Bryan Dewberry has finished and submitted his recent F18 Hornet project. He did a really great job with the images and I have a follow-up article from him on how he did them in a day or so. Here is the feature story:

Feature Story Here

As always if you'd like to leave feedback for Bryan or ask him a question please do so here.

Thanks Bryan!

Jim

That's a very good looking hornet, and a very nice article to read !
I haven't seen so many pics of hornets lately, but should it be so dirty ? This seems to be the trend in aircraft modeling lately, and it always surprises me...
But, anyway, I find this model great !

Good Hornet he's got there. I hope my model turns out that good...

YodaMan

The 'dirtyness' of a model is always a topic of discussion. The hydraulic stains you see were modeled after actual photos of hornets. In fact, the first pic of the article is of an actual hornet in flight and you can see the streaks on the wings. The actual planes can be seen in varying stages of 'dirtyness' with those nearing the end of a deployment the dirtiest.

For those wondering, it's the 1/48 F/A-18A AMT/ERTL Kit. I inadvertently left this info out of the article but Jim will be updating it for me. Thanks Jim.

That's a very nice article Bryan. I like it when "background" info is provided in a build.
What's next?

Next on the build desk is a 1/48 Tamiya F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair from the VF-17 Jolly Rogers on the USS Bunker Hill in WWII.

Cool! I think the Corsair is currently my favorite WW II fighter. I still need to get with it and buy a 1/48 scale airplane model. The only problem; what to buy?

YodaMan
Go Red Wings!!!

Very nice Bryan, turned out very good despite the problems with the kit. I always appreciate a little background info on the subject as well, helps out those who are unfamiliar with that particular piece of hardware.

One thing I've noticed at recent airshows is just how filthy most of the birds are. I at first doubted the current trend in A/C modelling, but after seeing some of planes up close, it's not that surprising.

-Paul

Aha !
If you treat that corsair just as well, I can't wait to see the pics !
And thanks for your kind and efficient answer about "dirtiness" !

No problem penpen. I'm looking forward to doing the corsair. The last one I built was actually a rebuild about 10 years ago of one that my dad built about 20 years ago.

Personaly, I modelled a corsair from the "football war" in south america, in the 70's.
They were the last fighting corsairs.

Real nice to read the entire article TC. This is a good site also, but like I need another forum! :-)

Red

LOL...nice to see you though Red!

HEY.........IT'S RED!!!! :-) :-) :-) Maybe you can start building some tanks now??

Cheers,

~CDT Reimund Manneck
U.S. Army ROTC

Welcome Red!!!

Gunnie (hummer)

Most manufacturers as well as most of us modelers have the same problems with "Plastic Bugs." Manufacturers try to put mold seams along panel lines, and with the exception of the Hasagawa 1/72 and 1/48, they end up mis-alligned without a bit of luck, practice, and a lot of sweating, swearing and sanding:| The three way join in front of the canopy is where the windscreen folds forward to access the wiring harnesses and connector plugs for the instrument panel that us Avionics Techs have to get into when there are problems in there.
The problem with the radome wouldn't be a problem if the kit manufacturers would look at the real thing. With the exception of the cutout for the Vulcan's blast shield at the top, it should be a perfect circle. As long as the 4 radome turn locks are set, the radome/ fuselage joint looks just like another panel line, you can run your hand over it and not feel or see anything different.
One thing that helps with mounting stores on the racks and pylons is the inclusion of sway braces; this gives more bonding surface for the glue. When the bombs and most missiles are released, the circuit from the weapons computer fires the CAD's in the pylons or racks. The gases of these over sized shotgun shells push the release shackels open and, on the parent racks and fuselage stations 4 and 6 (Sparrow and AMRAAM), push the ordinance clear of the aircraft.
As far as the paint goes, while ashore, Maintenance Control likes to keep the jets clean, and sends them to the wash-rack about once a week for a scrub down. The worst areas without fail are on the belly; in the gear bays,under the engine paniers and around the APU exhaust. While at sea, just about anything goes unless the carrier is making a port call, and then an effort is made to clean the things up some. By the time we got back to San Diego, the flight deck looked like a leper colony---everything blotchey gray from spot repainting along panel lines over the past 6 months
Good job working with an old kit there were still a few early A's on the flight-line of VFA-125 down at NAS Lemoore in 1993. I spent 4 1/2 years working on Hornets in VFA-137, and the Plastic Bug is my favorite aircraft model. I wish that someone would come out with a late model F/A-18C. The Hasagawa 1/72 and 1/48 are accurate for up to a Lot 12, but not for the different nose on the Lot 15/16.

Man BlueBear, you dug up an old one here! Thanks for the kind comments and technical explanations of some lesser known parts of the construction.

Do you have a recommended technique for making the sway braces?

