by Thomas “Richthofen” Polkemann (January 2011)
Isn’t it an anachronism’s that a Chinese company can reproduce one of the most advanced US Navy Fighter aircraft at the moment?! But honestly who cares, as long we get models like this in the 32nd scale.
And again Trumpeter made it! This time with the F/A-18 E “Super Hornet”. After you open the massive box you will find a lot of plastic, perfectly packaged too, to avoid any damage.
All the sprues are single packed in plastic bags or little Boxes as is customary for Trumpeter.
The Model…
The fuselage is reproduced in an upper part with fine surface detail and the back part of the lower fuselage with the wheel wells.
The front fuselage with nicely detailed Avionics bays
The Cockpit is clear and tidy as it is on modern fighter jets. Large computer screens with a few switches dominate the instrument panel. The ejection seat looks good for an injection model with photo-etched parts. The clear part for the canopy has, unfortunately, that middle mould seam that is a bit annoying and has to be sanded down (see Techniques Bank for how to do this). Beside this blemish the clear parts have no imperfections or streaks.
The nose can be displayed open or closed. The radar that is shown in the kit is a kind of “what if” for future integration. For obvious reasons there is no recent radar shown in the kit, therefore you can build the nose closed. The wings have separate flaps and spoilers and can build as closed or extended. The nose and the main landing gear have a metal “skeleton” and nicely detailed plastic part on the outside. We will see if this is better then a completely metal landing gear. This time Trumpeter has a complete air intake up to the engine in this kit. And again two engines are in the kit are not that highly detailed as in the previous releases like the F-8 and F-100. Pylons and external fuel tanks look very nice.
In the box will find an another box with all the parts that you need for building your F/A-18E; this box contains no less than 24 further sprues with every kind of weapon that you will find in the inventory of the US Navy that is used with the F/A-18E. That will give a huge variety to “arm” your Super Hornet.