Re-inventing the Wheel using the
Monogram 1/48 Hornet

by Bob Aikens

Revell-Monogram's 1/48 scale F/A-18 "Blue Angels" is available online from Squadron.com

By my foggy reckoning this is my 8th build of this kit. I realize that to some it might seem a bit...what's the word I'm looking for ? But reasons have always seemed to pop up justifying another attempt - a neat set of markings; a try at dropping the flaps & slats; a Canadian Forces Hornet...; But the best reson of all is getting the kit from a fellow modeler, as with this one; You begin to think 'Maybe I can turn these chunks of blue plastic (it was the Blue Angels 1998 issue) into something, maybe.'

And when I started thinking about doing things over and over and over again, Monet popped into my mind - all those Rouen cathedral fronts, all those ponds and water-lillies - Well, things came into 'perspective', so to speak.

Anyone who has ever done this kit knows it's sort of an inverted Tamiya kit - many things are designed not to work together. So there's lots of twisting and bending and puttying and sanding and priming. And it all reminds you that Ambrose Bierce may have been right in his definition of patience; 'A form of despair often disguised as a virtue'.

When painting time came, I reached into the way back stash for these ones - Gunze Light Ghost Gray acrylic, and AeroMaster Dark Ghost Gray enamel. Thinning the Gunze with a few drops of water, it sprayed right out of the bottle and covered nicely with a semi-gloss sheen. The AM enamel was cut with a bit with Testor's thinner- and with the help of card masks at the nose and rear fuselage sections, it went on neatly.

The AeroMaster decals for this smart-looking CAG aircraft went down almost magically over a well-glossed surface of Testors 1261. Beautiful decals!

Everything seems great when it's over. And looking back in retrospect is like self-inflicted suicide. But the tautological metaphor doesn't hold when it comes to modeling, or any other creative activity, for that matter. Because you are not re-inventing the wheel, the wheel is re-inventing you.

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2009 by Bob Aikens
Page Created 11 March, 2009
Last Updated 11 March, 2009

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