1/48 Hasegawa F-18C 30th Anniversary

[Janissary]

I left out all the landing gears and antennas. To prevent the primer and paint from clogging the holes that these parts attach in to, I filled all such places with blu-tack.

The windshield will be a project in itself. I used Tamiya extra thin and super glue to attach it. I then filled the seamline with Tamiya grey primer, not caring about the outer surface of the windscreen. I will have to do major sanding, so it will be scuffed up pretty good anyway. I hope to bring the shine back with micromesh and the Novus polishes. I hope I don't damage it badly during this process.

Do you guys have any ideas how I can mask the AoA probes. Tamiya tape would not be good because it would block the base of the probes from receiving paint. I thought about masking liquid, but those are usually water soluble, and I anticipate washing the model several times between the primer and paint layers. Would something like Elmer's white glue work? Would it come off easily when I need to remove it?

Thanks.

[Honza K.]

Hi Bro, don´t forget rescribe lines around the air intakes.... (around the front part).

Nice work!

[loki]

Great stuff Janissary. It's coming along very well indeed.

[loki]

Hi Janissary,

I'm not sure how accurate you want to be but as I have this on my workbench (spiritually as my hobbyroom is in boxes due to renovating the house), I have noticed issues with panel lines.

Hasegawa have added some weird ones to be sure and omitted others.

At the very rear of the Inflight Refuelling Probe doors, there is another panel that Hase did not replicate.

http://data3.primeportal.net/hangar/bill_spidle2/fa-18d_164652/images/fa-18d_164652_07_of_20.jpg

Hasegawa have added an odd panel line under the LEX on both sides of the nose section which is angled approx 45 degrees and is quite deep. This needs filling too.

Your exhaust look outstanding now. Much much better toned down. This is what I was thinking....

[galileo1]

Wow, what an absolutely great build! Too bad you had to start over but I think it's looking even better the second time.

Regarding these polishes, are you now using Novus instead of the Tamiya compounds? Which one is better? I purchased a set of Novus polishes(comes with three bottles) from the Container Store a few months ago but have not had the chance to use it. I too want to get away from using Future on the canopies so I'm curious as to which one is better.

Those iridescent films are nice. Where do you get those?

Really superb work on this one!

Edited March 14, 2013 by TOPGUN

[Fly-n-hi]

Nice work Janissary! The cans look really good.

Topgun, I used the Novus polishing kit on my last two builds and I don't see myself going back to Future dipping. The canopies are crystal clear and you really can't see much difference between them and Futured canopies. I have 2 builds in progress now and I also polished them with Novus and skipped the Future.

One nice thing is that you can use liquid masking and bare metal foil on the Novus canopies without marring the Future. That and you can generally handle them without scratching them.

[Janissary]

Thank you all so very much for your suggestions.

Hi Bro, don´t forget rescribe lines around the air intakes.... (around the front part).

Nice work!

Thank you Honza, I know exactly which like you mean. I thought about it also, but then decided to leave it alone, partly because there will be the gold and blue decal that borders it. and also I applied some putty and I am afraid of it cracking during rescribing. So, I think I am leaning towards leaving it as is. You had an astute observation.

Great stuff Janissary. It's coming along very well indeed.

Hi Janissary,

I'm not sure how accurate you want to be but as I have this on my workbench (spiritually as my hobbyroom is in boxes due to renovating the house), I have noticed issues with panel lines.

Hasegawa have added some weird ones to be sure and omitted others.

At the very rear of the Inflight Refuelling Probe doors, there is another panel that Hase did not replicate.

http://data3.primeportal.net/hangar/bill_spidle2/fa-18d_164652/images/fa-18d_164652_07_of_20.jpg

Hasegawa have added an odd panel line under the LEX on both sides of the nose section which is angled approx 45 degrees and is quite deep. This needs filling too.

Your exhaust look outstanding now. Much much better toned down. This is what I was thinking....

Thanks Loki. This kind of input is great for me and others who may want to learn. However, I think at this point I will leave those lines, just because I am getting a little lazy :)/> I know it will be inaccurate, but the whole thing is fighting me so much (see below) that I would like to get to painting as soon as I can :)/>

That exhaust picture is great. Hmm, I now see that mine might have been a little dark. I was working from this image:

F-18 exhaust

but I guess this image as a whole is already dark, which threw me off.

Wow, what an absolutely great build! Too bad you had to start over but I think it's looking even better the second time.

