Hasegawa 1/72 Boeing EA-18G Growler ECM Aircraft with Wolfpack interior and wings

[hsr]

This is my build of the Hasegawa 1/72 Boeing EA-18G Growler ECM aircraft. For this build I also used the Wolfpack flaps down wings and their cockpit interior. I would not have bothered with the interior, but the kit, wings and interior came as a package off of Ebay so since I had it I may as will use it. The Hasegawa kit is excellent and any issues I had with it were of my own making. The Wolfpack interior is nice, but the instructions it came with were totally lacking in guidance on how to install it in the fuselage. There is some minor surgery needed to the kit but no mention of it in the instructions. Below is what I needed to cut away:

Once done the front and rear cockpit tubs fit well with minor sanding.

 

 

This is the third F/A-18 variant I have built and the third set of Wolfpack wings, once on the Hasegawa F/A-18F and once on the Academy F/A-18C. As in both those previous cases they were a drop in replacement for the kit wings with no need to make any modifications to the kit fuselage. The only recommendation I would make is to wait as long as possible to attach the rear flaps. This will minimize the number of times you will have to reattach them since they are only held on by 4 very tiny attachment points and are fragile. 

 

The decals were very complete with a full set of stencils and were excellent to use. There are markings for VAQ-129 and VAQ-132. I planned on doing the markings for VAQ-129 which didn't require painting the tail. However, one of the squadron marking rolled up into an unrecoverable ball when I applied MicroSol to it and I was forced to switch to the more colorful VAQ-132 markings which did require me to paint the tail, setting me back several days. But ii does have a rather striking appearance. 

 

There was one other unsolved issue. After decaling I usually rinse off the kit to get rid of any solvent residue. This time water has made its way into the cockpit clouding the canopy. I tried several strategies to get it out, but none worked. I can only hope that if it found its way in, it will finds it way to evaporate out over time. 

 

If I haven't bored you too much here are the pictures:

 

      

Next up is the Grand Models' Beech T-6 Texan II

 

Enjoy

 

[swralph]

Very nice build.😀

[SAT69]

Your model looks quite nice. Fear of stuff creeping inside the canopy and windshield areas is the reason I often use Window Maker to seal any openings I can find. Spray paint getting inside the canopy caused me to resort to that extra step. 

[hsr]

6 minutes ago, SAT69 said:

I often use Window Maker to seal any openings

What is Window Maker and where can I find it? Spray paint dust has been one of my nemesis's and I thought I had it pretty well sealed. There are 2 openings at the rear of the LEX  that I missed and that it where it probably got in through.

 

Thanks

 

[SAT69]

Testors Window Maker should be available in your hobby shop or you can find it on line. It's a canopy glue that some modelers also use to make windows. I use it on airliner models. Tape the inside of the fuselage at the window line and when the model is painted, apply black paint inside the window openings. When that dries, add the window maker and let dry to a crystal clear window.

[hsr]

It looks like much of the moisture in the cockpit did evaporate over night