Revell 1/144 F-18D WiP5

  Well this update is about two weeks old now.  First up, I had the F-18D all decaled and loaded up and thought "result!" then I put a sealing coat of varnish on the bugger.  This is what happened.  Now the "silvering" is where the varnish has reacted with the other varnish, its not where I have screwed up the decals.  I am actually pretty good with decals for some reason... I dunno.  Altho the "reaction" was pretty bad, it melted the glue and paint from the front canopy and the two HARMS fell off too as did the right Sidewinder.

  That little lot just made me cry, well I put the pictures up at Britmodeller as I was putting this build there as an WiP for them to laugh at.  I was given advice by Jessica, tomprobert, and Neal (from Britmodeller) that a light coat of gloss varnish *might* fix this cock up.  Well I gave it a try and here be the results.

  You have no idea how happy I am that this turned out this way, I need to touch up some areas but other than that I am well chuffed that it worked.  All I gotta do now is to tidy the canopy, paint the arrestor hook and the engines and this will be done.  Overall I am massively impressed with the RetroWings cockpit and control services parts.  Will be using their gear again soon. :)

  Constructive comments welcome.

  PEACE!

  Dazz

new project - Hazel and Hi-Nu Gundam

  For Christmas this year I have asked Nat and her family to get me these two Gundams.  I have had my eyes on the Hi-Nu for as long as I it's been out, but I missed out on the first issue of it.  Now I have this one... WOOHOO!  I've gotten these two as I am going to join in my first ever group build.  It will be part of the Britmodellers 1/144 group build.  I decided not to do an aircraft for it as I do them normally.  Plus it's a good excuse to make these two. :)

   Second is the Advanced Hazel, I also wanna get the other Hazels and other Mechas from the Titans Test Team.  I love their logo, I recall reading that some of the mecha in this "series" where named after the rabbits in Watership Down, explains why a rabbit head is the "mascot" too really.

  Yes I have small feet, I am planning on painting these ones and filling in all the gaps... Gundam Style... sorry couldn't resist :P  I have also ordered some decals for these two from America and they should be arriving any time soon.  I am planning something special for one of these two, dunno what yet.  Need to have a trial run with another model yet.

  They will be started in the new year :)

  Peace!

  Dazz

Revell 1/144 F-18D and CF-188A WiP 4

Learning a lot with these little buggers, I done some more work on the F-18D while round Natti's house.  The CF-188A is on hold until I get my Gunze paints I have ordered, also ordered some blues to maybe make an Aggressor style one, Fighting Omars style   Pictures down below.

  Now if I was to make this model again, I would definitely not put the little stakes on the LERX (is that whats it's called?) until after the walkway decal has gone on.  I have had to cut it up and try to stick it on as best as I could.  Think I will be MicroSol'ing that bastard for a while yet.

  I love the little decals for the pilots names.  However I never noticed the little paint bump when I was putting them on, I might have to take them off and try again.  Good job I have bought this model again then

Oh bloody hell, those tiger stripes needed to be straighter, bugger.  As for that little white bit on the badge, you can't see that with the naked eye, so I am going assume it's some kind of light reflection of some kind.  I love the "Marines" decal, it fitted underneath the flap sweetly. 

See what I mean about the badge?  Must of been some kind of light thing.  Tried to get a picture of the whole plane in focus, my camera wasn't playing today.  I just can't do wheels for some reason...

See what I mean about the walkways?  The rear console looks shocking with that massive gap.  The seats do not look too bad, was surprised there wasn't that many stencil decals as opposed to the F-18E... I dunno...

Not much to say here really, except that I really like the "No Step" decals on the tailplanes

  Now I am not too sure about the decals for the ground mechanic (is that their correct title?), if it is in the right place or not.  The plans didn't have them on the door, however they look too close to the roundel so I am not too sure.  Will have to see if I can find a picture to find out.  However I have seen a picture of this plane on Airliners.net and this plane was on there.  According to Revell it is a two tone grey colour.  To me it looked like one grey all over... bugger.  I am planning on getting the HARM and Maverick on later on this week sometime.

Peace!

