Academy 1/72 F/A-18C Hornet

this is Academy's 1/72 scale F/A-18C Hornet. this is the third airplane model i built and the second one i have finished. the first one was not finished because i made lots of mistakes during painting. the second one barely made it but it is now done. i made some errors on this kit also.

1. the wing root which should be barely visible. if you are going to build this kit take care of the wing roots. you can use filler like putty or lay a strand of stretched sprue

2. the cracked canopy. this is a newbies error so "my bad" :P

the weathering was done with pastels and i used tech pen, oil wash and acrylic wash on the panel lines. this kit was also used as a testbed on how to accent recessed panel lines using different techniques. i built this kit on and off for three months and it was a great build.
i have learned a lot during th building process. enjoy!!

my first model kit

My very first model kit was a Tamiya 1/12 scale Motorcycle kit. It's the bike Valentino Rossi rode on in Valencia, Spain in 2003. I built it unpainted last July of 2005. Then last November 2009 i saw my clubmate Roger's build of Casey Stoner's Honda LCR bike. And that got me thinking about really finishing the unpainted bike. so, i started with the engine. I painted it with gray primer before but never got past it. Good thing i used just small amounts of super glue to assemble it and the rest of the bike. So i decided to dismantle the engine first and strip the primer. then cleaned the rest of the kit with alcohol. And started all over. Below are photos from the dismantled engine, chassis and calipers, cowlings and exhaust pipes and brake disc rotors and brake fluid cable lines up to the finished bike. The model was built in 3 weeks. Paint used were Tamiya Dark Mica Blue and Gunze Yellow. Although it's not as shiny as one would expect, it was a joy to build.