Regarding these polishes, are you now using Novus instead of the Tamiya compounds? Which one is better? I purchased a set of Novus polishes(comes with three bottles) from the Container Store a few months ago but have not had the chance to use it. I too want to get away from using Future on the canopies so I'm curious as to which one is better.

Those iridescent films are nice. Where do you get those?

Really superb work on this one!

Thank you Topgun, please see my next post, I will try to answer your questions there with pics.

Nice work Janissary! The cans look really good.

Topgun, I used the Novus polishing kit on my last two builds and I don't see myself going back to Future dipping. The canopies are crystal clear and you really can't see much difference between them and Futured canopies. I have 2 builds in progress now and I also polished them with Novus and skipped the Future.

One nice thing is that you can use liquid masking and bare metal foil on the Novus canopies without marring the Future. That and you can generally handle them without scratching them.

Thank you Fly-n-hi. I think your observations about Novus are accurate. I especially concur with bare metal foil and liquid masking: future is not very good if either of these will be applied. I have experience with the liquid mask ruining the futured canopy, and heard about the bare metal foil issue at our club meeting.

[Janissary]

Believe it or not, I managed to ruin the windscreen area after my last post! I was sanding the edges of the windscreen:

All was well until I started rinsing the model with warm water. To my big disappointment, both HUD glasses all of a sudden turned into an icy dull color. I had used acetate film and to increase the shine, I had brushed future over them. I don't know if it did not have enough time to cure or whatever, but it just look bad.

So, I removed the windscreen, sanded clean both the fuselage and windscreen, and redid everything! Here is the new version:

Based on Jesse's fantastic F-18F build, I followed his idea of using gold film for the lens this time. So, got some gift wrapping tape and punched out a small lens together with the iridescent film:

You might ask how I got to attach the HUD glasses to the photoetch frame. I spent a lot of time on it to create a support structure using a toothbrush's bristles so that the glasses could sturdily rest on. I can give you more details if anyone is interested.

I know many people ask where to get this iridescent film. I got mine from a Michael's store down here. It comes in a huge roll, that would literally last for centuries if all you do is such small things with it. It looks very purplish. A small piece if it is sitting on the styrene sheet in the above pic.

[Janissary]

Btw, I know how incremental and underwhelming my updates are. I too would like to post major progress, but I sometimes feel like such set backs might also be useful for those who are new to the hobby, and wonder why certain things take so much time. Anyway, I digress...

I had to redo the windscreen as I mentioned. It was pretty roughed up after my cleaning efforts.

So here are my steps to get to the above result (same would apply to a fresh canopy or a windscreen out of the box) , followed by my observations:

- Rough-sand the edges and the upper and lower surfaces using 600-800 grit. The whole thing becomes extremely cloudy (like what CA glue vapor does).

- Using the micromesh system, wet sand it starting at 3600 all the way to 8000. there are maybe 5-6 intermediate levels here. Things get clearer but still fogy. I usually don't do the 12000.

- Apply Tamiya coarse compound using a make-up remover cotton bud.

- Apply Novus 2. After this point, things are pretty clear, but not quite there yet.

- Clean everything with eye glass cleaner liquid and cloth.

- IF the clear part is to be tinted, airbrush thinned Tamiya smoke/clear yellow mixture to the bottom surface, It again gets a little foggy after this.

- Wait at least 12-24 hours. If not, the next step of future may dissolve the tint and ruin it (looks like smeared make-up).

- Dip the clear part into future, rest on a paper towel (not a fresh one but a used one which has less lint), cover it with a clear bowl, move the clear part around every 5-10mins in the first 30mins or so using the bowl, so that the part does not stick to the paper towel.

- Wait at least 48 hours before doing anything else.

This future dip is a must in my opinion if you are tinting the clear part. If no tinting will be done, here at my thoughts about future vs Novus. Note that I don't have Tamiya fine compound:

Novus comes in three bottles. #3 is the coarsest and #1 is the finest (almost like a clear coat). Given everything else I have like the micromesh cloths and compound, I don't seem to have a need for Novus #3. I tried it, but I thought it was not too necessary.

