This blog was set-up originally to showcase and to reminisce a dying hobby, my old collectible toys and personnal novelty items, it would have been my first move to feature my old scale models first before venturing into more recent subjects, unfortunately most of my few remaining scale model airplane and related objects are in a very "scrappy" condition and posting them as such or without at least some rigid cosmetic restoration is a very deploring alternative for me. This blog is not about random toy parts.
On this life stage and my age; I though that finding new interesting pieces for this blog outside my existing collection would have been a remote possibility , but sometimes you do find subjects that although probably un-prioritized by your taste you still somehow end up patronizing it because it simply fills up a gap in your need for the moment, even on our thriftiest situation at some point we notice or covette things just because they are brightly colored, they are socially in mode or simply they are easy to come by.
The Plane featured hereth post is what i believe to be a United States (U.S.) twin engine Jet fighter the “F-18 Hornet”. While on a visit at my aunt's house, I chanced upon this piece estimated to be at 1/72 scale on a bundle of old toys that she is preparing to give to her grandsons, I ask if i could have it instead, felt a little guilt in doing so but I though my nephew would have not appreciated it anyway, kids today would rather fiddle around video game consoles than run around with a clunky toy airplane believing that they could be fighter pilots someday and fight Godzilla if that ugly mutant lizard ever wondered near his home lol!.
The featured piece above is missing one of its two “afterburner” (exhaust nozzle) and “front wheel” when i found it, it also has has a plastic encased “full-back and run” mechanism with oversized wheels clearly emphasizing that its meant to be a childs toy rather than a static model, The upper fuselage is made of die-cast metal with fairly acceptable detail of paneling lines probably casted from a scale model mold. With fairly accurate and obvious outlines of a 2 seater F-18 hornet, the pre-painted colored scheme is defaultly based on the U.S. Navy's "Blue Angles" aerobatic display squadron. Although I observed that Markings and pattern details are quite corrupted, I decided not to alter the original painting and markings anyway since it is it’s “shininess” that attracted me to take this particular piece in the first place, It would have been more technically dramatic to recreate the landing gears but as I was writing this blog there is neither the time and the priority to do so, and as a run-around explanation I will state that the “Blue Angel’s” machines was intentionally made to be seen while on the sky to entertain and not parked on the runway to intimidate people as far as purposes are concerned. However I did removed and re-sculpted the underside of the fuselage using car putty then repainted the cockpit. The two afterburners was also modified from scratch when It became apparent to assume that the original missing part will never be found.
Cold war American warplanes like the F-18 Hornet is not the subject of my preferred choice ever since I've started allotting interest on collecting, but its hard to set aside the roles they played in World history ; from the Cuban missile crisis , dessert storm and the over-escalated War on Terror, in the last four decades American fourth generation fighters where the superstars of radiocast, newsflash, print cast and online news. for this consideration I never really totally crossed them out of my line-up of collectibles.
With the earliest variant introduced into service during the late 70's, most U.S. Military issued McDonnell Douglas F-18 Hornets are full-pledge Multi-role all weather fighter-Interceptor with superb "ground attack" capabilities, originally designed to face Soviet made Eastern bloc Jet fighters of its time, and because of its size, it is a common carrier based airborne arsenal. Team “Blue Angels” has one two-seater variant on its squadron which is usually ridden by the exhibition announcer or a guest VIP, traditionally designated by the number “seven”. Less capable variants of the hornet are sold to countries the U.S. deemed as un-hostile to American interest. A few years back; the most advance version of the F-18 in terms of technology and avionics was introduce into service for the U.S. Air Forces (USAF) called the “F18 SUPER HORNET”, although the basic Airframes looks similar to the old Hornet at first glance; some of “Jane’s defense” experts would probably say that the "Super Hornet" is a totally different breed of bird.
" I chanced upon this piece estimated to be at 1/72 scale, "
" The
featured piece above is missing one of its two “afterburner” (exhaust
nozzle) and “front wheel” when i found it, it also has has a plastic
encased “full-back and run” mechanism with oversized wheels clearly
emphasizing that its meant to be a childs toy rather than a static
model, "
x
