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1/48 Hasegawa F-18C 30th Anniversary


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Brian from Figtertown Decals was so kind to send me the missing landing gear and slime light decals. To my surprise, he added a completely new set of the whole decal set! Thank you Brian! I recently started the decaling process. The decals are really thin but robust. I used solvaset, microsol etc. without any problems. The only thing is sometimes there are sizing problems (above the lex wings for instance) but luckily the decals are always oversized so it is easy to bring them down to size: I use a lighter to simply burn off the excess decal film once it is dry.

There is also plenty of extra decals, which come handy to do some patching for the difficult regions.

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Still need to do some touch-ups.

Edited by Janissary
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Wow looks awesome, great job! One of my favorite schemes.

Just to clarify on the sizing of the decals.....There actually is not a sizing problem, they were done like this on purpose as there is really no way to get a decal that big to lay down to the LEX vents. So those parts were cut out and added as separate decals themselves and plus I added extra pieces of blue and gold decals incase there were any issues!

I can't wait to see this done, I've been following the thread since the start. Very nice job on the white paint, one of the hardest colors to get the look right, but you've nailed it! :woot.gif:/>

Mike

Edited by Mike5401
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Also just a quick tip, the blue decal on the nose should actually go a bit more closer to the windscreen, the front part of the blue should start just a little past the start of the grey ecm bump of the formation light.

Also the blue on the wings.....where the blue is at the whole rail attachment should be paint blue as well, there should be no white between the blue in the decal and the rail attachment......The AIM-9 rail itself is white but the part it attaches to is blue.

Hope I'm making sense! :)

Edited by Mike5401
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Just to clarify on the sizing of the decals.....There actually is not a sizing problem, they were done like this on purpose as there is really no way to get a decal that big to lay down to the LEX vents. So those parts were cut out and added as separate decals themselves and plus I added extra pieces of blue and gold decals incase there were any issues!

Thank you for this clarification Mike. The extra decals did help in many of the concave regions. Two-piece lex decals were great, no problems there. The front half of the lex decals were wider than the kits lex wings, so there was an overhang along the lex from the front to the back, about 3-4 mm wide. I might have sanded down the kit a little too much, perhaps that's the reason. But, it was extremely easy to have them come down to size by carefully running a lighter along the sides. Overall, I am quite impressed with the decal and the decal film. They are extremely thin, yet my liberal use of Solvaset and Microsol did not cause any issues.

Also just a quick tip, the blue decal on the nose should actually go a bit more closer to the windscreen, the front part of the blue should start just a little past the start of the grey ecm bump of the formation light.

Also the blue on the wings.....where the blue is at the whole rail attachment should be paint blue as well, there should be no white between the blue in the decal and the rail attachment......The AIM-9 rail itself is white but the part it attaches to is blue.

You are absolutely right on both of these observations. I also wanted to move the blue decal atop the nose closer to the windscreen, but the tips of the 'U' already hit the windscreen edge bordering the plexiglass part, so it had to stop there. I contemplated using the kit decal for this, but liked the color and thinness of FT decal. I know what you mean about the rails. Yes, the blue extends all the way to the launchers. Unfortunately, I don't have the dark blue in paint form. I thought about decaling it, but the surface is complex there. I may end up getting a bottle of the blue and the gold paint anyway for some other details, but I guess I will leave the wing tips the way they are.

Smooth as silk!!!! and the decals look painted on, NICE :thumbsup:/>/>

Thanks Jesse. The decals conform really well, nothing I did specifically.

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I have finally completed the decals. I used a mix of FT and the kit decals. Some of the decal placement is inaccurate, and worse, fictitious (especially underneath). I guess I was just having fun and went a little overboard. I also painted a number of panels in fictitious colors.

I cut the decals along the panel lines and applied Solvaset + Mircrosol. This helps the details to come out a little better, but still it could use some refinement. The surface is too glossy right now. After an oil wash, I plan to apply another coat of future, and then apply a semi-gloss varnish in a mottling pattern to create some tonal variation.

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Edited by Janissary
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Thank you guys. I decided to replace the nose-top blue decal with the one from the kit.

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I just applied an oil wash and sprayed another coat of future. The oil mix was 80% white and 20% black. Even so, it ended up being darker than I hoped for. I will just accept that and move along.

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I contemplated not applying an wash at all (probably looks more realistic that way), but the details were not popping out as much as I had wanted. But I learned once again the color of the wash is very critical. Again, I think mine is way too dark and looks a little toyish in my eyes.

Edited by Janissary
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  • 2 weeks later...

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Once done, I plan to share the final studio photos, together with a set of pics documenting the numerous mistakes I have managed to make. This has certainly been one of the most difficult builds for me (white paint, large decals etc.), but hopefully I will complete this with a few lessons for the future. I am most disappointed by the inconsistencies in the wash (6 layers of paint sure filled up the panel lines), as well as the wash color itself (way too dark). All in all, looks ok from 5 feet I guess.

For the clear coat, I did two tones of gloss versus semi-gloss to create some tonal variation. I am now debating whether I should apply a single light coat of gloss. Perhaps some sheen will give much needed life to it?

Edited by Janissary
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  • 3 weeks later...

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