I like Novus #2. It is probably finer than Tamiya coarse compound, but not sure how it compares to fine (or extra-fine, if exists). So I do use this #2. I also tried #1. This is really good to get a crystal clear final result. However, if you will be using future, I recommend that you don't use #1. The reason is that #1 has so much polishing power that the surface tension of any liquid undesirably increases too much. It almost functions like the water repellent final coat you apply on a car. Have you noticed how rain tends to bead up in that case? That's the exact same thing I observed when I dipped a #1-treated canopy into future; future would not stick to it. It would bead up and dry in a strange way.

Maybe cleaning the whole thing with alcohol or something after #1 would help future stick better, but I can't remember if I did that. Anyway, what I don't know if whether #1 is just the finest version of abrasion similar to sanding, micro-mesh, compound etc., or does it actually create a protective coat on the surface. If it is the latter, it could explain why future won't stick.

Anyway, in case you are not tinting, which is better: Novus#2 followed by future or Novus#2 followed by #1. My subjective opinion is that, while N#1 is pretty good, I still like the final finish of future better. So there it is.... That said, there are cases where future can be a headache. Like fly-n-hi said above, masking liquid or bare metal foil is much better applied to a non-futured surface. With future dip, you also risk creating some unsightly bubbles on the clear part, if the dip was too fast or the future itself had some impurities in it. You also have to wait after future, which is another down side. The upside of future is that, as long as it is cured, the clear part does not fog up even if you use CA to attach it. I personally use CA and tamiya extra thin to attach my windscreens, so future does help there. Maybe N#1 provides the same level of protection, I don't know. For the windscreens specifically, white glue and its derivatives don't do it for me because of weak bonding and my inability to sand it nicely.

Wow... Now reading what I just wrote, I am making too big of a deal of something that may be a non-issue for many others.

Here is a close-up of future (sorry, I have no pics of N#1 result):

Left is the tinted windscreen according to the above recipe. Middle is the same thing except tinting. Right is the original canopy out of the box, together with the mold line. It can be argued that these future-treated clear parts look a little too shiny and unrealistic. I would have to agree with that.

Finally, while the future cures, I moved on to washing the landing gears and gear doors:

Thanks for your interest and again, sorry for the incremental updates.

[JesniF-16]

Great job so far! I've always learned a lot from yer builds, very informational. For example, I bought some W&N linseed oil 9 or 10 months ago, for spraying flat enamels.... and those flat enamels spray smooth as silk ever since :thumbsup:/> Secondly, I recently had a mishap with my HUD lens and had to redo it (over spray inside the canopy).... I would be interested in hearing about the toothbrush bristle supports!!!! Thirdly, is turpentine enamel & acrylic friendly? Do you have to thin the artist oil w/ turps to make the wash? Once again, very neat work as usual...

/Jesse

[loki]

Good stuff Janissary.

Future does not like water even when completely dry. It is after all a wax. I wouldn't wash my model if Future was used. Better off using an alcohol based spirit on a lint free cloth to clean specific areas before painting. Also, if you live on a hard water area, the water can leave deposits on surfaces that are not wiped down properly, If using water for any modelling purposes, use spring water or soft water if you can.

Hard water has additives like fluoride and is full of minerals and deposits suspended in solution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_water

I live in a very hard water area so I know from experience lol.

[Ken Middleton]

nice write up on the canopy work, that would be a good tips and trick entry

[Janissary]

Thank you very much all for your thoughts and suggestions.

Great job so far! I've always learned a lot from yer builds, very informational. For example, I bought some W&N linseed oil 9 or 10 months ago, for spraying flat enamels.... and those flat enamels spray smooth as silk ever since :thumbsup:/>/>/>/>/> Secondly, I recently had a mishap with my HUD lens and had to redo it (over spray inside the canopy).... I would be interested in hearing about the toothbrush bristle supports!!!! Thirdly, is turpentine enamel & acrylic friendly? Do you have to thin the artist oil w/ turps to make the wash? Once again, very neat work as usual...

/Jesse

Thanks Jesse, turpentine is oil based. I would normally use mineral spirits to prepare my washes but sometimes mineral spirits causes the pigments to separate. I have found turpentine to alleviate this issue a little bit. Also, turpentine dries much slower. In this case, I started cleaning the wash after 12 hours or so, which still was fairly easy to clean. These kinds of oil washes can be applied on to cured acrylic paint or cured future. If you have, say MM enamel paints, however, you will have to seal them with something like future before you can apply this kind of a wash.

