Anatol Pigwa

Has anyone been able to source a one of those Mirage kits lately? My on-line retailer contacted me with the information, that the form is busted and Modelsvit does not supplz the kit ATM.

- Especially late F-4Es and F-4Fs with slatted wings Particularly 2000Ds and Ns in 1/72 scale (it is either the old Heller or the Revell/Italri which both are incorrect vor diffrent reasons. ?

There are currently a lot of modern airframes which are overlooked by the kit makers: T-7 Redhawk, AMX Ghibli, Gripen NG to name but a few. And don't get me started on the lack of F-111s, F-4Es or Mirage 2000Ds. Sad times... Remember when we had even the YFs and What-ifs (like the F-19) on the shelves?

WOW, Alan, you really are in a league of your own with this one.! Good thing you can build the kit in a "wings folded" position. I am sure you will get a lot of followers on this one!.

Welcome to the STGB. Good to see another Angel. Are the dacals printed by Academy or Carotgraf? If the former you might want to use extra care appying them!

^Welcome to the fray! The Academy kit is a joy to build, so you won't be dissapointed. And looking on the TCOB (Total cost of build) you might find out, that if you factor in the putty required to make the Italeri kit look decent it won't be cheaper at all!

Good Morning and welcome to the first day of the GB. first I'd like to thank you all for participating. in this STGB, not only with your builds but also your valuable input and support. @gingerbob published already GBs statistics, I have made some graphs for your viewing pleasure: Breakdown by version- as you can see the A/C/E/F versions are the majority as expected and their numbers are fairly evenly matched. Breakdown by scale and manufacturer: There is a strong preference for Hasegawa and Academy in 1/72 (unsurprisingly since they are regarded as the go to versions for the Hornet in 1/72) in 1/48 we have a lot more variety, with Meng and Hasegawa leading the pack) Versions by manufacturer: - Hasegawa and Academy provide the biggest variety in this STGB, While Meng is the benchmark for the F/A-18F in 1/48th Breakdown by operator: USN 1st, RAAF 2nd, RCAF 3rd. This is not surprising. What is surprising, that the Swiss and Spanish get more attention than the USMC (yet?) Breakdown by Squadron: The Jolly Rogers are an absolute favourite with five builds There seems to be an error in this graph though as I am pretty sure we have 2 Blue Angels entries) . I hope to update the statistics with more data, like the Livery (Line bird, Special scheme) and Scheme (Grey, standard Camo, Digital Camo, Tiger Meet, CAG Bird). A question to the pros here - how do I efficently export Graphs from Excel as images in a decent size and quality? I noticed that the ones I placed here are a little bit small...

I agree - a great choice, as adversary schemes are always eyecatchers.

Hello Arin and welcome to the world of GBs! The Black Knights digital camo would be a great addition to this GB and not cliche at all - the Marines and digital camos are currently seriously underrepresentented in the GB.

The irony of this proposal is that the one country which should be there due to the literal use of the word "land" in it's language, won't be elegible as you are considering only english names of the counties. Which country, you ask? well: Deutschland obviously. (Germany for those not familiar with the german language).

Good old, Gorgio, always coming up with a very special build. I am really glad you are building the YF-17. While it is not a true Hornet, it is the cornerstone of the F/A-18 success story. This one will surely draw a lot of attention.

A Canadian special! They always come up with something flashy don't they? I am sure you will tun it into a little gem. I can hardly wait!

Great to have you with us Dave, this is promising to be a very interting build with quite a loadout. The VFA-103 in quite popular in this STGB who would have though!

This is where the Hornet designations get interesting: Let's start at looking at Wikipedia (sorry I have no better sources at this time): F-18(R) This was a proposed reconnaissance version of the F/A-18A. It included a sensor package that replaced the 20 mm cannon. The first of two prototypes flew in August 1984. Small numbers were produced.[124] RF-18D Proposed two-seat reconnaissance version for the US Marine Corps in the mid-1980s. It was to carry a radar reconnaissance pod. The system was canceled after it was unfunded in 1988. This ability was later realized on the F/A-18D(RC).[124] The F/A-18D(RC) is a two-seater as per the D designation, while the Italeri Kit shows an A (single seater) and should probably be the F-18(R) kit designation RF-18A However Testors kitted the RF-18D Two Seater which is probably the F/A-18D(RC) you are reffering to.

Was there not also the rather obscure Photo Recon version of the legacy Hornet kitted by Italeri as RF-18?