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
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