windscreen (for the single seater) I went on and started doing some bad things...

I mean, see this? This looks jus sooooo good. And it;s the Super Hornet part. Fits almost like a glove too!

 

And that? Looks like a speedbrake or what? It's not the same angle, but close.

 

 

Again, Hasegawa Legacy windscreen with kit canopy.

 

 

 

 

And the HB part. And this is where I got the stupidly easy idea just to sand the thing from the rear/underside to change the angle and height of the part. Here's where that spare windscreen from Rob Taurus comes handy.

 

 

It was like 5 minutes of work. Minor difference, indeed, but feels like I got a new kit. Of course I overdid the sanding. And the angle still feels a bit off. But I'm leaving it as is. I sanded the canopy too, to match the profile.

 

 

Again, with Hasegawa part. You know... fitting HUD might be difficult now.

 

 

So that is a relief. Next thing, I took some putty and built up the fairing behind the canopy... And while I was at it, I took the Kinetic aft turtledeck and cut it - it'll match the HB part pretty neatly.

 

 

And after some slight thinning, ready to be attached. I could not achieve this level of detail even if I tried for a looong time.

 

 

So I think I'm almost out of the woods. I gotta say, while I really like working on Hasegawa kit, the HB is giving me more fun. It's still good fun, not really too complicated. Would be even better had I managed to spot the issues before assembling the cockpit. I did stuff like that one, grafted an entire Revell Super Hornet cockpit onto an Italeri Growler. Came out half decent.

 

Thanks for stopping by. I promise, no more soap opra dramas here.

 

[Aigore]

There is something with cutting plastic kits to bits.....not sure if it's masochism or joy of accomplishment.....maybe a bit of both 😛

I did a Kfir comparison build once that was fun 😄

 

Are hornets your chosen poison?

 

[janman]

7 hours ago, Aigore said:

There is something with cutting plastic kits to bits.....not sure if it's masochism or joy of accomplishment.....

 

 

 

Whatever it is, it's also very entertaining and a great joy to watch. Even if the subject itself wasn't one's cup of tea. 🙂

 

An interesting thread!

[Thadeus]

23 hours ago, Aigore said:

There is something with cutting plastic kits to bits.....not sure if it's masochism or joy of accomplishment.....maybe a bit of both 😛

I did a Kfir comparison build once that was fun 😄

 

Are hornets your chosen poison?

 

 

I'd say more of a joy of accomplishment. I'd love to be able to scratchbuild like some folks but I can't really cut two pieces o plastic the same lenghth. So swapping parts is what I mostly do to add details. Had I gone with the cockpit surgery I would indeed be proud of myself if I'd manage to complete it.

 

Wasnt Your build a Kinetic vs AMK build? I seem to remember something like that.

I generally prefer to build Hornets. Despite being very slow learner I managed to pick some stuff up throughout the years, so I won't mix up an F/A-18A with F/A-18D. Saves me some embarrasement 😉 And with them I really try to put in an effort. Most of the other stuff is on a close enough basis.

I can't really tell, say, a Mirage V from Mirage III or early Kfir for that matter. I seem to remember the earliest ones had no canards. Them canards being a dead giveway. Or an SU-27s from SU-27p.

 

 

15 hours ago, janman said:

 

Whatever it is, it's also very entertaining and a great joy to watch. Even if the subject itself wasn't one's cup of tea. 🙂

 

An interesting thread!

 

Thank You very much. Sadly, most of the stuff isn't mine cup of tea anymore as I've scaled back to modern-ish jets only. Shame, since there are so many nice WWII props. There's just not enough space for all of them.

[Aigore]

I hear you! My scratch building abilities are pretty rudimentary 😛

Indeed, you've got the memory of an elephant! I have a tendency to get a bit anal with my builds lately...maybe an age thing 😛

[Thadeus]

Whooooooa. Year and a half later I'm still not complete with these two.

 

I begun work with checking seams and adding some filler where needed. Next thing I started on the Hasegawa Hornet. I have to paint the cockpit surfaces black. But in order to do so I need to finish building the Aires cockpit set - my least favourite parts which are the photo etched ones.

It took me an hour to build this. And these are just three PE parts and a couple of resin bits.

 

 

I masked the painted bits and I'm waiting for the airbrush window to appear. There seems to be a bit of a boo boo in progress, as the PE HUD frame touches the windscreen. I probably mounted it at a wrong angle or the entire cockpit is mounted too high.

