Here is my 1/48 scale Hasegawa Hornet built as the CO's bird for  VMFA-232 of the United States Marine Corps. Most modern jet modelers are familiar with this kit so I won't bore you with the many details involved in construction. The kit is very good, and I built this particular example nearly OOB. I did substitute an extra resin seat I had from Black Box, but retained the kit cockpit. Carefully painting and drybrushing make it look just fine. Since Hasegawa does not provide intake trunks I fabricated covers made from wine bottle foil and painted them red. The only other non-kit items are the four Mk. 20 Rockeye cluster bombs, which came from Hasegawa 's weapons sets, and an AIM-120 AMRAAM on the starboard intake station from my spares box.

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The model was painted with a combination of Model Master and Polyscale acrylics, and the exhaust nozzles were done with Model Master's metalizers. After applying a coat of Future the Superscale declas went down next, with no issues. Another coat of Future was applied to seal the decals against weathering. I applied my usual enamel wash to the panels lines and did some subtle airbrush fading. A final coat of Polyscale flat sealed everything.

Although they require a bit of work, the Hasegawa kits build into a terrific representation of the Hornet. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Joe

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