Esci have produced some reasonable 1:48 scale kits of modern military jets and their A7D and A7E kits are not too bad - certainly not up to the standards of the Hasegawa (and now Revell) kit but as the cost is likely to the 25% of the latter then the Esci kit certainly scores highly in the value for money stakes.  I obtained both the A7D and A7E kits second hand.  The plastic is silvery grey and the parts have raised panel lines; the
undercarriage is basic, the cockpit rudimentary and the weapons/stores best discarded.  Having said that the separate cockpit access ladder and pull down steps are a nice touch and the canopy parts are thin, clear and nicely detailed.
The fuselage is split vertically and into front and rear sections, the joints between which require filling to avoid unsightly steps.  I joined the front and rear sections of each fuselage half before joining the halves together to minimise the "step potential".  The kit provides decals for the cockpit instruments so I scratch built a new console using plastic card with holes drilled for the instruments and used the decal behind it (a bit like a photoetched panel/film combination only much cheaper).  I replaced the kit seat with an Aeroclub white metal Escapac seat.

The wings are moulded so that they can be posed folded, I assembled them unfolded.  The stores pylons have the correct profile but are on the thin side.  The kit provides oversize "Snakeye" bombs with a poor representation of a MER.  These were not even worth keeping for spares so I binned them, instead using spares box TERs and slick bombs (all ex-Monogram).  After priming I brush painted an all over camouflage pattern using Humbrol enamels and used Superscale decals to represent an A7D of the 120th FIS/140th FW Colorado Air National Guard as based at Buckley ANGB, Denver circa 1981. 

Darius