F-18 Hornet and Super Hornet Ideas and Inspiration

[GTX_Admin]

 

[jcf]

Things you can do with your EA-18G.   

https://deadspin.com/u-s-navy-is-very-sorry-that-their-pilot-drew-a-dong-in-1820533129

[taiidantomcat]

Les: is that an Iranian F-17? I like it!

I remember getting quite excited about F-18L options and read up on lots of different potential operators...one day! I need to finish the R/W Aussie one I have first.

Yes... sort of !


glad you like it !   Here's more on the subject:
http://wiki.scramble.nl/index.php/Northrop_P-530

Ive been wanting to do a "Snub" nosed Hornet for years now. It will look great if I ever get around to it as your model demonstrates 

[GTX_Admin]

One I'm surprised Les hasn't done...yet:



Or maybe this one:

[uncle les]

One I'm surprised Les hasn't done...yet:

...early days 

[GTX_Admin]

Blind or enhanced in other ways?

[The Big Gimper]

Here is something for all you F-18 fans

[SebastianP]

Does anyone have a good list of modifications needed to make an F-18L from a regular Hornet kit? I could find very little hard info on the F-18L except more views of the display model from the first page of the thread, with only enough detail to see that the model depicts a twin-seater.

So, as far as I can tell, the mods I'd need to do are these:

1. Start with a twin-seater

2. Leave off the tailhook from the lower fuselage. Possibly build a parachute fairing? (Where would it fit though...)

3. Sand off the wing fold hinges from the top and bottom off the wings

4. Somehow "skinnify" the landing gear (I'd limit myself to using a single wheel nose gear unit as I'm working in 1/72); or build it wheels up

5. Raid a Super Hornet for its outboard hardpoints, install them on the formerly folding outboard sections of the wing or at the former hinge? I'd guess something like even spacing with the other hardpoints.

6. The model depicts some strange (for a Hornet) weapons options, like wingtip Sparrows, and Rockeye-laden MERs. Then again, MERs full of Rockeyes were way more common on demonstrators than in real life...

7. What kind of camo would we be looking at? In service the F-16 and F/A-18 both ended up using the "standard" US-designed camouflages for a long time, with only a few of the later adopters using anything different from what the USAF or USN did, other than Israel. Northrop were courting Israel, so that camo is a given, but who else?

[elmayerle]

Start with an early F/A-18 kit that still has the slotted LERX (the original Airfix kit and the one marketed by Entex are good choices).  It may not be quite accurate, but I intend to swap main gear with a F-15 that I'm navalizing.  For the nose gear, you need to fill in the fuselage space for the strut on the aft side of the nose gear (fix the provided door in the closed position) and go with a single wheel nosegear (possibly raid a F-16?).

The rest is pretty much as you describe with the outboard hardpoints evenly spaced from the others.  For a two-seater, you would have to add the two-seat bits to one of the kits with the slotted LERX (I don't know if any such two-seaters were kitted).

HTH,
Evan

[perttime]

The image on page one lists a Land Based Tail Hook for the L. Not sure if there's enough difference compared with the Naval one

[GTX_Admin]

This might be of use:



BTW, there would still be a tail hook - it would be for the Airfield Arrestor System.  If you wanted something different from the normal F/A-18 one (though I'm not sure I would bother or that it would be distinctly different in appearance) you could borrow one from an F-16 kit.

[GTX_Admin]

Speaking of F-18Ls, what about some USAF ones:



Would look cool in same scheme as worn by USAF F-16s over the years:

[SebastianP]

One thing I've been unable to confirm is what the landing gear arrangement on the F-18L would have looked like - there are two color pictures floating around of Northrop's display model, one with the gears extended and one with them retracted. But you can't see more than the nose gear in the first one since it's from slightly above the plane.

Apparently Northrop had painted up one of the YF-17s as a "CF-18L" while trying to attract Canadian interest - but the Cobra had an entirely different landing gear well arrangement and I don't think the F-18L would be *that* different.

elmayerle mentions using F-15 nose gear, but the front gear bay is set up for that super heavy duty actuator with the extra-long landing gear bay doors. Again, the question is, would they change the whole bay door arrangement for the land-based version? That sounds like overkill to me...

Also, it looks from some of the pictures that the outboard hardpoints are just a third set of the same type. Which makes things a bit easier (have some left over, I think).

My idea right now is for a late-model F-18L in either NATO service (in the Hill scheme like the F-16); USAF service (in either the Hill scheme, overall Gunship Gray, or maybe Have Glass II or V); or Israeli camo. It would basically be an F/A-18C or D (the official Northrop display model was a twin-seater, though some of the other art suggests a single-seater), complete with bird-slicers on the nose and extra chaff/flare buckets under the belly, with the landing gear doors closed up (so I don't have to modify the landing gear...), the wing hinges sanded off, and three sets of regular Hornet hardpoints.

(If I want to be trollish, I'd do just an F/A-18D with no wing fold and extra hardpoints, and paint it up in USMC colors. They don't fly their twin-seaters off of carrier decks anyway, they don't really need the carrier-specific features other than maybe the landing gear that lets them land with heavier loads)...

[Kelmola]

Re the tail hook, why downgrade it? Easier to let it be as is for commonality, lightening it would not save much weight but would just require unnecessary re-engineering and I've never heard of a pilot who ran into the barrier to have complained that his tail hook was too strong. Also, a full-strength landing hook is very useful if making purposefully arrested landings at roadway strips like the Finnish Air Force regularly does with their Hornets (would hazard a guess that the Swiss Air Force still does roadway operations too).

Roadway strips is where the carrier-grade landing gear would come to its own too - bearing in mind that SAAB Viggen was designed for similar operations and as a consequence had its landing gear (and of course the entire structure) stressed for sink rates usually reserved for carrier-borne aircraft only.  Then again, if you plan to operate the plane from roadways, then the folding wings become useful too, as the plane will fit into smaller revetments...

[GTX_Admin]

Some more info including details of the landing gear and tail hook:





and just a little whiffery inspiration...

[kitnut617]

The u/c look a bit like F-15 gear

[SebastianP]

Starting to wonder if the really old Italeri F/A-18 wouldn't be a good idea to use for this, because the conformal sparrow fairings are separate parts on that kit. And I think you can slot the LERXes pretty easily as well. The landing gear doors would be harder to do though, the whole thing looks like a scratchbuilder's dream... and my nightmare, because I can barely be trusted with shake-and-bake models....

[kitnut617]

The Airfix 1/72 F-18 kit has big slots in it like that. I'll have to get it out and have a check, but I seem to remember it like that when I built it.

[GTX_Admin]

I wouldn't focus too much upon the LERX slots.  In all likelihood, the F-18L would have gone through similar aerodynamic refinements in this area as the standard Hornets, namely increasing the wing leading-edge radius, variations in the LERX camber, filling in the slots in the LERX-fuselage juncture and adding the LERX Fence.

[Rickshaw]

I love the artist's rendition of the RAAF's 'roos on that painting.   

[Volkodav]

I love the artist's rendition of the RAAF's 'roos on that painting.   

From a distance they look like Kiwis.

[The Big Gimper]

I'm sorry but think it looks like a Parasaurolophus.



The "Maple Leaf" is a dinosaur footprint.

[GTX_Admin]

I'm sorry but think it looks like a Parasaurolophus.



The "Maple Leaf" is a dinosaur footprint.

   That's an entirely different story...

[GTX_Admin]

[kitnut617]

The camo of the RCAF one in the artists rendering is interesting ---