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