This
is my Italeri 1/48 F/A-18F Super Hornet - or Rhino as it is called on the boat.
I used the Black Box cockpit set, Two Bob's Decals, various Hasegawa parts,
scratchbuilt alot of details and killed off more than a tube of putty! I
wanted an accurate depiction of a Black Aces jet with an "early OIF"
strike load-out (OK, the Nimitz didn't get there until the 8th of April, but I
have a pic of this loadout!) - and accuracy calls for dropped flaps,
horizontal stabilators full down and the wings folded. While I was at it I
tried to fix most of the other problems with the kit.
I
started by researching previous builds to get the gouge... and all of it was right
on the mark so I won't rehash that and will go through what I did differently.
This picture
shows the completed Black Box cockpit. It went together with no
major problems, except to be sure to check the top/bottom fuselage part
fit when installing it. Mine fit fine in the top half of the
fuselage but was too big for the bottom half. The HUD frame came
from an old Eduard Hornet set, as I'm not a fan of the Black Box resin HUD
frames. The Italeri windscreen looks to low and wouldn't fit over
the HUD so it was shimmed with some .010 strip styrene. CRT screens
are clear blue or green over FS36375, using blue for the color CRT's as
they tend to have a bluish hue. The canopy was tinted with Alclad
clear yellow, heavily diluted with Alclad clear, then sealed with future.
ACM handles and mirrors were made from .010 strip and solder wire. |
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image below to see larger image
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I
wanted to depict the jet with an ASQ-228 ATFLIR, which is slightly different
from the AAS-38. As the F kit does not include a FLIR, I robbed one from
the donor Hasegawa Hornet, modified and then built the fairing from Miliput.
To the right is the completed unit. I'm not entirely happy with it, and
plan on casting resin parts next time I build one of these.
Now
for the biggest challenge: repositioning the flight control surfaces.
First, looking at how the wings piece together, I built the basic structure
first. Next, I fired up the Dremel with a razor-saw wheel and cut off
the outer wing panels, flaps, leading edge flaps and "gap seals"
(for lack of knowledge of the appropriate name). The leading edge flaps
were given a concave inner edge and the material lost to the saw was replaced
with .010 strip while I installed a half-round strip on the forward edge of
the wing. The main flaps also received half-round and .010 strip, while
the gap seals were made (using the original pieces as a pattern) with .020
strip and rod (don't remember the rod size, sorry). At this point I had
planned to use the original actuators to support the flaps, but the kit ones
are TOTALLY inaccurate, so these were built with laminated strip and punched
"dots" - a much stronger solution. The effect came together pretty
well.
The
rudders were cut, rebuilt and hinges were added from bits of .010 strip.
The were repositioned "toed-in" as this is their normal position
when power is removed.
The
horizontal stabilators were cut and built back up. Brass rod was
inserted at the hinge point, and a section of brass tubing was run though
the jet to hold them. With power removed the stabs on the Rhino go full
down.
While
the wing was torn up I toed out the pylons, extended them and added
fairings for the sway braces.
The
actual construction of the kit was identical to what others have said - the
underside of the LEX's and around the intakes required ALOT of
filling/sanding/filling/sanding to get smooth. The kit also needs
several accuracy corrections: I drilled out the gun muzzle and gas ports, sealed
the dorsal speed brake, added the IFF box with strip and rescribed the
affected areas.
The
wingfold was created by grinding away the hinge portion of the
wings, and placing .040 wide sections of 1/8" tube over 1/16"
rod to recreate the actuators. .010 strips were added to the
assembly, and were subsequently inserted into the wing-sections to
add some strength to the hinge. It was finished with a
light-red wash, and the flip-up cover was created with .010 strip
(not seen in this pic). Note
the rebuilt, outboard flap hinge on the folded section. |
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The
nose-gear is very basic and devoid of the detail. Actuators for the
tow link, steering, and associated piping and wires were created with
various sizes of solder, wire and strip. The end result is
significantly more attractive than the original. |
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Final
construction was completed with centerline tank created from 2 Hasegawa
spares, Hasegawa GBU-12's and antenna's made from .010 strip. Brake
lines were added to the main landing gear. The main tires seemed small
to me, and are basically racing slicks. To solve both problems, .010
strip was wrapped around the tire - and worked like a champ, increasing the
diameter and giving them a realistic tread pattern.
Paint
was airbrushed Model Master enamels and decals are from Two Bobs. I like
the low-viz VFA-41 markings better than the high viz, and I owe someone
another one of these with the markings for NH 101 ("Freak" was a
great friend of ours) so it made sense to use the low-viz set up. I
produced new crew names (myself in front, and my roommate (a NFO in my
squadron) in the back seat using Bare Metal decal paper and a Canon S520
printer. Everything went on without a hitch and it was weathered using
the "standard" techniques: pre-shading, washes and pastels.
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images below to see larger images
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Overall,
even thought the kit is a pain in the a@# it was an enjoyable build. My
advanced case of AMS resulted in alot more scratchbuilding than I have ever done
on one kit - but I like the challenge and the result was a unique kit!
Don
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