Like
it or not, the venerable F-14 Tomcat fighter is being pushed out of the US NAVY
Carrier deck at a very fast pace by
the Super Hornet.
Actually,
F-18E and Fs will eventually replace not only Tomcats in the US NAVY, but also
Legacy Hornets and Prowlers so we, including all the F-14 lovers around here,
should better get used to its
shapes.
Now
that the Super Hornet sports famous squadron markings, the airplane might
finally make its way to recognition as one of the most attractive fast jet in
airpower inventory today.
The
model
Hasegawa
is the second company to release a Super hornet in 1/72nd scale, after the
Italeri offer. The Japanese model is a vast improvement in both engineering and
in accuracy over its Austro-Italian counter part. Furthermore the Hasegawa kit
is updated to production machine configuration including the “pizza box”
fairing in front of the wind shield and the guard cable just front of the
arrestor hook. Surface details are sharp with nice panel lines and virtually all
air inlets and outlets are there. All in all it is and excellent basis to build
an accurate F-18F in the 1/72nd scale but still there is a room for some regrets
:
-
the
stabilators are very thick
-
that
is 1/72nd scale but the actual machine hangs their flaps and slats at rest
-
jets
intakes and exhausts leave a lot to be desired. Exhausts are not deep enough but
can be improved. Intakes are a more serious matter and have no walls or
bulkheads and are hard to work on.
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Building
Model
construction starts with the cockpit. As usual with most Hasegawa bulkheads are
here but instruments panels are represented as decals. Result is far too flat to
me, even in 1/72nd scale.
I
used the Eduard PE set which is
designed for the Hasegawa model. Most details are there although I added small
bits of plastic card and stretched sprue. Ejection seats are the resin True
Details NACES seats in 1/72nd scale (ref 72409). They are very sharp but they
look undersized to me. I had to adjust their height by cementing some bits of
plastic card beneath. I also scratched built the canopy actuating mechanism
behind the rear ejection seat.
The
rest of construction went quite well for main parts. I detailed the model
landing gears with brake lines and the links on the main gears that are specific
to the F-18 series.
Jets
exhausts are way too shallow. Hasegawa did not do a nice job here and that is
common with their legacy Hornet kits in the 1/72nd scale. I did not worry to
much as I found exactly what I wanted in diameter in the form of Airfix A-7
exhausts in my spare box. Plastic tubes of the right diameter are available at
model shops and they would do the part too. Step one completed with the engines
(I thought).
Then
my attention turned to the jet intakes. No representation of jet intakes are
provided and there are no walls here. After a short while, I decided it will be
too complicated to build up two intakes. Next time I will try to copy the
Italeri air intake, but I dropped the idea for my first Super Hornet. I
therefore blocked both jet intakes and exhausts with small engine covers. They
are built from thin plastic card again, cemented then cut in shape then
covered with white glue. The purpose of a thick white glue layer is to
add thickness and allow creation of undulations to mock the soft engine covers.
Next
time I build a Hasegawa Super Hornet I will take my time and detail engines ends
and drop flaps and slats.
Rest
of construction is just a matter of following the instructions, and replace some
antennas with thinner plastic cards.
Painting
I
did not want to use box decals. I choose decals from the
TwoBobs
range. Why
choose VFA-154? I guess because I had two copies of the sheet when I made my
choice.
Main
Super Hornets colours are very standardized and are FS36375 Light Ghost Grey and
and FS36320 Dark Ghost Grey. Here again follow the instructions. I use Gunze
acrylic paints whenever I can and I thin with isopropyl alcohol. Normally
thinning ratio of paint/alcohol varies between 30%-70% and 70%-50% and pressure
remains around 1.8 and 2.0 bars (25 – 28 psi).
The
main airframe is painted with these basic colours. All trailing edges are
painted in a slightly darker colours. I then used darkened or lightened versions
of the standard colours to paints some panels, some details or some panel lines.
I tried to keep a light hand on this model as it is an XO machine and the Super
Hornet still is quite new in the fleet.
Lines
were enhanced with artist oil paints (I used sepia and dark grey) thinned with
turpentine. The advantage of this combination is that turpentine thins oil
paints and will not spoil the acrylic base paint. Beware though as turpentine is
very oily and will stick on the base paint. Avoid great wiping sessions. It is
better to work with a very thin wash that will flow easily in panel lines and
will avoid as much wiping as possible.
I
also added the silver surfaces that are on some Super Hornets between fins. Some
masking was necessary here and I used a silver colour from the Xtracolour range.
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Decals
and Finishing
The
decal sheet is very complete and sharply printed as one would expect from a
TwoBobs sheet. It is also very complete and well designed. With the very fine
grain of acrylic paints and the reknowned quality of these decals I did not feel
necessary to gloss varnish my model before stickers application.
The
main advantage of this is that the varnish layers (two actually, one gloss
before decals and another matt layer after decaling) will not flatten my
weathering effects. The counter effect is that no gloss undercoat increases the
risks of decal silvering. No so much with any decals printed by Microscale. I
simply used decal softeners (Microset/Microsol combination did the job).
A
few details still needed to be added. All position lights were painted with
translucent paint over a chrome silver painted “lens”. Landing gear doors
edges were “written” (painted) red with a permanent ink marker. Last add-ons
were two flush antennas that were added on the top of fuselage spine.
Eric
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