 

 

I also added the reinforcement stripes around the gun bay door and filled the gun gas vents. I know. I should've done that first berofe adding the strips. I'm going to make some custom decals for the mesh type vents. I might still have my 1/72 project. I'll just upscale it 50% and see how it goes.

 

 

Some filling work was done to the gear doors. I also started building the landing gear.

 

 

So far, so good. Next the Hobby Boss kit. Some more filling work. I also cut out a part of the centerline tank to represent a newer canted type.

 

 

The thing that is bothering me most currently, is the seat thing. I can't buy another Pavla NACES. So i need a workaround. And I don't want some fancy expensive seats.

So I'll go with Hasegawa SJU-17's from their Super Hornets. The ones that are too high.

 

 

 

After the cockpit floor surgery Pavla seat sits a tiniest bit low. And the Hasegawa seat still is much too high. But if I managed to sand down a bit of the underside, like 2mm, it would be much better. But I could always cut out the middle part of the seat, right? That sounds like a reasonable idea. Totally something a sane person would comfortalby do.

 

Looks bulky, yes. But the surgery seems to have worked.

 

 

And apparently I can do it twice! Amazing! I really didn't think it would work. The seats are still a bit high, but for an open canopy it's pretty good. I'll take some pics of the seats dryfitted once the glue cures.

 

 

It sure is nice to be building Hornets again.

 

Thanks for stopp.... oh. Wait. I do have one more!

 

 

I'm not going to finish that thread, since the GB is done. But I'll continiue working here. Finally make it an epic Hasegawa, HB, Kinetic battle!

 

Apart from checking seams and filling where necesarry I did only one thing and that was to fit the refueling bay door. What the h. was I thinking not installing it earlier? Once the glue cures I'll do some filling, sanding and rescribing work.

 

 

I kind of regret fitting pilots in, since I lack the willpower to finish tacking the hand poses. It just sometime happens I manage to go through some really hard work only to be defeated by the smallest of challenges.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

[HOLMES]

Thadeus...

Well blow ME off the mountain !!

How super to see you back on this OUTSTANDING  build.

Glad you returned to it..

👍

Pretty impressive progress  and updates.

IMPRESSIVE  workmanship. 

[Mr.Happy]

Thadeus,

 

Your progress is amazing! We hope you don’t give up.

 

Try to fight through the challenges.

 

Looking good,

 

Mr.Happy

[Thadeus]

 

On 6/29/2023 at 7:42 PM, HOLMES said:

Thadeus...

Well blow ME off the mountain !!

How super to see you back on this OUTSTANDING  build.

Glad you returned to it..

👍

Pretty impressive progress  and updates.

IMPRESSIVE  workmanship. 

 

 

Thanks Holmes!

 

11 hours ago, Mr.Happy said:

Thadeus,

 

Your progress is amazing! We hope you don’t give up.

 

Try to fight through the challenges.

 

Looking good,

 

Mr.Happy

 

Thanks Mr.Happy. I'm not backing down. I've almost added another Hornet to the bunch. But that would probably cause me to loose the motivation before going to the paint booth. For the Adversary jet that I hope will be the main motivator.

 

 

 

Back to the build. I'm doing some small stuff right now, although, as usual, they take up horrendous amout of time. I remember, why I always hated PE parts, and PE HUD's especially! I can't figure out how to do them properly and they always seem to be skewed to one side. I kind of gave up and did them as best as I could in hopes to learn from my mistakes.

 

I also did one more thing that always scares me. Clear parts tinting. On the HB kit it came out the worst, with some white smudges. They vanished after a couple of hours though. The paint came out a bit too grainy to call it a good job, but I'm leaving it as it is. This one was supposed to have the most tint on the windscreen with clear canopy.

 

 

Hasegawa came out best. Both lack the orangy-yellowish tint however. I tried mixing Tamiya smoke with yellow, but I must have added too little yellow. You can already see the HUD drama before it unfolded. That is just a frame obviously, but adding the acetate sheet to the frame didn't make things better.

 

 

And the Kinetic. Well. The windscreen came out ok. But the canopy needed to be tinted as well. And it came out very foggy. Plus there are quite a few paint blobs. I'm going to have to clean it and redo the tint. I'll try first to polish the insides of the canopy. This might help a bit. The thickness of the Kinetic part doesn't help here either.

