To be honest, after having done so many F-18 sheet reviews, I am running out of things to say about the Hornet. What I can tell you is about the first time that I actually got a chance to see one of them up close. During 1980 I was at NAS Patuxent River, MD. At this time, the F-18 was still undergoing suitability tests and there were no production aircraft. Pax River had several prototype aircraft, painted in either white and orange or white and blue. 

At the time, I was going to TACAMO maintenance school with VQ-4, an interesting but very long experience. Our class work was during night shift, after normal workings hours so that we could have full use of the specific maintenance van that we needed for class work. This meant days free. Pax River is a very nice facility with lots of places to sit and watch aircraft. It was during this time that I was able to watch them put the Hornet through its paces. There were spots near the catapult and arresting gear to watch and it was here that I saw the Hornet wiggle and shimmy its way down to the simulated deck that was there. It came whistling over my head to land with a cloud of tire smoke and grab a wire. From there it took off again only to do it several more times during the day. It would then taxi back to the McDonnell hangar to undergo whatever was needed. 

I thought that it was a shame that an ugly aircraft like this would end up replacing the much cooler looking (in my opinion) A-7E. Little did I know that it would also be replacing the A-6 and F-14 as well, to end up being the sole tactical fast jet on the carrier deck!

Well, enough weeping and wailing, things must go on and the Hornet is it until the Joint Strike Fighter enters the fleet.

On to the sheet. As with many Superscale sheets, there is a full suite of stencil data for one aircraft and insignia for all three. All three are in the Tactical Paint scheme and they all belong to units that used to fly the A-7E Corsair II. They are also all East Coast squadrons as denoted by the A prefix in the tail code.

First one is from VFA-83. Unlike the others on this sheet, the upper color was repainted FS 35237 instead of the usual FS 36320.

Next is a reserve bird from VFA-203. Not sure if they are still around or not as the Navy reserves have been rather badly decimated in the last decade.

Finally, a VFA-105 Hornet. This one is a CAG bird, but totally devoid of any color at all. This was rather typical of the type for several years. Fortunately, some color has been allowed to return.

A nice sheet if your penchant is for F-18s.

Review copy courtesy of me and my wallet.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by a site that has over 1800 visits a day, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.