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Trumpeter 1/32 F/A-18E


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Hi guys, greetings from New Zealand.

The Trumpeter 1/32 F/A-18E is a suspect of being a enlarged copy from partially the 1/48 Revell kit, and partially from the 1/48 Hasegawa kit. While there is not serious shape problem on the air frame being spotted, it's a shame to tell the details of this kit is sparse and erroneous in many places, even not catching up with its 1/48 templates, as if it's a size-up, yet SIMPLIFIED copy of those 1/48 kits. It's so obvious that Trumpeter was rushing to be the first one to fill up the gap in the market for this subject, in this scale.

In this build, I'm neither going to super detail this monster nor rectify all its errors, but working on areas here and there to upgrade the model to a standard that is acceptable by myself. One policy will be applied through out the build -- no after market stuff will be used, I'll only use styrene sheets and rods, as well as some copper wires of various thickness to add up as much details as I can, because I personally think this kit is worthless for any further investment on it.

Ok, let's get started for the long march, and see what it'll turn out to be.

Started with the bang seat, this is what the kit's configuration for the seat, it's formed up by only two parts: a front part on which all the "details" are casted and a back plate, completely toyish. In addition, the seat is actually in a wrong shape, the backrest of the seat should narrow up from bottom up, but it is now looked squared, this leads to the whole headrest part of the seat being over sized. The seat itself is a bold evidence of being a copy from the Revell kit. I'm not going to rectify the shape problem here, rather, I'll rework the seat to a better-looking one

WIP1.jpg

WIP2.jpg

WIP3.jpg

My modification on it

WIP5.jpg

WIP6.jpg

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This is how it looked to be in the cockpit

WIP12.jpg

This is all for today... to be continued, stay tuned.

Edited by AndyLiu
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Seat looks infinitely better..but am I crazy? The control stick looks way too big.

Yep, that's what the stock control stick looked like, which I think can be used on a 1/18 kit, the easiest way to solve the problem is to replace it with a resin part, but again, the policy of the build -- no after market products, so I can only live with it.

The Trumpeter kit has enlarged every bit of the errors found on its 1/48 template.

Edited by AndyLiu
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Ok, a little update, today I'm gonna work on the pit.

This is what the stock pit looks like, as you can see from the picture, the control stick looks awfully big enough to sit on a 1/18 kit. The best solution is to replace it with a resin product, but again the policy of the build -- no after market products are allowed, so I'll live with it.

WIP13.jpg

My job on the pit: adding a step on the floor right under the instrument panel, adding a shaft at the bottom of the control stick to allow the pilot to push down and pull up the nose, adding a block of plastic on the back of the bottom half part of the instrument panel to make it have a depth look, adding a pair of simple foot pedals to make it looked busier.

WIP14.jpg

This is what the pit looked like after my work on it.

WIP15.jpg

WIP16.jpg

Edited by AndyLiu
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