MENG Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet 1:48 – build review

Full Review with Dave Coward

Here’s a couple of pictures of the finished model so you can see what it looks like.

Background…

Having recently built Revell’s and Hasegawa’s F-18E I couldn’t resist Meng’s new offering and seeing how it stacked up against these earlier Hasegawa offerings.

My initial thoughts upon opening the box was I was very impressed. The moulding looked crisp and flash free, the instructions were clear and well produced, a good selection of stores were included and the decal options were nice and covered a good variety of options both high and low-vis (they are printed by Cartograf).

Initially I had decided to do the Top Gun Maverick option as I hadn’t been happy with the Revell version of this kit I had done. Then, whilst I was waiting for eduard to release some after-market parts Meng announced that they were going to release a two seat ‘F’ model which suited my Top Gun requirement better so it was time to look at other decal options for this E. I wanted something colourful and the kit option for VF-31 was nice but I happened upon a set of DXM decals for VX-9 which just caught my imagination (Adam WB has used these markings for his 1/32nd Revell Super Hornet) so that decision was made.

Aftermarket Extras:
• eduard Colour PE interior 491194
• eduard Brassin F/A-18E Ejection Seat 648702
• eduard Brassin F/A-18E resin weighted wheels 648701
• DXM VX-9 Vampires Decals 11-4352.

Construction…