1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet *Finished*

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Fumbles
Posts: 1657
Joined: Sun 31 Aug 2008, 3:30 pm
Location: Vancouver Canada Again

1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet *Finished*

Post by Fumbles »

Well....... Hello everyone! I am so sorry that I'm late to the party and have fallen behind in visiting the forum lately. To give you an idea of what has happened for the past 2 months.....

First off, The month of July started off excellent! I made my way to RIAT and then off to MAKS in Russia just after that. I then continued on down to Las Vegas for a bit of Red Flag action all without a laptop so I could not even edit pictures on the road. After being away from home for almost a month I did make it home at the end of July. Two days into being home our building had a fire. Thankfully nobody hurt and not a lot of damage to two of the units. But the day after the fire, every person for a "Renoviction" notice. Basically a notice that we all had to move out so the owner could do Renos and then charge more then double the rent for the new finished units using the Fire as an excuse. Needless to say we were very stressed out for the month of August looking for a new home in a market that has a vacancy rate of only 1.6% All the while a Arbitration was filed from other tenants in the building since the owner didn't even have the permits... August flew by and we were down to only having September to find a new home. Well.... After much negotiations and such we found out just over a week ago that we could stay where we live! Wohoo!

So now I'm back and joining James in this Duo build/WIP


Just before the whole mess started I brought out the Trumpeter 1/32 Super Horent out of my stash. I got as far as painting the cockpit tub and then the bad news started. So on that the box was put away till we got the good news!


This build will be a right out of box build. I will not be adding any extras and will be finishing it off in the box top markings to match the Trumpeter 1/32 Tomcat that will be built after this kit providing this kit does not end up smashed against the wall!!! More on why that almost happened shortly.

So again sorry for being away and while I'm at it... Sorry for the phone pictures for the first update. My proper camera is in getting a good cleaning and such. I'll have proper pictures in the next update.

Here we go... First up is the standard Box Shot of what I'll be working on for the next little bit.
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Image21952550_1456519694385619_866330494_o by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

First major problem and this was on day two of the build and only number 3 on the instructions... I'll say it now and I'll say it over and over.. "Dry Fit Dry Fit" everything on these large Trumpeter kits! After gluing in the cockpit and the forward landing gear bay. I did a Dry Fit because something didn't look quite right. Sure enough... The dry fit showed a very large gap that I would have to be filling. After not finding much info on this problem, I spoke with James. He provided a link of someone elses build. Theirs didn't have as much a gap but it did have a little bit of a fix. The fix required me to remove the panel behind the cockpit tub and shave it by 1mm or so. You can't take off to much because if you did, the back seat would touch the canopy. Cockpit removed and the panel shaved, I then did another Dry Fit. Guess what? Yeap still not enough (So that is when the kit almost ended in the bin!) I just could not believe that in only 3 steps and day two of building, I was running in such a nasty problem. So here you see the Ugly Gap. Again sorry for the crap picture.
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Image20170904_152801 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr
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Image20170909_124201 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

Next shot... After a few days and much beer trying to figure a way to fix this. I came up with this idea.. First required me to remove the gear bay and the cockpit tub, once this was done it was now time to shave the top of the gear bay and the bottom of the forward cockpit so thin that the floor almost fell out. Thankfully after the shave here and then putting the tub about a 1mm back. It mostly worked. As you can see in picture 4 here.

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Image20170909_124311 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

Here we go now... I'm building against the instructions because I once again did a "Dry Fit" This time the bottom middle to back fuselage to the full top fuselage. Guess what? Yeap massive gaps and sink spots! So I went against the instructions and glued the main parts of the wings onto the top fuselage and let that set for the night before dry fitting the bottom again. The instructions say to put together the top and bottom fuselage and then the wings... DON'T! Here are two shots of the problem and fix.

First up some gaps between the main wings and forward bottom fuselage that you will need to fill and fix! There is no cheat to move or shave parts here and by gluing on the wings to the upper fuselage this way allows easy access to fix the issue.
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Image20170917_134309 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

Next up shows the sinking between the upper aft fuselage and bottom. The only way to fix this and the next issue is to add brace to hold the fuselage spread apart shown in the last shot of this section.

