When I saw a McAir GB, I thought I’d jump in with both feet and three Hornets. (Yes, three.) I had two of the ol’ Monogram A-18 kits and one Testors kit that I wanted to use the Two Bobs sheets on to build as Fighting Omars from VFC-12. Two as one-seaters, and one as a two-seater. Well, during the course of my build, the plan changed. It’s a long story, but I decided to go with two grey Omars and a VMFA-251 jet from the Two Bobs 1st MARDIV sheet. I figured I could use these builds to practice some building, painting, and weathering techniques.
This first jet’s the -251 jet. It’s Monogram’s A-18 offering pretty much OOB. The -251 jet should be a -C model, but I didn’t bother with adding all the lumps and bumps or angles and dangles. I left it as what looks like an -A. Like I said, the decals are from Two Bobs. One thing I didn’t do though was paint on the false canopy. The rockets, GBU, and missiles are taken from Hasegawa weapons sets. The drop tanks, iron bombs, and VERs are from the Testors kit. Everything else is OOB except for the LEX fences and the blade antennae. Those are scratched. The kit’s painted with MM enamels, and weathered with ground up pastels and watercolors.
If you’d like to see the WIP, you can go here. The WIP thread also follows the work on the two Omars jets. At this point all three are done. I just need to shoot some better pix of the VFC-12 jets so I can post ‘em.
Anyway, I know this build isn’t perfect. It’s no contest winner. Heck, it’s barely a three footer! Still, it allowed me to practice and try a few new things, and have some fun in the process. Ya know, I think it looks like a Hornet and that’s good enough for me!
Hi, oortiz10! You might say it’s not a contest winner, but I think you’ve done a really job. I like your shading and weathering, you’ve made yourself a nice-looking model there!
Ya know Dave, I wondered about the seekers on these things. I’ve seen pix of 'em in both the “neutral” position and drooped. I went with the drooped. It may look exaggerated, but that’s the look I was going for. I wanted it to be “visible in 1/48.”
I must agree with the others, exceptional work! SOme nicely done additions as well. Good to see the “drooped” seeker heads, some folks miss that detail. The soot around the L/E of the rocket launchers is another nice touch. Your canopy looks very well done as well. Overall, a beautiful model and one worthy of the contest table IMHO. [^]