Dazz

Revell 1/144 F-18D and CF-188A WiP 3

  Sorry for the delay regarding these models, was hoping to have them done by now, but I had a leaky lightsocket and been trying to sort that out.  On the plus side I now have a metric-f**k-tonne of lead to use on my models for nose weight and it was free... woot!

  Right onto the CF-188A first, now I haven't done much with her, shes all masked up and ready to be painted.  I've primed the colourful parts white in hope that the paint will come out brighter.  I tried to make the paint up, to no avail... I might need to use Revell's paint for this one.  Well the picture is below.

  Now for the F-18D, had some fun with this model.   Wasn't too sure what load out to put on her, but I decided to use what's in the box.  That be the one tank, 2 AGM-65 Maverick, 2 AGM-88 HARM's and the two AIM-9 Sidewinders.  Should make it scary enough I reckon, why does the camera always show the bad bits in a model??

I have got to sort out that bottom part of the rudder, but I like the paint work on this one.  Still not too sure if the greys work or not, but I will find out when I get the decals on, also I'll let everyone else judge

The fuel tank decal, went on easy without any fuss at all.  Need to varnish this so it doesn't look so shiny on the decal.  But looking alright here I reckon.

 The two AGM-88 HARMs, the decals are actually two different ones I have nicked from the Revell Typhoon decals that where meant to be used on the Luftwaffe's Sidewinders (I made the RAF version if you wanted to know).

And the two AGM-65 Mavericks, the decals where nicked from the Revell A-10's decal sheet.  I wont be using 6 Mavericks on it now so used them on here to make it look more "busy".

AIM-9 Sidewinders, the decals where once again nicked from the Revell Typhoon kit.  Dont think they have come out too bad actually.

The two pod things, the bottom one is an LANTRIN (I'm assuming?) however the weird TV ariel one I have no clue what so ever as to what it is.  The picture has made my filling look really bad.   I'm hoping to get all of the annoying bits done first and have her decal'd up either Thursday or Friday.

  Peace!

  Dazz

Revell 1/144 F-16C extra shots

  Well I noticed that I have been getting a lot of traffic from Kampfgruppe 1/144 regarding the new F-16.  Now I am massively impressed with the model, not so much the decals tho.  Well I decided to put some more pictures up of said model to show how good it is.  Hope you all enjoy.

 There you go, hope you like them :)

  Peace!

  Dazz

New Purchase Revell 1/144 F-16C

  I saw this model in ModelZone the last time I went to Lakeside with Nat.  It's the new tooling and I just had to get it, wished I had gotten 3 now as their 3 for 2 offer is still on... bugger.  First the pictures. :)

   Here is the box art for it.  Typically in Revell fashion of late it's an awful CAG/Anniversary scheme.  Don't think much of this one at all.  I'm guessing it's an Texas based squadron or something.  Also by the looks of it, it's loaded out as a Wild Weasel of some kind.

   The scheme looks like any other F-16 but with the Texas flag thingy put on it.  I suppose it's not too bad, but then again it is the only scheme they have got on here.  It wouldn't of killed them to of put on a low-viz scheme of some kind.  However unlike the F-15E that was released earlier this year, the important stencils are not in the fancy parts. So you can make a low-viz one of some kind I guess...

   The decals, not much to see here really.  You got all the stencils on the bottom right and the other bits all around it.  Not much more to say here really.  I might just scrap these decals and use the stencils on the F-15E, not too sure yet.

   The first sprue, first thing that might come to mind is the fact the top fuselage is cut in half.  I assume that is in case an 2 seater gets released later on.  The detail is amazing, we got 3 tanks and two sidewinders as well.  And the usual other bits and bobs that makes up a plane.  Now that I look at it, there's a bit of flash around the bottom part of the fuselage and that corner of the sprue.

   Now the top half of the fusleage.  Also one thing that might catch your eye is the fact that there is two tailplanes.  If I read correctly, this is so you can make either an F-16A Block10 or an F-16C.   Not too sure which is which but I will look into that, I always liked F-16 Block 52+'s dunno why..  You can also see 4... I think they are AMRAAMS, still thats a cool load out.

   I said earlier that you could make the A or C models, theres two tails for it in this model.  Also you have two HARM's, two GBU 10's (?) and some kind ECM pod, not too sure what one it is.  Guess I will find out when I look into it.  The canopy is here also, doesn't look like it can be cut in half easily either for an open "office"... shame. 

