F/A-18A Hornet by Bernhard Schrock (Hasegawa 1/48)

F/A-18A Hornet

by Bernhard Schrock

McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18A Hornet

Hasegawa's 1/48 scale F/A-18 Hornet is available online from Squadron.com

Construction

This is Hasegawa's 1/48 scale F/A-18A Hornet. It is the best kit of any jet that I have ever built!

The detail of the kit is superb and fit is excellent. The modeller even gets a couple of some bonus parts in the form of etched parts for the ladder and white metal components for the landing gear.

This is especially helpful for the modeller. Thanks to the material (white metal) the main landing gear legs can be precisely fitted, and the position can even be adjusted after installation. Try this with plastic parts and you'll wind up with a proverbial broken leg!

Notwithstanding the good quality of the kit I replaced the seat with a one from Verlinden, which was more detailed as the one included with the kit.

The white frames in the area of the canopy are made from a self adhesive, flexible tape cut into narrow strips.

Painting and Markings

The kit markings are good quality and offer the option of two aircraft, both in the tactical grey scheme.

However, as I wanted to have a different, more colorful scheme for my Hornet, I used the decal sheet no. 48-004 from HI-DECAL LINE (HDL) with markings for 3 aircraft

one RAAF F-18A called Cobra 1, with a big snake teeth one the nose,
a USN CAG aircraft and
a Hornet in an attractive sand / brown aggressor camouflage, flown by the VFA 127.

I decided on the aggressor scheme. Low vis brown-sand stencils are also included on the sheet. The VFA 127 was stationed in NAS Fallon in Nevada and used the Hornets for dissimilar fighter training during the late 90s. These Hornets were later sold to Spain, wearing the aggressor camouflage some time when in service with the Ejercito del Aire.

The camouflage scheme is designed to make the F-18 look like his potential opponent, the MiG-29 Fulcrum. The tail as well as the wings have for example some sections painted light grey, to better simulate the Fulcrum shape, fake intakes painted on the fuselage and the shadow in the relatively deep ditch between the two MiG-29 jet engines imitated with a dark green strip.

The Hornet N° 01 wears also a small Iraqi flag, the other F-18 from this unit also having flags of other potentially hostile nations applied on the tails.