Building 1/72 CF-18 by Braham Mansell

Building the 1/72 CF-18

by Graham Mansell
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Are you bugged about building a Canadian ‘Bug’. One mans thoughts on building a better 72nd Canadian Hornet. There have been many kits of the Hornet released in 72nd by model companies and their quality ranges from poor to excellent. IMHO, the worst kit is the one from AMT/Esci, it may have been updated lately but I have not seen one. It was a loose representation of the first pre-production birds. The lesser of many evils are the Hasegawa

and Fujimi kits, with the better kit, going to Hasegawa (single seat and dual), simply because it is less expensive, has fewer parts, easing construction, and is slightly more accurate.
The problem I see with the kits in 1/72 are the vertical fins and the problem manufacturers are having molding the radar warning bumps on them.

Fujimi has managed to come the closest to an accurate fin, but it is a C/D version, which have not been used by Canada. Italeri has a good set of fins but not as crisp. Is that really a big deal, if you are building a CAF bird? No. You file off the extra radar warning bulge and you have an A/B fin. Which is why you should buy the Hasegawa C/D kits to start your CF-188.

Click on images below to see larger images

CF-18	F/A-18C

The other major change to build a CF Hornet is the Night Identification light which is located in the Gun loading door. This photo shows this door open. There isn't a light installed on the back side of this particular door.

Click on image below to see larger image

Click on images below to see larger images

These are the major changes required to do a good C.F. Hornet. Why use Hasegawa? It is more accurate in nose shape. I had, Steve Sauve, measure a Hornet in Cold Lake, and discovered, the Fujimi kit is just over 3” too wide across the nose. The kit will look OK standing by itself but along side a Hasegawa kit (which has the correct width) the wider nose is too noticeable. My plan is to split my collection, all Fujimi kits are to built as USN/USMC and other users, and all Hasegawa kits become C.A.F. Hornets.
There are other problems with the Hasegawa kit, such as the shape of the main landing gear legs, slightly poor fit at the tail end, and the basic age of the kit. Using some parts from other kits helps, such as the intake trunks from the Fujimi kit, but starting with a good basic kit helps the most.
HTH

Graham