FA-18F Royal Australian Air Force 100th anniversary

F/A-18F A44-210
1 Squadron 100th Anniversary
Royal Australian Air Force
2017

This F/A-18F was specially painted to commemorate the Royal Australian Air Force First Squadron's 100th anniversary. In 2017 it was deployed to Iraq for Operation Okra, Australia's support for operations against ISIL. It has bomb tally markings on the nose from these missions.

This excellent 3d model is from file404. I upgraded the texture resolution to 8K with each stencil and panel line reproduced accurately. I custom made the tail markings with reference to photos and on-line resources. The Kookaburra bird was hand painted in GIMP and the silhouette of the B.E.2, Lincoln, F-111 and FA-18 taken from profiles. The fonts used were a challenge to identify, the strangest was the font used for "years" which turned out to be Berlin Sans FB!

The model allows for the animation of the landing gear, refueling probe, wing fold, access ladder and canopy. However in the software I use this had to be done manually. The control surfaces are also separate parts so I was able to drop the flaps and slats too.