Hasegawa 1/72 F/A-18C Hornet

Very nice kit.

This model will soon be finished and it is dream to assemble and good workmanship on Hasegawa's part. I am not a 1/72 model builder (1/48 preferred) I have now done about 11 models in this scale and so far I am very pleased.

disappointed with the Hasegawa fit and finish. the seller was terrific, no issues with the seller. expected a better fit and directions were not the clearest

This is one of the more recent Hasegawa kits and so all fits together pretty well without too much coercion. Two color schemes are offered with decals to boot. Some choice over weaponry too, but not much. I enjoyed building it, and only a moderate skill level will be required to complete it successfully.

This kit is very fun to make and you can either put the markings for Navy fighter-attack squadron VFA 195 Dambusters (The motto of that squadron is chippy ho so that's why its on the tail in the photo it says that) The second option which is for a Marine Red Devils squadron (VMFA 232) (the one that I did) The paints that I used were Nato Black, Black, Jn Grey, Jn Green, Light Grey, Flat red, Olive green, Yellow, and silver metallic. (All of the colors were from Tamiya) I used Tamiya Plastic cement for glue and Mark Fit to help install the decals. Overall it is a very fun model that requires hard work, dedication, skill, motivation, and time,

Easy build for a jet

(That's what she said). But it was. Disappointed that it was for a custom project and I couldn't use the decals that came with the kit because they looked really neat. Detail is also very good for the price. Would recommend this kit to anyone who wants a good quick build

Are Hasegawa designers paid by the piece? I've never seen such a complicated build on a small model before. Building each intake requires five separate pieces: the lower fuselage, an outer panel, an interior brace, the intake mouth, and the external ramp. The wing root extensions have an insert on the underside that could well have been molded into the upper fuselage. Some parts of this kit are clearly shared with other Hasegawa F-18s because the area around the cockpit is also four or five pieces so that the same upper fuselage could be used for a two seater in a different kit. It's just needlessly fiddly for the size. It's not difficult to build, it's just irritating. Just trying too hard to be clever with this design. Hasegawa won't be my first choice next time, that's for sure.