Best early F-18 in 1/48

[MarcV]

Hi all,

 

I'm planning to build an early (colourful) F-18 in 1/48th. Any suggestions as to what the best kit is? I'll get the Hasegawa if it's the best but I find them overpriced, overhyped and underweaponed mostly.

 

Thanks

[AntPhillips]

The earliest Hornets in the fleet were actually some of the drabest, dont forget the Hornet arrived at roughly the same time as he lo-vis rule was applied to the fleet, the colourful markings gradually crept back in approximately the same time as the F/A-18C came along.

 

With regards to kits, you can choose from Monogram, Italeri, Hasegawa and now Kinetic. Up until recently Hasegawa was the king but I'd say Kinetic have taken the mantle now especially as their price is much more competitive.

[exdraken]

You could always do an early model agressor scheme!

Sone are very colorful indeed!

[Tonka]

Well, it depends on what do You mean for "early (colourful) F-18s in 1/48th."

If You want those FSD evaluation machines:

 

- You can see by the Box illustration  Italeri 1/48 made the "TF-18" FSD (later F/A-18B)

   the FSD machines had segmented strakes, tailplanes and leading edge wings different from

   the production F-18s.

 

 

Also ESCI (1986) made the FSD single seat Hornet.

You can see BELLOW by the ESCI Box illustration that it was an F-18A with segmented strakes,

tailplanes and leading edge wings different from the production F-18s.

 

In  1/32 Hasegawa made the F-18 FSD, single seat, long time ago.

   

 

 

* all images reproduced here are under the fair use of images for illustration purposes only.

 

Tonka

 

 

 

[pacificmustang]

A friend of mine recently built the Kinetic F-18A Classic (as we call the legacy Hornets in Australia) and rated it over the hasegawa kit which he has also built.  I'll give him a hoy and get him to give you his thoughts.  A black tailed CAG machine from 113 "Stingers" would look awesome

 

Bruce

[Giorgio N]

On 1/11/2017 at 2:39 AM, Tonka said:

Well, it depends on what do You mean for "early (colourful) F-18s in 1/48th."

If You want those FSD evaluation machines:

 

- You can see by the Box illustration  Italeri 1/48 made the "TF-18" FSD (later F/A-18B)

   the FSD machines had segmented strakes, tailplanes and leading edge wings different from

   the production F-18s.

 

 

Also ESCI (1986) made the FSD single seat Hornet.

You can see BELLOW by the ESCI Box illustration that it was an F-18A with segmented strakes,

tailplanes and leading edge wings different from the production F-18s.

 

 

In  1/32 Hasegawa made the F-18 FSD, single seat, long time ago.

  

 

 

 

* all images reproduced here are under the fair use of images for illustration purposes only.

 

Tonka

 

 

 

 

The Italeri kit allowed both single and two-seater to be built from the same box. It wasn't a bad kit, while the Esci kit was awful even for its days, I'd avoid this. Monogram also did a kit of the prototype that was very good. Of course all of these kits were at some point modified to represent production machines, so anyone willing to build one of the protoypes has to check online auctions, second hand kits dealers and so on

[Lish]

On 29/10/2017 at 13:44, MarcV said:

Hi all,

 

I'm planning to build an early (colourful) F-18 in 1/48th. Any suggestions as to what the best kit is? I'll get the Hasegawa if it's the best but I find them overpriced, overhyped and underweaponed mostly.

 

Thanks

I did the F18 from Hasegawa, was a challenge for my skill level I assume.

[jpk]

My vote for best simple, inexpensive and early F/A-18 would be the Monogram kits. They did the early FSD version with the McD white, blue and gold test scheme and then modded the molds to do the early A-18A fleet version.

[Slater]

I believe the Monogram kits from the early 1980's came with Paveway I weapons (GBU-12 with MXU-602 AFG). As far as I'm aware, these were never used operationally on the F/A-18.

[Giorgio N]

I've not built the Monogram 1/48 Hornet but have built severall Monogram kits from the same era and none of them could be described as a well fitting kit. Maybe the Hornet was better, would be good to know from those who built this one

[Sebastien]

Hi,

 

I'd go with the Kinetic kit.

The engineering borders on the bizarre on a couple of points, but the end result is quite interesting.

Here is a -C i just built:

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

S.

[AntPhillips]

10 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

I've not built the Monogram 1/48 Hornet but have built severall Monogram kits from the same era and none of them could be described as a well fitting kit. Maybe the Hornet was better, would be good to know from those who built this one

 

The Monogram Hornet is a bit of a filler monster, particularly under the LERX and along the nose. 

 

That said, the shape is pretty accurate and I have found that Monogram moulds have tended to deteriorate over the years so if you can find an older boxing chances are the fit will be better.

 

I suppose it depends on your budget, I like the Monogram kit, but I still think that the Kinetic kit is the best value of pounds spent against detail levels.

[Giorgio N]

4 hours ago, AntPhillips said:

 

The Monogram Hornet is a bit of a filler monster, particularly under the LERX and along the nose. 

 

That said, the shape is pretty accurate and I have found that Monogram moulds have tended to deteriorate over the years so if you can find an older boxing chances are the fit will be better.

 

I suppose it depends on your budget, I like the Monogram kit, but I still think that the Kinetic kit is the best value of pounds spent against detail levels.

 

Thanks for the information, I suspected this to be the case...

I don't have the Kinetic kit but from what I've seen of this kit I'd agree with your view.

[MarcV]

Thanks all for the information. @Tonka, I remember the Esci kt, which I didn't finish - it was indeed horrid. I think I'll go with Kinetic although the reviews aren't all positive but hey using a little filler now and again should be regarded as perfectly normal.

 

Regards.