This is the ubiquitous Monogram 1/48th scale F-18 Hornet, finished as a Spanish Air Force Hornet as used over Bosnia. This was inspired by some excellent photos sent to me by Mark A Sindiong (see below).

It started out life as the Blue Angels boxing which I picked up cheap from a club member.

The weapon loading is slightly unusual asymmetrical one – the port inner pylon has a laser-guided bomb on it, while the Starboard wing has a drop tank. The HARM missiles came from the Testors F-18, with some subtle filing around the nose to correct the shape. The pylons also came in for the filing treatment, to get them closer to the correct shape.

The only additions to the model are lead foil harnesses, the LEX fences, and some photo-etch mirrors left over from an earlier project.

Paints used were Model-Master and Humbrol.

I had some Spanish roundels in my spares box, but no stencils and warnings; these were produced using MS Publisher and laser printed onto decal film. The “slime strips” are not included with the kit, these were made from an old Hasegawa Me 109 (or is it Bf109?!) white tail band that had gone yellow with age.

Weathering was carried out using water-colour washes and pastel chalks.

For all the kits faults, I really enjoyed this project, even though the finished article has a few mistakes (see if you can spot them!)

This project would have been far more difficult without the help of HyperScalers Al Petrie who generously supplied the underwing stores, and Mark A Sindiong who sent me the photos, not to mention all the others who answered my questions – thank you!