Meng 1/48 F/A-18E Super Hornet

[MrBowcat]

Morning all.

I'm taking part in a Film & TV GB on another forum (yes, they do exist). I've been wanting to build a F/A-18 for a while so it seemed obvious to build this one as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell's ride.




Made a start on it yesterday. As is tradition I started with the cockpit and nose gear bay.












The decals were really nice, I was worried about them conforming on the IP as some of the screens are relatively deep (couple of mil), but with plenty of extra strong setting solution they mostly settled down quite nicely. Looks a bit weird in the photos, but at normal viewing distance the effect is nice.

I didn't do a lot in the nose bay, just coloured in some of the pipes and wires, and gave it a Starship Filth wash.

[digger303]

Did well the cockpit looks good. Strong decal solution sometimes makes a huge difference.

[MrBowcat]

Cheers Digger.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Excellent excellent. Carry on

[MrBowcat]

Cheers Scott,

Did a bit over the weekend. Unfortunately I found the bottom part of the airframe was broken into two pieces. When I got the kit the box (both kit box and the outer cardboard box) was damaged, it looks like the corner of another another box had fallen on mine. At the time I checked the contents and all seemed OK, but clearly not.




It was a clean break so no major issue, some plasticard on the inside gave some support for the glue, and once the wheel wells and upper fuselage were added this further strengthened the entire piece.






Although I'm well known as a Meng fanboy, the fit of the kit is not up to Tamiya standards. Some remedial sanding and scribing will be required.

[digger303]

Damnation and another black mark against those for transport our valuables and those who package them.
I'm glad you were able to repair it so quickly. I pray not much filler required .

[MrBowcat]

Cheers Digger.

I got a good squeeze of molten plastic out of the gap, so I'm hoping no filler will be required. We will see when I sand it back later.

[smokeriderdon]

I just git the Revell boxing for Mavs bird. LOL

I was not impressed with the fit of Mengs 1/72 F-102. I have this kit in the stash and I was wondering if it would have issues as well. The issues on the 102 were not horrid, BUT, when its supposed to be one of the superior kits out there, and they charge like it is, These issues should not happen. So now I know! LOL

[Stokesy44]

Shame about the fit issues, still, you're making a god go of it. Its a nice looking bird too

[BigWall]

I guess if it was going to have damage, that was a good place for it to be. It looks to be coming along nicely other than the few issues you.ve had though!

[MrBowcat]

Morning all.

Pressed on with this yesterday. Got the fit issues sorted with a little filler, sanding and scribing. This may need some more work but I will wait until the primer is down as this should highlight any rough areas.

With that out the way I got the wings and control surfaces done. The kit comes with a lot of options for straight or folded wings, and with flaps retracted or deployed. I was boring and went with straight wings and flaps retracted. The vertical stabilisers are workable but I will probably end up gluing them in place.

On to the undercarriage and the various sensors and probes next.

[digger303]

It's looking tight and sharp.
No sign of the damage

[MrBowcat]

Cheers Digger.

[RangerNeil]

Looking excellent thus far!! A great shame about the shipping damage but an great recovery on your part.
Never built a Meng kit yet and the feedback here isn't encouraging me to try.....

[MrBowcat]

Cheers Neil.

I've built a few Meng kits (Abrams, Bradley, Gepard, Husky, King Tiger, Panther & F-35). They have all had some minor fit issues, this has been the worst so far. It's entirely possible it's something I've done, but from the other blogs I've read i'm not so sure.

Still, could be worse, I've built the Revell F-15 and Tornado, both of which needed major work & filler to get them to look OK.

[smokeriderdon]

Cheers Neil.

I've built a few Meng kits (Abrams, Bradley, Gepard, Husky, King Tiger, Panther & F-35). They have all had some minor fit issues, this has been the worst so far. It's entirely possible it's something I've done, but from the other blogs I've read i'm not so sure.

Still, could be worse, I've built the Revell F-15 and Tornado, both of which needed major work & filler to get them to look OK.

I built the Meng D9R Dozer as well. It was not bad at all on the fit. I think they have issues with planes. LOL

And I am surprised on the F-15 and Tornado. The 1/48 E from Revell is the best one out there. Most accurate, though for an earlier E, and the only issue I have had on them have been the intakes. Which I have with damn near every kit. LOL The old C was a little worse, but for a kit from like 40 year old molds it isnt too bad. And the 1/32 Tornado the only issue I had was with the nose cone. Which I think was self inflicted. LOL

Anyway, this one is looking good sir!

[MrBowcat]

Cheers dude.

the Tornado I built was the F.3 ADV, I had issues with the nose sides and bottom, intakes and tail. The F-15 was the E variant, looking back at my blog at the time I had an issue with a massive gap in one of the wings that require plasticard to fill. To be fair I may have been unlucky with a mis-modled kit, but these experiences were enough to out me off Revell for life.

[cor]

Youve got it looking good. Just a bit more extra work then a Tamiya kit, but end result will still be great.

[Stokesy44]

It's looking tight and sharp.
No sign of the damage

What he said. Looking good mate

[MrBowcat]

Cheer guys.

[MrBowcat]

Morning all.

Back to work on this after a short break. I finished off adding the final lumps and bumps, and got the cockpit closed up.



I had a stab at hand painting Mav's helmet, pretty crappy up close but passable at normal viewing distance.



​And with that done everything got primed, and I made a start on the mottling.

[cor]

Thats looking nice

[digger303]

Very well mottled.

[MrBowcat]

Cheer guys.

Pressed on with the painting this weekend. I'm black basing, which I like to do for grey aircraft, so first up was mottling.






Then top coat and the black bit at the top, which took forever to mask symmetrically.






Decals next.

[digger303]

[MrBowcat]

Morning all.

I've spent the last few modelling sessions applying decals, ~243 of them.

All done now, so will get everything glossed in preparation for weathering. I'm not going too heavy with this, the aircraft in the film were relatively clean.

[digger303]

Sweet looking build and all that time applying decals is worth it, gives it a extra lift.

[Elve1984]

Nice looking paint job! and those decals make it an even more stunning piece of work.

[BigWall]

So many decals OMG! It's looking great!

[MrBowcat]

Cheers guys.

[MrBowcat]

Morning all.

Did the first stage of weathering over the weekend, which consisted of a Grime clay wash. Most of it was taken off, just enough to highlight the detail and leave a slightly dusty, worn look over the airframe. The film is partly set at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, and the aircraft in this colour scheme is used for instruction, so looks to have been kept in generally very good condition. I also added a little black panel liner into the grilles.



I'm going to follow this up with a little bit of localised oil streaking, but again this will be kept minimal in keeping with the film.

[digger303]

[MrBowcat]

Morning guys.

Got back onto this over the weekend. It's probably hard to see from the photo's but I've added a few streaks with oils. As mentioned above, I'm not wanting to dirty this up too much so it's all quite subtle. Once this was dry I went over with a matt coat.







It's now pretty much ready for final assembly, I just have to paint some nav lights on and get a base sorted.

[digger303]

[BigWall]

Very nice!

[MrBowcat]

Cheers gents.

[MrBowcat]

Done -viewtopic.php?f=45&t=30858

[digger303]

[Mpfiend]

I have only just found this, very nice build and paint so far.