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F/A-18 Hornet in 1/72 scale: upgraded first generation C/D
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Several F/A-18 C or D kits appeared in 1/72 including an Italeri kit #016 released in 1992. So over 30 years ago!
There are about 70 parts in this Italeri kit #016 and it enables either a single seat F/A-18C or a two seat F/A-18D. At the cockpit and canopy are thus different parts.
Note that the A/B and C/D are quite similar with the exception that the later C/D got additional antenna fairings on twin tails, the spine and fuselage nose. This Italeri kit indeed has these extra parts.
The plastic in light grey is typical for Italeri rather soft.
The transparancy sprue has both a single- -C and double seat -D canopy. For an open canopy, some razor cutting is needed...
Italeri kit decals are for:
-1- Canada Armed Forces of no 410 squadron;
-2- Swiss Air Force;
-3- US Navy of VFA-106 Gladiators;
-4- Finland air force, Ilmavoimat, 1996.
The smaller stencils are not provided.
At the rear box, only one scheme is shown. But more schemes are thus possible with the kit decals. Colours are suggested in ModelMaster but please check their accuracy.
The kit is typically Italeri releases of the 1980s and the panel lines are raised. Considering that the kit is 30 years old, the cockpit is reasonably detailed with seats and control sticks. Decals are provided for the instruments.
Depending of either single or twin seater, on the nose a single opening canopy part of double canopy part is to be used. Italeri suggests that a canopy can be set open after some separation work.
Exhaust nozzles can be set widened or narrowed, but there are no exhaust pipes and no intakes' air flow ducts.
You get fuel tanks and what seems to be slightly different old style wing pylons. Some missiles are also included what looks like Harpoon anti-ship missiles and simple Sidewinders missiles. You also sort of ECM pods on the intake sides'. Antenna layouts changed during operational F-18 service, so check the supplied antenna parts. This is an old kit.
OK, how is the kit made and in what scheme?
The model will be made in a different scheme to portray a Malaysia Air Force (TUDM) F/A-18D. Aftermarket decals set F-4Dable Models set F-4D 72-008 was purchased. The set is very well researched and quite some Malaysia TUDM schemes are possible. There is even an errata extra decal sheet included, indicating that F-4Dable cares about accuracy. The decals are printed by Cartograf and are excellent. The sheets are a bit compact, so need fine scissors.
I picked for this model the Malaysia "20th" anniversary F/A-18D scheme of 2017.
The Italeri kit is an old kit when recessed panel lines that were not yet common a kit standard. It has raised panel lines. In stead of enscribing and sanding all off I tried to retain the few raised panel lines. Under a dark paint these will look acceptable.
The twin seat version' parts were used for the F/A-18D. The twin canopy would be set closed so the kit part #12A was set on the cockpit opening and filled with putty and sanded. Italeri call this "version A" in the instructions.
In the cockpit I made the instrument cover part #9A a bit smaller, otherwise it will interfere with a closed twin canopy.
The kit air intakes are a bit undeep, suggested is to paint a black "wall" areas" inside which I did. The deep exhaust pipes are not there. I opened up the rear fuselage here and added 2 exhaust pipes from scrap to get depth.
I did not yet install the twin tails and smaller bits yet. First main assembly needed quite some sanding as well as putty and sanding. I used my favourite white Alabastine car filler.
Sand... wet sand. The main assembly than got a base grey primer airbrushed with my favourite Revell 75 steingrau Aqua acrylic. Correct any visible flaws.
The desired Malaysia TUDM scheme has a main overall colour of Federal Standard FS26173 with black tails and black spine and upper nose. A good match is the British paint colour BSC 638 for the FS26173 and airbrushed was Gunze Sangyo Mr.Hobby H335 acrylic. Let dry.
NOTE: I also airbrushed H335 four wing pylons retrieved from a Hasegawa F/A-18-C kit; these have the later style correct pylon trailing edge shape. The Italeri kit has the old style pylons.
(I forgot to make a photo at this stage).
Mask off the spine and nose and than airbrush black as well as the vertical twin tails. I airbrushed Gunze Sangyo H2 black. Also, 2 wing fuel tanks were airbrushed black.
The gear struts, gear bays and insides of doors are gloss white. Some parts were airbrushed white while still in the kit sprues, the gear bays on the model hand were painted with a brush. The main gear doors got extra retraction rods made from thin white plastic stretched sprue bits. In the front nose gear bay, a metal actuator was made from scrap and the gear doors also got retraction rods.
