Ref: F/A-18A HORNET «U.S.NAVY CAG BIRD»

This model kit had, for me, 2 advantages : having a nice coloured 'deco', & great reviews for its release. In the french magazine 'AIR ACTION' n°19, july 1990, M. Ousmagne DIAGNE had written : "Le modèle est de très grande qualité. ….. C’est une excellente maquette bien remise au goût du jour" (translation : "it's a high quality model. ...An excellent up to date model kit")( we reminds you that Hasegawa had previously released this F18 ...in 1985).

On the box opening, i discovered that i should not have listen to the siren song who'd better told us «Buy it, it's an HASEGAWA & we have an advertising budget from us that we could not ... criticize!». Since, this «excellent model» allows me to build it up either single seated, or double seated, or that's we could think when we first look to the upper semi-fuselage, except that everything is done for the single seated only, including the 2 pieces (D12, A10) to add to the second piloting post. And this is just the first bad thing, because the pieces badly adjust & you have to put loads of putty in a visible area, & after you will have to reengrave it because it'd been damaged with this putty thing.. Maybe Hasegawa isn't wealthy enough to include 2 upper fuselage options in the same box. ACADEMY have already done it (example of the Me 163) but it's true that the cost of this kit is completly different from the Hasegawa's: 6.8 € for ACADEMY,…. TRIPLE for the Hasegawa's. All this isn't really a logical thing.

Don't even ask about the cockpit which looks «basic» to everyone, understand that it really sucks: but it seem casual for them as they are linked to accesories firms, & don't make me think another way : the eject seat is directly ejected to the garbage, to replace it by a Verlinden one, but everything else is uneasy to update: a flat tub with decals, a control stick & an instrument panel (+ decal) !

You will still enjoy it during the assembling process : the reactors air entries are separated & uneasy to putty, same thing for the entry deflectors.Other big surprise, following : after glueing the weaponery supports D6+D11, don't look at their engravement which looks like the worst «Matchbox» kits . This had to be said because these pieces, even rough, are necessary & difficult to remake. At last, if you what to present the Hornet with open canopy, you will have to make your own scratch made thrustor, the one included in the box, doesn't means anything!

Even if it's a good looking result, this is hard work for a kit which should have been "from the box". In fact we've got here «from the box & from the tube» ..for the putty.

If this kit is one of the best F/A 18 in that scale, i don't want to think about opening one day one of the 'quite good' ones from :Academy, Revell, Italeri… or Fujimi!

When the Super-Hornet is upcoming, is it presomptuous to suggest to the nowadays firms to release - at last - an excellent F/A 18 …. with a mould not at least aged 16 ? Many times youngers begins with some «reactors», & this is not with this F18 that they will become the casual 50-year-old-moustached-modeler, & which every firm wanna take care of his wallet!

I entirely assume what i've written in this article, even if others did not agree with me : all depend on the level you expect . For a well known firm, you should expect a high level, & so avoid, Hasegawa san , the re-boxing policy you have been presenting for years, valued by your talented drawer!!

Find the photos gallery of the Hazegawa F/A-18A Hornet made by Alain DELILLE