The starting point
for this kit was the Fujimi F-18 with the VFA-81 Sunliners Gulf War box art.
As has been observed by others, this kit is over engineered and
"fiddly." However, it has nice recessed panel lines and lots of
detail, finely molded parts. With patience, it builds up nicely and I
would pick it over the Hasegawa kit if given the choice, even though the Fujimi
kit's forward fuselage area is supposedly a bit too thick.
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images below to see larger images
Basic
construction is straightforward, but there are a couple of problem areas.
There are some weird half round mold depressions on the outside of
the intakes that have to be filled in. They were not sink marks, so
I am at a loss to explain them. This kit features full intake
trunking and this is supposed to be a selling point of the kit. However,
once placed in the fuselage, the forward edge of the trunks do not meet up
with the trailing edge of the intake lips, leaving a sizable gap. The
only other construction problem I encountered was the nose wheels. The
interior wheel hub holes were too shallow to receive the axle. I had
to snip off most of the axle ends to make the wheels fit. If I had
it to do over, I would drill the nose wheel holes deeper instead.
I decided to go all
out and drop the flaps, slats and ailerons, and fold the wings. Not an easy
thing to do and there are no after market wing modification products available
for this kit. So I did it the hard way...sawing and trimming. A
substantial amount of wing and flap edge rebuilding was required to make
everything fit back together. This kit also is the only one in this scale
that comes with a radar. Unfortunately, there is no hinge assembly
provided to open the radome, so I had to scratch build one.
I decided to use a CAM decal sheet which featured a camouflaged
Hornet from VFA-86. I freehanded painted the camo with an old Paasche V.
I built a custom base with some wood and card stock from Michael's. The
flight deck and insignia were printed out from my computer.
This model won 1/72 jet and was nominated for Best of Show at
Warner Robbins in October of 2009. It took third at the R-11 regional in
Cocoa Beach in April 2010. Thanks for looking!
Gil Gregg
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