Revell 1/48 McD.D./Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet

REVELL 1:48 MCDONNELL DOUGLAS F/A-18E SUPER HORNET

Reviewer: John Armstrong (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 14 September 2008

The Plane

Back in the early 1990s, the US Navy was facing something of a crisis. One the one hand, the A12 Avenger II programme was cancelled; on the other the majority of its tactical airpower was approaching retirement. In response to this unhappy situation – and to bridge the gap before the JSF programme could come to maturity – a solution was developed.

The solution was a re-design of the F18 Hornet airframe, enabling an already proven design to take on new capabilities. The Super Hornet design incorporates a 25% greater wing area, uprated engines, ‘stealthier’ characteristics, as well as enhanced avionics.

The Super Hornet comes as single-seat (F-18E) or twin seat (F-18F) options. The Super Hornet has seen combat action in recent US Navy involvement in the Middle East.

The Kit

The sprues come in Revell’s regulation end-opening box type. The kit parts feature some very nicely done surface detail – panel lines are recessed. There is good detail in the wheel well (? over done in places). All-in-all, things look up to Revell’s currently very high standard of tooling.

The design of the fuselage parts look as though a two seat F-18F could be easily tooled with the minimum of new moulding. There was no flash on the parts. Sadly, no pilot figure is supplied.

The kit supplies a good set of ordnance - including JDAM and freefall bombs, as well as AIM-9X Sidewinders and AIM-120 AMRAAMs. A FLIR pod is also included.

Construction

The whole kit went together well; the fit of the main parts was very good, with only a few seams requiring some attention. The only area that proved problematic was the attachment of the front fuselage to the main fuselage section. The required quite a bit of filling and sanding to get as good alignment.

The instructions here tell you to build up the 4 piece front fuselage section first and then attach this to the main fuselage section. This is what I did, with the aforementioned result. If I was building the kit again, I would try building up the front fuselage piece-by-piece on to the fuselage section. This way might require a bit of dry fitting, but it might also save a lot of filling and sanding.

The only other area of note in the construction is the undercarriage. This is a complex and slightly fiddly build, but looks good once completed.

Painting

The model was primed with 2 coates of Halfords White Primer, and the wheel wells were then masked off. The paint work was the standard US Navy Super Hornet Colour scheme (I used Humbrol Enamels rather than trying to follow Revell’s own recommended system. The paints were sprayed on with a Revell Starter Class air brush):

H127 – Light Ghost Grey – Undersides
H128 – US Compass Grey - Topsides

The paintwork was then sealed in with 2 coates of Johnsons Klear/Future.

Decals

I have found Revell’s ‘Super Abzhiebild’ decals to be uniformally excellent – this kit is no exception. Several options for USN and USMC aircraft are provided. I chose the aircraft from VFA-143, ‘The Pukin’ Dogs’.

As usual, Revell provide extensive stencil provision. The decals were sealed in with a single coat of Humbrol Satin Cote.

Conclusions

This is a fine kit. Revell have provided a very good representation of what is an important modern combat aircraft. I would without difficulty recommend this kit to anyone. The only provisio would be to exercise caution when building up and fitting the forward fuselage.

From a commercial perspective, this kit is rivalled by a recent Hasegawa release of the same type. I have not seen the Japanese offering; however, I would go so far as to say that it would need to offer something pretty special to beat the value that this Revell kit represents.

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