Eduard (Hasegawa) Superbug 1/48 VFA-81 Sunliners

Gidge · October 19, 2021

This beast has been my first kit in about 20 years!

The Eduard Superbug kit is a limited run redox of the Hasegawa F/A-18E in 48 scale bundled with some of their aftermarket bits and some nice decals from Furball Aero design (printed by Cartograph). The kit is out of production but there are plenty still in circulation at retail price.

As I've learned this is probably not the smartest kit for a first timer or long lapsed modeller, but I was still able to get a solid 80% result. Someone with a little more experience would be able to take it a little further. This kit would probably be ideal for someone who's got 2-3 builds under their belt, nailed the basics and wants to take their skills to the next level. I learned a lot working with it and it's great for introducing you to intermediate and advanced concepts like filling gaps and trickier masking. It's well made and the moulding was probably state of the art when it came out. Minimal flash and pretty good fit. I did have to do some filling and fitting but mostly on the underside and places that are only ever going to be seen if you go looking for them, so if you're new to these things this is a good kit to try it out on without fear of ruining things. I should note that the plastic is for an early Super Hornet with the early ECS pipes but the schemes were for a late one, aftermarket replacements are available but it does require some minor surgery.

I've also added some Eduard ECS pipes, AGM-65's and AGM-88's. The ECS pipe conversion is very achievable if you take your time. The detail on the AGM-88's is exquisite.

However the AGM-65's's are really hard to work with. This is no fault of Eduard as neither I nor their competitors can see a better way of doing it better. Getting both halvs of the missile off the casting blocks and making a nice parallel join is beyond me so mine are a little crooked. I also mangled the seeker head glass so I had to improvise with some UV resin. Someone with greater skills than mine can make these look really good, I'm just not quite there yet. The 32 scale version is probably easier to work with.

WIP thread for a blow by blow

Scalemates Project link

Kit Link

Eduard ECS pipe upgrade

Eduard AGM-65

Eduard AGM-88