Well
here it is. After four months of construction time I thought I should take some
photos before it collects too much dust. The kit is made to represent a section
of Elevator number four aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln during its 1998 cruise to
the Persian Gulf to support Operation Southern Watch. The aircraft in question
is the Commanding Officers aircraft of VFA-115 Eagles. VFA-115 have since
swapped for the Super Hornet and this was the last cruise with the ‘C’
variant. The aircraft The Hornet flew in operations during Desert Storm where it
gained an air-to-air record of 2-1. The one loss coming to an Iraqi MiG-25. The
kit itself of course is the 1/32 Academy kit which is an impressive
representation of the actual Hornet. I have had bad experiences with Academy
kits in the past, particularly the F-15 kits and there decals are not the best
so I was a little hesitant about getting it. However a 1/32 scale Hornet was too
tempting to refuse and so I got it! As it turns out it is a spectacular kit and
I will consider Academy again in the future. I made mine out as a block 23 job
with the corresponding CAM decal set although true Hornet aficionados
will notice one thing missing which should have been on the block 23. I could
easily rectify this but my creative juices for this model have run dry, so maybe
another time. This is possibly my best model to date and could well be my last
for some time as I am going to bible college for three years so models with be
limited due to a limited budget.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|
The
other accessories added to the kit are the US Navy Carrier Deck set from the
Flightpath Gunsmoke range and the US Navy Weapons Trolley set for the AIM-9s
also from Flightpath. The US Navy ordnance figure is a modified one which came
with the Academy kit and the US Navy Woman Pilot sets from Legend. The actual
carrier elevator base is made from a children’s white board bought from about
$10AUD from supermarket, the wood is scrap gained from a hardware store and the
catch bags are fly screen material scrap also from a hardware store. The surface
of the deck was coated in Tamiya putty and then etched into the non-stick
surface with a boot polish brush which I got for Christmas. The whole thing was
of course painted and then weathered with an airbrush. The entire model was
increased in difficulty by 3 significant failures. The first was a fracture in
the Aztec airbrush valve, so that was the end of that airbrush. So I bought
another one this time an Aztec A4704 double action sucker. There was no way I
was going to build this kit without a double action airbrush as it is just not
possible to achieve decent weathering by any other way. However this one too
struck a problem and it was blowing air and paint through different parts of the
brush. Very annoying. I think I will get a different brand of airbrush in the
future. The
third major failure was dropping an apple on the kit after securing the tie
downs. This cost about two days work repairing the damage as the impact of the
apple snapped a couple of the tie downs. The
Flightpath tie downs are actually remarkably strong however I don’t think they
were designed to take an 1:1 scale apple impact.
The
F/A-18 itself was painted FS36320 for the top surfaces and FS36375 for the lower
surfaces. Ever single panel is weathered on the aircraft to some effect.
Generally every panel is shaded with the base colour plus a mix of Tamiya flat
yellow or flat white. I have relied mainly on the airbrush with this model
to create a more realistic weathering finish. The model was preshaded with a
Black whiteboard marker which worked spectacularly well. The overall
finishing coat was given a slight sheen to give it that metallic look, I cannot
remember the mix but I think it was about 40% Gunze flat clear, about 30% Tamiya
Gloss and the rest was thinner. There was some small weathering with pastel
chalks and the rest of the weathering was done with oil paints. Oil paints are
the best and I would airbrush with them if it where possible the colours are so
rich and blending qualities are excellent. For one reason or another the
weathering doesn’t necessarily show up so well on digital photography but I
have done the best I can at this time with the limited photography skills that I
have.
If
you like I have posted more pictures at the following webspace if you wish to
view more: http://members.optusnet.com.au/porterda
David
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|
|