F/A-18E Super Hornet - Part II. by John Chung | |
Brand: | Revell |
Scale: | 1/48 |
Modeler: | John Chung |
AddOns: | - |
The kit
inner wings were molded integral to the fuselage halves with the outer
wing split roughly where the wing fold is. While this eliminates
problematic wing-fuselage joints, test fitting reveals careful
alignments of outer wing sections would still be necessary. As the F/A-18 Hornets typically park with fully deployed trailing edge flaps due to bleeding of hydraulic pressure upon shutdown, I’ve elected to drop them on the model. The hornets are equipped with single-slotted fowler flap which is a bit more involved to modify. The flaps were first cut from the wings; the top piece removed along with the panel just fore of it, the latter of which was replaced with a scratch built item. The removed flap was then filled and profiled to a proper airfoil.
A small cut out should be made on the aft inboard corner to clear the fuselage missile station. The fuselage corresponding to the flap was also filled in and built up with appropriate surface details. Similarly, the fuselage contours adjacent to the leading edge flap was slightly off and was built up and the correct surface detail rescribed. Lastly, the wingtip launchers were slightly modified for a more accurate representation. The Super Hornet uses three different types of wingtip launchers distinguishable by their respective physical differences. By observation, it seemed Revell had crossed between the details so a ~3.3mm insert was added just aft of the wingtip formation lights to alleviate this issue.
The horizontal stabilizers
were attached via a carry-through member inserted into the aft fuselage.
This design allowed very rigid and positive attachments than most other
kits concerning stabilator. However, make certain you do NOT try and
attach these before they’re on permanently, otherwise you’ll mostly
likely break something trying to remove it . . . uh, like I did.
The Revell exhausts were too small and short internally, ending at where the finger braces meet the fuselage, a by-product of the horizontal stab carry-thru member. I elected to resort to heat-and-smash covers once again as a fix would have been quite involved. Also note that the exhaust feathers should have a slight clockwise-twist while Revell had them straight. As well, the finger braces should follow the fuselage contours while Revell had them along the feathers.
The kit landing
gears were generally well done for a single-piece affair, but lacked the
details and finesse of a multi-piece assembly. Attention was given to the nose wheels, which were a little too squared and the thread details piled up like mini stepped pyramids. The threads were sanded down and the tires rounded off at the corners and around the rims. Thread details were not replaced because, well, I can’t scribe threads if my life depended on it. The struts were painted with Tamiya gloss white and weathered with artist’s oil paints prior to flat coating. The oleos were covered with bare metal foil, and the various wires and pipes painted appropriately. Decals were a mix of kit supplied placards and scrap bin scavenged. The gear bays didn’t come out as nice as I had hoped, given the relatively soft and overly busy molded-on details. Do take note that the red trim on the gear doors have specific patterns, especially the MLG doors.
The GBU-16 and JDAM were from Hasegawa’s weapon set. The USN anti-fire coating was reproduced by scrubbing with toothbrush over the plastic surface softened with liquid cement, being careful to achieve a very subtle effect. The GBU-16 had the forward and aft (retracted) fins replaced and the seeker head hollowed and lowered. Both bombs were also detailed with a few other paraphernalia. Decals were once again a combination of weapon set’s and those from the scrap bin. The AIM-120 was taken from Hasegawa’s 1/48 F-16C kit, and was further refined with new surface details, new fins, cable conduit and exhaust details. The forward fins were sprayed with a slightly metallic colour before the edges were masked off and the centre painted flat black. Decals came from Twobob’s AIM-120/AGM-88 sheet, which went on beautifully but required minor trimming and adjustments for proper alignment. The AIM-120C pylon needed modification to better represent the actual launcher. The empty outer pylon was detailed with scratch built mechanisms on the lower surface. Sway braces on the empty fuselage station were also reshaped a little. The inboard wing pylons were left off and the associated mounting holes filled, rescribed, and an attachment eyehook built just before the flaps.
Someone pointed out to me that the kit centre fuel tank may be somewhat too low as apparent by its relative height to the bottom intake lip. After a bit of Mk.1 eyeball gauging, I removed just under half the pylon height which allowed a more appropriate height for the tank. Note that the leading and trailing edges of the pylon were flat and were duly sharpened. A
significant amount of modification was needed on the AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR
pod and its fuselage adaptor. I’m not sure what Revell had as references
but certainly was not the ATFLIR. Much time was spent trying to reshape
the adaptor and the adjacent fuselage to achieve an acceptable contour,
as well the form the surface panel line details of the pod itself. END OF PART II. Photos © 2006 by John Chung July 06, 2006 |