Aftermarket items
used:
Decals TWB32004; Black Box BBCS32012 Exterior Set; Aires 2038 Wheel Bays Set;
Cutting Edge Cockpit set CEC32119; Eduard 32058 Placard set, 32105 Exhaust set,
32106 Exterior set, 32111 Mesh, 32510 Interior set.
PART 1:
FRONT FUSELAGE & COCKPIT
[A] CE Cockpit Set
Note: If you have had the CE cockpit set for a few years you may have got the
‘Late’ FA18C front page instructions, although it says FA18A!
#1 0.25mm card packing. The CE tub fits well, but unless you add some card, the
fuselage is slightly narrow with respect to spine H1.
#2 Cyano short lengths of sprue, slightly high, to support tub at correct
position. Being round you can easily file to get exact height fitting on
closure.
#3 The CE canopy lock eyelets are the wrong shape (and shown in wrong
positions); made some out of scrap resin.
#4 0.5 card to match tub.
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#1 Drilled out fixed
‘axle’, so that canopy strut can be ‘hinged’ using rod, allowing removal
during construction.
#2 Significant discrepancy in fitting equipment bay to tub decking. Need to
remove ~1.5mm at outside top all round, so that it comes through to fit flush
and not recessed. It breaks through at left and right sides, but can be done and
is then supported when fitted.
#3 Looking at photos for RHS console, I don’t think CE’s arrangement is
correct. I ended up applying pieces from both AMARC and non AMARC sections.
#4 Apertures were made to take canopy lock, so canopy would close; later filled
in as it was noticeably inaccurate.
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#1 Made new canopy
locks, as CE look wrong shape
#2 Cut a slot in the top of part J52 to take a piece of shaped PE fret to engage
in canopy mechanism.
#3 Canopy strut ‘tensioner’ made from 0.5 brass rod, 1.0 rod and 0.25mm
card. Total length is 7mm.
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CE Main Instrument
panel went in the bin. My preference was to use kit part G26.
Cut/sand flat at back, then cut out/file for CE HUD. The photo below shows
hybrid, with only base colours. Sprayed with gloss acrylic white, then
enamel gloss black when fully dried. After overnight drying, raised
details carefully wiped with small pieces of kitchen paper in tweezers,
barely wet with enamel thinners, to reveal detail.
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NOTE: I
found the 5 thou pieces of card to be an impediment to fitting the HUD
‘glasses’; better with nothing; check parallel spacing for top N6 and lower
N8 glasses.
Equipment Bay
(i) Boxes. Looking at the photos, in Daco Pub., p86:
-the large box sits too low (used 1.8mm packing)
-small box is too big (I reduced to 6 x 4 x 4.5mm), added 0.25 card plate.
-VTR was thinned and mounting plate reduced at RHS; moved to stbd in bay.
(ii) Netting
Using a leftover from net curtaining material fixed to card and sprayed with
Citadel Bleached Bone. Cut to shape, orientated for ease of ‘folding’
material, and tacked in place with CA.
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[B]
Black Box Exterior Set
I opted to hybrid kit part E13 with Black Box part H to save filling and
re-scribing, but this was not easy.
#1 Kit part E13 is shaped to fit fuselage exactly, whereas BB resin part
is straight/flat. NOTE: The panel lines return to the refuelling
compartment at each end. There is no panel line to the underside of the
compartment.
#2 Removed door section and thinned inside with SM No10 blade to receive
#3.
#3 Piece removed from BB resin part H; thinned at top to account for E13
thickness.
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[C]
F/A-18A Nose, except for antennae etc. These are fitted
last thing before painting, to avoid mishaps. Some selective sanding was
required to get the radome to fit well.
#1 Kit parts B24 & 25 need a little work to fit flush.
#2 Some panel lines are missing/need extending in this area. (refer to
scale drwgs.)
#3 ‘Bumps’ removed from port and stbd sides.
#4 Structural strips from 5 thou card. This does not seem to be on all
–A’s, check photos.
#5 Drilled/filed out to give depth to vent. Prior to fitting B16, fitted
0.25 card to inner fuselage to
cover seam/gap.
#6 Photos (Daco p49) do not show a panel around these vents.
#7 Antenna shortened, looks too long compared to photos.
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[D] Front to Rear
Fuselage joining. This was not the best of fits. To minimise
filling/sanding, I joined front and rear as below. When viewed from the
nose, the order of gluing is indicated as a clock.
i) Solvent glued port side from 12 to 6 and starboard side from 9 to 12.
ii) After setting overnight, solvent glued 6 to 9, after using a piece of
sprue (#3) to ‘push-out’ this section to achieve a better fit.
Basically, the front was shallow w.r.t. rear. It is essential to
use a piece of 0.75mm card to spread the pressure and a block to
‘lever’ against. I successively used slightly increasing lengths of
sprue, with warming from outside using a hair drier. Do not attempt to do
in one go. A faint ‘crack’ was the front bottom seam parting slightly,
but easily re-glued/filled.
