Important
Note
On 28
Nov. 2011, The Boeing Company received a U.S. Navy contract under the Foreign
Military Sales (FMS) Program to provide the first major upgrades for the Royal
Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) fleet of eight F/A-18D Hornet fighter aircraft.
The contract covers design, development and installation of retrofit kits that will provide enhanced navigation, targeting and situational awareness. The upgrade program which are prominent on the external surface are:
About
this build
I choose
the word “What If” in this build because there are no picture published
publicly of the aircraft yet. Base on the 2011 proposal, the Hornet appearance
should look more or less like this. The aircraft number “00” is used to
denote “What If”.
Kit in
use is the well-known Academy 1/32. Some after market parts used are as
follows:
-
Black Box Hornet D Late Cockpit set with SJU-17 seat.
-
Eduard Exhaust PE Set.
-
Zactomodel 1/32 AIM-9X
-
F4dablemodel Twin Flare/Chaff, Fishbone Lerx Grille and GPS Dome
-
Aires/Wheeliant Universal Navy Wheel Chock (Early Production)
-
Verlinden Remove Before Flight Flag.
-
F4dablemodel type B Export Bugs Decal.
The
ATFLIR pod for 1/32 scale is not available at this moment so I had to modify the existing
Academy AN/AAS-38 FLIR pod to look more or less like ATFLIR.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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Building this Academy
kit is straightforward with minor putty. Self made Tarmac base with Earthing point.
The Aircraft is armed with:
-
AIM-9X Sidewinder AAM
-
AGM-65E Maverick
-
AGM-84D Harpoon
-
AIM-120C7 AMRAAM
-
GBU-10 Paveway II
-
GBU-31 JDAM
The rest of the ordinances which are still in RMAF inventory but not fitted to the pylon are placed on stand which are scratchbuilt with 3mmX3mm plastic strip then painted with Gunze Character Yellow.
-
AIM-7 Sparrow
-
AIM 9L/M Sidewinder
-
Mk.82 500lbs GP Bomb
-
Mk.82 Snakeye
Colour used throughout the process was of Gunze lacquer type Mr.Color range (The “C” Series). The new Hornet livery is painted overall with Gunze C334 Barley Grey. The old RMAF Hornet is Gunze 305. The rest of the colour/painting are as per Academy
Instruction. Tamiya Enamel paint for hand brush and weathering, Acrylic Gloss for pre-decaling and Acrylic gloss mix with flat for final coating.