Hasegawa 1/72 scale conversion
CF-188B Hornet

by John Chung

Hasegawa's 1/72 scale F/A-18C is available online from Squadron.com for $10.76

Much has already been written about the McDonnell Douglas and later Boeing F/A-18 Hornet family and its roles within the Canadian Armed Forces, so I shall not elaborate further here.

The Hasegawa 1/72 Legacy F/A-18 kits have been around for quite some time, almost two decades by the time of this writing. The relative age of the molds can be seen and it's really getting a bit long in the tooth. In addition to careful dry fitting, judicious filling, and sanding, corrective modifications are often necessary to bring the model to a presentable standard consistent with today’s molding technology.

By far the most significant modification to the kit was the adoption of the canopy and windscreen pieces from the Hasegawa 1/72 F/A-18F kit. The canopy in the B/D kit is woefully inaccurate and the windscreens of the B/D and F are similar enough to warrant such a swap. The results turn out to be very encouraging.

The cockpit was largely gutted and replaced; the instrument panels were scratch built with 3D surfaces, the fore and aft instrument coaming were scratch built to replace inaccurate kit parts, the seats were modified True Details SJU-17 to represent SJU-5/6s, the canopy raising mechanism was also scratch built, and a set of pilots were taken from the Fujimi F-14 kits and modified with accurate helmets and G-suits.

Other modifications on the model include a semi-intake trunk painted white fading to black at the end to give an illusion of depth. All control surfaces were repositioned with the exception of the rudders. LEX fences were scratch built, as well as structural strengthening mods on the nose, tail, and aft fuselage.

The bulge on the MLG door was added.

The nose of the model was tilted upwards a bit by inserting a 1mm thick styrene sheet on the bottom to alleviate the 'nose droop' look of Hasegawa's 1/72 legacy Hornets.

External tanks had the aft pivot mount replaced and sway braces were added to the pylons. The inert AIM-9 body was made by chopping the fins off the kit missile and a bit of sanding to reshape the nose profile.

Model Master, Gunze, and Tamiya acrylics were used to paint the aircraft, and the decal was sources from the excellent Leading Edge 1/72 CF-18 sheet.

The base was a round piece of wood bought at the local crafts store sheeted with styrene and over sprayed with Alclad II polished aluminum.

Brass rods were used to support the aircraft, which is removable for transportation purposes.

Spare decals were used for the Roundel and CF-18 logo on the base.

Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2007 by John Chung
Page Created 12 February, 2007
Last Updated 24 December, 2007

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