1/32 Academy F/A-18A Part 2

built as VFC-12 from F/A-18C kit

by John Wolstenholme

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[B] Engine Compressor Fan
Compressor bullet is too pointed, replacement shaped from scrap resin. Using masking tape over the blades when sanding, the detail is not damaged.

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Since the engine body will not be seen, I removed the middle section, so as to finish the intakes and jet pipes separately. It also allowed fitting JPs later, rather before fuselage closure.

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[C] Jet Pipes & Nozzles

I have used the BB nozzles, but the detail is improved by using Eduard PE, sanding inside of nozzles until PE fitted. I bent the polygon shape by making a small template. A 12-sided polygon was drawn to size on paper, and a piece of resin shaped to the internal angle. Each section bent using this angle template. The flame holder ring was reduced in depth, as it seems too deep. Jet pipes fitted when fuselage finished.

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PAINTING:
Turbine - Outer section. Citadel Boltgun metal, then HS216 Rust (thinned 1: 5) to raised areas. Brushed with enamel thinners to ‘thin-out’. Dry brushed grey and brown pastels (Grey14 and BE12).
- Inner cone and blades. Citadel Bone, then Citadel Tin Bitz to cone and HS126 Rust
(thinned 1: 5) to turbine blades as above. Dry brushed brown and white pastels and
Hu33 (thinned).
- Inner Ring Tamiya XF2
- Outer Ring Hu64

Jet Pipe and inside petals. Sprayed with Citadel Bone. Applied streaks of HS126 Rust(thinned 1: 5) and Hu33 (thinned 1:4) by brush, then thinners/brush to effect. Sealed, then white pastel wash to rear (aft) and dark grey pastel wash to front of jet pipes.

The 4 rows of holes/fasteners(?) to the inside petals were simulated using black decal dots. Cut using 0.6mm ID s/steel tubing. Rows 3 & 4 positioned by 5.5mm width of Tamiya tape at front of BB nozzle to position row 4; then ~1mm(by eye) aft for row 3. Rows 2 & 1 positioned using a 2.5mm width of Tamiya tape set 5.5mm in from the rear of the nozzles, the dots positioned at either side of the 2.5mm tape. Sealed ‘dots’ with gloss acrylic before pastel ‘washes’. Blank ‘taped’ all petals, sprayed Alclad jet exhaust, removed random blanks and re-sprayed, then removed all blanks and lightly sprayed to effect. Sprayed matt acrylic (Future: flat base, 4: 1)

Outside Petals. Alclad stainless steel over gloss black enamel. Masked ‘collar’ and lightly sprayed with Alclad jet exhaust. Removed masking to ‘collar’ and lightly sprayed with Alclad jet exhaust to effect. Acrylic gloss coated then applied matt black (HU33) to ‘lines’ by brush. After drying, excess paint removed with tissue, barely wetted with enamel thinners. Sprayed Hu33 to effect, sealed with satin acrylic.

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PART 3: REAR FUSELAGE, WINGS and FINS

[A] Wings

The LEs are not straight, which seems to be a common problem. You need to get them straight during cementing (solvent, not cyano) and not afterwards. Did this by first gluing LE ONLY, securing in a ‘jig’. Can be 2 pieces of plastic, wood etc set converging to nip ‘false’ LE when secured in jig with masking tape. After drying overnight, glued TE.

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[B] Leading edge flaps.
To set them at the characteristic droop, it has been suggested you just cut off the wing ‘false’ LE and remove 2mm* from the bottom section of the flap. This does not work. As you lower the flap, the thickness increases. Also, I do not want to remove wing ‘false’ LE having just got the wings straight!

I found vernier callipers a must for this modification. In order to get the flaps to droop, first needed to reduce the width (plan view) of the ‘false’ LEs on wings, to 3.5mm inboard and 1.2mm outboard. Then I scraped the top of the wing ‘false’ LE with a SM No.10 blade, until it was almost triangular in cross-section. Otherwise the top rounded LE ‘pushes’ the flap surface above the wing. The LE flaps were then reduced in thickness as follows:

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A= Top surface; B= lower surface
Removed 1.0-1.2mm from the TE of the lower section B by sanding. It is vital to check A and B when together are parallel on the back edge, otherwise they are not going to fit the wing properly. If you remove 2mm as suggested*, the flaps droop too much I think! Although these flaps can go down to 30°, they don’t seem anything like that when aircraft is parked.
#1 Longitudinal trailing edge/spar detail (long red lines) was removed from A and B, leaving the lateral ‘ribs’.
#2 A new ‘false’ spar ( 2 pieces) was formed from 0.5mm card (oversized tapered strip 4mm to 1.5mm), set in 6.5mm at inboard and 3mm at outboard. File (round) lateral ribs to match new spar position.
#3 Sand progressively on new spar and lateral ribs (marked short red lines) with constant checking of combined thickness (temp hold with tape) at 3 points along length (inboard, wing split and outboard) until flap thickness matches wing at drooped position.

Inboard/outboard flap sections separated when completed.

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Fixing L.E. Flaps
These were ‘dropped’ a little more than originally proposed. Using masking tape to protect top edge, more was sanded from the bottom edge. To fix you need a ‘filler’ glue. I coarse filed some sprue and added liquid cement to produce a thick cement paste. This takes a long time to fully set, continuing to ‘melt’ the plastic, and can produce dimples. Careful use of 5 min epoxy would be much easier, cleaning any which comes out onto wing.
Installed port flap sections:

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[C] Wing/fuselage joints etc..
#1 Dry fitting the wings to the fuselage, the top panel lines do not align. I removed the ‘U’ shaped locators on the topside, so that I could move the wings forward about 0.5mm
#2 0.5mm card compensate filling at rear ‘spar’. Also, packed under starboard wing at rear with 5 thou card to match top surfaces.
#3 ‘Panel lines’ filled-in for FA/18A.
#4 Filed out and constructed vents from 0.25 card.