More gaps in the dry fit show that a brace is needed here as well.
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Image20170916_164336 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

This being a shot of the braces I used to keep the bottom fuselage spread open.
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Image20170917_134330 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

Lastly the fix is done and the as you can see... With the braces in. I have next to no gaps to fix.
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Image20170917_180853 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

Alrighty then... This the last fix of this episode. If you choose not to have the wings folded like me. You will find that the part that fills the gap on the wing fold area needs to be sanded down. Again more dry fitting found this problem. Part number E8 needs to be sanded down to a point in the forward direction, if you don't the part will sit proud! Same goes for the other side.
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Image20170916_151859 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr
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Image20170916_152140 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

Here we go with another problem... For some reason Trumpeter only provided a little stump for the elevators! I managed to fix this by using some leftover tree plastic and made my own bits that would fit in. The elevator on the left is the "Stump" Trumpeter provided. The Elevator on the right has my fix installed.
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Image22047258_1457472407623681_1978034721_o by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

So here I am today... Freshly back from Vegas and where I am with the build. This is the last phone shot and most of the gaps filled. We'll see how the landing gear go now. :ghost: . Thankfully Thanksgiving weekend is this weekend and I'll get more building done. Till then thanks for looking.
So that is all folks.. I'll be plugging away this weekend for next weeks update. For now a closing shot of the cockpit, again no aftermarket parts. I'll be adding some wash and dirt to the cockpit soon as it is just to clean at the moment.

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Image22219551_1464736883563900_532839842_o by Rod McDonough, on Flickr
Last edited by Fumbles on Sun 24 Dec 2017, 6:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Craig
Posts: 4025
Joined: Sun 31 Aug 2008, 10:11 pm

Re: 1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet WIP

Post by Craig »

Fantastic work and dear me does that look to have been some work! :shock:

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Jamesv9820
Posts: 985
Joined: Sat 20 Sep 2008, 6:06 pm

Re: 1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet WIP

Post by Jamesv9820 »

Good to see you on here with the build Rod!

Looks like a lot of work, but that being said, most Trumpeter kits are the same as I am finding the same gaps on my A-10 as we speak!

Look forward to seeing more once you are settled and up and running again!

Al Wood
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon 26 Jun 2017, 3:25 pm

Re: 1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet WIP

Post by Al Wood »

Sounds like you've been through the mill quite a bit Rod, glad things are at last working out mate.

It's great to see you back at the bench and that is some work you have done there.

Looking forward to the next update sir. :up:

Al

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Fumbles
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Joined: Sun 31 Aug 2008, 3:30 pm
Location: Vancouver Canada Again

Re: 1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet WIP

Post by Fumbles »

Merry Christmas everyone.


I finally finished this build. I am sorry I never really got to keep updates on it while the build was going on. I fell so far behind with moving and such. I'm lucky to have even finished this build before the New Year! I'm aiming for less travel in 2018 and a whole wack of builds so stay tuned! Anyways after the problems I did have at the beginning of the build, I really didn't have anymore issues. The rest of the fit was fine, numbered parts were exactly what the instructions said they would be. So here we go.. The Trumpeter 1/32 SuperHornet is done. I buggered up the forward windscreen with a glue burn so I added a small map cut out from a map book to kind of hide the error. I was going to write a review for the kit. But over time I lost track of the good and bad points of the build. James... I'd be willing to give the idea another try in 2018. I'll build that 1/32 Trumpeter F-14. :)

1.Earlier in the build.
ImageIMGP6559 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

2.Pre Shade work and clear coat.
ImageIMGP6558 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

3.
ImageIMGP6556 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

4. The finished kit
ImageIMGP0325 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

5.
ImageIMGP0328 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

6.
ImageIMGP0329 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

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ImageIMGP0330 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

8.
ImageIMGP0332 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

9.
ImageIMGP0342 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

10.
ImageIMGP0326 by Rod McDonough, on Flickr

Thanks for looking. Comments and Criticism always welcome. Be ready for a lot of builds in 2018. I hope everyone gets their mojo back and joins in. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

ArabJazzie
Posts: 2174
Joined: Sun 31 Aug 2008, 9:38 pm

Re: 1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet *Finished*

Post by ArabJazzie »

Nice one yet again Rod.

I really do hope you get back to the bench a bit more often, but if its off to Nellis at every chance, i really cant blame you!

Hopefully i get my mojo back as well!
Arabest,
Geoff.
52 in a year! We must be certifiable!

FarnboroJohn
Posts: 3038
Joined: Tue 28 Aug 2012, 6:57 pm

Re: 1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet *Finished*

Post by FarnboroJohn »

Nice work. I like the understated weathering, to me it looks pretty convincing.

John

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Talldan76
UKAR Staff
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Location: Colchester

Re: 1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet *Finished*

Post by Talldan76 »

Stunning...!!

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Jamesv9820
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Joined: Sat 20 Sep 2008, 6:06 pm

Re: 1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet *Finished*

Post by Jamesv9820 »

Nice Rod!

Good to see it finally finished and after the year you have had, I am glad to see you complete it!

F-14 next year eh? Sounds a plan...

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twirl2688
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Location: Abbots langley

Re: 1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18 Super Hornet *Finished*

Post by twirl2688 »

Looks Cracking Rod. Even if it did fight you most of the way :lol:
Scott
what is the significance of that flag

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