Meng 1/48 F-18E Super Hornet

21/10/202226/10/2022 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Added to stash 2022
Built: 2022
Enhancements:
Seat– Brassin
Wheels-Reskit
Nozzles- SteelBeach
Pylons: Phase hangar resin.
Wingtip launchers: Flying Leathernecks
Decals: Afterburner Pacific Coast CAG Superbugs

Construction Notes

I need to stop writing these so long after I have finished the model, as its sometimes hard to remember stuff encountered during the construction!

That aside, I found Meng’s kit to be a painless build, construction wise. There were some pesky seams under the LEX that took a while to remove, and there are some spurious panel lines on the rear fuselage sides that need filling. Overall though I would rate it as a well fitting kit that is quite enjoyable to build.

As with any kit, multiple dry runs and careful preparation of the parts to ensure all mating surfaces are clean will reward you with far less problems than the modeller that does not take these steps.

The gun muzzle and fins can be painted separately and then added during final assembly, so good is their fit.

It easily eclipses Hasegawa’s ageing kit (as it should)

However, should you only have the Hobby Boss kit in your stash, I certainly wouldn’t be rushing out and replacing it with the Meng kit. Comparing notes with my mate, there doesn’t seem to be a lot between the two, perhaps a slightly better fit with the Meng kit-maybe!

Calum’s build here

My plan was to model a clean jet, as this is what most photos of this jet showed, clean as in both condition, and having no stores save a centreline fuel tank fitted. The phase hangar 3d printed pylons were therefore purchased in order to show detailed undersides with all holes slots etc hollowed out unlike the kit pylons that just have no detail on the undersides.

Likewise the resin Flying Leatherneck wingtip launchers. Whilst the kit wingtip launchers actually weren’t bad, if modelled bare, they displayed a nasty centreline seam which would have been difficult to fill.

Initial construction of the model proceeded fairly quickly although progress was held up whilst waiting for the resin to arrive from the United States. Thinking back on the build, no real problems were encountered. As my intention was to fit FOD guards, I left out the intake trunking and compressor fans. The intake FOD Guards are made from Apoxie-Sculp formed over the intake, then left to harden. The afterburner sheet included decals for the FOD guards so it would have been a crime not to use them.

I faffed around endlessly and to no avail trying to come up with home made covers for the nozzles, epoxy putty, glue dampened tissue being two materials that were tried and quickly removed as my efforts looked rubbish. In the end I found Steel Beach resin had done the work for me by releasing a set of covered nozzles for the hasegawa kit. Long OOP, I managed to find a set from a German retailer, even better, they fitted the Meng kit.

Halfway through the build, my wife and I put our house on the market, which resulted in me packing the modelling bench up to project the house in the best way during inspections.

We sold the house, but this then had the effect of me putting a clock on my modelling projects, in an effort to get them done before starting to pack the bench up in November. Experience has shown me that half finished projects that get packed away for house moves never get finished upon unpacking at the new house.

Subsequently. the Super Hornet was finished in a bit of a rush, with not the greatest attention paid to final assembly, or even the weathering really. Just a few token stains appearing on the wings.

The one store it carries, the target seeking pod, has just been tacked on as an afterthought with no decals or weathering. This was a deliberate choice on my part. When the new bench is set up, the ordnance will again be getting the attention it deserves

A mix of gunze and SMS paints were used for the USN greys, they ended up being mixed as I thought the SMS FS36320 was way too light as was their version of FS36375., but thats just my opinion. Some tonal shifts and fading being achieved by post shading on various shades of grey before a final blend coat.

The Afterburner decals performed flawlessly. I chse to paint the yellow trim and squadron codes on the fins using masks cut from scanning the decal sheet into my silhouette cutter. Im slowly getting better at using the software. The yellow border to the black spine was also masked and painted rather than using the decals. Long thin decals and I don’t get on a lot of the time.

The Meng decals, however were a big let down. Only the stencils were used, instead of being legible, they were just formed from random lines and are also the wrong colour being black instead of the contrasting grey. That said, they did perform alright and responded well to micro’s setting solution where used. Most of them were applied to little pools of future as I find this the best method for applying stencils and avoiding silvering.

Yes, I should have just used the afterburner stencils, but wanted to save these for a future Meng F-18F thats in the stash, in fact somehow the stash has ended up with THREE Meng Fs. Im not sure how this happened!

