1/72 AirfixF-18A Hornet

[stillp]

Picked this up at an autojumble last year for £8.

The vendor had taken the brushes and cement out ( :disappointed2: ) but left the paints (:crying. A few parts removed from the black sprue, but they seem to be in the box. The rest of the sprues were in a sealed bag, but were filthy:

They'll need a good wash before I start.
Clear parts:

And four grey sprues.

They look well moulded, with raised but subtle panel lines, and a reasonable pilot.

Nice set of decals, printed by Cartograf, in perfect register. Fingers crossed they behave!

Right, off to wash some sprues now!
Pete

[boatman]

Picked this up at an autojumble last year for £8.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1111500[/ATTACH]
The vendor had taken the brushes and cement out ( :disappointed2: ) but left the paints (:crying. A few parts removed from the black sprue, but they seem to be in the box. The rest of the sprues were in a sealed bag, but were filthy:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1111501[/ATTACH]
They'll need a good wash before I start.
Clear parts:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1111502[/ATTACH]
And four grey sprues.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1111503[/ATTACH]
They look well moulded, with raised but subtle panel lines, and a reasonable pilot.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1111504[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]n1111505[/ATTACH]
Nice set of decals, printed by Cartograf, in perfect register. Fingers crossed they behave!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1111506[/ATTACH]
Right, off to wash some sprues now!
Pete

LOOKS a nice little kit Peter good luck on the build i'll have a look as you progress
chris

[stillp]

It looks as if there should be a second decal sheet with stencils, but that's missing. Just as well really...

Pete

[stillp]

I think most of that subtle raised detail is going to disappear when I sand the fuselage seam!

Still, it's getting on a bit:

I'll have to try progressively gluing the fuselage halves together while holding them in alignment. Need to paint the cockpit first though. Looks like dark grey IP with a lighter grey on the floor and sides, and the seat cushion in olive green? I think a 1980s Marine pilot's flight suit would be olive as well?
Pete

[Jim R]

Hi Peter
It seems that in 1982 Airfix didn't believe in making a kit that fitted :tongue-out3: :rolling: :tongue-out:
You'll no doubt get it all sorted.
Jim

[Guest]

Hi Peter, good luck with that. :astonished: must have been trainee mould makers.
Sure you will beat it into shape. Going to sit at the back , well out of the way from flying parts.

[stillp]

Hi Peter, good luck with that. :astonished: must have been trainee mould makers.
Sure you will beat it into shape. Going to sit at the back , well out of the way from flying parts.

Welcome John! Plenty of room. I'm more likely to beat it to a pulp than beat it into shape!
I don't know about trainees, I think the fuselage halves have warped with age. The brown marks were the devil to get off - I think they'd used old sump oil as a release agent.
Pete

[Guest]

With those angular sprues the kit gives me a distinct Matchbox feel. However, they never made a 1:72 F/A-18 and the pilot definitely isn’t in the Matchbox style, so it’s not like it could be re-issue of one of their kits.

[stillp]

According to Scalemates this boxing dates from 2009, so the mould tools had 27 years of wear and abuse before this kit was made! I added some bits of plasticard to help locate the fuselage halves.

I also added some weight on the nose - I don't think it'll be a tail-sitter, but I've been caught out before!
Just waiting for the paint on the pilot to dry now, before I start closing up the fuselage.
Pete

[Guest]

Good idea with the locating strips as it doesn't look like that will want to fit together nicely without a fight.

[stillp]

I'm sure it'll put up a fight Andy, the two fuselage halves have warped in opposite directions.
The horizontal stabilizers are meant to pivot - you can see one of the shafts in the photo above, just by the number 16 on the edge of the mat. Now I don't plan to pivot them as I run around the room holding the model above my head while making jet noises, but it might be easier to get an even coat of paint if I can move them. If I don't glue them in though, I'll have to juggle those while struggling to align the fuselage seam, so I might just hold them in with some blu-tak.
Pete

[stillp]

Well, here goes:

[prichrd1]

Now I don't plan to pivot them as I run around the room holding the model above my head while making jet noises,

Spoil sport - what's wrong with doing that??
:smiling: :smiling: :smiling: :smiling:

Paul.
:smiling:

[stillp]

what's wrong with doing that??

I'm too old to run! :tongue-out:

A bit more progress - it took a bit of head scratching to work out where exactly parts 15 and 19 should go, as the instructions are a bit vague, as is the shape of the parts:
Adding them later made a bit more sense, but these intakes were a real pain.
The warped fuselage made fitting these fairings that extend the wing up to the cockpit (there must be a better name for those!) a pain, but they're on now.
Then a few hours of fill, sand, fill, sand, prime, swear, fill, sand... I'm sure you all know how that goes.

Getting there slowly though.
Thanks for watching.
Pete

[stillp]

Forgot to mention another problem - I was going to have the canopy closed to stop dust getting into the cockpit from all the sanding, but it won't fit - the pilot's head and seat back are about 3 mm too high to allow the cockpit to be closed!
Airfix have told me they don't have any stock of the decals, so at least I won't have to fit dozens of stencils, so that's good news.
Pete