Hasegawa's 1/72 F/A-18C Hornet “VFA-97 Warhawks”

[Elve1984]

I have been working on this kit on and off for a long while now. I Started on it back in 2013 for the "carrier and catapult" group build on a dutch forum.

I bought Eduard's PE set (73273) for it and i wanted to lower the Flaps and slads, for the in my opinion characteristic view of an F-18. wich meant i had to cut the parts and adjust them and then attach them again.

As this was my first time working with PE and doing major surgery on a kit i lost my mojo down the way. in the mean time i got married aswell and become a father. so there hasn't been a lot of progress on this difficult project. While the groupbuild has been finished for a while i still have some pics of my build i tought i make a WIP thread here. It will be my first.

So this is what i have done in the last couple of years.

The box art of the kit
DSC08410-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

The box with the PE set i got for it
DSC08412-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

All the sprue's
DSC08413-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

DSC08414-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

The Decals
DSC08415-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

I started on the Ejection seat and the cockpit. The PE really made this pop out.

The ejeaction seat
DSC09557-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

The instrument panel
DSC09561-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

The seat installed in the cockpit
DSC09611-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

DSC09614-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

After that i continued on the wings, got all the parts cut
DSC09617-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

I went on with the fusalage, the fit of this wasn't really great so i had to be creative to keep the parts apart wide enhough.
DSC09620-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Managed to get everything in place but did need a lot of filler
DSC09616-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

But in the end it turned out pretty well
DSC09618-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

DSC09619-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

I went on with the wings and used some styreen to give me some more sanding space
DSC09701-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

I did some work on the fueltanks and the racks
DSC09702-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Closed up the fuselage
IMG_1476-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

 
And attached the wings.
IMG_1863-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_1864-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

This is what she looks like at the end of 2015. This year i started with attaching all the outside PE Wich i feared for all the time. as it is a lot. When i got it all ill post some more pics and continue with the report.

[Lysus]

Fantastic start! Doing a Hasegawa myself to get back into the hobby and learn my airbrush a bit (made a hash of it, but it's been fun so far). I'm glad to see the fit issues weren't all in my head.

Can't wait to see more.

[Maverik]

Looks great im building a hasegawa to fa 18c gunslinnger been out of it or years but looking forward to the challenge good luck

[Maverik]

Good luck to you to lysus

[Elve1984]

Its been a while sinds my last update. Life’s been busy with the birth of my second son in Oktober so there wasn’t a lot of modeling time.

But i finaly managed to get all the PE installed on the plane. Here are some pics of how she looks with all the PE on.

IMG_4449_1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4451-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4452-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

I also got my flaps installed in a droped position. I think they turned out pretty ok.

IMG_4583-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4584-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

 
I managed to Prime the fueltanks and racks with some Ultimate black primer. They look pretty good like this.

IMG_4585-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

So far for this update. Next job is spraying some primer on the plane, ill be using some Ultimate black primer for this. There are also some more small parts like landing gear, canopy and weapon racks that need to be dressed up with some PE.

I hope my next update won’t last as long as this one. But no garantees.

[Elve1984]

Got some more work done. While checking some more reference pics i saw that this plane doesn't have the "Chicken Cutters" so i got those off again and sanded the glue off:

IMG_4606-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

And i got here primed. a layer of Ultimate black primer. Looks pretty good in my own opinion. so gonna finish some small stuff up and then start painting.

IMG_4610_1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Wonder what you guy's think of it so far.

[Fridgy]

Looking great so far
Just going to grab me some and watch this unfold

[SolventSolution]

Looking sharp in black. Love the look of the full flaps on the F-18s.

[Twokidsnosleep]

What, huh a F-18 Hornet!!!!Oh yeah I am here
What the heck is a chicken cutter???
Looks awesome in black primer
I shall sit Ina corner, behave myself and watch

[Fridgy]

What, huh a F-18 Hornet!!!!Oh yeah I am here
What the heck is a chicken cutter???
Looks awesome in black primer
I shall sit Ina corner, behave myself and watch

They are the little ridges on the nose

Grab some fresh for me on your way over mate

[Elve1984]

Work has been slow on this build, but i tought i fix the Photo's. I changed the hosting of this build pics from Photobucket to Flickr so everybody should be able to see the pics again.

[Lysus]

Yep! Back in business

[Elve1984]

I made a some more progress altough it isn’t a lot. I first masked the canopy and then glued the PE into it and its surroundings

IMG_4987-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Primed it all with some Ultimate black primer
IMG_4989-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Next up i dry brussed the detail with some light grey.
IMG_4990-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

While i was at it i also dry brussed some other cockpit parts
IMG_4991-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

And glued the clear parts for the HUD in place.
IMG_4994-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

[Lysus]

I always face plant on reticles etc. So small...looks good, dude!

[Elve1984]

Its been a while sinds the last update. I managed to get the weapons load out put togheter. Gone put 2 AIM-9L/M on the wing tips. A dual rack with 2 GBU-12 on both outer wing pylons. Fuel tanks on the inner wing pylons and centerline fuselage pylon. And a FLIR on one side of the fuselage and a LST/SCAM Pod on the other side.

Here is most of it assembled.
IMG_5447-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

And after a primer coat of Ultimate Black primer.
IMG_5593-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

I painted the wheel bays of the plane.
IMG_5594-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

After that it was time to put some paint on here. I first sprayed the top side MR Hobby H307(FS36320), After that i applied some shadows with H307 and a bit of black mixed true it. then some High lights with H307 and some white added to it. To blend it all togheter i misted a thin coat of H307.

And this is the result, i am pretty happy wit hit.
IMG_5852-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

The bottom is painted with Mr Hobby H308(FS36375).
IMG_5853-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Next steps will be detail painting of the aircraft and painting the weapons. Still have some manufacturing to do on the landing legs and wheelbay doors.