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1/48 EF-18G Growler


ghodges

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I built this for a friend at work whose son is a Growler pilot. It will be mounted on a base with some presentation items and given to him in  a week or so.

This is the 1/48 Italeri kit built OOTB. I cannot recommend this kit (it was the one in my stash), and I had it because I picked it up for pennies on the dollar at our kit auction. The kit itself is a "patchwork" of parts as Italeri added/deleted parts to their F-18 E/F kit to allow you to build a Growler. This IS the "new moulde" edition, but it still has some very troubling problems. First, as alluded to, the fit leaves a LOT to be desired, especially on the inserted parts. Second, the instructions contain some very glaring errors and omissions. If you follow the instructions, the wingtip ECM pods will not only be too far forward, they'll be UPSIDE DOWN! The kit includes the avionics hump for the nose, but never tells you to add it. The kit has the gun vent nose, but supplies no alternate part nor any instruction to fill the vents. The interior is quite basic with only decals provided for the main panels and side consoles.

The kit does come with a huge and impressive looking decal sheet. However, once more, the instruction sheet is a let down. The decals provide stencils for all of the ECM pods, the drop tanks, and the missiles. However, the placement guides are a little vague for their exact positioning, and NO guide is shown for the missiles. Luckily, I'd bought a Furball decal sheet, since I was building a VAQ-131 Lancer bird (not on the kit sheet). It had very good guides for the ECM pods and drop tanks; though I still had to go to the internet for missile pics in order to decal them.

Frankly, after building this kit and talking to fellow club members, I'd have to recommend that you get the Hasgawa 1/48 EF-18G kit if you want to build a Growler. Still, it's done, and it does look like a Growler, so I'm hoping my friend and his son will like it.

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By the way, the basic Lancer decals are for a CAG bird, so I merely changed the plane number to 505 instead of 500, to reflect a "line bird" that Lt. Gerdes would more likely fly.

Comments, critiques, and questions welcome, as always. Cheers!

 

GIL :cool:

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Came out looking great. I do recommend the Hasegawa kit as I have built three and while it may be a little tricky (as are most Hornets), it has all the needed parts and good instructions

Great job and an even better reason for doing it

 

Dave

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Great looking EF-18.  I like the shading around the panel lines.  What is the brand of paint/metallics did you use?  I  have a  Growler in my stash that one day I will build.  The Growler is not the EF-18 but the EA-6 that was flown when I worked on the flight deck of the USS Eisenhower in the late 70 's.  The days of the much more colorful hi-viz pant schemes

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Hey Gil, very nice job of a difficult kit.  Since you do such an excellent job on kits that most others won't tackle, the Williams Bros C-46A wouldn't be next on your list, would it?:biggrin:

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This is a testament to your outstanding skills to take such a difficult model and turn it into such a masterpiece, especially since there's no signs you  ever had any trouble with it.  Congrats on such a well-done model and if possible, get pics of the presentation so we can all see the happy look on the recipient's face.

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Thanks for the very kind words all! The burner cans were done with Alclad Dark Aluminum and Metalizer buffing exhaust.

 

As for building a C-46, since I build 1/48, I'll be doing the old Combat vac when I build mine! :smiley2:

 

GIL :cool:

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