WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 F-15E Strike Eagle Pt.3 – Painting & Finishing
Painting begins with black for the canopy frame. The nose is a deeper shade of gray so to help make it more visually distinct I used black as a marble coat instead of white. I did both preshading of panel lines and marble coating to help with making a single solid color scheme look less …...
WIP : Academy 1/72 F/A-18E Super Hornet ‘Top Gun’ Pt.3 – Painting & Finishing
Painting begins with a preshade. Note that I fully painted the canopy frame at this point. The standard color scheme for the F/A-18E/F is a two-tone gray scheme. The topside is listed as FS36320. To slowly build up the opacity I went with very thin (3:7 paint to thinner ratio) coats of Mr Color Aqueous …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 F-15E Strike Eagle Pt.2 – Construction
Work continues as I attach the nose to the fuselage. There’s a somewhat ugly seamline here which requires getting rid off. Good thing is there’s no rescribing needed as it’s not meant to be a panel line. The gun port is a simple upper and lower join which results in an ugly seamline in a …...
WIP : Academy 1/72 F/A-18E Super Hornet ‘Top Gun’ Pt.2 – Construction
So far the snapfitting has been good and Academy is commended for minimizing seamlines. There are however some prominent ones that need addressing. The first is the bottom of the LERX. There is also a seamline where the upper and lower halves of the nose join. In the film, whether the inner wing pylons were …...
WIP : Academy 1/72 F/A-18E Super Hornet ‘Top Gun’ Pt.1 – Construction
Like any self-professed aviation geek, I was a massive fan of Top Gun: Maverick and upon seeing that DEF Model has issued decals for the aircraft in that movie including of course, Maverick’s F/A-18E Super Hornet, I just had to build one. The kit will be the newish Academy offering that is (somewhat) snapfit. I …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 F-15E Strike Eagle Pt.1 – Construction
Unlike most aviation fans, I’m not that much of a fan of the F-15. But it’s one of the more important fighter jets of the 20th/21st Century. And of course I want to have a ‘teen fighter’ collection so here we are. Likely overshadowed by newer releases, this Hasegawa offering is at one point, the …...
Completed : Academy 1/72 Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian ‘TNI-AD’
Number 09 of 2021...
WIP : Academy 1/72 AH-64E ‘TNI-AD’ Pt.3 – Painting & Finishing
Time to paint and finish this build. I started with my usual black base and white marble coating. As we shall see later, it wasn’t that effective. The AH-64E fielded by the TNI-AD comes in a 2-tone camouflage of olive drab and green. The CJM decal sheet states that the olive drab is FS34031. I …...
WIP : Academy 1/72 AH-64E ‘TNI-AD’ Pt.2 – Construction
The rotor is next. The base kit is an AH-64D so I need to modify it to the one that equips the AH-64E. My reference for this comes from the Hasegawa AH-64D and E instruction sheets. I made sure they were the same size and then superimposed them together to get a better idea of …...
WIP : Academy 1/72 AH-64E ‘TNI-AD’ Pt.1 – Construction
For this year’s annual TNI aircraft build, I decided to combine it with my annual helicopter build and decided on getting the TNI-AD’s AH-64E Apache Guardian done. What was originally thought to be a straightforward build wasn’t to be. Unsurprisingly really… In any case, this is the base kit… As usual I...