Here is the side view of one of the HUD frames. I laid two bristles along their length in a way to support the HUD glasses. I places them first using future, and when positioned correctly, just ran Tamiya extra thin cement to attach it permanently to the frame. The top one was more difficult, as it contacted the frame only at two points. Once both frames were complete, I painted the whole thing in black, dry brushed, then placed the HUD glasses.

I like the Fightertown decals I got. However, as I was studying them yesterday in detail to see how the landing gear decals would go down, I realized that some of the decals are missing! Only the following three sheets were in the bag together with the instructions.

But as you can see in the review below, I am missing both the landing gear decals and the thin yellow strips.

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Rev3/2701-2800/rev2770-Fightertown-ftd48034/00.shtm

I will send an email to Fightertwon decals about this, I am sure it was just a small mistake. The decals are printed very well otherwise and look fantastic.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Janissary

[Janissary]

Finally got the windscreen attached and blended into the fuselage! I used CA glue and Tamiya extra thin cement to attach it. Then, I brushed Tamiya gray primer along the seamline (similar to the image on the previous page). I then sanded the whole thing down using various grits of sandpaper, followed by Tamiya compound, Novus #3 (despite what said earlier about #3) and finally Novus #2. Here is right after all those steps, including #2. You can see it is almost clear but not quite.

And here is how it looks after I hand brushed future! It actually works pretty well.

Here is how it looks with the pilot:

And the cleaned-up washes on the landing gears/doors. I still need to paint the cylinders in silver. and hopefully get the decals from FT. I also need to do the red borders on the doors.

[Janissary]

Hello, I finally getting closer to the painting stage. I painted the nozzles with future (as primer > alclad stainless steel > MM burnt iron > buffing. I will have to mask and paint the overlap regions to create some tonal variation.

I was thinking how I could mask the round portion of the windscreen. Thin strips of tape are ok but they resist bending. I then thought of using the contour of a spoon to create a round strip. It worked better than I expected, but I won't know for sure until after the masks come off.

I used the spare canopy to protect the cockpit. I laid blu-tack along the sills and pressed the canopy down. I cleaned the excess along the edges with a blob of blu-tack. Also, placed electric wire insulator to protect the AoA probes:

Maybe not so visible here but I covered the turbine faces with parafilm. I laid down a thin film of parafilm across the intake, and pushed the film inside using a q-tip, sealing the edges of the film along the inner surface of the intake.

[Janissary]

Finally onto priming... Two coats of Tamiya white liquid primer, thinned with a cocktail of Mr. Hobby levelling thinner + Tamiya lacquer thinner + regular lacquer thinner + linseed oil. Even after the two coats, you may see that it is still too thin as it does not cover some of the putty work. I will have to go over the entire surface with an old cotton cloth to remove any rough spots, and then apply a few more layers of primer.

[Ken Middleton]

the nozzles look great and clever idea with the spoon!

Just so you know, the jet didn't have the 3 tail braces at the inside bottom of each tail. Personally, I'd leave them!

[chuck540z3]

Finally onto priming... Two coats of Tamiya white liquid primer, thinned with a cocktail of Mr. Hobby levelling thinner + Tamiya lacquer thinner + regular lacquer thinner + linseed oil. Even after the two coats, you may see that it is still too thin as it does not cover some of the putty work. I will have to go over the entire surface with an old cotton cloth to remove any rough spots, and then apply a few more layers of primer.

"Linseed oil"? and why so many thinners?

It must work, because the base coat- and your construction underneath- is super smooth and flawless!

[Janissary]

the nozzles look great and clever idea with the spoon!

Just so you know, the jet didn't have the 3 tail braces at the inside bottom of each tail. Personally, I'd leave them!

Thank you Ken, I can't believe I missed those tail braces! You are absolutely right. I went through my refs and those braces are not there on this plane. I am still puzzled how I could miss something like this, especially given how frequently I study the pictures. I guess unless you specifically look for them, you become desensitized to all these intricacies. I will leave them the way they are as you suggested.

"Linseed oil"? and why so many thinners?

It must work, because the base coat- and your construction underneath- is super smooth and flawless! :thumbsup:/>/>

Thanks Chuck. I had only 1/3 of my Mr. Hobby levelling thinner left. I just bought the Tamiya lacquer thinner and dumped it all into the Mr Hobby bottle which gave me that mix. I don't know if Tamiya has the same type of 'retarder' that the levelling thinner has. Also, in all my priming applications (Mr. Surfacer, tamiya liquid primer etc.), I add regular lacquer thinner to my airbrush as I tend to think it has a little more bite than Mr. Hobby / Tamiya lacquer thinners have. As you noted, the latter don't harm the plastic at all, while regular lacquer thinner easily melts plastic away. When all said and done, I roughly aim for a ratio of 7:3 of thinners, with 3 being regular lacquer. Anyway, my rationale here is not founded in science, just my observation. So it probably serves more of a psychological purpose here (which, I think is still has an important role in modeling) rather than scientific.

