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Hasegawa 1/48 F/A-18C VMFA-232 Red Devils Desert Storm Build


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Hi guys, finally finished this one after 9 months of work.  It’s Hasegawa’s 1/48 F/A-18C with lots of aftermarket goodies.  I would have sprung for the Kinetic kit, but I’ve had this one in the stash for years and from most reviews I’ve read, Hasegawa’s rendition of the Hornet still holds up fairly well.  I’ve always wanted to depict a US Marine Hornet from Desert Storm and I had a couple of old sheets of Repliscale decals that would have worked.  However, after studying photos, it turns out they have some inaccuracy problems.  Luckily, Flying Leathernecks recently released a big sheet with decals for every Marine squadron that participated in Desert Storm.  I particularly liked the squadron commander’s aircraft of VMFA-232 Red Devils, so that’s the one I went with.  I also like the loadout this particular jet was pictured with during a Desert Storm sortie:

 

https://dstorm.eu/pictures/nose-arts/f-18/usa/163736_2.jpg
    
Below are the extras I used:
    
Aires cockpit, exhaust nozzles, and wheel bays
Black box ejection seat
North Star Model Light Series wheels
Bits from Eduard’s photoetch sets 
A couple of bits from Metallic Details photoetch set for the Hobbyboss Hornet
Reskit’s BRU-55 smart bomb rack backdated to the BRU-33 bomb rack (not an easy job, but the result looks much better than the bomb rack in the Hasegawa kit)
Flying Leatherneck’s Hornet Pylons 
Flying Leatherneck’s HUD
Flying Leatherneck’s LAU-7 Missile Launcher and decals
GT Resin intakes
Flying Leatherneck’s Mk 83 bomb
Eduard Mk 20 Rockeye cluster bombs, AIM-7M Sparrows, AIM-9L Sidewinders, and AGM-65 Maverick
Flying Leatherneck’s Hornets Swarm in Desert Storm decal sheet

 

One advantage of modeling a Desert Storm era Hornet is that I didn’t have to update the kit with modern antennas and different vents that later jets received.  However, I did add the reinforcement plates on the aft sides of the fuselage.  It appears all the VMFA-232 jets received these plates based on photos from the 1991 time frame.  Some still even had the old original engine nozzles.  However, I couldn’t find any photos of the engine nozzles of the particular jet I was depicting, so I went with the later nozzle style all the aftermarket sets reflect. 

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Most of the kit went together without major fit issues.  Getting the Aires wheel bays to fit with the Aires cockpit was a challenge, but I expected that.  The GT Resin intakes also took a lot of work to get them to fit with the Aires wheel bays, but in the end, I was able to get everything to fit.   I deepened the kit’s recessed panel lines with a Tamiya 0.15mm thick razor saw.  I prefer using a  razor saw over a pin or other scribing tool when possible for this task, as the razor saw will maintain an even width regardless of depth.  I also added rivets using the 1/32 Academy kit as a guide.  
     
I noticed that the drop tanks of legacy Hornets have roughly the same curvature on both ends of the tank, but Hasegawa’s design has a pointier front end.  To get a more similar taper on both ends of the tank, I added epoxy putty to the front half and reshaped it to match the rear.  
     
To backdate the Reskit BRU-55 bomb rack, I cut off both sides of the rack and removed material from the center section since the BRU-33 rack is narrower.  When I reattached the two sides back on the middle section, I glued them on a 90 degree angle to the middle section so that the bombs would hang vertically from the rack instead of at the canted angle that the BRU-55 rack has.
     
I really like the Flying Leatherneck’s 3D printed parts.  They do take some work to remove the print lines like all 3D printed parts, but they look great after a bit of sanding.   I would recommend not attaching the HUD assembly until just before gluing the windscreen, as it’s very delicate and needs protection.  I broke the first one I had multiple times before finally getting a replacement.
     

The paint used was mostly Mr. Color with Alclad for the bare metal areas.  The Flying Leatherneck decals went down very nicely.  I like to use Solvaset when I can get away with it to remove any possibility of silvering, and I had no problems using it with these decals.
     
I used a similar weathering technique as my F-16 seen below.
 



However, I didn’t use the black basing technique, as I found that it’s hard to see defects with a black primer.  I used Tamiya’s white primer instead and followed up with 1000 grit sandpaper to smooth the surface.  Then I slowly built up the base colors with a randomly applied fine spray pattern to achieve some tonal variation.  Since I had deepened the panel lines, I didn't lose any surface detail by using a primer.
     
