Small Scale Military Headquarters

Gday all,
Well I bit the bullet and bought the limited release (500 only) RAAF 75th Sqn Hornet.
Few things I have found that are a little strange and I was a little disappointed about.
*Canopy does not want to sit shut, stays open by about 2 or 3mm.
*A tailhook on a RAAF Hornet, does that exist?
*The inner on the turbine is pretty horrid looking.

Things I love about this are
* Crisp lines of the insignia painted on
*The stowage points and ordanance is amazing
* The retractable undercarriage and bay doors is awesome.
*The sheer size of this thing.

I don't intend on modifying this in any way due to its limited release numbers. I am however itching to detail the cockpit, landing gear, add rice grain LED's to the navigation lights, etc. I can't get the nerve to start hacking away at this one though.

Well it's just a short message but hopefully more by me.

All the best
Austeyr.

to keep the canopy shut i put a tiny drop of white glue in one of the front corners of the canopy and then held it down til it dried (i put a shoe on the canopy i think).

Anyway, it will stay shut nice and tight but if you want to open it it's a simple matter of popping it open with a small amount of force. You can even pick the glue residue out fairly easily.

A more sophisticted fix would involve taking the canopy right off and shaving down the hing joints so there is no resistance but i was afraid it may not stay open if i did that.

Nice looking bird.

Most US built fighters have a tail hook for use in emergencies ie. break failure. I can't say all, but most US Military airfields have cables at each end of the runway.

You have a rare bird there Mister!! Thanks for sharing the photos. From the photo I have in my profile album (to see the rest, just hit my website link), it looks like you can just see the arrester between the engines. As mentioned above, just about every fighter base around the world has arrester cables for a no-brake condition.



-Ski

G'day Austeyr

I can confirm that all our Hornets retain their arrester hooks, on Aussie examples it is painted with dark grey stripes.

The biggest issue as far as markings go for the two RAAF F18 examples is the use of roundels on the upper wing surfaces and not on the lower surfaces this is incorrect and the reverse is actually true.

One other minor thing that is easy to fix, the bone domes used by RAAF pilots are grey in colour not white.

I went out on the weekend to do some paint matching, for both the upper and lower greys of the Hornet in preparation for some minor customisation and I think I may have found suitable replacement colours, however as of yet I have not had the chance to test them out. I hope to be able to do so some time this week and then I can post my results here.

My RAAF Hornet also has an ill fitting canopy which is exacerbated by missing paint on the lower edge of the canopy rails. I intend to correct both problems and if you like I can let you know how this was done once I do it.

Talking paint matches I have found that Gunze’s Tan although a little light is a fair match for the plastic used on the M1A1 and once it is suitably weathered in it does the job OK, I will post picks of the Abrams once I get closer to the finish.

The only differences betweent the AUS and the rest of the Hornet Family is that the carrier launch bar is slightly modified. Initially it was removed but then it caused a vibration and wobble so they replaced it with a mock bar minus the small T bar end. All Hornets have the tailhook. Also some other non-US operators still keep some of the carrier-specific gear. On the AUS Hornet, the Carrier Approach light was replaced with a larger taxiing light and then there are some avionics and weapons capability enhancements. In this case, there are other weapons that it can carry that the rest of the Hornets cannot. Awesome plane! at $225.00 AUS I can sympathize~!