CF-188A
Royal Canadian Air Force Demo Team 2017

Kinetic, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

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The McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet (official military designation CF-188) is a Royal Canadian Air Force fighter aircraft, based on the American McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter.

In 1980, the F/A-18 was selected as the winner of the New Fighter Aircraft Project competition, and a production order was awarded. The Canadian Forces began receiving the CF-18 in 1982.

CF-18s have supported North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) air sovereignty patrols and participated in combat during the Gulf War in 1991, the Kosovo War in the late 1990s, and as part of the Canadian contribution to the international Libyan no-fly zone in 2011.

CF-18s were also part of the Canadian contribution to the Military intervention against ISIL, Operation Impact..*

* Historical summary courtesy of Wikipedia

Kinetic released their 1/48 scale F/A-18C Hornet to justified acclaim in May 2016. Mick Evans conducted a detailed review of this initial release. In January this year Kinetic added a new version that could be built as a F/A-18A+, a Canadian CF-188 or an upgraded F/A-18B two-seater.

Now Kinetic has expanded the family further with this new Canadian CF-188A boxing in spectacular Demo Team markings. As far as I can tell, all the parts needed to build an F/A-18A+ are still in the box too.

The kit contains 229 parts in grey plastics, 16 clear parts, 22 photo-etched metal parts and markings for one colourful Canadian scheme.

Surface detail is excellent, with a combination of very fine crisp panel lines and rows of rivets. Raised details are also present as appropriate.

The fuselage is a horizontal split construction with the upper fuselage containing the upper wing surfaces to which is added the lower wings and optional nose sections.

Intakes are full length and two closed burner cans are included. Several sources have confirmed that this is the apprporiate configuration for a parked F/A-18.

Cockpit detail is good straight from the box, both for the single seat and two seater versions.

The wheel well detail moulded to the main parts looks terrific.

The improved parts from the F/A-18A+ release are supplied here too, including fins with separate rudders, port side nose with slime lights and detail parts.

The original fin and nose parts are still in the box.

The main undercarriage legs for the CF-188 are included too.

Control surfaces including leading edge flaps and upper fuselage speed brake are all provided separately and may be posed to taste.

The kit's photo-etched fret includes detail parts for chaff dispensers, gunsight mount, canopy handles / mirrors and more.

The clear parts are spread over two sprues with the single seat canopy.

The clear parts are nice and thin and free from distortion. There is, however, a raised centreline seam on the canopy and windscreen parts that will have to be scraped and sanded off.

We don't get the extemsive stores that were included in the previous releases, but three drop tanks are included.

Markings

A single spectacular special scheme with a red upper fuselage and wings is offered.

The decal sheet is printed by Cartograf. It is perfectly in register and colours look great.

This is an excellent kit of the CF-188A Hornet with a genuinely spectacular set of markings. It also represents smoking hot value at just USD$39.99. 

Thanks to Lucky Model for the samples

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2017 by Brett Green
Page Created 15 September, 2017
Last updated 15 September, 2017

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