1/72 Hasegawa F/A-18A Hornet 

RAAF 20 Years

by Jean-Charles Goddet

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This model is an Hasegawa 1/72 Boeing/McDonnell Douglas F/A18 Hornet from the box.  It shows the special scheme for the 20th duty anniversary of Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 in 2005. Decals come from a limited edition of MODEL ALLIANCE MAS-729015.  The lower camouflage is FS36375 Grey Gunze  H308 and the upper camouflage is FS15050 Gloss Oxford Blue Mr Color 328.  The decals are not very easy to install particularly white/red lines between vertical tails and the big national kangaroo insignia on lower wings but I think the result is eye attractive.  I did my best to paint it with classical brush and I added a light weathering to show rivets and structure lines on grey bottom surfaces.  I saw on the web pictures of the real plane, it is very clean and gloss.

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The front and main gears with all internal doors are painted in white Gunze H1, the edge of doors are Gunze H327.  To make the model more real I decided to show the canopy open like after a public show.

For an European modeler like me, it is very exotic to add a plane to my collection from a so far country like Australia.  But it is a real pleasure to see the South cross stars constellation shining on this model because until now I've never gone in the South hemisphere to see the real night sky.

Jean-Charles Goddet

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Photos and text © by Jean-Charles Goddet