1/48 Revell F/A-18E

by Gidi Vitkon

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This is my F/A-18E from Revell Germany.  I wanted the model to look like it's in the middle of its tour – meaning dirty!  And with a refueling pod.  The intakes were deepened with a simple method that worked just fine.  I bent a piece of white paper to fit the end of the Revell intake part with the engine's part.  The length was taken from the Hasegawa kit. The cockpit was build straight from the box. The HUD was made from bent thin wire to look right as the kit part is all wrong. The kit seat was used with some careful painting.

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Wings were positioned folded with the mechanism scratch build.  The flaps were cut and lowered and to hold them to place I used bent metal wire.  All the flaps supporting arms were re-fixed to fit to the new lower position, after looking at some photos I noticed that the tail is mostly deflected so the part was cut and repositioned.

 

All the wing tanks are Hasegawa and the buddy pod is from AMT Viking kit.

I made a new nose for the pod improving the rotor head.  The kit sidewinder is very good and was used.

All the colors are from Humbrol.  I gave the model a worn look with pastel and oil colors, light colored patches were air brushed after looking at pics for most likely to have spots. 

 

The decals came from the kit and were made for Revell by Deco.  I did change the number for the specific plane and made some custom decals to match it.

 

Finally - the canopy was positioned open and the boarding ladder in the down open position.

Gidi

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Photos and text © by Gidi Vitkon