So thats it, my Meng Super Hornet. It was originally started for a FB group build, but it overrun the deadline. Whilst I enjoyed the build, I find modern jets can get a bit draining around the 80% mark, all those pylons, stores, undercarriage componets and aerials make them a fussy build. At least one of those two seaters will get done though, either as a USN jet or a R.A.AF jet

Boeing F-18E Super Hornet. VFA27 Royal Maces. U.S. Navy

USS George Washington 2010.

Please excuse the photography. I was having all sorts of issues getting my speedlights to slave to the camera.

Kinetic 1/48 Bae Sea Harrier FA2

18/10/202120/10/2021 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Built: 2021
Added to Stash: 2014
Enhancements:
Cockpit: Eduard PE Interior
Wheels: Reskit
Jet Nozzles: Aires
Practice Bomb Carrier: Flightpath

This year, I have had friends randomly picking kits for me to build. This FA2 was a follow on build to the Kinetic FRS1 that was the actual kit picked out for me. Like my tornado builds, I decided in addition to the FRS1, I would also tackle the other Kinetic Harriers in the stash. And like the Tornado, if I had not have started both sea harriers at the same time, I would have sold the FA2 after completing the FRS1. Its not a difficult kit, but its not the most enjoyable either. The third Kinetic Harrier I started was their new AV-8A, and it was obvious from the fit of the intakes, Kinetic have retooled these parts and the fuselage halves.

Construction Notes
The intakes were built up on each fuselage side prior to assembling the fuselage halves, rather than after as the instructions would have you. The advantage to this is a a slightly better fit although I found the rear cockpit bulkhead pushed the nose wheels halves out a bit. My solution to this was widening the location channel to ease the fit of the bulkhead..
There is also an atrocious joint where the wing undersides join the fuselage, despite me adding a spreader to widen the fuselage a little.
Making matters worse, is it is very difficult to get any sort of sanding stick in there to clean the joint up, even custom made ones. On all kits, I just put up with it.

Whilst we are on the wings, if you do not want a step between the separate control surfaces and the rear of the wing, the thickness of the wing interior needs to be substantially reduced before you cement the wing halves together. If left as the kit comes the flaps and ailerons are a lot thinner in cross section than the rear of the wing. Supposedly the wing pylons need to be moved 4mm back, but I didn’t bother with this.

Panel line detail on kinetics SHARS are a little inconsistent, so the scriber was run along most of the main panel lines to deepen them. A thin coat of Mr Color Medium Sea Grey was then applied. Over the top of this I marbled on various greys, both lighter and darker than the MSG, before another thin blending coat of lightened MSG was sprayed. A couple of panels were then masked off and painted with MRP MSG to give the look of replaced panels. The fuselage extension was also painted in untainted Medium Sea Grey straight from the jar, as this showed as a different shade even on heavily weathered jets. Then began the time consuming process of masking off and painting all those RWRs, doppler panels, dielectric panels and rubbing strips on the leading edge of the fin. Jets are definitely more work than WW2 aircraft!

The under fuselage pylons and AMRAAMS were decided on to make the jet a little different from other models of the FA2. Several reference photos were consulted to get the placement of the pylons correct as Kinetic do not give you any guidance in the instructions. Despite the photos, I got some feedback when I posted the model on Britmodeller, the AMRAAMs were still tool forward by a couple of mm. I can live with that

The decal sheets in these SHAR kits are nothing short of comprehensive, probably amongst the best you can find in a kit. From the FA2 sheet, you can make just about every FA2 in service, in either hi viz or subdued schemes, as Kinetic provide you all squadron insignia, and all serial numbers by way of separate numbers you then combine to make your desired serial. All stencilling is provided in both pink, red and black depending on which scheme you finish your jet in.
The sheet is printed by cartography, and they performed excellently sinking into all the recessed detail with the aid of Micro set and Micro Sol.

It was then that disaster struck. I foolishly glued the windscreen on with Tamiya extra thin. I must have had the windscreen touching the instrument coaming one one side as the glue wicked straight up the inside of the windscreen. AAAAGGGGHHH! I managed to get the windscreen off, and polished the glue mark out, but the damage had been done as this kind of thing is hard to come back from. The model no longer matched my vision of it in my head and I found I was just wanting to get it off the bench so that I could concentrate on making a better job of the others. Hence, the rather sloppy touch up paint around the reattached windscreen.

