1/48 Hasegawa F/A-18A Hornet

by Philip Jones

--------------------

 

This is a McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18A Hornet in the markings of VFC-12 "Fighting Omars" of the US Navy.

This model was one of the builds I most wanted to do for a long time.  It was also one of those projects that kept on delaying until I felt I could do the subject justice.  After buying the Twobobs decal sheet for the Aggressor Hornets of VFC-12, I put the idea to the back of my mind – at the time I was building F-4s and F-16s mostly. It was only when I came across the "A" boxing of the Hasegawa Hornet at IPMS Avon's annual show that I realised I would have a use for it and I would be able to have that gorgeous camo-bug on my display shelf.

THE KIT

I always intended to use a Hasegawa kit for this project as it was the best choice for the level of detail, but the price of a new kit (around £35) was always a factor that made me decide against going for it at any particular time.  When I found an older boxing of the kit for a good price it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

CONSTRUCTION

Starting with the cockpit, I used the kit parts along with a True Details seat and my first go at scratch building – a small section of oxygen hose for which I wrapped one strand of electrical wire around a piece of solder. This was then flexible enough to be bent into shape before I added it to the cockpit.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

The rest of the construction of the model was pretty smooth - I spent a little while filling and sanding the areas around the intakes and fuselage sides as well as adding a small amount of filler to the outside of the base of the tail fins as there was a step left here.

PAINTING

Before painting the blue camouflage scheme I primed the model using Halfords Grey Primer, which gave a good smooth base for the colours.

I started by spraying the white of the nose cone and the grey areas on the wings and rear fuselage which I then masked off before spraying the blues. The blues were mixed from Humbrol enamels and this was a major point that would stall me for a number of weeks.

After spraying the lighter blue, I masked off the scheme with Tamiya tape and then sprayed the darker blue. On removing the masking tape I realised that the lighter blue was quite seriously "off" and looked more like turquoise against the darker shade. This was quite a disappointment to realise I'd got the colour mix so wrong and I did nothing further to the model for a few weeks, until I had found enough motivation to continue. The course of action I decided on was to mask off the darker blue and re-spray the lighter blue once I had mixed a colour I was happier with.

 

I felt my second attempt was much closer to the "proper" shades and after removing the masks I sprayed a couple coats of Johnson's Klear before applying the decals.

DECALS

The Twobobs sheet includes decals for an "A" and a "B" of VFC-12, in blue and brown camouflage respectively. The number of decals I needed to apply was relatively few and this was a good thing in my opinion as applying lots of stencil data is a step that always takes me a few "sessions" to complete.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

  

  

  

WEATHERING

I applied a light wash made from chalk pastels, to keep weathering light but to accentuate the panel lines a little.

After weathering I sprayed a couple coats of Humbrol Matt Cote to finish off – and final construction of undercarriage, canopy and pylons was completed.

CONCLUSIONS

Did I ever say that I love US Aggressors? I must have done somewhere, sometime - repeatedly. I think the blue camouflage colour scheme with the white nose and "Faux-Flanker" markings look beautiful. I'm glad I found the motivation (and the kit) to do this project as it's "that model" that I always look at when I pass my shelf – The Hasegawa kit is overall very good, but can be quite tricky to build. The Twobobs decals were excellent and very easy to apply.

The day after I completed this model, it was displayed on the IPMS Avon table at the Scale Modelworld show in Telford, UK. Our display theme was "Support - The Unsung Heroes" and the Hornet was part of the Training section.

REFERENCES

I used many photo references that were available on the Internet at the following sites:

Airliners.net

Alert 5 – has an excellent, extensive gallery of Fighting Omars Hornets

PBase

Happy Modelling,

Phil

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

Photos and text © by Philip Jones