1/32 Academy F-18

Gallery Article by Bill Bulek on Sept 1 2003

 

This is my first time here so be gentle.  After a 2 decade hiatus I got back into modelling two years ago and since then have completed 3 - yes, three, whole airplane kits.  One of them is a 1:350 Wildcat so you can likely imagine that I suffer mild completion anxiety.

The purchase of this kit started with the Wildcat mentioned above.  My girlfriend saw the tiny, tiny Wildcat and decided that it was JUST SO CUTE!  We were standing in Uncle Bill's Hobby (owned by Rick Chin in Calgary, Alberta) when she uttered those magical words - "If you buy me one and build it tonight, I'll buy you any kit in the store."  Rick started quivering and my eyes began to water.  Moments later I emerged from Uncle Bill's with a 1:350 Wildcat, a 1:32 Hornet, and a bewildered and $160 CDN poorer girlfriend (her words were something to the effect of "I didn't know models could be so expensive....").

The icing on the cake came when a modeller friend of mine laughed at me.  "You NEVER finish anything" began a challenge that ended with "I'll buy you another Academy 1:32 Hornet if you finish this one in four weeks flat."  Long story short: he fessed up last week that I won the challenge and I will soon be the owner of two of these beautiful kits for the price of one tiny Wildcat (free) and the couple hours it took to build it!

The Model:
This kit has been reviewed (very well) a couple times already, so I'll just provide what I thought were the highlights.  First, the box and the kit are huge - the finished airplane is around 21 inches long.  Two things jumped out at me when I opened the box: there are a ton of weapons provided and the detail is amazing.  As a diehard Tamiya fan I was somewhat worried about the fit, especially given the size of the kit and all the compound mating surfaces.

 

Click on images below to see larger images

I was pleasantly surprised as this kit went together very well - the wing joint was amazingly painless, almost invisible, and required no filling (sanding only where I over-glopped the glue).  The cockpit is highly detailed and even though this is a "C" model, it very closely matched pictures on ARC of the A model (I chose the "A" model as the kit is finished in Canadian colours).  This is one of the few places where I did any extra work, specifically I removed the moulded screen behind the cockpit and installed some micromesh in its place.  I also added three handles to the side panels (you can only see the yellow one in the cockpit picture).  There is mild weathering in the cockpit but very little anywhere else.

Landing gear bays are nicely detailed, but if I build another with the gear down I'll carve out all the plumbing and build in more realistic lines, hydraulics, etc (bear in mind the completion anxiety mentioned above).  The kit also includes both rubber and plastic tires.  The wings came with an added bonus: included are actuators/hinges to put the flaps in four positions from full up to 45 degrees down (I used the latter).  Unfortunately, the upper halves of my wings were warped - one seriously.  The first flattened out beautifully with gentle application of a heat gun.  The second withered like a leaf in autumn and took two nights of filling, sanding, scribing and 'riveting' to repair.

There is enough glass in this kit to warrant a separate paragraph.  The control panel has three clear panels that go over simulated electronic displays.  The display decals are incredibly bright so I sprayed them over with Tamiya "Smoke" to dull them a little.  The displays may really be this bright to a pilot, but from anything but a direct angle the real displays look darker and hazy, the effect I was trying to simulate.  There are also nav lights for the body and aileron actuator, but surprisingly there is no clear part for the wingtip launch rail nav light.  All lights were painted silver on the back, then Tamiya clear red or blue on the visible side.

The most noticeable and common fault on this kit is dimpling.  Even after noticing and repairing several dimples, more appeared after the gloss coat.  The plastic can be thick in places and it is rather soft - which made it easier to shave the tail bulges off during the C-to-A conversion.

Finishing:
I completed the kit in Canadian Armed Forces colours using decals from Leading Edge Models.  These decals look fantastic - high resolution, accurate colours.  The bottom of the plane was finished with MM Light Ghost Grey enamel.  The top is a mixture of three Gunze and Tamiya acrylics and I should have added a tinge of blue.  Note that the kit is somewhat darker than it appears in the photos.  The only glitch encountered here was the MM acrylic gloss coat - even applying two layers with an airbrush still left a very rough surface.  I wet-sanded areas to receive decals, used Micro Set and Solve, but almost all the bottom decals silvered badly.  I don't understand why, but all the top decals went on very well.  I can only imagine that the different paint under the gloss coat affected the surface layer somehow.

Finishing touches are required.  I was fortunate enough to attend the Abbotsford Airshow August 9 (and met Steve and several ARC'ers) and discovered some details on the F-18's that I hadn't noticed in photos.  The walkways will have to be airbrushed the same colour as the rest of the plane, white antennas will be painted to match the fuselage, and most of the bottom decals will have to be replaced.  A resin seat will also be added as the kit seat leaves much to be desired.  I like planes to look "factory new" so weathering has been minimal - and I really don't think I could come anywhere near the realism and skill that some of you show in your kits!  I'm also not big on weapon loads, so I'll donate most of the weapons back to Uncle Rick.

So I've now completed four whole kits in two years and my 110+ kit stash seems to grow weekly.  A project this ambitious couldn't have been completed with my skills without the help of others.  First is Uncle Rick of Uncle Bill's Hobby - he's constantly pushing me to build and is a wealth of information on modelling.  Second is the ARC website - it's amazing the effort modellers put into writing how-to articles, providing kit reviews and taking walk around pictures.  Steve's doing a great job on this site and it's the only website I visit daily.

I hope you enjoyed the pic's and found some useful information in this article!

Bill Bulek

      

Photos and text © by Bill Bulek