This is the problem I always have when building multiple kits in parallel. I won’t be doing it again. My new found apathy for the model only increased when I found the canopy would not sit flush when in the closed position. The simple workaround to this was to just place it in the open position. A couple of the antennas had broken off with my handling of the model, and I didn’t replace them as by this stage I was over the kit. Annoyingly Kinetic want you too drill out all the location points for the antennas, which are moulded with a little tab on the underside, so your hole has then to be cut into a rectangular shaped hole. I daresay, Kinetic have done this rather than provide holes so any antenna fit can be catered for, but really Kinetic, you could have provided flashed over slots to make this job easier. To top the model off, it then rocked ever so slightly once placed on its gear, despite me fitting the main gear last to ensure it would sit on all five wheels. Thats it. It will be going to the back of the cabinet. Im hoping my other two will turn out better as Im using a bit more patience in their construction. Meanwhile, Im not rating the Kinetic kit as an enjoyable build.

BAE Sea Harrier FA2 ZH812 801 SQNFleet Air Arm. Yeovilton. U.K 2006

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Kinetic 1/48 E-2C Hawkeye 2000

18/10/202110/10/2022 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Purchased: 2018
Completed:2021
Enhancements:
Wheels Royale Resin
Decals: Authentic Decals

The hawkeye was quite a bold release for the then relatively new Kinetic. Although I have never seen a built example grace the competition tables here in Australia, there are quite a few builds featured on line. Perhaps a better indicator of what people are building. In any case, I hope Kinetics courage in releasing it has been rewarded by good sales.
Being one of Kinetics earlier kits, there are a few sink marks evident on wings, the crew door and the rotordome pylons, easily fixed, as they are quite shallow.
Panel lines are somewhat heavy and ejector pins mar the wheelwells. Options out of the kit allow the modeller to fold the wings, drop the flaps or model the crew door open
Interior detail is fine for what can be seen and full intake trunking is included for the engine intakes. Upon its release, the kit seems to have met with good reviews, some commentators remarking that the 4 bladed propellers would need some minor reshaping to better reflect the full sized blades. All reviewers experienced a nasty step between the upper nacelle and the wing interface. otherwise the kit was found to be well fitting

Kinetic followed up their original boxing with this later boxing that includes parts for upgraded satellite antenna fits, engine cowlings with stiffeners and the 8 bladed propellers. The four bladed props are still included. Both boxing s are let down by the very plain markings offered. Surprising, given the schemes this aircraft has worn and the fact the decals were designed by Fightertown. Italeri have also reboxed the kit with a far more colourful aircraft sporting markings from “Liberty Belles”

Build Notes

Assembly

2020 was to be the year I built anything from my stash that saw service with the United States Navy. It didn’t work out too well!. Pandemic aside, the start of 2020 turned out to be a modelling disaster that saw about 4 kits started and promptly consigned to the bin before finally managing to complete one. The Hawkeye was the fifth kit started and was shaping up well, until I discovered the canopy had been short shot. Kinetic though were very receptive when I requested a replacement, although the part did not reach me until quite some months later due to global airmail almost shutting down.

I had decided early on to build the model with wings extended as to me, wings that fold along the fuselage hide too much of the aircraft. In the Hawkeys case it would also take away from the greyhound look of the aircraft. Kinetic offer decent spars that go some way towards ensuring the spread wings form a solid join and align with the fixed centre section. Fit is good, but not exceptional. I was left with gaps top and bottom that needed filling and rescribing. Greater care and some fettling on my part would have probably reduced these, as dry fits without the spars revealed tight joints
Sink marks across the wing top surface were dealt with by application of Mr Surfacer 500. Rather than slather on putty, the nacelle step was dealt with by careful sanding of the nacelle mating surfaces where they met the wing undersides, taking care to maintain the contours. Serial dry fits were carried out until the step had been eliminated. The then very minor gaps were filled with Apoxie Sculpt, the excess being removed with a damp finger. The overscale static discharge wicks were cut off, to be replaced with toothbrush bristles. Being the lazy Modeller I am, the ejector pins in the wheelwells were ignored.

