1:48 F-18A/C

The Hornet as a machine for a double role

The carrier Hornet came out of a project that had failed in the US Air Force fighter competition, and it still became the busiest deck aircraft of the US Navy in the 1980s. The novelty was not the airframe but the way of working: one and the same machine could take off in the morning for an escort and in the afternoon for an attack on a ground target, because switching the mode was handled by electronics and not by a conversion on deck. The A version was the single-seat first batch; the C version brought a newer radar, equipment for night operations and the ability to carry guided munitions. For the modeler it matters that both share the same division of the canopy, so a single cut serves them both.

What the sheet is for

The cut parts follow the frames of the sliding section and the fixed windscreen ahead of the pilot. They lie on the shape of the glazing so that after spraying a straight edge arises with none of the step usually left by tape cut by hand. Beside the cockpit there are circular masks for the wheel rims on the sheet as well.

Working with the film is fast: a part is laid on, pressed with a finger through a soft cloth and spraying can begin at once. It is removed while the paint is fresh, because a hardened coat sometimes chips at the edge. Anyone building a machine in the gray naval scheme will appreciate that the glass under the mask stays free of the matte clouding that overspraying causes. A low-visibility gray scheme forgives a great deal, but a smeared cockpit frame shows on it at once, because there is no other contrasting element around.

• For the Hornet model by Hobby Boss
• The frames of the sliding section and the windscreen
• Circular masks for the rims
• It applies to the A version as well as the C version
• Machine-cut, not by hand