discussion F/A-18E Super Hornet 1/48 Hasegawa

[Guest]

I'm stepping out of my comfort zone again and venturing into a modern Jet. Keeping the Mojo alive has been a challenge so hoping this will stoke it up a notch.

Lots of photo etch and decal upgrades are going into this build so here goes. The usual starting place the office,shown here with the eduard pe

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The IP details are filed off then the pe challenge starts,each guage has its own seperate bezel

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My investment in the PE mandril has been great for doing this kind of work,if you're doing a lot of pe work its a must have. Here it is in action

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For the Pilot Helment visor I tried a new technique . After masking the surrounded helment shell with liquid mask I applied a chrome silver base. I followed that up with a mix of transparent green and then a light dusting of transparent blue. The rest of the pilot was painted ,then inked. After that dried I dry brushed the figure to high light the fabric on the flight suit.

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The office is close to being finished just a few more pe parts

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more to come.....

 

[flyjoe180]

Nice start Trey, great work on the cockpit and pilot.

 

[monica]

great start Trey, so much detail and even the pilot as well nice work

 

[papa 695]

Great start Trey will watch this one unfold

 

[Guest]

Nice start Trey the office looks great.

 

[Guest]

Joe ,Monica , Ian, Terry thanks ! I'm understanding now why aftermarket seamless intakes are sold and wish I had bought some! After days of sanding filling and some colorful language this is were I'm at





Next up some surgery on the landing gear bays to add some photo etch

 

[Guest]

Nice build so far Trey! I like the aftermarket additions. I just started using aftermarket 3 months ago and discovered it's amazing detail it can add to an otherwise bland model.

John

 

[papa 695]

Great work on the intakes Trey they look fantastic

 

[flyjoe180]

I agree, nice work on the intakes Trey. Coming along nicely.

 

[Guest]

John thanks ,yes I love aftermarket goodies even though they can be trying at times! Ian thanks ,unfortunately I'm having to go and and do more work on the intakes ,the filler has shrunk and revealed some ugliness. Joe thanks!

Not much progress as I mentioned above the intakes need more work so I lost 4 hours today just sanding out more imperfections. I did manage to get some more PE done

 

[Guest]

Yep! Great work so far!

 

[tr1ckey66]

Beautiful, tidy work as always Trey.

Yeah, the intakes on jets are always a challenge. I had similar issues with the Revell Typhoon (Eurofighter). it's not particularly difficult to solve the seams but is time consuming and awkward to do.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Guest]

Polux thanks. Paul could'nt agree more,now next to taping canopies intake seams are my least favorite task! Well the intakes are as good as they are gonna get,so moving on to getting the sub asseblies together.



Fit here with the intakes is decent



The fit near the horizontal stab is not so good,no matter how I tweaked the upper and lower halves I still wound up with a step



I've got a lot of seams to clean up and the step to fix stay tuned, I'll deal with that on the next update

 

[Guest]

Heres how I tackled the step,first I taped up the surrounding area and applied squadron putty



With the tape in place I sanded with 400 grit

I removed the first application of tape and the reapplied more a little further out. Then using 600 wet I sanded the area



I continued stepping down in grit to 1000 wet



1500



finally 2000



I then tackled the seam around the lower chines,first I rescribed the lines making them deeper so I would'nt loose them during the sanding. Then after sanding I used liquid paper as a filler for the deep flaws. After sanding that down I again rescribed the lines and using a sewing needle in a pin vice remarked the rivet detail





Next up the Pilot pod

 

[Guest]

Looking good mate

 

[flyjoe180]

That is awesome work Trey, it's looking great with your hard work.

 

[Guest]

Excellent work with the putty!

You are a genius.

 

[Lee W]

Looking very sweet Trey, good work mate

Lee

 

[Guest]

Leo,Joe,Polux and Lee thank you for the kind comments. I'm fighting more fit issues up front. No matter how I tried to mainpulate the join I still wound up with a step . Yet another putty session



Both sides needed attention ,got it sorted after a few hours of sanding



I've put off the gear doors long enough and decided to buckle down and get them sorted. All the molded hinges need to be removed and the pe replacements folded and added along with the actuator mounts.





The long nose gear door is replaced by a 3 layer laminent of pe





All the hard work has been rewarded with the doors ready for some paint



Want to really test your nerves? Build a pe boarding ladder! Trying to keep everything square was quite a challenge.



Alot of tyding up and finsh sanding with 1000 grit wet and next up will be a long a/b session painting the gear and bays white

 

[Guest]

Ooh Trey, that all reminds me of my Tomcat - I still shudder thinking of the sanding!

Although you've done a much better job than I managed! I wish I'd seen this

first because your method of using tape is very clever.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers

Patrick