1/32 Academy CF-18 2008 Demo

by Dan McWilliams on Nov 18 2008

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

  30th Anniversary of the first flight of the F/A-18 Hornet 

 

This was built for the demonstration pilot, Billy Mitchell.  While practicing for his demo season last spring, he asked me if I could build him his airplane.  After checking with the usual suspects, I confirmed to him that I could get the decals I needed to do his jet.  Dave Koss of Leading Edge Models has done his usual superb job on the decals, and Richard Girouard (photographer that does a lot of work here at Bagotville) provided many essential reference photos.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

The stand was 3 pieces of particle board glued together (chosen because it is cheap and heavy).  Holes were drilled in the kit's engine turbine blade discs to accept the aluminum rods - it just sits on the rods, which enter a long way into the engines to distribute the weight of this big model more evenly.

Very light weathering (with a pencil) was done, given the pristine nature of demo aircraft.  Billy can be seen in one of these pics holding early samples of the decals for the tails.  Thanks for looking!

Dan McWilliams

Photos and text © by Dan McWilliams