For weathering,  I started with a gray Guze enamel wash in the panel lines and a black Tamiya enamel wash in the vents, flaps, and removable panels. Then I added general grime and streaking with oils.  The final step was a coat of Gunze GX113 clear flat.


Overall I'm happy with how the build came out.  It was definitely not an easy build, but in the end, it looks like a Hornet to me.  Hope you like it!
     
Drew
 

Edited by Drew T.
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Finally, the pictures!  Sorry for the multiple posts, I get a server error when I try to post all the text and images in one post.

 

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Edited by Drew T.
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Beautiful job!   You were building this under wraps?  : )   We would've loved to see a WIP of any work you do -- especially your weathering : )   

I guess you could call this white-basing -- and it obviously works too   Did you do any tonal variations on the ghost gray using the oils as well?  Or were the oils entirely for grime and streaking?

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Thanks Crackerjazz for the kind words!  I have to apologize, I got lazy and didn't do a WIP on this one.  If you want, you can see the photos I took during the painting and weathering stages at the below link.  All the tonal variation was done with the airbrush, mostly using the Uschi stencils.  It did work out that I pretty much white-based instead of black-based.  Since I think the Gunze ghost gray colors seemed a little too dark, this worked better since building up the grays over a white base made them lighter.  I lightly oversrayed the top side with the underside color (light ghost gray) and I oversrayed the bottom with camouflage gray FS 36622 which also helped lighten the Gunze grays.

 

https://photos.google.com/u/0/share/AF1QipPpSD21JF5gKPzLHh6btiTmJh3KeAZAoBaqKQtWdeSvGCG5DViCC6RMNlpRwCB0jw?key=RzNLZEVXRE1UekY1bXZvOFpqUkdNdzZnbTMxZmh3

 

Edited by Drew T.
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Thanks Crackerjazz and St0rm!  After viewing some of the videos from Doog's models and Will Pattison, who have proven that a gloss coat is not needed for decaling, I tried it myself on this project and the previous F-16.  Sure enough, decaling over the semi-gloss Mr. Color paint works fine!  I do try to use Solvaset just to eliminate any possibility of silvering.  However, I've noticed that Solvaset can actually distort the decal if you apply it too soon and if you let it pool on the decal for too long.  I like to first use a weaker solvent like Microsol, then hit it with Solvaset after it looks dry.  

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Thanks Janissary!  I have become a fan of Eduard's weapons.  They look much better than any kit weapons and they have minimal assembly and cleanup.  They really pop with just paint and a wash.

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Wonderful job!

As a fan of Desert Storm I know well your ref shot, I used it also to create the nose art for a recently released 30th anniversary ODS sim.

 

Screenshot (141).png

 

 

Share with you the words about the Brassin weapons, I programmed to use 'em in pratically all my models, when possible!

 

Gianni:cheers:

 

Edited by kurnass77
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Thanks Gianni!  When I saw that reference photo, I knew I had to duplicate that loadout on this build.  Most photos of Hornets in Desert Storm show them fully loaded with Mk 82's or Mk 83's, but this loadout looked much more interesting.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/20/2021 at 10:03 AM, Drew T. said:

After viewing some of the videos from Doog's models and Will Pattison, who have proven that a gloss coat is not needed for decaling, I tried it myself on this project and the previous F-16.  Sure enough, decaling over the semi-gloss Mr. Color paint works fine!  I do try to use Solvaset just to eliminate any possibility of silvering.  However, I've noticed that Solvaset can actually distort the decal if you apply it too soon and if you let it pool on the decal for too long.  I like to first use a weaker solvent like Microsol, then hit it with Solvaset after it looks dry.  

 

This really helped me a lot, Drew.  I'm using MRP lacquer gloss coat and couldn't seem to bring it up to the high gloss that I want.   It's almost like semi-gloss, not sure why.  I hesitantly tried the decals with the setting solutions and it worked -- no silvering at all : )  Thanks again!

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22 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

 

This really helped me a lot, Drew.  I'm using MRP lacquer gloss coat and couldn't seem to bring it up to the high gloss that I want.   It's almost like semi-gloss, not sure why.  I hesitantly tried the decals with the setting solutions and it worked -- no silvering at all : )  Thanks again!

 

Glad that worked for you!  Here's the video where I discovered there's no need to use a clear gloss before decaling: 

 

 

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