Revell 1:72 F/A 18F Super Hornet

[homechild]

I’d planned to start with my 1:48 Hurricane however, with the upgrade parts I wanted out of stock for the foreseeable and me wanting to get going I picked one that’s been in my stash for about 8 years (I know this because the postmark on the decals I got is 2012).
I’m starting with the Revell 1:72 F/A-18F Super Hornet.
I’ll be building it out the box with the exception of the decals.
I’ve got a couple of ex-US Navy friends that worked on the Fighting Four-One Tomcats as part of the aircraft maintenance crew many years ago so I got some Twobobs Fighting 41 decals when I got the kit.
The kit is, I guess, pretty standard, a lot of nice looking detailing on the surfaces, not too deep (and hopefully not to shallow).


Haven't made a great deal of progress on it so far, mainly due to trying to decipher some of the instructions and work out what paints I'm going to need. Some of the colours mentioned at the start of the instructions don't even appear anywhere else so I'm going to be doing some research online and will make my decisions that way!
Anyway, It's likely to be a relatively slow build to begin with but I'll add to this as and when there are any updates.

One thing of note that was a bit irritating, I tried putting the upper and lower body together to check the fit only to find that the lower section of the wings were pointing downwards, I should've taken a photo but I've tried to remedy this with some tape.

[papa 695]

Nice one Drew, just pulled up my chair.

[homechild]

As the cockpit decals didn’t exactly go to plan this will be a learning experience for me. I’ve already realised that it’s not going to be as good a build as I was hoping for but after a break of about 6 years or so that’s to be expected.
Because of this I’m going to save the Twobobs decals for a later build and will just use the kit set. I’ll put some photos up tomorrow once the paint is dry.
I don’t feel so bad now that I’ve made this decision, less pressure and I’ll have the opportunity to try pre-shading too without having to worry too much.
Not sure whether to go with the Jolly Rogers or the lo-vis Red Rippers.

[topgazza]

I have started to ignore the cocpit decals and hand paint with a 00 brush the dials and switches. Takes some time but looks better to me

[homechild]

I thought about that (and I’m planning that for my 1:48 builds) but 1:72 is a bit small.

[topgazza]

Thats true

[homechild]

Okay, I’m calling this one done.
It isn’t finished but it’s served a purpose.
It got me back into the swing of things, reminded me (a little too late at times) of things to do/check and let me practice pre-shading.
I now understand the theory if not the execution. I’ll get there though, it did give me some thoughts on how to do it next time.
In addition, there wasn’t as much difference between the two grey’s as I’d hoped (even though they were the recommended FS numbers).
What happened?
Well, the cockpit decals didn’t quite go to plan (but learned from it)
Two of the hardpoints were inexplicably missing (note to self to check all parts are present before beginning)
Need to practice doing finer lines with the airbrush for pre-shading and tape off parts to avoid too much pre-shading
Accept that maybe 1:72 modern jets are a bit small for me now...maybe