As a result of having to wait for the canopy, the kit was built up in sub–assemblies, being the wing, comprising the nacelles, the rotordome and supporting pylons, and finally the fuselage, being I did not want to contend with possibly having to fair a badly fitting canopy into a large and unwieldy model. I carried this method right through to painting and decalling. Dry fits had shown the wing to fuselage fit could be easily dealt with, when the time came, and this method would also allow unfettered access to the inside faces of the nacelles and the fuselage sides that would otherwise be underneath the wing.
Fuselage assembly was unremarkable, an average fitting belly panel required some use of Mr surfacer, and a large amount of lead sheeting was epoxied in behind the cockpit bulkhead with lead shot filling the gaps either side of the nose wheel well to ensure the aircraft sat on all three undercarriage legs. Fitting the clear nose cone left a step on one side. The low side of the step was built up with apoxie sculpt and sanded to shape.

Paint and decals

Whilst still in its sub assemblies, the model was painted using Mr Color light gull grey with the tail fins in SMS Insignia Blue. Black de icer boots were sprayed tamiya rubber black after some very time consuming masking. The portions of the flaps hidden by the wings and the flap wells got a coat of Mr Color Flat Red
Not a single chip of paint peeled up on the removal of the tape, unlike most of my Tornado builds. Looks like that old Alcad grey primer was the culprit!
The cockpit tinting was done using a 50:50 mix of tamiya Metallic brown and smoke, overcoated with several layers of future.
Unless you want to build the very boring kit option, aftermarket decal sheets are a must, even then options are few, with the decal manufacturers seeming to offer nothing post 2008. This machine has worn some very colourful markings which have not at all been mirrored by the very uninspired decal sheets out there, save for the Fightertown Liberty belles sheet.

I chose a decal sheet by the-to me- unknown manufacturer, Authentic Decals that included a scheme with a large hawk on the side, and ticked my boxes of having coloured fins and a artwork on the rotordome top surfaces
My concerns about the Authentic decals not performing or breaking apart in the water were unfounded. Turns out they are printed by Bergemot. (EDIT, It seems this sheet is also offered under the Bingo Decals brand, I’m not sure which came first, or if one is a knock off of the other, or printed with permission)
They performed flawlessly and reacted very well to the Micro decal solutions settling down into even the rivets with only two applications. This is more than I can say for the kit decals which had been printed by cartograf. They took multiple applications of setting solution before sinking into the detail, and only after resorting to using Daco strong solution. All walkway decals and fuselage national insignia were left off until the wing had been mated to the fuselage. However this then exposed the fact the Authentic Decals NAVY titles were far too big, when compared to photos of the real machine and how the NAVY titles sat in relation to the national markings. The kit NAVY titles were the correct size, but it was too late as even removing the oversize titles would still leave the ship and squadron designations in the wrong spot in relation to the NAVY titles. There was no choice but to just suck it up, and move on. I decided to do a clean build as photos I had of the real aircraft showed it very clean indeed, like fresh paint clean, plus I was getting to the stage where I wanted it off the bench

Final details were added and EZ line used for the antenna lines. Like all modern aircraft , the model was starting to get hard to pick up, the more you added to it. Royal Resin wheels replaced the rather bland, and in any case far too weighted kit wheels. All those pesky red lines on the wheelwell doors were applied with a fine tipped gundam marker, and she was done, ready to almost take up half a shelf in my cabinet.

SO! The two questions I ask myself after each build

HOW DID I GO?
Well, not bad. I think its an incremental improvement over my Tornado builds. I’m still marring my finish with stupid mistakes, which are only too apparent to the camera lens, damn you macro camera!!Thers some silly construction and finish mistakes as a result of just not taking my time but, overall, I’m pretty happy with it, and just love the look of the finished model. It just looks so busy with the aerial wires, the multi bladed props, deployed flaps and that large Hawk

WOULD I BUILD ANOTHER?
Not another Hawkeye, but if I found the Greyhound at a reasonable price, then possibly!
Thanks for looking in. See you after the next build
Bruce

