1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet complete!

[NecronautDrummer]

I'm starting a new project for the new year. This is Kintetic's re-box of the giant Academy 1/32 F/A-18 Hornet. It has the decals for one of the planes at the nearest Air Force fighter squadron, 409 Sqn in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada. I'm chucking some Aries resin cockpit, exhausts, and Rhino wheels at this, in addition to a bunch of Eduard brass.


The resin cockpit will sit atop this forward landing gear. I assembled it first to start the dry-fitting process and to see where and how much to trim off the casting blocks of the cockpit tub.


I took some measurements and some guesses while comparing the profile, height, width, etc. of the kit-included styrene cockpit tubs. The styrene tub then got chucked into the spares bin, to be cannibalized for the circuitry bay scratch-build for my Deagostini Falcon interior.


I marked the cut lines on the casting block for the resin tub...


...then glued a couple strips of styrene to get the tub to sit level...


...so I could cut it vertically on my scroll saw.


These first few cuts...


...led to a few more cuts...


...but the cockpit now fits.


Now that the hard part is over, I can get to dry-fitting the rest of the big resin parts. The sidewalls, displays, and rear seat cover are all dry-fitted successfully. Tomorrow, I'll be moving onto the rudder pedal assemblies and the joystick.

 

[nicholassagan]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Wow! Big job! Looking forward to this

 

[suavetomcat]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Great start mate, looking good.

Chris

 

[smokeriderdon]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Should turn out nicely.

 

[NecronautDrummer]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

I managed to get on a little further than I thought! :


I installed the rudder pedals. I used the etch that came with the Aries cockpit; it is pretty thin and fragile stuff, and needs a calm steady hand. I was actually pretty surprised that the Aries kit came with PE! I have the Eduard color PE set for this bird, but I really don't think I'm going to use it. I wish I had heard this nugget of wisdom before I bought the interior PE: PE for 1/48, and resin for 1/32.


I put down some paint: NATO Black for the cockpit parts, and Stynylrez White for the landing gear bay. After studying some online reference material, I think I'll repaint the tub and front instrument panel in a Dark Sea Gray.


I got a start on some painting of the ejection seat. It's far from finished, but I want to get basecoats down before I install the harnesses. I think I will need to scratch-build them. CF pilots don't wear a harness over their flight suit, it's all attached to the seat.

Cheers!

 

[JMac]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Great start NecronautDrummer.

 

[NecronautDrummer]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

I got a little paint down on the seat, and threw on the Aries PE harness. They were not easy, I wish I would have opted to make the straps from foil or lead sheet. But I managed to get them to look okay, given the amount of effort I put into them. This was my first time ever trying PE cockpit harnesses. As for the ejection cord/handle...


Checking my references, the Royal Canadian Air Forces (RCAF) jets all have these orange and black socks over the ejection cords. I think the Aries resin bit had it molded on, but I thought it was some flash so I cut it out. :-\ Here I am fixing my first big mistake of this build. I grabbed a little cooking foil and some canopy glue to put the sock cover back on the ejection cord.


I reinforced the seams with a little CA glue after the canopy glue dried.


This came out awfully dark, I think the white balance on the camera is off. The seats are really a lot more olive green, not so dark. Anyways, here's my pretty much finished seat. As you can see, I decided to leave off all the strapping normally found in a CF-18 jet and went with a stock F/A-18 strap setup. However, the belts on RCAF CF-18's have these weird copper-colored iridescent straps. I based mine with some Mr Metal Color Copper, brushed on over the metal. I highlighted the belts with some Reaper Miniatures copper and bronze acrylics.
The ejection cord sock was first airbrushed with Tamiya Orange, then I used a fine-tip Sharpie to draw on the black hazard lines. Same with the yellow hazard markings on the seat frame.


According to references, the bottom of these seats have these blue tubes. What are they? Regardless, I painted them as I saw them. As well, I either rubbed off the black paint to expose tiny screw and bolt heads on the black frame or I edged the frame and other parts with a little Citadel gunmetal by running the side of my paintbrush along any edges on the chair. It was finished with some Dullcote lacquer to seal the painting in. I will still likely weather some of the brighter parts of the seat some more later on down the road. However, that cockpit tub is calling my name... 8)

 

[Quaralane]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

This batch of images don't seem to be working

 

[NecronautDrummer]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet





Just a few shots of the tub after an hour at the bench. This was base-coated with NATO Black, then azimuth-airbrushed straight down with Dark Sea Gray. I am using Vallejo Dark Rubber for the black panels, along with some Citadel Gunmetal and Vallejo Carmine Red for accents. I did a Flory Gray wash in the demarcation lines between the panels.
I still need to paint the forward instrument panels and add the Aries etch parts to the blank spots. They are in paint right now.

