Painting the
Black Box Combat Series

1/32 F/A-18C Cockpit
Part Three

by Dave Roof

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The third and final part will show the components put together outside of the fuselage halves. On my sample, everything fit as advertised. There were a couple of very minor problems with the instruction sheet, but those have already been addressed and the fix is already being worked on. As I stated before, the fit of this set is outstanding.

However, I strongly recommend that you dry fit often and sand a little at a time to ensure an accurate fit of your set.

One small detail that was omitted from the instruction sheet is the catapult tube for the ejection seat. There is a small square piece that is attached directly to the casting block. This is part of the catapult! See the photo for its correct placement

Also, for you accuracy nuts out there. The Black Box SJU-17 is 5 scale inches too short, but there is a reason. Due to the thickness of the resin tub, as well as the overall over scale thickness of the kit parts (like the nose wheel well), it was not feasible to make the seat the correct scale height. The seat had to be “scaled” for it to fit properly in the cockpit. Once installed, everything looks right on.

9. The Catapult Tube

Note the location and position of the tube in relation to the seat.

 

10. The Finished Cockpit

Assembled outside the kit.

Well, that about does it for the painting and assembly of the cockpit. It’s going to be a few days before I install it in the fuselage halves permanently.

I hope this article will be of use to those of you that purchase the Combat Series cockpit set. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. I will do my best to answer them.

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