Grumman E-2C Hawkeye 2000 VAW-117 Wallbangers United States Navy

U.S.S. Nimitz Pacific Ocean 2009

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Revell 1/48 ADV Tornado F3

18/10/202120/10/2021 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Built 2020
Enhancements Used
Seatbelts, Eduard
Wheels Brassin
Wheelbays Eduard
Pitot Tubes and AoA sensors Master Barrel
Weapons Brassin ASRAAM Hasegawa Sparrows (skyflash) BOL rails F4Dable Models
Decals Xtradecal Tornado F3 Part 1

Like a lot of modellers, I had heard some horror stories about the fit of the Revell Tornadoes. The consensus seemed to be whilst they were definitely a step up on what was currently available, the fit left something to be desired. The kit seems to be one of those that polarise modellers world wide. The truth is, like the Hasegawa Harrier, the ease of build is directly linked to how you build the tornado.
What inspired this particular build was a mate directing me to a series of youtube videos done by a fellow named Nathan Robinson.
Nathan is a member of the IPMS Tornado SIG and admits to having built six of these! So if anyone will have the build down pat it should be him.
Deciding to take a leaf out of Jon Bryons book, all three revell tonkas – 2 ADVs and a GR4 – were pulled from the stash to be built as a batch.
Following Nathans build sequence, I found the build progressed fairly quickly. I still needed filler around the intakes and along the fuselage sides,where it meets the bottom plate, but these were all easy joins to clean up and rescribe.
For the cockpit, the kit decals were used which sat down surprisingly well over the moulded detail and certainly looked busy enough through the closed canopy. Note Revell call out the wrong rear instrument panel, you need part S214

I deviated from Nathans build my cutting off the cogged part of the wing so I could add them later. To be honest, Im not sure this is the best way as you lose a bit of structural integrity. Ive already so modified all three of my kits, but wish Id left one to compare the two different methods. Maybe on my eduard Desert Babe kit!

I replaced the rather bland wing seals with some moulded by a fellow called Shaun from Britmodeller.com. I’m not sure if they are still available as he was doing them when the kits first became available.
The decision was also made on this model to have the flaps up, to better show off the lines of the ADV. The best way to achieve a flush fit with the wings is to cut the bar on parts B111 &113 so you are left with separate flaps. These can then be glued individually to the top wing ensuring they sit flush with the upper wing.

The undercarriage assembles fairly easily, despite being moulded in two halves. Revell have form here, which means you have a seam to clean up. Part C159 and 168 placement is a little vague. Step 69 shows it the best. On gluing the PE facia to the back wall of the wheelwell, I had an alarm bell go off in my head going, “I wonder if this slot the PE covers is important” Well, Yes, it is as this is where the door retraction strut sits. Didn’t realise this until I added them, so then had to cut the struts, in fact I replaced them with thin rod. I find this annoying on Eduard’s part. They could have easily made the back facia in two parts to be fitted either side of the slot. Its not the first time Eduard have failed to take into account the fitting of kit parts around their etch, and one of the reasons I find myself using less AM these days unless it is drop fit. Some etch placards and brake lines dress up the legs nicely, but on my other F3 I will use wire and decals instead..

Photos of my chosen jet show it fitted with BOL rails on the inner side of the wing pylon. If like me, you didn’t know what BOL rails are, I can know tell you they are a launch rail with an inbuilt countermeasures pod. They are surprisingly hard to track down as an aftermarket item, considering quite a few jets use them. A friend offered me his Steel Beach ones, but they looked quite a crude casting. The F4DModels were much better although warped. Hot water straightened this out.

For the Barley Grey, I used a home grown paint SMS which performed quite well, Its marketed as ready to spray, but I still thinned mine a little. Colour looked good, but I find it strange they do not offer a Light Aircraft Grey in their range to go with the barley grey, so it was back to my go-to paint. Mr Color.
Again on this model, I had problems with the paint and primer peeling off when removing the tape. I have no idea whats causing this. The model was wiped down with tamiya thinner prior to paint, and was primed with Alclad Grey. The consensus amongst my modelling mates was it could be the primer, which Ive had for a while, so in the bin it went.
The model was gloss coated for decals and in preparation for the wash. These days I apply the wash before the decals, despite this method, the wash failed to pick up a lot of the very fine detail, despite repeated applications, which was annoying in the extreme.
The decalling should have been easy, but again my poor build planning brought things unstuck. Literally!
The decals had all been applied when I realised I had not painted the fintop di electric panel, so as the tape would lay over the decalled fin band I religiously detacked the tamiya tape before laying it over the decal. Of course, on pulling off the tape, the decal came with it, necessitating me having to paint the fin band back on. This in itself needed a lot of touching up as each time I pulled tape off, paint came away too. I really need to get to the bottom of why this is happening.
Surprisingly, my enthusiasm hadn’t waned for the model, so I pressed on, applying a satin sheen, which I then went over with dullcoate. Even with the satin, the model still looked far too glossy. Annoyingly, all the stencils stood out as too thick as well. I had applied them in little pools of future to stop any silvering. I wont do this on my next one.

