F/A-18A VMFA-451

Clifford Keesler
Welcome Roland.

Gareth Windsor
Seriously Clifford, did you even take a breath after finishing the Tomcat 🤦‍♂️. Cockpit looks great.

Maciej Bellos
Watching!

Clifford Keesler
Welcome Gareth and Maciej. @ Gareth, actually I started this one before the Tomcat was finished. I was waiting for stuff on the cat to dry, so figured might as well start the next one. Lol.

Gareth Windsor
I hear you. I've done that too many time so I now have a number of partially build models on the "Unfinished Shelf Of Shame".

Clifford Keesler
I usually manage to finish all mine. I was looking in the stash this evening, trying to figure out what will be the next one. So that I can make sure I have all that I will need. I'm thinking maybe WWII or one of my many Mirages.

Maciej Bellos
I built this kit about 30 years ago, I liked the cockpit a lot and I decided lately to reset it, thanks to some bargain cockpit PE and decals.

A Mirage would be nice Clifford, but I would mind a WWII bird.

Gareth, my shelf of shame got 3 additions lately thanks to my last purchase. We are not alone in that!

Clifford Keesler
@ Macieji, I have 5 of them. This one now has a complete air frame. The stabilizer joiner was broken on this kit so I made one out of brass rods. I just ordered a set of Royale Resin resin weighted wheels for it as the kit wheels are pretty bad. They had huge ejector pin marks on the back side and nasty mold seams, which wiped out all of the tread detail, so it will have resin wheels and seat. I just got the Hobby Boss 1/48 TBM-3 Avenger and the AK Interactive WWII Navy aircraft paint set for it, and I have wanted a decent Avenger kit. So I am kind of leaning toward it as my next build.

Gareth Windsor
Ooo, nice, I have the same Avenger kit and decals for the FAA version. I might do that too (though mine will take a year longer than yours)

Clifford Keesler
It will take me awhile on mine also, I will take my time on that one. I do not want to screw it up. Will be buying the mask set for sure.

Daniel Klink
Great progress Clifford👍👍👍
Cockpit looking very good mate🤛

Clifford Keesler
Thank you very much Daniel.

Konrad -
Very nice Clifford! Looking forward to this one!

Maciej Bellos
5 of them? You have something going on with this one. I too have a soft spot on the Monogram A-18. Together with a KP Su-25 were my first quarter scale jets. I liked the cockpit a lot, it was a revelation, there are knobs and screens to be painted! To bad that I used the wrong colours. Now it awaits patiently for rescribing, reattaching stuff and getting a new life as a C version (almost, there are some differences that I will not be able to fix).

Looking good Clifford!

Clifford Keesler
Welcome Konrad, @ Maciej, yes I'm a sucker for the old Monogram kits. They and Airfix is what I grew up building. I like the challange of taking an old kit and making it look nice. I don't know if you know it or not , but most photo-etch etc for Haseagawa kits will work just fine on the Monogram/Revell kits. This one has the Hasegawa F-18 cockpit detail decal set in it. I started primer and pre-shadeing today.

Clifford Keesler
All base colors applied. I will get some pictures up tomorrow.

Clifford Keesler
I did not get any pictures today, instead I helped my 10 year old grand daughter start her first model airplane, a Pegasus 1/48 A6M-2 Zero. I asked her if she just wanted to put it together, (it is a snap tight) or paint it. Of course she said it had to be painted just like mine and glued also. So spent the day teaching a 19 year old to try and use an airbrush and Tamiya extra thin glue. She did fairly well, she only made one run on the cowl, which we repaired and she got every thing primed and the wings done. She is already looking forward to her next one. And she picked the Zero not me. I am happy and proud to start another generation on this journey our wonderful hobby has to offer.

Maciej Bellos
Well done Clifford! May she build lots of kits!

Clifford Keesler
Thank you Maciej.

Gareth Windsor
Sounds like a great reason not to get on with your own model. Sounds like some some nice memories with Grandpa there.

Clifford Keesler
Yes, she is loving it. Hopefully we get some more done on it tomorrow. The F-18 has some decals on it.

Clifford Keesler
Quick update. This one is almost finished, need only to add main gear legs and weapons. Will be finished soon I hope.

Clifford Keesler
Thank you very much Roland.

Ludvík Kružík
He's handsome. His finish looks very believable. 👍

Gareth Windsor
Another stunner Clifford.

Clifford Keesler
Thank you very much Ludvik and Gareth, your kind words mean a lot and are much appericated.