1/144 Revell F/A-18E Super Hornet - VFA 31 "Tomcatters"

[TK-427]

Hi all,

So going to give another 1/144 a shot. Did the F-14D Super Tomcat last time round, so now giving the F/A-18E Super Hornet a go.

Started it a while back so there will be a bit of an update now.

This is the kit:

Came with what looks to be a pretty good set of decals for one of the VFA 31 "Tomcatters":

Also decided to give a resin aftermarket seat and cockpit from RetroWings a go. Very small with much detail!

Cleaned it all up and here are the sprues and cockpit:

A couple of comparisons between the original seat and cockpit and the RetroWings equivalents. So much more detail - maybe too much for such a small scale? Still, it looks pretty good. These are primed with Vallejo Ghost Grey primer and cleaned up a little to remove excess resin:

And the cockpit:

Too much on the seat maybe - but looks pretty good all together Painted using Mr Color and Tamiya paints:

Once the cockpit was done, the rest (so far!) came together pretty quickly:

I decided this time to put most of it together and then paint it (last time I painted most parts before assembly). I also used Tamiya's Extra Thin Cement - much better for this small scale and holds together well (not a lot of weight in this one!). The cement also helped fill some gaps. The rails are now on and it's ready to start some gap filling and the rest of the painting:

More to come soon I hope!

[Neal]

Good start.

[Dazzio]

Very nice, I built this model some time ago. You'll need to sort out the massive big black spine decal as it will not fit in one go. Least mine didn't, I had to cut it down the middle to get it on. Also decals 36, 37, 38, 39, 50, and 51 are not on the instructions (unless they have updated it since I made it), 36 - 39 go in the intakes and 50/51 go in-between the tails, you can see the decals on the plans but they are not numbered at all. If you already know this, then ignore my boring rumblings

Love Retrowings stuff, that cockpit looks pretty good, wonder if I can bodge it into a Dragon model??

Looking forward to more.

Kind Regards,

Dazz