This just left final assembly of wheels, aerials, canopy mirrors and nav lights. none of which I managed to lose as is the usual case despite several of them pinging off the tweeezers.
And that was that! One down, two to go
So what do I think of the Revell Tornado? Well I think the main problem is, its Revell! I have no problems with the breakdown of the kit, but the kit quality is poor indeed, flash, sink marks and ejector pin marks mar the parts, making assembly harder than it should be. These kits, like Airfix, are designed for the mass market, the so called “pocket money brigade” and the tooling shows it. You get what you pay for.
Despite this, if you ever release a new tool Jaguar, Revell, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
Anything would be better than the horrid kittyhawk kit thats still sitting on my shelf of doom.

Panavia Tornado F3 ADV ZE763 11 SQN Leuchars Royal Air Force 2006

Eduard 1/48 F-14A Tomcat

18/10/202110/10/2022 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Date added to stash: 2016
Date Completed: 2018
Aftermarket used: some parts from Eduard Detail set
Paint: Mr Color Light Gull Grey
Decals: Furball Sundowner Anthology

I started this at the same time as lthe other Tomcat I was building for a friend. At the time, it seemed like a good way to build a kit from my stash as well. In hindsight, if I had not started this one, I would have sold it, because its position has been ably taken by the Tamiya kit, and building the two HobbyBoss kits was a real grind. Not that there was anything wrong with the kit, but it was just one HB Tomcat too many. (Although this boxing was done by Eduard, it is the HobbyBoss kit, so I will refer to the kit as HobbyBoss)
The previous article covers the build in detail, although I would add my take home lesson from building Tomcats is mask the intake camouflage demarcation before you add them to the jet I didnt on either build and it was a hell of a job to add them later!
I had high hopes for this build wanting to build it with all panels open. In the end the build just started annoying me as there ws other stuff I wanted to build and I chose to rush a lot of things. Im not really happy with it, but HB Tomcats are a long complicated, involved build as are many modern jets, so to do two in a year is not bad. I have three tamiya Tomcats in the stash and look forward to tackling those at a later date. Just not for a while, as Im all Tomcatted out.
I also think Miss Molly was the wrong jet to pick, as all those open panels do not allow you to see that nose art in its entirety. Live and Learn, hey.
And wheres that sensor gone from under Miss Molly’s hand on the starboard side? I definetly added it LOL
For those who don’t know, Miss Molly was named for Molly Snead, a nurse to Senator Carl Vinson, yep, the Senator the carrier is named after.
I visited the USS Carl Vinson at Fremantle Western Australia in 1994, so like to model aircraft from her.

Grumman F-14A Tomcat VF-111 “Sundowners” U.S Navy U.S.S Carl Vinson 1989

Hobby Boss 1/48 F-14A Tomcat

18/10/202110/10/2022 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Date Completed: July2018
Aftermarket Used: Quickboost Pilots
Paint: Gunze Mr Color
Decals: Kit supplied for airframe, missile stripes from Fightertown Tomcat Data sheet

This build was borne out of a work colleague’s request for me to build the kit for him. As I also had the kit in my stash, I thought I would build the two of them alongside each other. As often happens with my double builds, this one sped ahead and was completed whilst mine sat on the bench falling further and further behind.
The Eduard boxing contains the Hobby Boss plastic, brassin resin burner cans,chin pod, wheels and a PE sheet specific to this kit with a large decal sheet done by Furball Aero Designs
The HB Tomcat is a nice kit, there a few accuracy issues, most noticeably, the bottom edges of the intake openings are not parallel to the top edges as they should be, but this is only noticeable from head on. Rivets punctuate the flying surfaces which should be smooth, but apart from that, its a detail packed kit, allowing you options to open the gun bay, avionics panel, display the radar and extend the wing control surfaces.

