The Australian Model Expo 2015

Brad Fallen won the 'Best of Show' award with his Wingnut Wings FE.2B Late

Academy 1/32 F/A-18C & F/A-18D 'Hornet'

After almost fourteen months of hard work, I've finally completed the largest and most complex builds I've done to date and at times I even wondered if I'd ever get them finished.

When I was asked to build these models I initially had no idea of what to expect and merely thought they were going to be a simple out of box build. However, upon receiving the kits and opening the boxes I soon discovered that both contained a resin aftermarket cockpit set - from Cutting Edge and Black Box - as well as an Eduard 'Big Ed' etch set and started to wonder if I really knew what I was letting myself in for?

However, once I got my head around them I then just looked upon them as another pair of kits to build, which might provide a few challenges along the way and certainly proved to be the case. Because of this I decided to build them in tandem and although it's something I haven't done before, it proved to be the best decision to make.

For the most part the kits went together without any problems and as long as attention is paid to their assembly and cleaning up, the outcome will be rewarding. However, don't be lured into a sense of false hope as these kits do have their faults and the ones I had to deal with during the build were as follows:

• Many of the fasteners and panel lines on both kits were either shallow or non-existent and therefore, all were re-drilled and re-scribed, which is a mammoth task in itself.
• There was also a considerable step on both the upper and lower fuselage lip when the exhaust cones were fitted. This required a considerable amount of filing to ensure a good fit all-round, followed re-scribing of the panel line detail.
• The fitment of the intake lips is the biggest flaw with these kits and the reviews I read on the internet all said the same thing. To rectify this I resorted to separating both the fore and aft sections of the intake/exhaust trunks and then cut them in half. Another 1cm of material was then removed from the rear section of the intake trunks - aft of the turbine blank - and they were then glued directly onto the intake lips, which helped to align them in the correct position. Using a pair of side cutters I then removed a considerable amount of material from the rear face of the intake splitter plates, which was then followed by a lot of filing, sanding and dry fitting. Once the fit of the intake lips to the fuselage was as good as I could get them, they were glued into place and the small step around the periphery filed and sanded to shape. It took a considerable amount of time and effort to achieve a good fit and Academy should more to make this a lot easier.

With assembly completed the models were then sprayed with Tamiya Surface Primer L and the main colours painted with Gunze C307 Gray FS 36320 (for top surfaces), Gunze C308 Gray FS 36375 (for side and lower surfaces), C318 Radome (for the nose cone tips) and for a bit of variation the radome of the F/A-18C was painted with Gunze C35 IJN Gray. The bodies of  the missiles, bombs and drop tanks were painted with Gunze H308 Gray FS 36375 and the remaining items using a range of Gunze, Vallejo and Citadel (Games Workshop) colours.

The model was then sprayed with several light coats of Future, followed by the application of the decals. Although the decals are produced by Cartograf - which are usually very nice - I found the multi-coloured ones to be quite thick and they didn't respond to setting/softening solution as well as expected. I also had to contend with a considerable number of decals silvering despite my best efforts to alleviate this with several coats of Future both before and after their application.

The panel lines and details were then given a pin wash of Vallejo's Model Wash Light Grey (76.515), after which the models were then sprayed with a coat of Vallejo's Satin Varnish. Weathering on both was also kept to a minimum and limited to just APU exhaust, gun exhaust, engine vents and underside panels, as both represent a CAG aircraft, which are usually kept in immaculate condition.