[chuck540z3]

Saguanay, on Dec 24 2009, 04:38 AM, said:

Awesome looking job.

Some web gear pics Im sure you already have, but shows some dirt and wear on the mains.

http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/luc_col...0Lake%20021.JPG

and the front

http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/luc_col...0Lake%20027.JPG

Thanks- I've got those and already dirtied up the inside of the mains. The rest of the gear looks fairly clean from the outside.

[Saguanay]

Do you have the DACO book on the F-18? Lots of pics of the pits and the rest of the aircraft.

[chuck540z3]

Saguanay, on Dec 24 2009, 12:21 PM, said:

Do you have the DACO book on the F-18? Lots of pics of the pits and the rest of the aircraft.

Sadly no, but I have a lot of pics of other areas of the aircraft. One really big problem is that I don't have an accurate "B" pit anyway, since I was shipped a "D" pit instead. I could have tried to send it back, killing 6 weeks in the process, or bought another which might also be wrong, so the rear pit will never be totally correct anyway, so why worry about the odd small detail that's wrong back there? With the canopy in place, all your attention will be directed to the front pit which is still OK. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and move on!

[AlienFrogModeller]

I have more than that book on CF-188 can ever give you...make sure u have lots of space tonight as your in box will be full. Just be sure to ask for very spec shots. I only have half my photos electronically.

Cheers

[chuck540z3]

AlienFrogModeller, on Dec 24 2009, 01:42 PM, said:

I have more than that book on CF-188 can ever give you...make sure u have lots of space tonight as your in box will be full. Just be sure to ask for very spec shots. I only have half my photos electronically.

Cheers

Thanks Man! I'll be sure to upload them to my site so that we can share them.

[AlienFrogModeller]

Just sent the pics with a little explanation.

HTH

Cheers

[geedubelyer]

Hi Chuck,
This is shaping up rather nicely.
Neat catch on the main gear doors. I'll watch for that in the future, cheers.

Do you plan to add any wash on the gear legs to accentuate the detail? Would a light grey pin wash around the surface details followed by a dry brush of white add any depth to the undulations without making the legs look dirty I wonder? On the other hand, ignore my confused ramblings,.......just thinking out loud..............

I'm eager to see what comes next, keep at it buddy, she's looking good.

[chuck540z3]

geedubelyer, on Dec 26 2009, 03:08 AM, said:

Do you plan to add any wash on the gear legs to accentuate the detail? Would a light grey pin wash around the surface details followed by a dry brush of white add any depth to the undulations without making the legs look dirty I wonder? On the other hand, ignore my confused ramblings,.......just thinking out loud..............

Hi Guy!

One thing I've noted on the gear main gear legs is how dirty they are on the inside (brake dust?) and fairly clean they are on the outside. A typical inside pic of a CF-18 looks like this:

http://data.primeportal.net/hangar/luc_col...0Lake%20022.JPG

The outside is much cleaner, like this pic I took of 910 a few years ago....



Sooo, to sort of replicate what these pics look like, here's what my gear looks like today, with one side dry-fitted into the Aires wheel bay....



A closer pic of the inside main gear....





and the outside.....



I used pastels (Tamiya oil stain), which don't photograph too well with all the white paint of the legs. They look much dirtier in real life.

This post has been edited by chuck540z3: 26 December 2009 - 11:04 PM

[chuck540z3]

Thanks to some pics "Bear" (AlienFrogModeller) sent me all the way from Cold Lake, here's a pic of the right side of the rear pit of a CF-18B. My Avionix pit doesn't look too much like this, so I'll just have to live with it. Those little yellow switches I had placed there, however, are now gone. Thanks for the tip and pics Bear!.....



Now for some dry-fitting of the cockpit, now that I've got the front fuselage more or less put together. The rear pit glareshield over the IP is correct for a CF-18B, since it's flat on the top and it doesn't have the "step" of the 2 glareshields supplied with the kit (I-3 and I-4). With the kit IP inserted into it, however, there's a couple of gaps I have to deal with. Better to find out now than later when I have everything sealed up....



The front pit fits really good, so there's no more work here, other than to add some details like the ejection handle, etc., when I'm nearing the finish line of the build. As you can see, I've done almost nothing to the front glareshield yet, other than to paint it. You can also see the flawed mold marks on the side of the fuselage filled in and sanded.



The scuffed up sills are my attempt to replicate the real deal as well. Here's another pic of the front pit of 910. Note the scratched up sills....



Now another angle of the rear. Note how I eliminated the join mark of part I-5 along the sides, but not the back.....



This is because of a pic I took of the rear of 910, right behind the seat. There is a natural join mark here, so the gap left is the equivalent of a sort of "panel line".....



A close-up....



Thanks for your interest.

This post has been edited by chuck540z3: 26 December 2009 - 10:21 PM

[Marcel111]

Chuck, great work on the cockpit, it's coming along very nicely indeed It's goo to get stuck in on the really fun stuff

Cheers,

Marcel

[chuck540z3]

After a bit of a Xmas break, I’m back on this project again and the more I do, the more I realize how much more there is left to do. I’ve been checking some more of John Wolstenholme’s amazing F/A-18A in the Gallery section of ARC (see page 7 of F-18's) and I learn something new every time I read the 4 part build.

One thing John did not have at his disposal was a solution to the horrible intakes of the Academy kit, so he build some from fibreglass. The intakes in the kit are very undersized after the front lip, because they constrict unnaturally about ½” into them, choking them off. Like most kit intakes, they also have seams that need to be filled, but since the constriction is so narrow, fixing this flaw is very hard to do.

