1:48 Canopy And Wheels Paint Masks For F/A-18D Hornet (For Hobby Boss)

The two-seat Hornet for night attack

The F/A-18D version came about by reworking the two-seat trainer into a full combat tool for the Marine Corps. The rear seat was taken not by a second pilot but by a weapon systems officer, who has large displays in front of him instead of controls. The machines received navigation and targeting pods and specialized in night strikes, in which their crews directed attacks and searched out ground targets. The lengthened canopy with a dividing arch in the middle is their most conspicuous external feature.

The scope of the set

The package deals with two separate tasks. The cut film parts cover the glazing of the long canopy and of the windscreen, and a further set is prepared for masking the wheels. The cut follows one particular kit, which means that the spacing of the frames matches the shapes of the molding and nothing has to be trimmed.

The long canopy as a test of accuracy

On the two-seat machine the glazing is markedly longer than on the single-seater and the frame runs along almost the whole upper part of the fuselage. An error that would stay inconspicuous on a short canopy adds up here: if the tape wanders along its whole length by even a tenth of a millimeter per centimeter, the difference at the end of the curve is visible to the naked eye. A cut part keeps the width of the frame unchanging from beginning to end.

The limit of the method shows at the dividing arch in the middle. The film meets there from two directions and the overlap has to be watched, because two parts overlapping create a visibly thicker bar than the real machine has.