F/A-18A Blue Angel ready to rock 'n roll WIP

1
April 10, 2021
The quite obvious yellow emergency landing gear handle that should be at left front (see cockpit photo) is not in the kit, so you have to make one yourself, still have to make one and while typing this I see I stupidly missed the AOA indicator directly left of the HUD.
2
April 10, 2021
Cockpit: Blue angels have a smoke switch at the left of the HUD and oil pressure indicators at the right, for keeping an eye on it when flying a while upside down. Also the stick does have a tension spring at the bottom for precise flying (they have to pull constantly at the stick, so there is no ‘loose feeling center-stick’). Also, but not on this picture they have a white 60 sec HanHart timer at the top and in the middle of the instrument panel.
3
May 4, 2021
Yellow C329, top blue C5 70% + blue C328 30%, below blue C5 80% + blue C328 20%. I’m a bit in doubt taking the 70-30 or the 80-20 mix. Regarding the scale effect I think the 80-20 comes close to the real blue angels blue on a bright day. Brighter than I thought in the first place..
4
May 4, 2021
Some further test painting. Yellow C329, top blue C5, below blue C5 80% + blue C328 20%. According to photos from 2006, I think the blue then used, is just a little brighter than nowadays. (The C5 alone is too bright)
5
April 10, 2021
a quick survey with a brush and the paint right out of the bottle, yellow is Mr Color C329, a perfect match with the CAM decals. To the left is a 50-50 mix with yellow MrColor C4 (the color, not the explosive) and pure C4 next to that. Most left blue is 100% C328 and at right from that C328 and blue C5 at a 50-50 mix.
6
April 10, 2021
Some try-outs, Top left mr Color 329 yellow has a great match on the CAM pro decals, they are a little dark yellow but it has something gold/royal, if the yellow is too bright it’s more toy like in my opinion. I think that is also the case when using just Mr Color C5. The mr Color 328 blue is a bit too dark in my opinion; I’ve mixed it 50-50 with mr Color 5 what looks a lot better, maybe I give it a 40-60 mix, have to do another run of try outs. (I’ve sprayed the yellow on a white primer and blue on a grey primer)
7
April 10, 2021
8
April 10, 2021
The third/ rear structural reinforcements at the base of the tail are a bit longer on top of the engines than the first 2 parts. In the kit they are all of the same lenght.
9
April 10, 2021
The F-18A and B have no AN/ALQ-67 rear warning antenna on the tails, I completely overlooked the rights tails in the kit, they are present in the box!
10
April 10, 2021
I had a lot of work with the intakes, putty, sanding, primer, sanding again, primer, spraying paint, but still not happy, so sanding a bit again...
The next time (I have another one of this kit) I will attach the front part of the intake to the intakeducts and prepare and finish it completely before installing them in the airframe.
11
April 10, 2021
12
April 10, 2021
I have to do the white knobs of the MFD’s better somehow...
13
April 10, 2021
Made the pieces where the front part of the intakes must be glued on, a little thicker with thin evergreen and a little sanding for a better join, otherwise you get a small step here. Also don't forget to fill the pin push holes on the back of the splitterplates, they are hardly visible in the end, but I forgot to do it....
14
April 10, 2021
15
April 10, 2021
16
April 10, 2021
Scraped off the ‘grid’-like cover of the ‘hell hole’ behind the seat, the Blue Angel Hornets have a soft kind of cover here with a faded blue color and yellow edges around it. I’ve used some paper towel with wood glue to get a wrinkled shape, painted it light blue and drybrushed it with light grey.
17
April 10, 2021
Mobile phone quality...
18
April 10, 2021
I skipped the HUD glass of the kit and cut it out of some thin transparent sheet (for a laserprinter.)
19
April 10, 2021
20
April 10, 2021
I had to cut down the HUD frame a bit, otherwise it would not fit under the windscreen...
21
April 10, 2021
I put a piece of alu kitchen foil underneath the HUD ‘projector thing’ (what is it called anyway?)
22
April 10, 2021
23
April 11, 2021
24
April 10, 2021
Canopy actuator and other details underneath the canopy, I added the U-shaped duct at the right of the bigger actuator.