 

[NecronautDrummer]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

This batch of images don't seem to be working

Fixed! Thanks, Quaralane ;D

 

[Quaralane]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Excellent work on that cockpit

 

[Cave_Dweller]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

That is a very realistic paint job on the seat, well done!

 

[NecronautDrummer]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Update time!




The Aries etch was installed in a few panel on the instrument clusters seen here. They have printed acetate pieces that go behind the etched part. The etched parts were airbrushed with NATO Black, then clear-coated with gloss varnish. Next, they were airbrushed with some Testers Medium Gray enamel. Once the enamel dried, I used a little paint thinner and a soft cotton cloth to gently wipe away the enamel from the raised parts of the PE pieces. The gray is still in the lower levels of the etched panels, but the raised parts came out mostly black. They do match the black work I have been doing around the rest of the instrument panels (I used Vallejo Dark Rubber for them).
I added a few of the Eduard Cockpit etch parts (those that didn't end up pinging out of my tweezers and into the great beyond...), dry brushed a little silver here and there, did a little paint chip stippling on the floor of the cockpit, and put in the CRT screen decals. I'm not sure if I like them or not. I may just go with blank screens?

Let me know what you think about the screens. And a big thank you for the encouragement. Cheers!

 

[Quaralane]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Excellent work there. Looking very authentic

 

[smokeriderdon]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Looks great! I like the screens as you have them here.

 

[NecronautDrummer]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

I did end up deciding to blank out the screens on the cockpit. I think it's a huge improvement, especially considering the plane will be posed in a powered-down look, with an open canopy.

I needed a break from the cockpit, with all the fiddly painting and such. I moved ahead with the front landing gear assembly. First, I studied my exterior photo-etch set, and found that about 6 or 7 pieces actually go into the nose gear wheel well.

With this already having been assembled, I glued in what I could. The biggest difference is the smooth blank walls are now covered in etch. It looked really funny before, considering the rest of the walls in this assembly are blanketed with deep detail. Now, I think it looks more the part.


I moved on with this part. This assembly took me the better part of two nights to put together. It has a metal core, covered in plastic for the main strut. The rear gear, on the other hand, have the option of a styrene covered metal core or straight-up white metal gear legs. Through it all, I only had one mistake: taking off too much of a part to make room for an etch replacement, and that part ends up being a tab for the smaller traffic light assembly on the nose gear.


Primed with Stynylrez, it will now sit while I finish of the rear equipment compartment behind the pilot seat. There is supposed to be some painting of parts in the nose wheel well, but I may just give it an ink wash and be done with it. Nobody will ever see anything up there anyways.

Cheers!

 

[NecronautDrummer]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Over the last couple nights, I have been working on the nose gear and gear bay. Looking at reference pics of CF-18 birds, our nose gear started out white but over the last 35 years of use and maintenance they have a slight umber tone now...


I started the process by applying a chipping effect over the entire gear. Ref pics show a tan color coming through under the white paint. I used Vallejo Dark Sand, applied with a bit of scouring pad in some tweezers.


After careful detail painting of the landing lights, wires, and chrome cylinder shafts, I applied a lightened wash of Citadel brown, now in the bigger and more expensive size?! This created the overall slightly brown effect I was after.


Once the wash was dried, I broke out the AK enamel washes. I first applied Fresh Mud enamel color, diluted with a little turpenoid thinner, in some select areas to enhance the lines, like a pin wash. After a good blow-dry to help speed the drying, I went in with a dark wash in a couple areas to indicate heavy grease and grime. I concentrated this around the cylinder/shock absorber shafts, the moving linkages, and towing links.


It was with careful hands and great difficulty that I managed to paint the nose gear well. It was already assembled to fit the cockpit into the fuselage. I should have used a PVA for it, so I could break it apart for ease of painting. The ink wash and enamel washes help hide the crimes in this area. It will be difficult to see up here in the end though.


Cheers!

 

[Quaralane]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Looking sharp, not overdone at all

 

[NecronautDrummer]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

Looking sharp, not overdone at all

Thank you, Q! But ugh, I think it might be a bit overdone? But I do love the way it looks! ;D

Anyways, I'd appreciate some help with my wings, fellow aircraft modelers...

I'm dry-fitting the wings, body clamshells, side panels, and resin seamless intakes. Have a look at the dihedral at the wingtips (I've placed a couple Testors enamel bottles for height reference between the left and right). How do I fix that?
This is the Kinetic re-box of the Academy 1/32 F/A-18. For any of you who have built this kit before, will the wingtips straighten out when I put on the leading edge parts on the wings? Or the ailerons on the back of the wing bodies? :-\

 

[smokeriderdon]

Re: 1/32 Kinetic CF-18 Hornet

I would say heat it up in hot water to soften it a bit and twist accordingly. IME the other parts wont bring a wing back in line.