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Boundary layer air vents construction, still to be closed at base with 0.25mm card.

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Vents outboard of boundary layer air vent.
#1 Looking at Daco p26, this is a slot. Scribed panel line deeper, then cut thro’ aft end with 10thou saw blade.
#2 Scale thickness is about 2” (compare stbd inset photo); reduced with needle file and micro sanding sticks.

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[D] Wing tip missile rails
Thickness of the wing extension, which is part of the missile rail (parts D51/52), does not match the wing thickness. Also, I used the BB Exterior Set LAU-7 rails to replace the kit ones, therefore made new wing extensions from scrap resin pieces. Later replaced slime lights with those from Eduard exterior set.

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[E] Fins and Rudders
I preferred modifying the kit fins, having seen the Black Box replacement fins. The kit fins have sharper detail and proved to be not too difficult to modify, using Daco as reference.
#1 Remove details with shaped ¼” wide sanding stick and SM No.10 blade, W&D etc
#2 Score line to extend strip at top to aid removal of ‘plate’ detail associated with #1
#3 Structural plates from 5 thou card. The vertical strip at mid fin appears from photos to be a structural plate rather than a panel, as kit.
#4 New antenna formed from 3.2mm rod. 2 pieces of equal length are sanded until each is 1.2mm wide, then ‘tacked’ together (CA) to enable shaping. When completed split to apply to fin. File at rear to receive part antenna section from 2.5mm rod.

Removed plate detail at base of inboard fins for –A and early –C for kit parts D7, 8, 9.

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Photo below shows structural stiffener, new slime light from 5 thou card and Eduard PE plates. It was only when I placed the structural stiffener, that comparison with photos indicated kit slime lights were too short. NOTE: STRUCTURAL STIFFENER SHOULD BE OUTBOARD PORT, INBOARD STARBOARD.

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Rudders.
Modifications done to improve detail and the attachment, particularly when rudders are set at ‘deflected’ angles.
#1 Cut-outs made at base of rudders.
#2 Slots widened/deepened for hinges cut from 1.5mm square section, using a 5 thou saw blade; rounded leaving a flat side for mounting.
#3 Close-up photos do not show a panel line; filled in.
Note: Rounded LEs, as they look too angular.

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Rudder used to position the centre piece of the hinges on the fin (yet to decide angle!). For ease of alignment I reversed the hinge layout.

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[F] Rear Fuselage Construction
On completion of the intakes, the order of fit was A3/A4 side sections, then join upper and lower fuselage. The kit instructions order of construction, I think, will make the task more difficult.

(i) A3/A4 fit to lower fuselage and intakes.
#1 Scored lines between extremities and mid-way. Initially, some detail has to be removed at the ends.
#2 Removed plastic, up to scored line, so as to be concave, being careful not to go through wall. Only regular checking against fitted bay will define how much to remove.
#3 Reduced in thickness.

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Sanding was required to the fibreglass inserts and thinning at inside front of A3/A4 to fit. My heart faltered a number of times, but this is what it looks like after filling/sanding. Still to re-scribe some lost detail.

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#1 This edge required adjustment to get A3/A4 to align and achieve inside fit. Set with 5 min epoxy inside and CA to edge, as some pressure was required to get the back end to align with rear fuselage.
#2 Progressively glued from front to rear, for best fit.

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A good result may have been more difficult to achieve, due to the use of the Aires gear bays and my intake mods!

#1 When upper and lower fuselage halves were test fitted, upper was ~1mm longer, producing a semi-circular gap underneath, between nose and rear sections. I have done nothing to affect overall lengths of these components!

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#1 With nose halves taped together and this then taped to rear fuselage, I marked where the card infill was required.
#2 Sellotape to stop halves sticking together (haven’t finished tub yet)
#3 1mm card strips slightly oversized and super glued in place. Card sanded to profile and thickness, with checking against rear fuselage.

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(ii) Upper & lower fuselage joining
Since card filler was required at the front end, I worked from tail to nose, so rear was ‘square’ for nozzles. The only thing of significance was the (big) gaps between A1 and sides A3/A4. I used a card template to check for 3 anhedral of wings when gaps were closed; used sellotape and warmed top surface with a hair dryer.

#1 Rear fuselage slime lights, as with fins, appear to be undersized when checked against Daco drwgs and prorata measurements. New ‘lights’ from 0.25 card.
#2 In addition to re-scribing lost panel line detail in joining, some at the rear needed re-doing.
#3 On Scotsman’s suggestion, card was added inside to ensure best fit, minimum filling/sanding in this area.
#4 Using Daco as ref., some panel lines were filled (yellow) and re-scribed (red). There are corresponding ‘areas’ inboard. It is still not totally accurate.
#5 At the outboard base of fins these ‘fillets’ seem more pronounced and are in 4 sections; from 5 thou card. They also remove any slight gap.
#6 New pivot sleeve. I fixed pivots as instructions, but got dihedral instead of anhedral.

NOTE: STRUCTURAL STIFFENER SHOULD BE ON STARBOARD INBOARD, NOT OUTBOARD AS SHOWN.

John 

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Photos and text © by John Wolstenholme