Academy F/A-18C Hornet
Construction Review Part Three
Intakes and Nose Wheel Well

by Dave Roof

Academy's 1/32 scale F/A-18C Hornet may be ordered online from Squadron.com

Well, I decided to finish the nose wheel well, intakes and aft fuselage before moving on to the main landing gear. So far, the kit has gone together with no problems whatsoever.

Intake Trunking

Photo 1: Here you see the bottom and top intake halves. There are a total of 12 ejector pin marks that will need to be removed. They were very light on my sample and easy to remove with a sanding stick.

Photo 2: Close up of the ejector pins. As you can see, they are not that bad and were very easy to remove.

Photo 3: For three of the ejector pins, I punched out .005 discs of styrene and super glued them in place. Once the glue dried, I sanded them flush.

Photo 4 (7): Intake halves painted using Tamiya XF-2 Flat White. I have sanded the edges for gluing.

Photo 5 (8): The intake halves glued together. Note the seam. While there are many ways of taking care of seams, this is what I like to do with intakes:

Photo 6 (9): First, I roll miliput into a fine line. Next, I place the miliput along the seam inside the intake. Using liberal amounts of water and Q-tips, I smooth the miliput out and into the seams.

Photo 7: Here is the miliput once it is smoothed out along the seam. I take fine grit sandpaper and lightly sand it smooth. I follow with a light spray of White to touch up and cover the putty. While not perfect, it works for me and the seams are difficult to see once the intakes are installed.

The Nose wheel well consists of 5 pieces and looks really good compared to photos. There are a few items missing, but not enough to worry about. Again, I painted the wheel well with Tamiya XF-2 Flat White. A wash of Windsor & Newton Paynes Gray was used. Detail painting was done with Tamiya, Model Master Enamel, Wal-Mart craft paints, and a Black fine tip Sharpie marker.

Forward Wheel Well

Photo 8: The wheel well components painted prior to assembly.

Photo 9: Close up of the top forward portion of the wheel well.

Photo 10: The wheel well assembled and ready for installation into the forward fuselage halves. This went together very well and it fits into the fuselage with no problems. The locator pins ensure a perfect fit, as well as ensure the nose landing gear will be straight when installed.

Next I'll have the assembly and installation of the engines. I will also cover the assembly of the aft fuselage half.