I saw on photos that the nose strut catapult launch bar is probably a very similar looking "shimmy demper. The kit part was reduced 2 millimeter in length but otherwise the nose strut was used.
Cockpit tub was painted with a brush inside FS36231 grey after the control sticks had been added. Wheel tyres in tyre black and hubs in white were handpainted.
To avoid any "decal silvering" before decalling the model got a gloss varnish airbrushed with Johnson Future/Pledge thinned with a few drops of Gunze Sangyo Mr.Color leveling thinner. (this can also be done with a wide paint brush).
Decalling was done on the now glossy areas and make sure to use any decals provided on the ERRATE decals sheet and the correct lower scheme drawing provided by F-4Dable Models. The decals are fine and has also very tiny NO STEPs.
NOTE: F-4Dable Models cleverly provided a few decals for the red edges seen here and this consirably helps as small outline masking errors can be corrected. (I found that the red/black edged decals are excellent). Also they suggest to paint the 2 LERX parts #59B red as black decals are provided, trim these to size.
I needed to trim a bit the red top twin tail decals and also paint the edges red with a fine paint brush. The rear upper fuselage air brake is also red, I used spare decals stripes from the decals set.
On the black wing external fuel tanks the THE MIGHTY HORNETS red texts were also set.
After decalling had been done, the remainder of the kit was made. The gear doors are moulded combined in some bigger parts, these need separation with an X-acto knife. Inscribed lines are inside.
Installing the main gear struts needed some extra "twisting" to get main wheels facing parallel and forward. The kit wheel parts' aixle holes were drilled a bit wider in order to fit the wheels. Some small hydraulic wires were added from black stretched sprue. Gear bay doors were set open.
The different pair of Hasegawa wing pylons were set and the black fuel tanks.
Next to the wing tip launch rails also 2 small low-visibility lights are seen, these are missing in the kit. With some plastic strip, these 2x2 were made. On the outboard lower flap fairings' leading edges a red and blue anti-collision lights were painted.
The radar nose front area was painted off white and 2 nose pitot tubes were set as per kit.
The wind screen and main twin double seat canopy frames were hand painted gloss black. Aft of the front seat, the twin canopy has a lower cross bar; it is missing in the kit and made from scrap although with closed twin canopy it is almost invisible. Some white glue was needed to close tiny gaps, hand paint black as well when dried.
Actual antenna layout looked a bit different on the TUDM F/A-18D. Some new antennas were made from scrap with plastic card using the decal drawings:
- F/A-18 C/D additional antenna fairings on the spine supplied were now installed and painted medium grey.
- small extra antenna fairings on the vertical tails and nose sides are also moulded.
- real photos suggested that 5 IFF antennas are situated in front of the windscreen; they looked bigger than on the US Navy F/A-18D.
- another few flat ECM fairings on the nose and these were suggested with very thin card and painted medium grey.
It was decided not to only install 2 external wing fuel tanks but also outboard pylons with armament. One AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile was installed using also the kit pylon. On another pylon one AIM-7 Sparrow missile with adaptor made from scrap. At the wing tip advanced AIM-9X Sidewinder and at the inboard station next to the intake a designator pod. All these weapons were obtained from Hasegawa weapons sets.
NOTE: I could not clearly see which particular missile variants were used. On photos a large array of weapons were seen carried by Malaysian F/A-18D jets. They had multiple weapon options.
The model than got a few coats of semi-gloss varnish with Johnson Future/ Pledge thinned with 5% Gunze Mr.Color leveling thinner and 5% Tamiya X-21 flat base. The thinner seems to be a lacquer and will strangely help leveling the varnish when airbrushed. This coat will protect the decals and gives an even sheen, shield off the clear parts.
That completed this nice looking TUDM F/A-18D.
MALAYSIA
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[ area: 330,800 km2 | population: 33 million | capital: Kuala Lumpur | GDP USD 10,000 per capita nominal ]
The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF; Malay: Tentera Udara DiRaja Malaysia (TUDM)) was established June 1958 as the Royal Federation of Malaya Air Force (Tentera Udara Diraja Persekutuan).
Some
8 F/A-18D-50 were delivered from March 1997 coded M45-01 to -08. Operated by
TUDM no.18 squadron from Butterworth, Malaysia.
Look for more information about the TUDM at the F-5 page here....
... set in a scenery at Butterworth...
More F-18 models to follow.....
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Created this page March 31, 2026