 

 

I almost finished work on the HB cockpit. I added the aft IP to where it will finally rest, decided on the angle and everything. I added the IP cover. It should be a tiny bit higher I feel, but that is in the 'ok' range.

 

 

The cockpit was also painted with the final coat of black.

 

 

I also sanded the lower sides of the seats to make them fit better with the canopy.

 

 

I basicly finished all the sanding and filling on both the HB and Hasegawa kit. I did remove all the raised detail at the aft fuselage slime light in both of these kits and figured I'll try to add the raised reinforcement detail that is there. I also added the small square reinforcement tabs to the tails. They are too big though.

 

 

This was another excersice at attempting to replicate the same part 6 times. It's one of the skills that just doesnt stick to me.

 

 

The Hase kit did recieve similar treatment. Painting, sanding filling. And the slime light job. I would've added a thinner plastic sheet but the glue would melt it. I did excactly that on some of my 1/72 scale Hornets.

 

 

 

One small detail I added that is going to be exclusive to the Hasegawa build is the small fairing on the targeting pod. I don't remember this well, but it's the difference between the integrated laser tracker pod on the AAS-38A and the regulas AAS-38. Although now that I think of it it might have been for the ATFLIR pod. Oh... Gotta check it again. I did however rescribe most of the details on the TP fairing.

 

 

Here is both the Hasegawa and HB Hornet ready for a final check before the paintjob. Oh. Hase needs the black colour around the canopy. But that is a very small job. It just requires another jar of black paint, as I've run out.

 

With the Kinetic kit, the major succes was attaching the arms to the pilots. I'm really bad at painting pilot figures (or any other figures). But I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I'm adding the handle at the top of the IP cover, finishing the canopy railing and I'll have to close it. The pilots and the canopy seem to be the worst headache for this build.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week.

 

 

[Thadeus]

Moving forward. Both the Hasegawa and Hobby Boss Hornets got their first coat of paint. I didn't order more black paint, so I had to go with a very diluted Tamiya rubber black with some dark gray. Still, looks black to me.

 

 

Can You see which one I sprayed second? I'll call it the first step of weathering if anyone is asking. First coat didn't reveal much work to be done. Just a few lines here and there.

 

 

I also started work on the armament of these jets. Well. Hornets don't fly with a lot of stuff, as apparent from the time period photos. The VMFA-312 jet is from 2010, and they were seen mostly with a GBU-12, GBU-38, a single AIM-9M and two fuel tanks. I've seen some pics of jets landing with that load so I guess that is the reason for a light load.

Bengals in 2009 flew with even less stuff it would seem. It was an Iwakuni deployment, so perhaps that is the reason. Or it was that the jet was photographed during events or something like that. I could not find any pics with some full scale bombs. I got one pic where the striped jet had a single AIM-9X and Litening pod. I might go with two AIM-9x's though. Or just build two - one for the model, one for fun.

Now, with the VFC-12 jet there's an interesting thing. It flew, at least a couple of times, with outboard underwing pylons installed, and inboard removed. On at least one occasion, it flew with a jamming pod: https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9995893 It's the AN/ALQ-167.

That was however in 2020, after it got the canopy replaced. I want the black framing on the canopy. Looks a bit cooler. I might rob the Tamiya F-14 of that pod. It's just that i don't know what was carried on the other side. If anything. Plus I really don't like to open factory sealed bags. Weird I know. Makes the start of the build that much more interesting when it's a first real peek inside the bag. A little bit 'special'.

 

 

 

Most work this week was done on the Kinetic kit.

 

Literally the most work was done in the cockpit area. I tried like 10 times to get that lovelly canopy tinted. I test sprayed an entire Aires cockpit set plastic box to a varying degree. Everytime I sprayed the canopy it was either too runny, or too grainy. Or both. I'm quite bad at that actually now that I see it. It's always the least desired part of the build. Especially on the closed canopy build.

Oh. And apparently I forgot about decalling the seats. Luckilly I did realise that before glueing the canopy, which I'm still to do. I took the decals from an MAW decal sheet. Again, something I'm not too fond of is to cut up a nice, new, aftermarket decal sheet to get a few decals. But let's just say I'm working on myself, as well as on my models. It's all about pushing ourselves to the limits, right? 😉

 

 

You know. I'm not sure I took this pic with the canopy tinted, with first tint removed or with the second succesfull attempt. Aren't these decals a bit too big?