#1 Width here is greater than that of part H1. Cut to aid width reduction
after front/rear joining.
#2 Removed this area (stbd) so that sprue (#3) would distend this section
with pressure and
warming.
#3 Resin piece, 0.75 card and sprue.
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[E] LERXs
Parts B30a and B30b were fitted just prior to fitting LERXs. I did not fit
these as instructions (Step 11), because they would be in the way for
front/rear fuselage finishing. B30b needed to be longer to achieve the
angle shown in photos (Daco p18, 19)
More work was required to port than starboard.
#1 Sanded, with test fitting, as shown in photo; it was too wide w.r.t.
‘fuselage’. Masking tape protected top edge. The best fit was achieved
by securing aft end first, and only then fixing remainder, as a little
persuasion was required.
#2 Cut thro’ inside lugs with 10thou saw, to match thickness of LERX to
that of ‘fuselage’.
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Top and bottom
views of LERXs.
#3 LERX fences moved slightly rearward. The rear fixing is just forward of
front/rear fuselage split.(Daco p28).
#4 Outboard edges of LERX, adjacent to fences should be more rounded (Daco
p30); kit edges are ‘square’.
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The ‘panel’ lines (red
parallel lines) were taken around under LERX, after filling gap between
front and rear LERX sections. I also filled some ‘panel’ lines on u/s
of LERXs which are not apparent on photos, or drawings.
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[F] Cockpit, Windscreen
& Canopy
The ‘arch’ PE detail (Eduard interior set) was attached using CA. My
preferred method, instead of Future, is to polish the clear styrene with
Bare-Metal plastic polish, thereby preventing fogging from CA fumes, but still
sticks very well. Also, if I get any marks during construction they can be
polished-out.
I annealed PE to aid shaping and give a ‘key’ for CA. PE tacked with small
pieces of masking tape at bottom and applied CA with thin width of paper,
working top to bottom to get exact fit.
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On dry fitting the
windscreen (not a perfect fit to fuselage) it did not ‘clear’ (by at least
10 thou) the HUD top glass. Since the HUD was already in place, horizontally
filed part N6 until there was a clearance, checked with a strip of paper.
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Manual release
handle markings using ~3.5mm strips of 0.2mm wide black decal (cut excess
carrier film), wrapping underneath, then applied 2x yellow decal strips on top
of handle.
[G]
Antennae, Probes etc.
(i) The forward ventral and spine aerials (kit parts D36 x3) look stubby when
compared with photos. New aerials formed from scrap resin and 0.25mm card
mounting plates. Raised areas for aerial location on fuselage removed. Insert
photo shows comparison.
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(ii) AOA
probe/transmitter (see Daco p6). For this –A build, there is an AOA probe on
the stbd (formed from 0.75mm rod) and an AOA transmitter on the port (kit part
B27).
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PART 2:
INTAKES AND JET PIPES
[A] Intakes Trunking
The trumpet(er) style intakes are really bad. I finally came up with a solution
that may not be 100% accurate, but is considerably better. There is now a CE
seamless intakes set available.
#1 Assembled kit intakes were joined with 1.5mm card and then the front section
removed/cut/sanded at an angle parallel to rear face, leaving a 78mm rear
section of intakes. Temp screw fitted in place to shape #5.
#2 and #3 Kit parts B31 and 36 ‘tacked’ in place with CA. Part B31 (#2) has
had the rear 12mm removed and the inside bottom intake lip at rear sanded to an
edge, to reduce the ‘rise’ into the intake trunking.
#4 Aires wheel MLG bays fitted to make sure mod fits.
#5 Resin male plugs shaped from odd resin blocks for inside fit to #1 and #2.
Each plug consists of ‘tacked’ halves, so that they can be split for
fibreglass moulding.
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Turned out to be a
PITA, with the 4 step process, but decided resin casting was beyond me.
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The intakes were
split and formed/finished separately. i.e. attached to parts B31/36 and B32/37
NOTE: The intakes were fitted to the lower fuselage and initially rejoined at
the rear, but this makes fitting the side sections A3 and A4 more difficult, so
temporarily detached from lower fuselage.
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#1 Eduard PE 2(3).
Scribed here and then removed material with SM No10 blade to produce an edge,
then sanded the rest of the area. A pitfall to avoid when fixing with CA; use
only around periphery, otherwise you fill-in the bleed holes.
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Might not look
pretty from the outside, but looks good where it matters.
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Intake Lips
The shapes of the vertical and bottom edges do not look correct, when compared
to photos (Daco p.52). This modification hopefully looks more accurate!
#1 ‘Crescent’ shaped piece of 0.5mm card (1.5mm wide) held in place to
outside with sellotape; solvent cement fixing.
#2 Isopon P38 filler is a 2 part compound, which can be shaped before it
completely cures using a sharp blade to minimise sanding and produces a smooth
finish.
John
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