It depends on what scale you are working in, how much patience you can muster with small parts zipping past your ears down into the carpet of no return like bejesus clips, and how much frustration you can stand before blowing your tea-kettle and making like the Tazmanian Devil on your work-bench.
If you can't get a set of Hasagawa or Revell/Monogram racks, MER's, TER's, and VER's, you have to work with some very thin and narrow plastistruct strip, some clear glue such as Model Master Clear Parts Cement & Window Maker for the contact feet on the ends of the braces, and very thin styrene rod or wire for the adjustment screws for the contact feet that stick up through the ends of the sway braces. The adjustment is used to change the brace diameter for different sized ordinance---TALD's about the size of a big soup can on the various launchers through 330 gallon drop-tanks on the Parent Racks.
Some good pictures are in Squadron/Signal F/A-18 Hornet Walk-Around.

If you have straight cut nail clippers, you can cut foot pads for the braces from plastistruct rod. The problem is that in 1/48 scale, each pad comes out to something like 1mm diameter and the thickness of a few sheets of paper at the rim, thickening toward the center where the screw is sort of like a partially flattened Hershey's Kiss.
Each set of sway braces are made up of 3 parts, probably titanium or at least high tensile steel, since we regularly loaded Mk.83's, and occasionally Mk.84's on the parent racks and 4 of 6 stations on a MER with Mk.82's when we were flying double-bubble with tanks on both inboard pylons. I never saw or heard of one of the things bending. The center piece is attached directly to the ejector rack piston, and the other two pieces attach to the ends of the first piece by the foot pad screws---part of the Ordies adjustment for different sized ordinance.
We had ours painted in our squadron color---VFA-137 was the fourth squadron in CVW-2, so our braces were painted orange.

Bryan,
Nice Hornet. However, you need to remove the bomb on the aft portion of the wing pylon. That pylon is a parent station and can only hold one bomb.

Dave

Dave, thanks for the heads up and welcome to ArmoramA.

I'm sure there are many other accuracy problems with this kit that I failed to take care of but after all the problems I had getting it together I was happy just to finish it...lol! I'll keep that in mind for the next hornet I build.

Could you explain exactly what you mean by parent station? What other weapons/combo's would you see on this station? Thanks.

Parent stations or parent racks are the four underwing pylons and the center-line station. Each can nominally carry 1 bomb or 1 rack, the outboards capable of mounting a Mk. 84, Walleye, Harpoon, and all capable of 1 Mk. 83. The centerline station, #5, is rarely if ever used for anything other than a 330 gal tank. Each wing parent rack can mount a VER with 2 racks each capable of mounting a Mk.83, a TER with 3 racks or a MER with 6 racks each capable of mounting a Mk. 82 family weapon. Modifications of the wiring harnesses within the pylons now also allow, on later models, the mounting of LAU-115c twin AMRAAM rails on all 4 wing parent racks. On earlier models, only the outboard pylons could mount these launchers.
Before tactical Nukes were withdrawn from forward deployment, #7 station---starboard inboard, was also capable of mounting a Mk.43 or a Mk.61 weapon.
The instruction sheets in the Hasagawa 1/72 and 1/48 have diagrams of station loadouts that are, in most respects, correct. I noted above the exception of the #5 centerline station; main gear compression upon landing with unexpended or hung ordinance could ground the lower bombs on the flight-deck or the runway---not a good thing! Also, the bombs would interfere with the operation of the main landing gear doors. When mounting MERs on the inboard parent racks, the innermost 2 racks (closest to the fuselage) can't be used. Missiles (Sparrow or AMRAAM) mounted on fuselage stations #4 and #6 and/or the AN/AAS-38B Nighthawk L/T/FLIR pod that replaces station #4 are mutually interfearing during weapons seperation from the aircraft.
One pod that I've never seen on a model of a Hornet and in few pictures is what we called a "Bullwinkle" pod. I never heard or read about it's official designation,; it was about 10 inches diameter and 8 feet long. It was painted blue, and had 2 "L" shaped antennas on each side of the nose and tail radome with small parabolic antenna on the ends facing fore and aft, "like horns of moose", or "horns of Andorian" for those fellow Trekkers out there. It was used to simulate the emissions of Soviet AS-4 Kitchen and AS-6 Kingfish missiles for training the Aegis and other SAM troops. It was carried on stations #2 and #8 of our Hornets when we flew them.

Bluebear, thanks for that very detailed response. Just goes to show you how much research needs to go into one of these things to get it right. Thanks.

I'm a former F/A 18C Lot 15 Hornet Avionics Technican (Organizational Level Maintenance) 3C with VFA-137 Kestrals, at NAS Lemoore,CA. I sometimes still climb over, under and inside "Plastic Bugs" in my sleep. They're just something that I know well, and I'm glad to help out , if I can, anyone who has a question about something that is hard to find in the books or who would just like to know more about the beast.