 

 

This one probably is. There's a third decal on the back of the headrest, but it's invisible.

 

Most work was done on the Kinetic kit this week. I finally attached the tails! Don't really know why I waited so long. Some gaps were filled. Sanding them will be next weeks work. Oh. I added the reinfrcement strip on the fuselage slime light.

 

 

Oh. Right. This is the second attempt at tint. I was working back to back detailing a bit the canopy railing, adding this weird tubular thing at the top of the WSO IP coaming and filling and sanding the front of the windscreen. Despite the way it looked before, all I needed was to add a bit of the material between the windscreen and the nose. Good thing Kinetic moulded the windscreen clear part with a part of the framing so my work here will not damage the clear part.

 

So I'll have to do some digging on the VMFA(aw)-224's weapons load in 2009. Perhaps I'll find one with an AGM-65 and some gbu-12's.

I'll have to see about that jamming pod.

And then, I'll have to do some sanding. I'm a little scared of glueing the canopy. It's not a tight fit so I'll have to put it on permanently and fill some gaps. Feels like a recipe for a disaster. Hope for the best, right?

[Thadeus]

Moving forward. Goood.

Ok. Perhaps not straight forward, but forward nonetheless.

The VMFA-312 jet needs not the An/AAq-38a but the Atflir pod (AN/ASQ-228). I wasn't aware Marines had them at all, but I suspect it makes sense. Navy uses them, and AFAIK, the Litening pod isn't carrier qualified. Ok, a quick check revealed I have a couple of used ATFLIR pods and two spare brand new. Apparently, Hobby Boss Super Hornets come with two pods each. Nice. It looks so much like the one in a Hasegawa Super Hornet.

 

 

I did a quick check as to what's what. So, there is (from left to right) the HB pod (7.0mm diameter), the Hasegawa pod (7.05 mm dia.), the Revell pod (6.5 mm) and the regular good old nitehawk pod from Hasegawa legacy Hornets (7.5 mm whoooa). They are more or less the same lenghth, but they are not the same diameter.

Also a new adapter is needed. The ones in Super Hornet kits would require serious re working. I have a spare adapter from Hasegawa Super Hornet (shown above the Hasegawa ATFLIR) but that can't do. There are two adapters in the Kinetic kit (left upper and lower), one in the HB legacy Hornet (next to Kinetic) and the last one is the adapter from Hasegawa legacy Hornet kits.

 

 

Considering that the both Kinetic and Hasegawa adapters are for the excactly same pod, they do look differently. Hasegawa is much more beefier to accompany the larger pod. Kinetic pod I didn't measure, but looks at least 1 mm thinner.

As You can see, I went with the Hasegawa SH pod. I shlould've gone aftermarket, but for my skill, this is sufficient. Kinetic adapter actually fits nicelly the Hasegawa Hornet. A little bit of sanding is required, but not really that much.

 

 

No update for the HB model. Not a lot of interesting work. Not that targeting pod messup is anything all that interesting.

 

There is however an important milestone complete with the Kinetic bird. There were some minor hickups along the way. One I completelly forgot about that d*** ladder. And it doesnt fit all that well closed. Second I did drill a hole for the ladder support rods. Nothing a bit of plastic rod will not handle. After I sorted all of that I did drill two holes for the gun safety indicators (or the two small tube like thingies that portrude from the left hand side of the fuselage, right by the nose landing gear bay and the emeregency canopy jettison door). I gotta check at which point they are pushed inside. But it's probably a bit before the crew straps themselves in and closes the canopy.

 

 

But that's pretty much the worst of the booboos. I managed to glue the canopy frame to the fuselage. It's last light for these guys for a few weeks (at best).

 

 

And I glued the canopy dow. The single most scarry thing I've done on this jet yet. The fit was nice, apart from the one spot. I needed to sand it a little bit to match the curvature of the aft fuselage. But not by much.

 

And voila. Stealth Hornet. My work here is done.

No. Hold on. Its the striped one. I forgot.

 

I'm pretty happy with the blending job of the windscreen to nose. Not a lot of work there really. Only two layers of putty. You can see however the worst fitting part of the canopy - the windscreen joint. The portruding part is from the windscreen. The frame is quite thick there. I chose to leave it as is in orded to better fit the canopy to the fuselage. And As You can see, the fit is pretty ok.