It assembles well and does not really deserve all the wailing and teeth gnashing it gets on the internet. I put it above the Hasegawa offering, but it has been pushed into the shade a bit with the release of the tamiya kit.

Jeff had requested his model be finished in Jolly Roger markings as if just about to launch, so I used the compressed nose leg, extended the wings and dropped the flaps and leading edge slats. Naturally, all the access hatches were glued in the closed position.

Of course this meant I also had to crew the jet, so used the aerobonus crew . Although Aerobonus should be applauded for the idea of releasing seated pilots, I really wish that they would include alternative helmeted heads with visors down and masks in place. As it is, their entire range of seated pilots have visors up and masks dangling which means they can not be used for in flight models, which I imagine is what most people want them for.

I sourced correctly helmeted heads, as well as a gloved hand that grips the throttle from an Academy Phantom. As the canopy would be closed on this particular jet, I didn’t bother using the PE consoles and panels, rather relying on the entirely adequate kit parts. The canvas coverings over the instrument panel glare shields were beefed up with milliput draped over the kit parts, and then painted a dark leather colour, which according to the DACO book, is the shade the original black covers fade to.
The HB kit includes the short lived glove vanes, (they were wired shut in A models, puttied over in B models and left out altogether in Ds, I believe) requiring you to open up flashed over slots in the wing gloves. Stupidly, I didn’t, thinking I could just scribe the vanes in later, This would have worked if I was halfway good at scribing, as it was, it just created more problems for me. My tip. Open up the slots and use the kit vanes as even shut, the openings are quite prominent on the real jet.

For some reason I had a gap when fitting the bottom plate, not sure why as dry fits had shown a good fit. Fitting the phoenix pallets hid most of it and a plastic card shim covered the rest. The forward fuselage fitted to the rear with no gaps or steps as did the tailfins. I had read about fit problems when glueing the gun bay and avionics panels in the closed position, but being patient and gluing a side at a time will reward you with reasonable fit, still, I needed a small smear of Mr Surfacer around the ladder door.

Apart from this, the kit assembled quickly. I left the brass burner rings out after successfully bending one up, only to then drop the pliers on it.
The WIP shots on the front page outline my painting steps in achieving a bit of tonal variation to the Light Gull Grey

Moving onto the decals, I didn’t apply any of the stencils. as photos of the actual jet showed very few. The decal instructions call out the red turbine warning stripes to be placed along the jet nacelles whereas they should go around them. That said, I forgot to add the stripes above the NAVY titles. I was disappointed the yellow border of the VF84 sash showed through the US star, I didn’t want to lay another start and bar over the top so left it as was. For the other side I cut away the yellow border where from where the star and bar would overlay it.

The Fightertown data sheet, whilst being quite comprehensive, does not include enough stripes for a full suite of phoenix, so I could only add the stripes which would remain the most visible, and with the stores fitted, the canopy was the only part left to fit. The fit to the windscreen is not to my liking as there is a step and small gap as you can see, but at the rest of causing cracks to the canopy from forcing it, I decided to leave this too as it was.
The Jolly Rogers scheme is most attractive and I can understand why a lot of modellers choose it to adorn their Tomcats

Bruce’s-Scale-Models

Modern

Meng 1/48 F-18E Super Hornet

Construction Notes

Boeing F-18E Super Hornet. VFA27 Royal Maces. U.S. Navy

USS George Washington 2010.

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Kinetic 1/48 Bae Sea Harrier FA2

BAE Sea Harrier FA2 ZH812 801 SQNFleet Air Arm. Yeovilton. U.K 2006

Kinetic 1/48 E-2C Hawkeye 2000

Paint and decals

Revell 1/48 ADV Tornado F3

Panavia Tornado F3 ADV ZE763 11 SQN Leuchars Royal Air Force 2006

Eduard 1/48 F-14A Tomcat

Grumman F-14A Tomcat VF-111 “Sundowners” U.S Navy U.S.S Carl Vinson 1989

Hobby Boss 1/48 F-14A Tomcat

F-14A Tomcat VF-84 “Jolly Rogers” U.S.S Theodore Roosevelt U.S Navy 1989