Dean S

Not recommended. There are better reference books out there. For a series called "Modellers Datafile", I expect a book geared towards what a modeller needs to know for building a model of the subject matter. This book falls short of that. It didn't take long to notice most of the photo captions are useless, redundant or at worst, wrong. Examples of stating the obvious are, "An F/A-18 of VC-12", "A desert camouflaged F/A-18B", "An F/A-18B of VFA-125". Captioning a photo, "Canadian Hornets have a spotlight fitted in the nose" while grammatically wrong, also missed the fact the aircraft in question isn't carrying the ID spotlight mounted on the side of the nose, it's a 409 sqn. a/c '776, dropping a GBU-12 practice LGB. "No.409 Squadron - 'Night Hawk' special scheme" besides, being poor grammar, is the wrong nomenclature for for RCAF squadrons. The RCAF uses the same style as the RAF, and it should be "409 Squadron". "The first seven Finnish F/A-18Ds were built by McDonnell Douglas", is misleading. Finland only bought seven duals, and they were all built by McDD. Finland built the single seaters. Incorrect captions include, "On the ground during "desert Storm" an RCAF Hornet armed with HARM missiles". Canadian Hornets never carried AGM-88 HARM missiles. The author isn't well versed in armament or stores it seems. A photo of a Hornet carrying an AGM-62 Walleye is incorrectly and simply captioned "...drops a HOBOS glide bomb." Many opportunities are missed to describe for modellers what the jets are loaded with. An interesting shot of a VFA-204 squadron F/A-18A+ carrying two ALQ-188 pods, when usually only one is carried, was missed. As for the colour profiles, they're okay, but not one mention is made of the colours used is made. On top of that, the Kuwait example is incorrectly drawn in two greys, instead of the three used on the jets. An opportunity was missed to include a profile of the first Tactical Paint Scheme. For the build section, it consists of five 1/48 scale kits. One Hobbyboss and four Kinetic kits. One 1/72 Academy. Two 1/32 kits, one Kinetic, and one Academy. While you can never make everyone happy, there was room for at least one 1/48 Hasegawa and a 1/72 Hasegawa or Fujimi build. The Walk Arounds section is lacking. Extreme close ups of certain parts and merely labelling them, "Tail fin detail", "Arrestor hook stencilling", etc., is laziness. A few are repeated, to add to the issues with this book. "Intake detail" is of a jet with intake covers on it and misses the fact it's carrying an ATFLIR pod. Again, showing the author's lack of ordnance knowledge, a photo is merely captioned, "JDAM", for the GBU-38. The photos of the RAAF F/A-18 never mention the SUU-20 on the centerline. In the section, "Understanding the Subject", the line drawings, while crisply done, are captioned with basically useless information for modellers. One the profiles, pointing out things like "M61A1 cannon", "Reduced Internal Fuel Capacity" on the dual seat drawing, and stating on the F/A-18D(RC) drawing, "Data-Link Pod or Loral AN/UPD-8 SLAR" while pointing to nothing but the vague direction of the intake missile launcher is an amateurish error. Speaking of which, no photos of an ATARS equipped Hornet is included, and have never seen the designation "F/A-18D(RC)" used to refer to these jets. To top it off, the drawings of the ATARS pallet on a jet are grossly incorrect. Moving on to the "Technical Diagrams" section, there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason for the drawing copied from the manuals that are pertinent to modellers. The fuel tank layout, switch functions, fuel tank capacities, seat quick disconnect, ejection seat sequence, landing checklist, and ground crew/air crew hand signals smacks of merely filling pages. The "Kitography" section has the same problems as any other in regards to missing a lot of older items (1/144 kits, Monogram/Revell, Hasegawa 1/48, etc) to being outdated when newer items are released. The Scalemates website should be referenced for further information. The entire "General Information" section seems to be merely page filler, with the most basic and vague details taking up a few pages that could have been better utilized. The most glaring errors in the section are under "Armaments". The Hornet does not have three "under fuselage hard points". It has two shoulder stations for missiles or targeting pods, and one centerline station. For rockets, it can carry APKWS and CRV-7 rocket also, but there is no mention of what pods are used to carry them such as LAU-10, LAU-5002, LAU-5003, etc. With the almost exclusive use of PGM's these days, the author merely makes a sweeping statement that JDAM and Paveway bombs are carried, despite the vast array of variants of them. Canada is omitted from the list of targeting pod users. The author perpetuates the error in calling M117 750 lb bombs, "Mk 117" (sic) in the 1/72 drawings. No USN jets carry M117's. The "Hornet Gallery" section continues the vague and lacking captions for the photos. For instance, the photo of BuNo 162416 misses the fact it's painted with a MiG-29 outline on it. "F/A-18A of VFA-204" is underexposed/dark and of almost no sue for modellers. The "Scale Plans" section looks like it was taken for the older Squadron/Signal series, and lacks the finesse and detail drawings such as Kagero or Detail & Scale have. Right to the end the errors continue, with a photo in the "Index" missing it's caption, with "Xxx" being used by mistake. If you're looking for a legacy Hornet reference book, there are others to better spend your money on.