Review by Mick Stephen
Background
Once again to continue the Kuwait Air Force theme and following on from the Italeri Hawk Mk64, and Mirage F1CK (see Kitty Hawk pages in Finished Now soon) it wouldn’t be the full story without a Kuwaiti F/A 18.
Kuwait acquired the F/A 18 after retiring the Mirage F1-CK and A4-KU Skyhawk soon after the 1st Gulf War ended. Deliveries started in 1994 with 32 single seat C versions and 8 twin seat D models, split between No9 and No25 Squadrons based at Ahmed Al Jaber Airbase in the western desert of Kuwait.
Currently Kuwait is tendering a replacement for these now aging aircraft with the F/A 18 Super Hornet E/F and the Eurofighter Typhoon still in the running.
I would normally at this point introduce a tale of some measure, however our regular visits to “Jaber” were more social than business-like, given they had a PX Store (for the US Navy folks) at which we could obtain various únobtainable’ foodstuffs, necessitating the need for a large coolbox and bags of ice, absolutely critical equipment.
Another regular stop on the day tour, was the Engine Bay. They had a gaseous mass spectrometer unit ostensibly for the testing of engine oil samples, but it had a rather useful side function in testing our illicit distillation efforts, ethyl rather than methyl as they say??
Suffice to say that both the above activities resulted in some pretty spectacular BBQs with the US Navy guys, best not mentioned and little to do with our build review.
The kit
It was surprisingly difficult to find an F/A 18-C/D in the local hobby shops, but as luck would have it, I spied a Hobby Boss kit lurking in the dark reaches. Having never built a HB kit, this was the way to go.
Reading various articles on the internet the Hobby Boss kit appears to be a rework of the Hasagawa version, there is certainly plenty of plastic to fill the box and at first glance surface detail looks very good with restrained recessed panel lines. However, closer inspection shows the rivet details are more like pin holes, these will require some serious filling.
Instructions seem pretty straightforward in the typical exploded view format.
I’m sticking completely OOB on this one, with just the decals from an aftermarket source, using the Orion Models Kuwait F/A 18 set.
The camouflage scheme is a tri-colour wrap-around affair, much more fun than the usual two-tone deal.