F18 Build - Part 2

And this is where you start kicking up a snow storm....! Shaping/sanding the polystyrene indoors is a sure way of getting on the wrong side of the "law" at home so I do mine outside. 80 grit paper takes care of everything that does not look like F18 and a finer grit gets it nice and smooth. Here the nose has been sanded to its basic shape and the canopy marked out.

Some more shaping and it is starting to look more and more like a Hornet by the minute.

To do the full size plane justice I am trying to get most of the contours as close as possible to the "real thing" that I can with this technique.

The result I am looking for is to have it slightly better than just stand-off scale. The only area where I am cheating a bit is on the wing. Here I've played a bit with the scale and aspect ratio to, hopefully, get a model that is a bit more versatile and does not need a galeforce wind to fly. I can never resist the urge to do a mockup prop to get an early idea what the end result is going to be.