The F/A-18 was built pretty much OOB. Minor changes were
retracting the landing gear, adding a Hasegawa pilot figure and decaling
with Two Bobs VFA-22 markings. I did fill the back third of the jet with
resin (poured in thru the intakes) so that the jet mounting rod had a very
strong attachment point.
The carrier was again built pretty much OOB. Minor changes were
opening a hangar bay door and constructing a very simple hangar bay to show a
little action. I built the carrier to show Hornets both launching and
recovering.
The display base is simply a
piece of poplar plywood with a section routed out to "recess the
water" into. The water was actually allot of fun to make. Here is how I did
it.....
-Start out with a piece of clear
1/4 thick acrylic sheet.
-Mount the boat (I used screws
from the bottom of the display)
-Brush paint the
"sea" with phthalocyanine blue acrylic paint. Use a 1"
wide brush and add plenty of swirl marks. Don’t worry that you can still
see thru the acrylic sheet, this is the affect you want.
-Using acrylic gel medium add
swells and waves and let dry.
-Using acrylic gel medium add bow
waves and prop wash and let dry.
-Dry brush the waves with acrylic
cobalt blue and add "foam" to the wave tops using acrylic white.
-Brush the whole sea with another
thin coat of gel medium to make it "wet".
-The last step is really the
coolest. Take a piece of tin foil and wrinkle it up...then open it back up.
Place this tin foil under your finished "sea". The tin foil will
reflect light back off the bottom and give your sea "depth". It
is a very convincing effect.
All in all this was a fun build
that took the better part of 4 months. But is was worth it. I cant wait to
present it Nick when he gets back from his deployment.
Happy modeling
John
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