Hasegawa 1/72 F-18F Super Hornet

The F-18F replaced the Tomcat in those VF squadrons that were not disestablised when the F-14 was taken out of fleet service. So far, no other company has produced an equivalent kit of the two seater in this scale aside from perhaps Italeri's pre-production kit. Unlike years past, the cost of producing a model kit is so high that Hasegawa and others waited for the definitive production version before spending the money on tooling.     

To give you some idea on this kit, it has about 98% commonality with their F-18E kit. The main differences being the fuselage with the two seat format and the additional seat, stick and instrument panel required by that variant. There is also a longer canopy which has a seam that you will need to remove.

So you get a standard Hasegawa cockpit with an acceptable pair of seats and decals for the instruments. The cockpit sits atop a lower forward fuselage piece that includes the nose gear well. One does have to open holes in the fuselage and wings for various pylons so keep that in mind when building it. There is also a piece that fits in the back with polycaps so you can simply push the horizontal stabilizers in place after painting everything. The intakes look simple but are a bit of a challenge to get installed properly. It is the curse of F-18 kits.

Wings have upper and lower pieces on each side with the flaps and ailerons molded into the top wing. Landing gear are properly complex and it looks like you can model them closed. Burner cans fit on the back of the fuselage and there is little depth to the exhaust. Unlike some Hasegawa kits, this one comes with not only fuel tanks, but also some weapons, specifically a pair of late model Sidewinders and some AIM-120s. The racks for bombs are also provided but you'll have to sources those from a weapons set. Note that the wing racks are slightly angled outward. Canopy can be modeled open or closed. In all, a very standard Hasegawa kit.

Markings are for two planes. Naturally, one is the box art plane based on the USS Carl Vinson in 2004. The other is with VFA-102 on the USS Kitty Hawk from 2003. The decals are nicely printed, but are 'old school' Hasegawa markings where the white is actually off-white.

While it is not a shake and bake kit, it is one that goes together fairly well if you are a careful builder. I have built another boxing which you can read at this link. If you like the plane or want one in your collection, this would be a good representation of the type. I should also mention that this kit does not have the finned vents on the top of the aft fuselage that are with current planes. I think those were added around 2005 or so. Something to keep in mind if using more modern markings from an aftermarket source. I'm sure there are aftermarket items to deal with this.

December 2018

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