1/48 Revell F/A-18E
This model kit is a curious blend of really nice and rather awful. Fit in some areas was pretty bad, requiring a goodish amount of filler and sanding. The cockpit detail is very weak, hence closed canopy and the molding is somwhat soft. The underwing stores are poorly rendered to the point of unusable.
That being said, the kit had recessed panel lines, a decent decal sheet, is molded from a softer plastic that's much easier to work with than the glass hard stuff Revell usually uses, and best of all it left the LHS with me for about $22. At that rate I could ruin these all day and not feel overly bad about it.
The missiles are from one of Hasegawa's weapons sets and the AGM-84's were added on a whim to make it a ship killer. The model was finished in Tammy Dark Sea Grey and Sky Grey and washed in Flory's black. I hosed it down with Model Masters flat clear acrylic to seal it all up, and it looks like I forgot the little natural metal patch in front of the cockpit.
Easily fixed.
5 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Greg Kittinger said on December 15, 2021
That's a very nice-looking Hornet - well done!
Andrew H said on December 15, 2021
Nicely done, Mark! I built that kit last year (posted here), and you are spot on in your assessment. An odd mix of good and bad in some weird ways. Glad the box decals worked out for you, as the results look excellent. Love the added stores too!
Michael Matyas said on December 15, 2021
Fine job! I have one on my bench that's around 50% complete. Seeing yours makes me want to finish mine.
Gary Brantley said on December 15, 2021
@markh, That turned out quite nicely Mark! 🤗 And it's good to see one done so well as I bought that kit off a consignment table at a hobby shop a few years ago. The price was fair as I recall but it's sitting in the stash now. I've enjoyed looking over this one a lot! Great job! 👍
Spiros Pendedekas said on December 15, 2021
A VERY beautiful Hornet, Mark!
John vd Biggelaar said on December 15, 2021
A mean looking Hornet, Mark @markh
Beautiful result.
Mark P Hartig said on December 15, 2021
Thank you gents
Andy yours turned out quite well, you paid more attention to it than I did mine
Mike I can understand, there was more than one time I had to stiffen my spine to grind this one out
Gary the worst part of this is filling and sanding the underside, especially around the intakes where I had to take off up to .20" or so in spots to get surfaces to match up. The front of the fuselage assembly is janky to join up to the rest of the model as well, and there were a couple of places where I ended up using a double cut mill bastard file to even things out.
I came at this one with a "Gonna be good practice so I really don't care" attitude that, much to my surprise, seemed to serve me fairly well. Perhaps I should keep this in mind for future builds
Andrew H said on December 15, 2021
"Some skill required." Having gotten through this one with great results, I'd say you are good to go for whatever comes next.
John Healy said on December 15, 2021
Nice work on this. That kit was a step backwards from Revell’s F-15E. That said, it can be built into a nice model as you’ve demonstrated.
James Kelley said on December 16, 2021
I built this when it was first released, and I remember the fuselage forward of the LEX being 9 pieces, and not understanding the logic of this engineering. Still built up into a nice Hornet, and you did wonders with it. Congratulations!
Ramon R. Lomeli said on December 22, 2021
nice job on that jet build - it looks superb and I can't see any problem areas on your build!
Mark P Hartig said on December 23, 2021
Thank you gents your comments are all inspiring
Anthony Ricco said on January 31, 2022
Very very nicely built @markh - love the work.
Mark P Hartig said on February 1, 2022
Thank you sir this was one of the more gratifying finishes I've had lately