Academy 1/72 F-18A "Blue Angels"

[Guest]

Good job so far.

Regarding the intakes can you try to carve them with a cutter?

Francesco

[Guest]

It's amazing what a pair of wings and fins can do for a model !!! I can confirm that jet noises and aerobatic moves have been performed, so modelling can continue

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Thanks for the ideas for the intakes guys, I'll see what I can come up with. Though I have found pics of the covers used, so that may be a option if they come out pants.....

Cheers, Neil

[Guest]

Man, it's been tough to get any time on this !! Things have been moving rather slowly, but at least they've been moving !! So sorry for the amount of pics all in one go, but they're fairley self explanatory. For the intakes, I went with using blue-tac. It was a bit time consuming, but fingers crossed, it'll work out ok. I also used it for the wheel bays, so I hope it does !!!

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Cheers, Neil

[Dave W]

Looking good Neil.

[Guest]

Hi Neil, looking very good so far.

Excellent build.

Francesco

[flyjoe180]

Looks good Neil, nice paint work so far

[Guest]

Well, it's blue.......I've got a pot of Revell and Tamiya paints that are supposed to be a close match for the proper colour, but they look very dark ( though seem to match the colouring on the decal sheet, and the pic of the model on the box lid...), but in all of the reference pics, the colour seems to be lighter. The colour I've ended up with seems somewhere inbetween, and to my eye seems quite nice. We'll see how it looks on the shelf !!

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Cheers, Neil

[Guest]

Masks off, gear and wheels on !! The blue tac masks didn't do too badly, with only a little chipping when I took them off, so quite pleased with that. For anyone with this kit to do, go very easy with the nose gear. There are weak points just above the hub that the wheels attach to, and where the rear facing strut mounts. Plus points are that the kit comes with stencils for the front and main undercarriage, which is a nice touch, if a tad fiddley !

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Cheers, Neil

[Guest]

Just caught up with this and it is looking good

[flyjoe180]

Looks very nice Neil.

[Guest]

Ok, decals on. For the most part they went on fine. They are very "grabby" so a bit tricky to move around, but seem to be quite strong, so not too many problems. Given a good dose of setting solution, they all seemed to settle down very nicely. The only problem I had was with the underside arrow head, which has to go over a set of sensors/aerials, so that's not really their fault !! Should be ok with a bit of touching up.

The only thing I may have done differently was the spine stripe. The decal sheet provides one complete part, which I used, or a cut-up version if you want to open the canopy. The one-piece part was ( obviously ) a bit of a pain to sort, so it may be easier to use the separate pieces even on a closed lid.

So, just a few bits, and I'll be done

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Cheers, Neil

[Guest]

Of course, practically the last thing to do on this, and I manage to ping one of the small aerials into the clutches of the carpet monster !!! Was tempted to leave them off, but that are fairly prominent, so had a go at making a replacement, which came out ok.

So, I'm calling this done, and I'll put some pics up in the completed section. Thanks for all the interest and comments, much appreciated

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Cheers, Neil

[Guest]

I remember as a little kid, the first time I saw the 'blue angels' in "action". It was about 1982-83, and they made one of their inaugural appearances at a Halifax airshow my cubs scout troop went to see. I was about 8-9 back then. I recall the news and buzz of excitement that "an american all F18 aerial acrobatics team was coming to town soon".

The Blue Angels. Sounded aggressive. Vengeful. American.

All we had was the pansy sounding 'snowbirds'. Flying outdated T37 tandem trainers (or what seemed like to me). Needless to say, there was quite the anticipation of an aerial acrobatics team that flew actual fighter planes.

Funny now, when I think of it, I don't think I ever saw them again after we left NS. There were a few airshows I went to in ON, but I don't recall if "TBA" was there or not. By today, those kinds of aerial displays are pretty common. Every nation that can afford an airforce has an acrobatics team.