1/48 Hasegawa CF-18 Hornet #64

Gallery Article by Shawn "phantom" Weiler on November 5 2015

 

      

On July 23 2010 Captain Brian Bews of 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron successfully ejected just moments before CF-188738 impacted into the Lethbridge Alberta airport. Its believed the port engine suffered some sort of mal-function causing a loss of control,  causing the jet to turn right and down out of control. As mentioned Captain Bews got out just in time suffering only what was reported as "minor injuries". Needless to say the airframe was a total loss.

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I have a copy of "Combat Aircraft" which shows three very dramatic photos taken by William Gilson. I had wanted to do the ejection sequence for some time. But the decals were never out there. Until a couple weeks ago that is. Canuck decals came out with the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Navy scheme as applied to modernized 188738. Once I had decals in hand I gave more thought of how to model it. Anyone can make a nice model with these decals and the Hasegawa kit, but I wanted to do something new. I could not figure a good way to show the exploding ejection seat, nor the bright feathering flame from the ejection motors. However painted cotton came close. But built wheel up cutting away the kits nose landing gear bay. Then chop of the nose at a angle, shove in a wooden dowel and hammer that into a base. 

Luckily Captain Bews survived to fly another day, otherwise this model would NEVER have been made. Seeing as the only loss was the 25 year old (back then) airframe it seemed like a good idea. Having built this kit SO many times it just fell together. Not as easily as a Phantom but still pretty quick. Other mods are the Black Box cockpit parts from the multi-purpose set and cutting up the exhaust on one engine to make it full throttle as opposed to what the kit gives you. This is one model that certainly looks different on my shelves. When you have over 400 models on display sometimes you HAVE to be different.

"phantom"

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Photos and text © by Shawn "phantom" Weiler