The solution is to use either Seamless Suckers (SS-7) or the new DMold intakes (DM32002). First, here’s pic of the front intake parts of the kit on the left vs. the DMold intake on the right……



A side view with the kit part on top….



Another angle with the kit part on the right this time. The kit part also has lips that are a bit too sharp.....



Another option is the Seamless Suckers, which are pictured below in the middle. They are a little wider, but they still don’t match the DMold one on the top for accuracy. The are, however, truly seamless, since even the DMold ones require a splice at the same spot as the kit parts….

[chuck540z3]

It turns out, however, that there are a few counterfeit DMold intakes out there, being sold on ebay and other places as originals. I figured this out in a warning from Dmitri Malkov, owner of DMold Modelworks, who had discovered that some of his 1/32 F-4 intakes were being copied and sold on ebay, so he put out a warning in the Jet Forum. Since I had purchased my intakes from the same ebay seller, I PM’d Dmitiri with pics of my 1/32 F-18 intakes and, sure enough, they were fakes too. Once busted, this ebay seller has since disappeared.

Like the F-4 fakes, the easiest way to detect them is the extra “fences” they have when they are molded. The pic below shows the fake on the left, the DMold original, and the kit part on the right. Note the extra fences….



The reason I have the real ones in the middle is because Dmitri sent me a new set for FREE and mailed them all the way from Russia. Either he felt sorry for me or he knew I’d use them in my next build and show you guys how they work, but either way, thank you Dmitri!

As good as the intakes are, they can use a little upgrade by way of the Eduard mesh set (32-111). In order to get the new mesh to fit properly, you need to cut or sand the front intake panel down about 0.5 mm. Here’s the mess I created using a modeling knife….



Then the result of all my work, after I inserted the photoetched parts and attached them with CA glue, being careful to avoid getting glue in the middle where it will clog the new mesh. After a little sanding, you can really see how the photoetched parts are made of brass……



Since painting an intake is almost impossible after assembly, I gave these a thin coat of FS 36375, inside, outside and also on the back. They’ll get the “Pig Fleishmann white latex paint dip treatment” later, once I get everything sanded and put together. One last thing, is to check your reference pics for the front of the mesh for a panel or line (or not). I left mine at the front…..



…because my pic of 910 shows it not only has it, but it’s quite pronounced. Some of them are very subtle or even gone….



Thanks for your interest, and Happy New Year!

This post has been edited by chuck540z3: 04 January 2010 - 12:01 AM

[Marcel111]

Chuck, nice to see you back at it! If only I'd used those DMold intakes

Also good to see you using the mesh, it really makes a difference and you managed to put it all in place perfectly--sweet!



Marcel

[dpwatson]

Turning out nicely!!

David

[Av8fan]

I just placed an order with Victory Models for the Dmolds.

Thanks for showing the differences.

[MaxPower]

chuck540z3, on Nov 23 2009, 10:11 PM, said:

One problem for my CF-18 build, however, is that I'll have to flip the shock absorbers. Canuck bugs have the piston of the shock positioned downward and the shock is quite different, so I've got my work cut out for me to convert this metal into something more accurate.....

Hi just wanted to mention as a point of interest all F-18s shocks actuate exactly the same with the piston coming out of the bottom. The difference is only in the upper housing, with Canadas (A's) having the upper housing as more of an all white tube and American planes have a part the isn't painted and has a different diameter. I've seen people flip that shock over for a CF-188 and all you end up with is an American absorber that is upside down so now it's wrong in two ways.

Oh your Hornet is looking fantastic by the way. Do you go to the RMMC or GOMBS show here in Calgary with them? I build 1/32 as well so I'm just wondering if I've met you.

[chuck540z3]

MaxPower, on Jan 4 2010, 11:51 AM, said:

Do you go to the RMMC or GOMBS show here in Calgary with them? I build 1/32 as well so I'm just wondering if I've met you.

No, I haven't met any fellow modelers in Calgary yet, mostly because I've been too shy to show my work. I'm getting better every year so maybe I should join a group or maybe even a model contest one day. So far all my work has been 1/32 fighter jets, but I have some Lancasters and Spitfires in my future, maybe very soon. BTW, what group is GOMBS?

Cheers,
Chuck

[Av8fan]

chuck,

You have nothing to worry about re showing your work.

Oh maybe other folks turning green.

[Voltaire]

Following the master class with devotion!

Loved your detail on the gear doors lip asymetry. Never noticed that one.

Reminds me of another detail easily missed: the front gear doors' red lip asymetry:



The red lip of the port front landing gear bay door is visible from the side of the aircraft (red arrow) when opened, whilst nothing is visible on the starboard side (blue arrow). That red lip is missed on 99% of the Hornet models that I have seen. Another detail is that it does not run all the length of the gear door (green arrow).

I wonder if the Academy molding catches any of that as, to scale, that lip has no thickness.

This post has been edited by Voltaire: 04 January 2010 - 10:59 PM

[chuck540z3]

Voltaire, on Jan 4 2010, 03:46 PM, said:

The red lip of the port front landing gear bay is visible from the side of the aircraft (red arrow) when opened, whilst nothing is visible on the starboard side (blue arrow). That red lip is missed on 99% of the Hornet models that I have seen. Another detail is that it does not run all the length of the gear door (green arrow).

I wonder if the Academy molding catches any of that as, to scale, that lip has no thickness.

Thanks Man- I never noticed that one, or a whole bunch of others that John W. has noted in his build. Between all of us we might actually get one of these bugs looking half-way accurate!