This model is an
Hasegawa 1/72 F/A18F Super Hornet completely from the box number 00385. It shows
the special marking for the 50th anniversary of US Navy VFA-102
"Diamondbacks" from CVW-5 USS Kitty Hawk Pacific Fleet in 2005. The
VF-102 became VFA-102 after the unit exchanged its old F14B Tomcat with the
new F/A18F in 2003 and changed also of fleet from Atlantic to Pacific after the
transition. The lower camouflage is FS36375 Grey MrColor H308 and the
upper camouflage is FS36320 Grey acrylic Gunze H307. The decals are from the box
and awesome you have the choice of paint red upper flags and tails in
Gunze H327 and add decals after for white diamonds, national marking, and
snake's head or do it with big decals with red parts. I did the second
choice. I did my best to paint it with classical brush and I added a light
weathering to show rivets and structure lines.
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The front and main gears
with all internal doors are painted in white MrColor H316, the edge of
doors are Gunze H327. I decided only to add under wings two 480 gallons
tanks with diamond decals, the standard AN/ASQ-228 FLIR pod on left side without
any armament. To make the model more real I decided to show the canopy
open.
To help me I tried
to find some pictures of the real plane via the web, I found very
operational pictures. The decals to do these plane exist also from specialist
decal makers. I enjoy making USN planes because for years US Navy used
colourful planes and eyecatching scheme I think it's more interesting than sad
grey planes nevertheless it's not very visually stealth in time of war.
Jean-Charles
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