The linseed oil I use it simply artists's painting medium. I have found a few drops of this to keep the entire mixture sufficiently 'wet', which minimizes dusting. I think enamels and regular lacquer thinner tend to suffer from this phenomenon. Here is my detailed explanation of what I found useful about it:

My link

Edited March 25, 2013 by Janissary

[Janissary]

A small update about the latest stages. I tried to paint the edges of the gear doors using parafilm as a mask. I first lay down a stretched piece of parafilm, and have it conform to the details of the edges using an old, stubby brush. You can see one door about to be masked, all other doors have the been masked already.

Then painted them in darkened MM red.

Results after all masks are removed, and doors futured for protection.

I also wanted to darken the overlapping parts of the exhaust petals. There is no easy way except for masking each petal one by one...

unfortunately, I did not achieve the contrast I was looking for. I will paint everything in Alclad stainless steel this time, and follow the same process for darkening the overlaps.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Janissary

[Janissary]

And onto painting... After the white primer, I went over the entire model with a cloth winter glove, and pieces from old kitchen sponges to knock off the gritty parts of the primer coat. This gives a smooth but dull undercoat to work with, which I think is very good for the subsequent painting stages. This step may create some unwanted static electricity, so I go over the entire model with a dryer sheet and clean the surface with compressed air from the airbrush (~40 psi) to make sure the surface is clean.

After that, I painted the model with 2 coats of MM enamel gloss white (1 day apart). After two days of curing, I then painted 2 coats of Gunze acrylic gloss white. So including the 2 coats of primer, there are already 6 layers of paint. Even then the white is not fully developed, but I will leave it as is and continue with the next steps once everything is fully cured.

I think the next step will be to paint all the gray blisters and metallic panels (I plan to use parafilm for masking), and then move onto decaling!

[Ken Middleton]

great attention to detail on the finish! The overall surface looks great

[Micro]

Thank you everybody for your comments. Jake, Racerman, thank you for the info and offer for the pilot. Here is what my pilot currently looks like, is this ok for this plane?

I am not too good with pilot painting (can't seem to create the color gradation I see in other builds), any help will be much appreciated.

I think your pilot looks pretty darn good. The only thing I would suggest is fixing a common mistake on the O2 mask. The hose from the mask itself actually connects to a regulator on the survival vest as opposed to going all the way down to the connection on the seat. The regulator sits just to the left of the pilot's sternum. Like this. Then, a skinny green hose, seen here, traveling down from the regulator is what connects to the seat. Other than that, I think your guy looks good to go.

[Neo]

Wow 6 coats of paint ... white is a PITA but i did get an amazing trick here on ARC.

For white paint your model Silver first. it will save you tons of work

this is 1 coat of white over humbrol 56(for an aircraft i would use lighter silver)

Edited April 23, 2013 by Neo

[Janissary]

great attention to detail on the finish! The overall surface looks great

Thank you Ken!

I think your pilot looks pretty darn good. The only thing I would suggest is fixing a common mistake on the O2 mask. The hose from the mask itself actually connects to a regulator on the survival vest as opposed to going all the way down to the connection on the seat. The regulator sits just to the left of the pilot's sternum. Like this. Then, a skinny green hose, seen here, traveling down from the regulator is what connects to the seat. Other than that, I think your guy looks good to go.

Thank you for this. I think I will leave mine as is, but this is a great piece of info for the future and for others who might be interested.

Wow 6 coats of paint ... white is a PITA but i did get an amazing trick here on ARC.

For white paint your model Silver first. it will save you tons of work

this is 1 coat of white over humbrol 56(for an aircraft i would use lighter silver)

Thanks for the tip Neo, I too tried that in my first trial (2nd page of this build) but decided to go the white primer route with this one. For some reason it was still difficult to build the layers with the silver undercoat.

So trying to make progress...

Took another crack at the nozzles, and painted the lights in silver > clear red.

Still trying to decide if I go with or without the pilot. I added a few patches to the pilot's arms.