   A close up of the front top fuselage, look at the detail of the HUD, first time I have ever seen anything like that from a Revell model in 1/144.   I wonder if the moulds are from another company like Trumpeter or Eduard??  HHmm... still lots of nice detail there that I can dry brush out.

   Back half of the fuselage here, just a shot to show the engraved panel lines, nice and crisp.  Should take an pin wash quite nicely, if I ever can be arsed :P

  Bought these decals from Hannants as I was going to use them on my F-16XL as an "what-if" kind thing.  I might still do that now that I think about it, I like these decals, not too showy and it's got a scantly clad lady on it too, so it beats a man in a dodgy stetson hat.  Still thinking of using the summer one for the F-16XL and the winter one for the F-16.  Well I've got a few models on the go atm so I will not be starting this one any time soon.  I might buy a few of these and see what I can bodge up. :)

  Peace!

  Dazz

WiP 2 - Revell 1/144 F-18D and CF-188A

  Well I done some work on the two Hornets, I'll post up what I have done.  First I must point out something, while looking at the pictures of the plane I am making I was shown that the antennae where wrong (by Jessica from Britmodeller.com, so I decided to see if anything else was wrong that my eye could spot.  I found something that I wasn't expecting, first a picture of the real plane.

Right, first I must apologise for the quality of the picture.  This was the only picture I could find without any obvious copyright issues.  Airliners.net has some great pictures of what I am about to post.  If you take a look where the AIM-7 Sparrow recesses are you will notice they are flat and ready to receive a new Sparrow, should the need arise.  Now onto the kit part.

Notice the error?  I believe these are little "adaptors" for the TILAD pod and whatever the other thing is for the F-18D, I am sure they have a proper name but I don't know it, so it's now known as a "pod adaptor" by me.   So anyhows, I had to cut these down and sand them a bit.  Really I would of preferred to use some needle files to make and curved indentation but I do not own any yet, so I had to make do with what I had.  Onto the more fun parts.

As promised the picture of the cockpit, now that I got my DSLR back.  I'm kinda disappointed there wasn't more detail in the cockpit, but I am also relieved as this is my first one and wanted to be broken in gently.  I like what I have done here, not sure if any of this will be seen once the canopy is on tho.

Heres the F-18D with the flaps/slats/folded wings and the rudders.  I wasn't too sure on what side the rudders go when the plane is powered down as I have seen so many pictures of them in different poses so I just took a gamble and put them this way.  The slats and flaps look off, likes theres a massive gap inbetween them and the wings. I am hoping it's just a trick of the light and glue.  The folded wings look sweet tho, not too sure if I am going to stick anything on them or not.

The CF-18A all masked up, this is before all the filling and priming.  Didn't have any issues with it, but I am thinking of cutting the areials off before I put the decals on.  I'm predicting some problems there.

CF-18A after she has been primed.  Just noticed that nose cone needs looking into, well there is a few things that I need to sort out on this one after priming.  The next picture will show you what I mean.

I didn't sand down the filled in bits for the plyons or the joins too well.  Thats the point of priming I guess, so you can spot the cock ups in great big detail.  If you look closely you'll see the sparrow recesses and how I "bodged" them.  It's not perfect, but it will do me for the time being.  Also trimmed up the launch rails on the wing tips because this bird is not going to be armed.

And here is the F-18D with all of her resin parts primed, not that I see her in this light she doesn't look bad at all.  Come out better than I thought it would.  Those little stake things next to the rear canopy (or where it will be) look massive to me, not much I can do aout them now.

  And a different angle, I like the looks of this one looks like something out of a sci-fi show like this.  Well the wing tips look cool to me worth the efftot thus far.  Might buy these little wing things again for the other models I got.  I got a few bits to sand down and sort out on this bird yet, but she is getting there.  Gotta decide what load out I am going to put on her.  The little resin cockpit/canopy backer thing needed to be filled in and sanded down as well. Should start painting her next week sometime.  Decided I am going to buy the little carrier deck that Retrowings sell also.  They are getting alot of business from me of late.

  Peace!

  Dazz