Hi everbody!
I just snagged Academy’s 1/32 F-18C “OIF” and after a quick look I must say “Very impressive!” Now, I’ve been reading here on the forum about the rear main landing gear sagging over time. Can anybody give me some insight as to what’s going on? Is it rotating about the attachment point? Looking at the kit, it seems it might be kinda weak there. Or, is the axel bending? Has anyone come up with a fix? I thought I read here that someone in the aftermarket was going to prodce all metal landing gear for this kit. Yet,so far, I’ve seen nothing and searching the forum, I can’t find who it was. Finally, while I’ve got your attention, is there anything else I need to look out for?
Hey Bstrump,
MikeV is the person that told me about a guy that had some test shots of some 1/32 F-18 landing gear that were cast in brass at the IPMS Nats in Phoenix (Speaking of… anyone heard from MikeV lately?) I contacted that gentleman and he said he was planning on doing it,it’s just that he was in the process of marketing L/G for another A/C and was not prepared for the demand by customers.To make a long story short he was too swamped to get to it .I e-mailed him again about 2 months ago and nothing had really changed.As far as the kit is concerned,the only case of faulty L/G I have heard about was on here in the forum.I have never heard about it anywhere else.I also heard (and I can’t remember where) that Academy’s first kits off the line were the one’s with the soft L/G supports,and so long as you have a later kit ,and in this case you obviously do,the problem has been corrected.Just take this info with a grain of salt,but IMHO after looking at the L/G supports in my kit,I believe they should hold up without a problem.Anyway if you still want to try out the cast brass landing gear,and I don’t fault you at all if you do,e-mail me and I will try to do a forum search to find it.
OK?
Later on…
Bstrump,
I built this kit about a year ago, shortly after they hit the market and I have not had any problem with the landing gear deforming. The metal core for all three gear is pretty strong. While the plastic parts add a small amount of strength, they are mostly window dressing. I think the supplied kit parts for the cockpit and external items are just as good if not better than the AM stuff. The only exception to this might be the exhaust “turkey feathers” The PE sets would probably look a little better, but using them would entail a horrendous amount of work. There are sixteen pieces in the outer layer and another 16 in the inner layer and that is for EACH engine. I would think that getting these lined up properly would be very difficult and anything less would look terrible. The kit turkey feathers give you options for open or closed in both the early and late styles. Use the correct ones for whichever plane you are doing.
Be careful when you select which ordnance you are going to use. Certain guided weapons require certain sensor pods on the cheek stations. My kit was the basic F/A-18 before Academy came out with the OIF version. I think that they are the same other than decals. Mine had parts for both the A and C versions of the aircraft. Different tail fins, lower fuselage section under the cockpit, and different instrument panels. These parts were extremely accurate for both versions. Don’t glue the internal radar components in the nose until after you have painted the outside of the plane. You can’t close the radome if you do, then you have to do a bunch of masking.
The wing fold option looks fantastic on the bottom, but horrible on the top. The folded wings look great from a distance, but closer examination of the top, which of course is what you see, looks really bad. I would recommend leaving the wings extended.
[alien]
A68T and yardbird, thank you for your replies! Wow! I got what I wanted and then some. It sounds like then that I need not worry about the kit L/G, so I’ll use it as is. Thanks for the heads-up on the wing fold. I was scratching my head as to which way to go but now I’ll be doing mine parked on the ramp, wings extended. As for loadout, I was thinking of fuel tanks, JDAMs and Sidewinders.
Mine was the kit with the bent landing gear. The bending has happened relatively slowly over time. They are bending at two different points - where the leg makes its bend from vertical to horizontal, and where the top of the leg inserts to the fuselage. One side (the right side) is bending more than the other side, but, both sides are bending. All of the plastic shells and struts are still intact, and don’t show any signs of stress whatsoever, which is very puzzling (you just gotta see it to know what I’m trying to say). As soon as someone comes out with an aftermarket set of stronger gear legs, I will definitely buy them and install them on my Hornet. I guess it’s extremely possible that I got a poorly-cast set of gear legs, as I haven’t heard of anyone else having this problem either. Leave it to me to spend $90 for a kit that has a defect…