As some of you already know, I’m currently building the 1/32 Academy F/A-18C Hornet but I want to build it as a CF-18 with these markings
My problem is this one: That plane has been used for air shows, but I really love the weapons that came with the Academy kit and I’m currently building and painting all of them.
How much of a crime would be to put some weapons on a airshow plane?[] Ok I can hear you screaming![V] DON’T DO THIS! The other option would be to display them aligned on the ground with the plane, like in the FSM review of the kit (I think it’s in the april 2003 issue). Am I completely out of the track?
It ain’t no crime! It’s your model and no one can tell you how to build it but you (or maybe you wife?). There is nothing wrong with weapons on a demo bird. I know for a fact that there is a pretty good chanse that it did. Before the airshow season would have started, the plane was already painted. They are usually finished by February. I know this as I know the painter for the demo birds in Cold Lake and I am former CAF pilot also. The planes are used in training after painting until the airshow season is close to starting and it is then given to the demo pilot to practice his routine. I have even seen a demo bird fly in maple flag exercises! Imagine having a brightly painted hornet roll in on your six!!! Remember you are building for you. Don’t build to someone else’s ideals or themes.
Happy modeling!
PS: It is a great shot with Mt. Baker in the background taken at the Abbotsford airshow. I know 'caues I live in Abbotsford!
It’s your model, do what you want with it. If you plan to enter it in contests, some of the rivet counters among the judges might ding you points for innacuracy, but if you’re building it to sit on your shelf, build it any way you like.
This is a hobby. It’s a recreational activity. I don’t enter contests, so if I want to do something that isn’t exactly accurate, so what? The people who will mostly see my finished models are non-model builders who are impressed that I built something. If I put Sidewinders on a Hellcat, most probably wouldn’t even notice.
You know durinng Desert Storm, the Thunderbirds did a film with all of there planes decked out with weapons loads and flew them at the range and dropped them all while being filmed, so who knows what the RCAF does with their show birds, and I’m with the rest who stated before IT’S YOUR MODEL AND DO AS YOU WANT WITH IT!! who cares that your show bird is decked out it’ll make a great conversation piece
Got to agree with everyone else that stated it is YOUR BUILD. Deck her out with whatever you like. If YOU are worried about the accuracy of the display. When YOU build the weapons just put blue stripes on all the weapons where the browns and yellows go.
This basically turns all the weapons into block of “concrete”.
When I was stationed at Cherry Point. We would get requests for everything under the sun for the Air Shows they had there.
The Squadrons would then either. Load the plane to the teeth, place the displays around the plane in that neat little V formation in the front of the plane, or just rope them off as a display of their own.
Have fun with it and build up and load up whatever you want to. It is YOUR display.
Thanks a lot guys! I think I will load up that bastard to the teeth and displays the rest in a v-shape in front of the plane like warlock says. Lets pretend it is a “display of power” configuration at an airshow to show people how powerfull that plane can be![:)]
Demo birds with weapons are not unheard of. Rare, maybe, but possible. Somewhere around here I’ve got a couple images of the CF-18A in the red anniversary scheme from a few years ago shooting a Maverick missile.
If you DO put bombs on it, though, PLEASE don’t put any 2000lb laser-guided bombs (GBU-10 or 24) on the inboard pylons-the jet is not capable of employing those bombs from the inboard stations. And don’t use fuze extenders on MK-82s, either. Those were never part of the Hornet’s capability.
it’s an operational squadrons plane and it will stay in that airshow scheme for a your or so. and yes they do carry weapons when they have thouse shcemes just not at air shows.
Feel free to do it any way you want, it’s your kit! [:D]
Don’t worry about the rivet counters, let them go count their rivets, we’ll enjoy the beauty of your work when it’s done no matter how you chose to make it. [8D]
Even though it is your airplane,and you can do with it as you want, I know where you are coming from. I too like to build them as they are suppose to look, in this case, in the airshow mode. Build it that way, and arrange the ordance in a v shape in front of the airplane and by the sides. Put an air field under it, and it will look out of this world. You will still have the ordance for another airplane, or put it on the one you built, if you get tired of it looking that way.
just remember we are not fighting an air war right now only patrols and practice so drop tanks are 90% likely on imboard pylons and either 2 ammrams or 2 mk.82’s (the dumb 500lb. varient) on out board pylons. check www.airforce.forces.gc.ca current aircraft section just to be sure.
Yeah what he said. I don’t build my models to compete with someone else or do I try to build the worlds most perfect model. I have even painted interiors a wrong color just so my detail work would stand out more. Have fun do whatever you want. Don’t ever let someone else put down whatever you 've done. Build for yourself, who cares what other people think.