Airfix 1/72 F-18 'Top Gun'

The United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI program), more popularly known as “Top Gun” is a training program that teaches air combat maneuvering tactics and techniques to selected naval aviators and naval flight officers who then return to their operating units as surrogate instructors.

The program began as the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, established on 3 March 1969 at the former Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California. In 1996, the school was merged into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada. The school was made famous by the 1986 film Top Gun and its 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise.

In the 2022 Top Gun: Maverick sequel, Tom Cruise reprises his starring role as the naval aviator Maverick. The ensemble cast also features Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer (in his final film role). The story involves Maverick confronting his past while training a group of younger Top Gun graduates, including the son of his deceased best friend, for a dangerous mission.

The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is the primary multirole fighter jet depicted in the Top Gun sequel, replacing the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, which was the primary fighter jet depicted in the original Top Gun movie.

This is a 2020 reissue of the classic 1981 Airfix mold. The specific copy was bought from my hometown’s sole remaining little hobby shop as a gift to my 9yo son who performed well at school and for an in-depth look at its contents you may read its preview found in the ever growing MM archives.

The kit is supposed to represent Maverick’s F-18, as it appeared in the “Top Gun - Maverick” film. However, Maverick flew a Super Hornet in the movie and not a first generation Hornet that the kit contains. Nevertheless, my son wouldn't care too much whether Maverick flew an older Hornet or a Super Hornet in the movie and he asked me to build this kit “as is”.

I started by attaching the instrument panel inside of the top fuselage half and the main wheel upper wall inside of the bottom half, then joined the fuselage halves. Not sure if any nose weight would be necessary, I nevertheless trusted the strong nose gear and trapped around 20 grams of fishing weight to the nose.

Basic cockpit color was Tamiya XF-66 Light Gray, while the instrument panel, the stick grip and top inner anti glare areas were painted black. The instrument panel had its raised details dry brushed with silver and the two glass screens were replicated by adding blobs of clear green paint to the corresponding spots. The seat had black frame and head cushion, olive drab rear and lower cushions and received seat belts from masking tape. True, the cockpit is basic, but my die hard “closed canopy” attitude  combined with the thick transparencies reassured that nothing but a blur would be visible once the canopy is attached.

Subassembly time was next, including the 2-piece wings, the 2-piece leading edge extensions (LEX) and the 3-piece intakes, all of which were then successively attached to the fuselage, followed by the fins, the airbrake (in closed position), the centerline pylon and the LEX small fences. The centerline drop tank was assembled at this time, as well. The stabilators were supposed to be trapped between the fuselage halves, in order to be positionable, but I elected to leave them off, in order to be able to sand the underlying horizontal fuselage seams.

This concluded basic model assembly. Fit was average and, in areas, challenging. I particularly had difficulty mating the LEXs to the wing roots, with my less than perfect skills also contributing to the mismatch. Quite a few rounds of filling and sanding took place and, upon deeming the result passable, I took the bird to the paint shop!

I first gave the topsides (and the centerline drop tank) a coat of Hu85 Satin Black, then masked the required area off and gave the remainder, including all doors,  a coat of Hu127 US Ghost Gray. The front gun muzzle area was painted Testors Burned Metal. Upon removing the masks and performing the (typically for Yours Truly) necessary corrections and touch ups, I gave the complete model a coat of Future to prepare it for decaling.

I used the kit decals in order to recreate Maverick’s scheme, which behaved beautifully, easily detaching from their backing paper and nicely adhering to every curve. This was especially helpful in tackling the scheme’s distinctive light blue stripes. It is true that the “New Airfix” decals are excellent, a vast departure from the ones typically (with some exceptions) Airfix treated us two-three decades ago. A coat of Future sealed the decals.

The good looking landing gear was assembled and attached in position, followed by the wheels and doors, with the bird firmly standing on its feet and everything fitting well. The wheels were filed to look weighted. All landing gear parts, rims, wheel wells and door innards were painted white while tires were painted black. Most door innards had  nasty pin marks, but I was too lazy to deal with them.

The exhaust nozzles were painted Mr Hobby Burnt Iron and attached in position, with their shallow ends (as well as those of the intakes) painted black to add a sense of depth. The arresting hook was painted white and also attached, together with the black centerline drop tank.

Time for some weathering, consisting of a black wash all over (heftier in the landing gear area to give all parts a used, oily look) and selective application of brown and dark dry pastels at areas where dirt or grime would reside. A satin coat gave the bird its final hue.

The HUD transparency was lost somewhere in space-time and was replicated by a suitably cut clear piece, painted clear green and attached in position, followed by the 2-piece canopy which had its frames hand painted. The various fillet antennas were replicated by suitably cut thin styrene pieces and accordingly painted (some had been sanded off during construction and the rest provided by the kit were too thick). Blobs of red and green clear paint simulated the wingtip and anti collision lights, before calling the bird done!

This is an old mold, average fitting and relatively simplistic kit, which requires some extra work, in order to produce a homogeneous result. Additionally, the specific F-18 variant is not correct for the scheme depicted at the sole kit decals option, which are of otherwise excellent quality.  

So, this kit is a strange case. It is always good to see an old mold like this reissued as a sort of walk down memory lane (a good number of us like such reissues), however the sole decal option is wrong and, at least, an alternative scheme would have catered for).

That said, there’s nothing wrong in building this kit, even out of the box as an “alternative” Maverick’s bird, or using other decals to depict a correct scheme.

Happy Modeling!

Spiros Pendedekas

19 May 2025

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