25
April 10, 2021
26
April 10, 2021
I put some lead in front of the cockpit just to be sure preventing a tailsitter.
27
April 10, 2021
28
April 10, 2021
The windscreen was a bit too small, in this case it didn't match the canopy, so I tried to make it wider with hot water and a clip which fitted just within with a little pressure.
29
April 10, 2021
F-18A as above has different vents (straight) near the LEX fences than the C (fishbone).
Both of them are on the PE fret. (This must be a picture from back in the nineties, because there is no yellow striping/ visual reference marking on the LEX fence.)
30
April 10, 2021
Certainly not a great fit here when closing the ladder
31
April 10, 2021
Closing the gunport and ventilation ports on top of the nose
32
April 10, 2021
Some pieces of sheet styrene to get it more level.
33
April 10, 2021
Again the fit of some parts are not the best in this Kinetic kit.
34
April 10, 2021
Clean glossy nose...
35
April 10, 2021
36
April 11, 2021
Funny, the kit does have A/B tails (!), on a separate set of sprues (O-sprue it is)... now I have to separate the already glued on photoetch reinforcement plates from the adjusted C-tail because I completely overlooked these parts....
37
April 10, 2021
The Blue Angels Hornets have nothing hanging underneath the wings and are lighter in weight and have less drag than when they are aboard a carrier for example. They are therefore a little higher on their main gear. I wanted to get that 2 inches in scale with this one.. with hot water, bowed it a little bit downwards, I hope it will work and be noticable at the end this way.
38
April 10, 2021
39
April 10, 2021
40
April 10, 2021
I want the nose wheel steering to the right as they departured from the line-up on the taxiway, glued in a piece of metal rod.
41
April 10, 2021
Filled a couple of dents in nosegear strut
42
April 11, 2021
When looking at this F-18A: fairly bright blue and bright yellow. Look at the next photo...
43
April 11, 2021
Here it’s darker ‘royal’ blue and yellow 🙂
Ok, this is the F-18C version but it looks somehow a bit more elegant.
44
April 10, 2021
The front ‘slime lights’ are hardly visible on the Blue Angels version, I've sanded them almost completely off.
45
April 10, 2021
The rear slime lights however are quite visible. Note also the small smoke (oil) duct on top of the left exhaust for spraying a biodegradable kind of oil in the exhaust blast. (Oil is stored where normally the ammo storage is for the nosegun)
46
May 22, 2021
Yellow is on with a white primer underneath, I’ve decided glueing the flaps and slats later on for a little easier polishing the parts in the end.
47
September 5, 2021
48
September 5, 2021
Masking part 1...
49
September 5, 2021
Masking part 2.
50
September 5, 2021
I hope this is gonna work out right..
51
September 7, 2021
Fingers crossed for getting the blue paint on soon.
52
September 15, 2021
Looks pretty blue to me in daylight..
53
September 19, 2021
Mixed feelings, my masking could be better, some spots have to be reworked. In the end I completely painted it over with pure mr Color C5. The 75-25 mix with C328 looked a bit towned done to me and did not gave the scale effect of the subject reflecting less light than the 1:1 F-18.
54
September 19, 2021
Left wing i missed to take off a piece of tape, don’t worry.
55
September 19, 2021
Ok, it looks somewhat like a Blue Angel, i’m not happy with some overspray in a few spots, and in the future i’ll use small tape at the edges instead of a 1 piece back mask, some work to do.. overall I learned some new things that’s allways worth something for the next projects.. now adjust some yellow details and then get it prepared for a glosscoat.
56
May 20, 2022
I would say to CAM decals: take that ‘pro’ away from the decalsheet…. Anyone has a surplus decalset of Kinetic Blue Angels? Or some other brand?
57
September 17, 2023
After a while… All decals placed.
Thanks to scalemate Sven I had the Kinetic Blue Angels decals. Don’t buy the CAM decals, they are useless. I had to make the pilot’s name Ted Steelman from cutting out several letters of the 2017 names and combined them. The names on the CAM decals were at about 70% of the Kinetic and also the real stuff, so too small to use.
58
September 17, 2023
59
September 17, 2023

