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Best fitting legacy hornet in 1/48?


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I’m getting lazy….I don’t feel like beating a kit into submission. I built the Monogram F/A-18 decades ago and remember the issues with it. I’m looking for an easy build for a desert storm era aircraft. reading a few build reviews on the kinetic kit, it looks like it doesn’t exactly fall together. Ease of assembly before accuracy, I’m not enough of a hornet expert to know the finer details, I just want “one” to add to the stash from desert storm. Any thoughts? Hasegawa? Hobbyboss? Kinetic? Monogram?

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This is a great question.  I'm starting to get back into jets (I'm a prop man myself) and I'd love to have a legacy Hornet on my shelf as well.  For some reason, I just do not find the Super Hornets to be overly attractive.  They just don't seem to have the nicer proportions that the legacy Hornets have.

 

As a Monogram fan, I'd love to see where it falls in the rankings between it and the Revell, Hasegawa, Hobby Boss and Kinetic kits in terms of ease of assembly.

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Hasegawa and Kinetic is much of a muchness, the nose on the kinetic is more work but with some dry fitting it works out ok.

 

Been such a long time since I made the Hasegawa kit, but I cant remember anything I didnt like about it. Typical Hasegawa really. Good but limited on detail kit, not worth the cost of the "special" markings boxes.

 

Monogram kit was typical Monogram. Its ok but wont blow your socks off... You end up with a nice looking F/A-18 if you work on it. While the other two look ok if you throw them together.

 

I seem to remember the Hobby Boss kit being not bad either.

It weathers up better than the Hasegawa kit does, and its cheaper.

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Some good stuff to think about! The Hasegawa kits are so pricey, never understood the high price on this kit compared to some of their other kits. 
 

Revell had its own Hornet, I think it last appeared in the Yeager boxings, since then it’s been the monogram plastic in Revell boxes, although I could be mistaken….

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IIRC, the Revell kit was pretty simplified. The Monogram kit was better. The Hasegawa kit is a fun build. The flaps are a little tedious to deal with. The only area I had any fit issues was just aft of the wings, but some Mr Surfacer fixed that.

 

Ben

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2 hours ago, GreyGhost said:

Is the Revell essentially the Monogram tooling ?

 

-Gregg


Revell released their own Hornet early on but, since Revell and Monogram “merged” only the Monogram molds are used. The old Revell molds haven’t been released literally in decades….

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I prefer Hasegawa over Kinetic, although some of the Kinetic kits have in box options like the folding wing and a fair amount of weapons. I dont know if its my imagination or not, but the Kinetic plastic is a bit soft compared to Hasegawa.

 

I also build the Revellogram kits but those are usually for display somewhere so if something happens to it, Im not out a lot of money. Besides, you can pick them up relatively cheap and they make a fair representation of a Legacy Hornet.

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All things considered, the Hasegawa kit is the best fitting of the bunch. In addition to that, it is proportionately more accurate than all of the others. This is based on having taken a tape measure and using plumb lines to the real aircraft.

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Imho, the Hobby Boss is the best fit, marginally beating Hasegawa. Both build generally easier than Kinetic, which has the worst fitting nose out of the bunch. It makes up for the HB and Hasegawa side inserts. I do like the attachment of the main landing gear better on the Kinetic.

HB kit does have 'some' issues though. So if the ease of build is not the only measure, I'd go with Hasegawa.

What Kinetic has is availability, and a lot of options. Slightly better cockpit with weakish IP and a really basic front IP cover.

For a Desert Storm Hornet, You are pretty much good to go with basic Hasegawa boxing (be it A or C). Kinetic too, just need to choose proper parts for the antennae and gun gas vents. HB "C" is ok for a DS build too. The A has small fairings of the tail ECM antennae. Kind of fun for an early Hornet.

 

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I built the Haseagwa one a few years back. Fit was OK -  not great but more than acceptable for a kit of it's vintage.

 

However like a lot of Hasegawa kits I've found the engraved detail inconsistent.  This means I often have to re-scribe bits off it  

 

 

 

 

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I've built a 2 Hasegawa, a Hobby Boss and a Kinetic. (And many years ago the Monogram).  I prefer the Hasegawa.  While the Hobby Boss was very close to the Hasegawa in fit and detail, the main gear seemed to splay outward a bit like it could not support the weight of the model. The Kinetic had the trouble around the nose and I felt the recessed panel lines were a bit too shallow for my taste.  In the end they all looked like Hornets sitting on my shelf.  The Monogram had a nasty joint where the top fuselage met the bottom fuselage at the nose but it was the first and only for a long time.

My rank:

1st Hasegawa

2nd Hobby Boss

3rd Kinetic

4th Monogram/Revell  

 

Geoff M

Edited by Geoff M
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  • 7 months later...

No and it quite far down the queue. Not even finished the Hasegawa one...

There are quite a few build reviews to be found online and seems to have similar fit issue as the Hasegawa one, will get back to it when I get to it.

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On 2/10/2022 at 1:40 PM, habu2 said:


Revell released their own Hornet early on but, since Revell and Monogram “merged” only the Monogram molds are used. The old Revell molds haven’t been released literally in decades….

I recently picked up the early Revell F-18 prototype kit.  I thought I was getting the Monogram tooled kit (I've built several of these) but to my surprise it was a total different different kit. It is much simplified and not nearly as good as the Monogram tooling.  I doesn't have a cockpit tub, only the instrument panels (front and sides with nothing below them.  The landing gear is not detailed at all.  There may be a bunch of other issues that I haven't discovered yet.  Since I have it, I'll build it but I am disappointed with it.  I should have researched the kit more before buying.

Edited by fasteagle12
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I'm just about finished building a Kinetic CF-188 and generally have enjoyed the project. I've also done one Hasegawa a few years ago. I didn't have much more trouble getting the Kinetic together, although it may be that the company made a few modifications to the nose and windscreen that make things fit better than the first generation F/A-18C boxing. I agree that the Kinetic doesn't fall together, but I would characterize it more as fiddly than as ill-fitting. I found the main gear alignment easier than the Hasegawa -- the angle strut pretty much locks things in place. I particularly liked the PE semi-ring for the canopy front with integral mirrors and grab handles.

 

I don't know the Hobby Boss kit, but I just looked through the directions at Scalemates. They don't give you any canopy details at all. Also, it doesn't appear that the flaps can be mounted extended, if that matters to anybody (it does to me).

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Is the Kinetic kit much more detailed than the Hasegawa offering? I got the initial Kinetic boxing I guess, while I also have some Aires detail sets for Hasegawa, like cockpit and wheel bays IIRC that I considered trying to fit to Kinetic if it makes any sense.

 

Reading about the fit issues makes me consider getting a Hasegawa (or perhaps an HB kit instead if it's similar enough that some of the Aires sets might fit).

 

Edit: never mind 

 

Edited by ijozic
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