1/144 Revell CF-18A Hornet

Gallery Article by S K Loh on Nov 17 2014

 

      

This is one of three Revell kits that my brother who lives in Edmonton Alberta gave me. The kit comes with decal option to build a RCAF CF-18A or a US Navy F/A-18C. I opt for the RCAF CF-18A build as I find it rather unique. I would not be able to get such a kit with RCAF markings here. 

The kit has pretty good details and panel lines were crisp. Building it was pretty straight forward save for the scratchbuilt pilot, pitots and air data sensors and antenna. Had to reshape the headrest of the ejection seat to make it look more realistic. The only flaw I found was with the vertical fins. The assembly guide wafers were moulded in reverse. This would result in the “L” bracing facing outwards if assembled according to the given instructions. I had this resolved by bending the wafers and shortening the longer wafer to fit in the short guide slot on the fuselage. The formation light outline was found on both sides of the fins. I realized this after I had it painted and decided to dispense with the correction as this was not so discernible with black fins. But I will set it right for the remaining two kits at a later date.

To lend more accuracy, I added a scratchbuilt spot light on the port side of the forward fuselage from clear plastic sprue. This is a unique feature of CF-18 Hornets during the Cold War era where the spot light was deployed to identify the Russian bombers that flew within the airspace. As this was a demo bird, I dispense with the armaments provided and only have the centre line drop tank on. 

 

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The orange/yellow hornet colours on the rear upper fuselage had to be airbrushed on as there was no decal for it. A pre-mix of Tamiya/Mr Hobby basic colours were used as Dark Ghost Gray on the upper surfaces and Light Ghost Gray on the lower surfaces. Minimal weathering was done. 

Decal application was straight forward for most except the gray shaded Maple-leaf design piece for each main wing. I have to apply several coats of Humbrol DecalFix and gently stroking it with a toothpick in between applications to get it to conform to the vents on the main body.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the result. I will do some research to see what markings I can create for the remaining two kits. It will be from 410 Sqn Cougars based at Cold Lake Alberta of course! I intend to display them in formation as suggested by my brother. In the meantime, enjoy the photos……………..

Thanks, Len for the nice kit.

S K Loh

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Photos and text © by S K Loh