Kommentit

24 10 April 2021, 17:06

Jos Jansen
Mark, this is definitely a great modeling report for all Blues enthusiasts. I also have this Kinetic kit in my stash and when I am ready I will definitely apply your recommendations and tips & tricks. Currently, I'm building an A-4F Skyhawk from the Blues and I'm also going to try the 50:50 ratio with the Gunze C5, which looks exactly like the Tamiya X-4 that I have in stash. I just don't know how these two paints, the Gunze C328 and Tamiya relate to each other and whether they will split? I'm going to give this a try, I got this two-color mix through an acquaintance at FB.

Still, I find that if you spray the Gunze C328 on a light primer in thin layers, this blue color is not that dark at all and certainly approaches the Blues blue. Over the years they have had many different colors of (commercial) blue colors, and I have a suspicion that the blue color has become lighter and brighter on the Hornets ...!

I also have many photos from 2006 of the Blues at Leeuwarden Air Base, on all photos the blue color seems very bright, but that can also be very distorted by the digital color processors in the modern digital cameras.

11 April 2021, 09:58

Mark D
Thanks Jos, I will try to get as much info as possible in my album about the Kinetic kit.
About the color C328: I think it will do for 1:32 scale (there is a great website of the naritafamily.com with a blue angel hornet on 1:32) but will be a little dark for 1:48 scale I guess; you're absolutely right that over the years there were different kind of blues. Maybe it works better on a white primer indeed.

There are pictures with a brighter blue and also with darker blue, also the yellow on top is sometimes brighter looking in the sun than the CAM decals are.
I think I'm brighten up the yellow a bit, except under the wing-line and on the outside of the tails where the big yellow aircraft number is painted which parts of the plane are a bit in the shadow.

About mixing: I've tested once Tamiya Acrylic with Mr Color, but it didnt mix well, there were air bubbles on the painted surface, but I must say that was with a brush. I would stick with Mixing the 2 Mr Color in this case. (However, thinning Tamiya Acrylics with mr Color leveling thinner works really good...)

11 April 2021, 13:32

Nathan Dempsey
Great work. Looks like a challenging kit.

11 April 2021, 14:11

Mark D
Thanks Nathan, I thought that this kit would be a fast build but definitely not for me with my basic skills, keep learning this way, just attacked the kit and going for it 🙂

11 April 2021, 15:42

Konrad -
Awesome work so far. Looking forward to it.

11 April 2021, 16:03

Jos Jansen
How is the process of this project Mark?

4 September 2021, 08:25

Mark D
Well, i've been busy with projects around the house, but since yesterday busy with this one, making my own masks for the yellow on top, CAM decals are useless for this..( also I made a start with the MiG-21R, because I was curious how the kit was.) But i got the hint 😀

4 September 2021, 10:33

Jos Jansen
Whaaha...😉 it's because I started again with my Blues Scooter...🙂👍

4 September 2021, 11:05

Daniel
great work so far, in!

5 September 2021, 11:17

Mark D
(Don't know why the image is in front of the text...)

15 September 2021, 20:09

Jos Jansen
That blue looks really convinced...?!

16 September 2021, 09:16

Daniel
looks like the mix nailed the blue 👍
speaking of 1:32, I recently was pretty blown away by this guys work:
modellversium.de/gal..-hornet-academy.html

16 September 2021, 20:11

Jos Jansen
Thanks for the link Daniel...that's indeed an extraordinary great Blues build from this guy!

16 September 2021, 20:36

Mark D
Great 1:32 build, that guy is spot on with the colors (sorry to say it, but the intakes are not completely white inside till front).
I myself am a bit afraid how the yellow stripes towards the nose will come out after pulling off the tape....
In the end I mixed mr color C5 and C328 in a 75-25 mix, referring to some pictures maybe a 90-10 mix looks right and other pictures would give more towards a 65-35 percent mix, I've decided, just like Jos did with tamiya, to go in between..

17 September 2021, 10:31

Mark D
Unmasked, need touch ups, not happy with some overspray here and there, but doable...

19 September 2021, 15:08

Mark D
Well thanks CAM for the oversized decals… I put aside the Bu No. and name, the rest is only good for the trash bin…Now searching for some right sized decals…may also be a little bit brighter yellow.

20 May 2022, 20:23

Project info

Blue Angels 2006 Leeuwarden AFB NL

59 kuvien

1:48

Meneillään

1:48 Pro Decals - F-18A F-18B Hornet Blue Angels 2006 (CAM P48018)

1:48 SJU-5/6A ejection seats (F-18 ver.) (Aires 4216)

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