Academy F/A-18B A21-105 RAAF 1986
By Peter White
Here is my version of the Academy 1/32 F/A-18D converted to a F/A-18B deployed to Port Hedland in 1986, less than a year after delivery to the RAAF.
A special thanks to Che Peacey from IPMS Queensland for swapping the D for an A+, and to Eric Galliers for organising the swap and his inspiration. Darren Mottram also provided some valuable information for a special decal location.
A seven-month build, an international move and a broken windscreen.
She is finally finished - except for the Sidewinders still being detailed.
The Academy Hornet is a great kit. The only part that lets it down is the intake shape and their fit, but a bit of work and they look OK.
To build an Aussie Hornet you need the Avionix fins or you must modify the RWR gear on the kit fins.
I replaced the windscreen with one from my F/A-18A+ kit but are still looking for a replacement so that I can build a single-seater with full war-load.
Decals are from Hawkeye Models Australia and Pete made up a one-off A21-105 for me. However I decided to paint the yellow and black fin stripe and just use his Tiger Head decal. His decals are great but remember they are a little transparent so need to have a white background for light colours. When I put the Tiger Head over the strips the Tiger disappeared. Rapid application of white, quick dry and one with one used decal worked.
The Aires exhausts are slightly undersize, are a later version than the RAAF jets in 1986 but they look great. I sanded the rear of the fuselage and then re-scribed the last panels around the exhausts. Other mods included the nose wheel where the "launch bar" was removed, an additional landing light added and lumps and bumps removed from the D.
Top side colour is Tamiya acrylic XF-66 lightened a little. The grey was broken up with both lighter and darker versions of XF-66 thinned down and the dirty bits are Flory Weathering wash which in places was thinned back heaps with water and sometimes repainted to cover patches that were too dark. It was very satisfying to just keeping working on the paint job until it pleased me. If something didn't look right, a thin wash of colour was applied until it did and so forth. The underside colour is Tamiya Light Grey Primer. They are not the FS colours but hey, they look right.
Detail in the cockpit is a mix of paint and an Eduard photo-etch set used only for the front cockpit. Seats are from Aires.
Gun and Chaff safety indicators were added to the Port nose area using plastic rod.
The extra placards in the wheel bays are from Airscale.
I took the photos with my Canon 7D mounted on a tripod at 1/30th second and F16 to give some depth of field. The background is a table cloth.
Overall I am pretty happy with the result and it looks pretty impressive sitting next to my Zero and Spitfire in my display cabinet.
© Peter White 2013
This article was published on Wednesday, October 30 2013; Last modified on Wednesday, October 30 2013