1/48 Hasegawa F/A-18C Hornet

VMFA-122 "Crusaders", 2004

by Craig Sargent on Nov 18 2008

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  30th Anniversary of the first flight of the F/A-18 Hornet 

 

Today (November 18th) marks the 30th Anniversary of the first flight of the F/A-18 Hornet. To commemorate the occasion, there is a Group Build for the Legacy Hornet running at present through to November 30th. This model did not participate as it was too far completed before the GB started. Construction of the Hasegawa kit has been covered ad nauseum in articles and in the forums, so I won't go into a huge amount of depth here, other than to cover the changes and details I added.

The kit had a resin copy of the white metal Hasegawa wingfolds added courtesy of a friend who cast a few copies for me (thanks Jim). Note: when folding the outer wings, the leading and trailing edge flaps on the outboard wings should be raised and in line with the wing. The Black Box cockpit was used (this part of the kit was built long before the gorgeous Aires cockpit set was available), but I replaced the seat with one from an Aires set, and also used the canopy rails from the same set.

The kit's gun port on the upper nose and the two vents either side were opened up. Chaff/flare and gun safety hold back indicators were added on the port side of the nose. The characteristic sharkfin comms antennae above the spine and beside the nose gear door were added from scratch as was the GPS dome and the reinforcement plates on the inside base of the fins. The antenna bulge on the nose gear door was reversed and it's position corrected.

The ladder was built from scratch, but utilised the photoetched ladder cover from the kit. The two LEX vents on the port side on this aircraft were the later herringbone type, and so the kit vents were filled and sanded and a pair of very nice etch parts from a Fine Molds photo-etched set were added in their place.

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This kit actually started out life with the intent of wearing markings of VFA-94 "Shrikes" (or SHWFOTS - "Sierra Hotel" World Famous Orange Tailed Shikes) and after initial construction, had even got so far as completing the painting and some decalling on the tail fins. The kit got put aside after this stage and forgotten for about 2 years. Not long ago, MAW released their VMFA-122 Crusaders decal set and I decided right away that this aircraft would become Nickel 01, in line with realigning all my F/A-18s to USMC subjects. 

I duly stripped and repainted the centreline fuel tank and both tail fins and finished off the camouflage and TPS touch-ups. At the same time, I filled all of the under-nose gun vents, and the four on the tail and then sanded and touched up the paint as these items were a very fine mesh on this later airframe. These were provided as decals on the MAW sheet, which are about the only way to accurately portray this very fine detail in 1/48. Then the model sat that way for the next 18 months.

At the start of the Group Build, I also decided that the F/A-18A model I planned to build would be my entry for the IPMS NZ Nationals in mid-September. To cut a long story short, that model met with two accidents in quick succession, which ruled it out getting finished on time for the contest. With only 3 weeks remaining, this model was pulled from the cabinet and work started in earnest to try and finish for the competition.

I finished all painting and then glossed the kit, before adding the MAW decals, which all behaved beautifully, although the two large shields on the tail and the two wavy red and white stripe sections on the drop tank all required copious and numerous applications of setting solution to conform to the surface. It was when I applied the walkway decals, that I discovered they appeared to be a grey-green colour against the kit paint. These were pulled off with some Tamiya tape before being masked and airbrushed on.

Unfortunately, in the process of removing the masking, the 'VMFA-122' title on the port side had the 'M' and rear '2' pulled off by the tape. I then had to mask and paint these two letters and thankfully did not suffer any further damage to the paint. Weathering was achieved with an oil wash and some airbrushed dirt and oil streaks, and a little chipping on the ladder.

Decalling was finished with a set of chaff and flare dispensers from a Flying Leahernecks decal sheet and landing gear data stencils from both MAW and Flying Leathernecks.

I wanted to finish this aircraft with a load which might be appropriate for a CAX deployment, so that one day I can build an aircraft from the Werewolves (the unit had to be renamed as a PC move for deployment to Iraq) armed for war. I also found out via Ken Middleton, that VMFA-122 was cleared for use of the AIM-9X, a weapon I have not had a chance to use on any other kit yet (not in use by many USMC units that I have finished a model of). The decision was to add an inert AIM-9X (CATM-9X), and a luggage pod (CNU-188 blivet), use the colourful centreline tank, and the two pods most commonly used by the Legacy single-seat Hornets.

The CATM-9X was taken from a Tamiya F-16 - I drilled out the nose and added the seeker assembly from clear rod, then the clear seeker dome from 5-minute epoxy. The CNU-188 was taken from a Hasegawa A-4 and the two access doors and fasteners scribed on. The centre line drop tank was extended by 2mm to correct the length. The AN/AAS-38 FLIR and AN/ASQ-173 LST/SCAM (or LDT) and adaptors were added from the kit parts, but the rear of the FLIR pod had the relief missing from the kit part added using the very nice piece from the Fine Molds etched set.

Final assembly was to glue all the stores in place (except the FLIR pod, which was attached and painted with the rest of the model early on), attach the landing gear with flattened tyres, install the painted Aires exhausts and glue the canopy in place.

Craig Sargent

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Photos and text © by Craig Sargent