F/A-18E SuperHornet build

[Bill L2]

Looks nice Tony. The folded wings are a nice touch!

[Anthony Leger]

Here is a new picture of the Hornet where I've fixed a couple of vents on top and I'm into painting.

[Anthony Leger]

Here are some new progress shots of the super hornet.

For those who saw me making a new main gear shock at the last month's meeting. It has been cast and looks good to beef up the landing gear as the Revell shock is not only undersized, but missing key detail. I've also reworked the joint knee which Revell has omitted detail for unlike on the Hasegawa gear whether in their F-18C/D to their E/F kits.

You can see the new ACS pipes installed which are from Steel Beach. These new pipes have been retrofitted to fleet Hornets. I had to drill them out which wasn't easy and simply painting the openings was not going to fly.

The vertical tails have been modified to show the rudder hinges as well as the beefier bases that Revell didn't quite get right and look better on both the Italeri and Hasegawa versions. Of note the Hasegawa kit didn't have hinge detail while the Italeri did...go figure.

The wheels are from Royale Resin and look much better than either the Hasegawa or Revell offerings and are reasonably priced. They have a great range covering many modern jets. http://www.royaleresin.net/

I got the wing folds on and am working towards attaching the lowered flaps.

On the canopy frame (which came from the Italeri kit to match the spine I grabbed as well I used some of the Revell interior framing detail but have added wire and new pencil cameras

[Bill L2]

Yeah Tony that is a tricky spot to paint, maybe some covers. There are alot of SH decals out there right now. I would be partial to the "Pukin Dogs." Tophatters look nice to.

[Anthony Leger]

Thanks they canted the pylons after test flights watching weapons separation. They loose some fuel economy due to the extra drag of the toe-out on the main pylons...still much better range than original Hornets.

For which squadron it'll either be the Top Hatters in low vis or VF-122 which is the Replacement Air Group with Eagle head. There are lots of other markings out there (including a blue camo VF-122 bird thats new) but I wanted to use what I have in my decal drawer (I'm limiting my cash spending...). Since these planes have been around they are getting nicely weathered and overpainted on various panels which will make it interesting.

The Revell kit has been fiddly to build, but the Wolfpack stuff has been excellent and still cheaper than a Hasegawa Super Hornet (of which are very nice...I have 2 of the F-18F versions). The Revell kit while having some errors does a nice model at a cost <$20 vs $60-70 for a Hasegawa one. I have the two seat Revell (<$25) Superhornet and don't think I'd need to replace the spine, but dropping the flaps would be the plan.

more updates soon...I need to work on the wingtips, flaps, landing gear.... I made a plug for the intake opening I want to try so I can paint the gray/white demarcation which is quite awkward to reach...if it doesn't work well I put covers on.

regards,

[Bill L2]

Wow that looks sharp Tony. What squadron you gonna do? I will never understand why they cant the pylons on that plane! Great looking model!

[Anthony Leger]

Here are a few progress shots of my Revell Super hornet. It has been in a prolonged build state (many many idle months) as I was waiting first for the Wolfpack Resin set (for dropped flaps and folded wingtips) then I was deciding what to do about the spine which was way too rounded near the cockpit. Several of the things done come from what I saw from a build on ARC.

Here is a list of things done so far:

- cut off leading and trailing edge wing surfaces closing up any gaps
- replaced spine with more correct (not perfect just better) Italeri Super Hornet one
- added ECS pipes from Steele Beach (these needed to be thinned and drilled out)
- assembled kit cockpit and used resin sidewall detail
- reshaped cockpit opening to square off the back section
- widened pizza box
- repositioned rudders adding hinges from strip stock
- fixed tail bases to beef up as Revell shape is wrong
- thinned and drilled fuel dumps near top of the tail
- replaced kit exhaust burners with a variation from a earlier Hasegawa F-18
- I'm using the Italeri canopy/deck for it's shape while the front windscreen is from the Revell kit
- mounted kit pylons which are canted

I still have lots to do, but it's looking like a super bug.

...tony