1/72 Hasegawa CF-18 Demo 2011

Gallery Article by Yopper Chopper on Jan 31 2014

 

 

So much has been said about the Canadian CF-18 and their eye-catching demonstration routine that I decided to build my own, choosing as subject the 2011 demo scheme. The theme was all about family - Supporting Our Military Families - and about recognizing how much the Canadian Forces owes to families for enabling its soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen to do what they do. To build this model I had to create the decals on my inkjet printer, since none are available commercially representing this aircraft. This is somewhat regrettable, since these are very colorful. The model goes together fairly easy. Care must be taken to align the rudders to the proper angle. I built myself a jig to do this. When it comes to the decals, I first scanned a picture of the aircraft. Using a paint program I manipulated, cropped, copied and pasted part of the design until I was satisfied that the drawing would look good in 1/72 scale. I also added the IFF antenna on the nose which was not included on the model. 

 

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The paint is typical of the CF-18. I used Model Master FS 36375 for the underside and FS35237 for the upper surfaces. Model Master Radom Tan FS33613  was used on the nose cone. Wheel wells were all painted Arctic white.  I waited a week to make sure all was dry before adding a coat of Testor’s Gloss Coat.  This left the paint  glossy enough to  place my custom made decals of the  2011 demo markings. I placed these on using Micro-Set and Micro-Sol. I let them  sit for 24 hours. I then  sealed them in with a coat of Testor Flat coat.

I hope you enjoy the photos.  This was a challenging opportunity to develop some techniques in decal making and a chance to preview one of Canada’s amazing Demo aircraft.

Andre Dionne (Timmins, Canada)

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Photos and text © by Andre Dionne