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1/48 F/A-18F Meng vs.HobbyBoss


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Get the Meng. I have both Meng and Hase superhornets and feel the Meng is a better value overall. Just finished building a Revell F-18E and will not be building another Revell Superhornet although its great for the price I paid. USD $9ish

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Sorry, but Revell kit is twenty year old... i have interest about newest kit, because SuperBug is still updated and upgraded and 20 years old kit probably isn ' t in current config.

 

Thank you very much.

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1 hour ago, AlCZ said:

Sorry, but Revell kit is twenty year old... i have interest about newest kit, because SuperBug is still updated and upgraded and 20 years old kit probably isn ' t in current config.

 

Thank you very much.

Well, wouldn't the kit choice be at least partially dictated by the era of the subject you're building?  The kit with all the latest and greatest mods wouldn't necessarily be the best choice if you were, say, building a jet from the early 2000s, now, would it?  It's probably at least as much work to get rid of the upgrades and revert to an earlier configuration as it is to go from the earlier to the later.  Just a thought.

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Well, judging from whats in the box I'd take the Meng over Hobby Boss. HB has weird configuration. No ACS aft cockpit (only old style Instrument Panel and IP cover) along with new type of ECS exhaust (Bard Stack) makes for only a few airframes. The pixelated SH from VFA-122 makes on of them. The EA-18G kit has the ACS.

What looks suspicious, are the wing pylons. They are higher to the rear and lower to the front. So the stores might end up in some weird position, not pointing downwards. The pylons on Trumpeter Super Hornets in 1/32 seemed the same. Might be a non issue on a built kit though.

HB spine seems proper lenghth, however with the huge insert dry-fitted I can't really tell if it's better cross section than say Hasegawa, or not.

I like the options Meng kit carries. HB has shootloads of weapons. There is an A-10 dual rail aim-9 adapter, and old Buddy-buddy IFR store, never used on Super Hornets, Harms without launchers. 

So that's some nit-picking.

 

While I do plan on building the Revel kit, the double seater suffers from some horrible canopy issue. It lacks the neat curve of the real jet, and spoils the look of the model with closed canopy. Add to that a slightly anorectic nose (IMHO) and too big Pizza Box IFF, and the entire front fuselage looks off. But it;s much cheaper than both Meng an HB. Single seater is even worse. And I got a single seater.

 

Comparing panel lines, I indeed like the HB better. Plastic also seems nicer to me. I'd still take Meng over HB if I had to buy only one, even with too short spine. Meng really feels like an upgraded Hasegawa kit. And I like the Hasegawa kit.


I've not yet built mine, so I can;t really say anything about the fit of either the HB or Meng kits. The HB inserts do worry me a bit.

So that's my 0.02 pln worth of opinion 🙂

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I fussed over this a few months ago. After all the reviews and YouTubes - and after all was said and done, I'm sticking with the Hasagawa kits. I have all of them all ready; and their paneling detail is in better scale than the newer kits. I have all the aftermarket weps, cockpits, decals, and pods I need to do the Monogram YF-18 thru the Hasagawa F/A-18A-G.

 

Tracy

Edited by Vidar_710
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On 11/10/2021 at 7:27 PM, Thadeus said:

and old Buddy-buddy IFR store, never used on Super Hornets,

Which buddy store are you referring to? The in flight refuel pod with the hose and drogue for refueling other planes in flight?

 

The Super Hornet very much does carry this pod. They carried the original analog version, and then the later ones with the digital upgrades that requires the new RAT on the front. I think they are up to either -5 or -6 mods on those now.

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What I meant, HB gave the original Douglas D-704 pod. While the pods do look similar, they are not really the same.

 

http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2015/06/things-under-wings-inflight-refueling.html

 

You might generally get away with just sanding the bulges down but I keep looking at the two pods, and the end seems bigger on the later pod.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm actually surprised by the love for the older kits here. I was under the impression that both the Meng and Hobbyboss kits in 1/48 are superior to the Hasegawa and certainly the Revell (which I had and got rid of due to it being a dog of a kit). I unloaded my Hasegawa kits but still have the aftermarket available on the Buy and Sell forum.

 

I have the Meng on hand (and a buddy who built it loved it) and want to purchase the Hobbyboss Foxtrot once it is available here in the states. Have any of you built the Meng or Hobbyboss super bugs?

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I’ve built 6-7 Hasegawa Supers and after building a Meng E model, I won’t go back to Hasegawa.  Very similar in their build up but having the ECS easily fitted as an option vice having to cut/sand a resin piece along with a one piece nose cone and an easy wing fold was all I needed to come to that conclusion. I’ve heard some complain about the pit but with Quinta set or a figure in the seat, I didn’t have any issue.

 

Now if we could just get some updated decals....

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8 hours ago, Spike72 said:

I’ve built 6-7 Hasegawa Supers and after building a Meng E model, I won’t go back to Hasegawa.  Very similar in their build up but having the ECS easily fitted as an option vice having to cut/sand a resin piece along with a one piece nose cone and an easy wing fold was all I needed to come to that conclusion. I’ve heard some complain about the pit but with Quinta set or a figure in the seat, I didn’t have any issue.

 

Now if we could just get some updated decals....

 

My thoughts exactly also. While the kit is not a Tamiya-like one, it still has better engineering and fit than the Hasegawa kit. The molded wings to the upper fuselage is a nice touch as the wings on Hasegawa's are added separate and can have an awkward anhedral or dihedral if you're not careful enough.

 

The Meng will do for now until Tamiya releases theirs in about 10 years. 😆

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I've only built the Hasegawa, but also have the Meng and Hobby Boss.  Just looking through the box, the Hobby Boss appears overly complicated.  They have options for open radomes, avionics bays, etc.  If you're wanting to open them all up, great.  However, for most that will build a bird not opened up for maintenance, it seems wasted.  I haven't fitted any of them together, but the Meng appears to be more cleanly molded.  It's not to say both don't look good, but there's something about the Meng that appears very well molded. 

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Well, as an argument "for" Hasegawa kit, I'd say, the Meng kit looks awfully similar to the "old" Hasegawa. Even the spine seems copied from that kit and uncorrected.

So if You happen to have Hase kit, I'd say the Meng kit would be an improvement, but not by too much. Costwise Meng kit doesn't look that good. I can get a Meng kit for 1/3 more than Hasegawa. Hobby Boss seems a bit better on the price. Obviously, the pricing really depends on part of the world.

There is like one build of HB kit on Youtube (an E). I was expecting this one to be built more frequently than Meng. I've yet to see a WIP build for one with some detailed pros and cons section. And, judging from a lot of people said about the Revell 1/32 Super Hornet and what came of it, I much prefer a build thread to inbox review.

For one, I like the surface detail of the HB kit better. Then again, the Meng kit has much smaller box, so more can be fitted in the stash. That HAS to accout for something, right?

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