1/48 Hasegawa F/A-18C Hornet

by Alan Williamson

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The Kit:    Hasegawa 1/48 F/A-18C kit No p26

Additions:    Aires F/A-18C Hornet cockpit set 4211

                          Aussie Decals No A48010

History

The F/A-18 Hornet first started to appeared in R.A.A.F (Royal Australian Air Force) service back in 1985, Its purpose was to replace the ever ageing Mirage III as the R.A.A.F front line fighter. But before the Hornet came to serve the Australian defence another optioned were look at such as the F-16, F-14, F-15, Mirage 2000 the Tornado, Sepecat Jaguar, Saab Viggen and the A-10 Thunderbolt II. But the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 won the contract and between 1985 and 1990 Australia took delivery of 75 F/A-18 Hornets, 57 F/A-18A's and 18 F/A-18B's. The first R.A.A.F Hornets to appeared in Australian sky's were seen overflying Sydney Harbour after their 15 hour non stop delivery flight from California to Australia. Today the F-18 Hornet still serves along side the F-111C as Australia's front line fighter, and last helped the U.S.A in its defence against the Gulf Wars. 

Construction

I brought this kit at my local hobby shop along with my first Hasegawa 1/48 F-14A, both kits are extremely hard to get a hold of here in Australia. So when I saw both kits on the self at my local hobby shop I had to get them. When I got the kit home I opened it and inspected all of the bits. I have been looking for a worthy kit to build into an R.A.A.F Hornet and this one met my expectations, All except the cockpit. So I E-mail Craig at Aeroworks and placed an order for the Aires cockpit and the Aussie decals. Once my order arrived it was time to start the kit I found the Aires cockpit very well detailed and went to work dry fitting it to the forward AFT. The only problem with Aires cockpit is that the lack of information of what has to be removed from the kit in order to make their resin parts fit. Once the dry fit was right it was time to paint and assemble the cockpit, with the cockpit dry I assembled it into the forward AFT of the hornet and glued the fuselage halves together.The kit went together with little hassle apart from the usual seem lines and the intakes. The intakes don't seem to fit right when attached to the fuselage, lots of gaps fixed with putty. 

Here are some photos of the forward AFT note the seem lines an the step, were the nose section joins the fuselage.

Click on images below to see larger images

I like how Hasegawa give the modeller the option of having the leading edge slats and flaps in the down or retracted position, although I had trouble getting the flaps in the right position. The holes in the wings and that of the flaps don't appear to line up and I forgot to fill in the holes on the flaps before painting whoops. Hasegawa have added a nice touch with the metal landing gear however their are some fiddley parts with constructing the front landing gear strut patients is required when assembling, other than that the kit is pretty straight forward to construct.

Click on images below to see larger images

Painting and Finish
The R.A.A.F F/A-18 are the same colour as that of the late U.S Tomcats FS 35237 Blue Grey on the upper surface and FS 36375 on the lower surface. Once I had applied the colours it was time to go over the entire kit with gloss clear. While the clear was drying I painted the landing gear white. After a couple of days it was time to apply the decals which took about four days I then went over the entire kit again with gloss clear. With the clear now dry it was time to add some grime to the jet, I went over it with pastel chalk like I do with most of my kits this method seems to work best with me, and for the first time I decided to dirty up the landing gear, using some watered down pastel chalk I added a drop at the top of the landing gear and let it run down giving it the affect of hydraulic oil. I thought that the wheel wells could do with the same affect, normally I don't touch the landing gears or wheel wells just leaving them white I think that this technic added some more realism to the kit. With the panel lines now highlighted I airbrushed the entire model with dull clear and once it was dry I finished off assembling the last parts landing gear, ejection seat and canopy. The ordnances were scrounged from other kits.

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This kit was built to represent that of Commander R. Fox  A21-29 of the of 75 Squadron, Commander R. Fox was killed in August 1990 when the Hornet he was flying A21-42 collided with that of his Hornet flown by an other pilot A21-29 during air combat manoeuvring exercise 30 kilometres from Tindal air base. The stricken Hornet of A21-29 managed to recover and returned toTindal airbase with parts its outer wing missing. A21-42 which Commander R. Fox was flying at the time of the incident crashed killing Fox. Commander R. Fox was 75 squadrons commanding officer and one of the R.A.A.F's most accomplished fighter pilots.

Click on images below to see larger images

Thanks

To Craig at Aeroworks for getting hold of the Aires cockpit and Aussie Decals aeroworks@iprimus.com.au

To Clive for lending me his book on Phantom, Hornet and Skyhawk in Australian Service by Stewart Wilson

To Steve Bamford for placing yet an other article on ARC

Photos and text © by Alan Williamson