 

 

So I'm off to ponder on the meaning of life and wheter to first spray wheel wells, or wait for the completion of the paintjob. I should've probably done that first though.

 

I'm stil wondering on the main colour of the VFC-12 splinter jets. I've the Hasegawa 1/72 scale VFC-12 boxing with the A model, and it says to use the H308 - 36375. The Kinetic instructions would have You use MIG-203 - also a 36375. Oh, and apparenly Furball also claims the main colour is the 36375. It's just that the jet seems to be so dark. Especially on my two favourite reference shots:

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9995893

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9251882

If You have any thoughts, let me know.

 

Another thing on my mind is, wheter to do all the jets concurently, or just finish them one by one.

[Thadeus]

Ok, I can't paint more than one 1/48 scale jet at a time. Perhaps just a first coat of sloppy black or something. It takes more time than two 1/72 scale models.

Or perhaps I'm just slow. It doesn't matter though. The effect is what it's all about, right? I'll totally have to paint a model in this way. It looks so cool to me. I did first freehand layer with Gunze H315 and the second, more sharp spots with AK template with Tamiya flat white. For the love of me I can't tell the difference in colour other than sharp spots are lighter. I guess that was what I was going for, right? I might do another layer, perhaps dark gray? Or just leave it. The Tiger striped jet looked quite fresh.

 

 

That Hataka paint (36375) was for a couple of experiments. I did paint an eggplane F-15 with it. Run out of time to do a second colour though. And I did paint the single gear door with the gray. Looks a bit too dark and too blue. More like the 36320.

 

 

I also did a couple of comparison spills with some of my paints. They were brush painted though, so there is some colour difference expected.  The colours are a little bit off in the picture, but it's the best I could do with a phone camera. I'm having hard time deciding wheter H308 is lighter or darker than Hataka 36375. I'm more inclined to say it's darker.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

[annie.shikinami]

glad to see this thread active again! i'm also working on a D-model from Kinetic at the moment (my 3rd) and i'm putting pilot figures in for the first time. i got the cockpit sealed up last night and even after a ton of dry fitting well beforehand i still ended up having to do some trimming to get them to fit.

 

On 7/17/2023 at 5:41 PM, Thadeus said:

So I'm off to ponder on the meaning of life and wheter to first spray wheel wells, or wait for the completion of the paintjob. I should've probably done that first though.

 

 

did you end up painting them first? for Hornets i always like to save it for afterwards. it's a lot of masking, but i always end up doing a poor job masking the insides when i paint them first and need to touch them up anyways.

 

 

[HOLMES]

Thaddeus,

EXEMPLARY workmanship. 

You are doing an excellent  job thus far and it is  lovely seeing your progress.

Rock on MY Friend.

[Thadeus]

On 7/21/2023 at 7:23 PM, annie.shikinami said:

glad to see this thread active again! i'm also working on a D-model from Kinetic at the moment (my 3rd) and i'm putting pilot figures in for the first time. i got the cockpit sealed up last night and even after a ton of dry fitting well beforehand i still ended up having to do some trimming to get them to fit.

 

 

 

did you end up painting them first? for Hornets i always like to save it for afterwards. it's a lot of masking, but i always end up doing a poor job masking the insides when i paint them first and need to touch them up anyways.

 

 

 

This is actually my second attempt at putting pilots in 1/48 jet. I did it a lot of times in 1/72 though. Not an experience I'd like to repeat. It's sad how much they have to sacrifice to get the job. At the very least feet. I did have to sand them a bit in the place where I wouldn't want to have sanding stick.

What markings are You going for?

 

As for the gear bays, I didn't paint them yet. Kind of wish I did but I'm having a "airbrush_is_yuck" phase. I'm using Eduards or Aires excellent masking sponge. Or the stuff they add with some of their resin sets. It's a very nice touch to include such a terrific masking medium.

 

 

On 7/24/2023 at 2:02 PM, HOLMES said:

Thaddeus,

EXEMPLARY workmanship. 

You are doing an excellent  job thus far and it is  lovely seeing your progress.

Rock on MY Friend.

 

Thanks Holmes! Hope I won't dissapoint!

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by Thadeus
splitting the update