Just wondering what the best option to build a Australian Hornet in 1/48. I know there are a few offerings in 1/72 but haven't found any straight out of the box in 1/48.

And as to kits in 1/48 the only 'A' Hornet I can find is HobbyBoss's offering, and I don't know how the quality is on their kits. But Hasegawa has a lot of 'C'. Can they be back-dated to A-standard?

So, any advice would be helpful.

Hasegawa did have a kit that include the A version in it . The kit number is 7083. Maybe Black Box has a back date kit for the C version. Just Google FA/18A Hasegawa kit. Hope this helps.

Time for a stupid question, but what are the difference between an F/A-18A and C.

And are there any difference between U.S. aircrafts and Australian aircrafts?

Sorry for all the questions, but this isn't really my area of expertise.

Hi Thomas,

I'm not sure about the differences between the A and C, but i have a feeling it's mostly avionics and not much external difference- but i'm not sure about that.

As to the difference between US and Australian A's there are some quite substantial differences that most people are not even aware of, but nothing externally that i know of. What most don't know is that the Australian (and Canadian) aircraft are light weight airframes. As they never had any intention of being used from aircraft carriers, only land bases- much of the airframe strengthening needed for carrier deck landings was removed. So they have arrestor hooks, but are not really rated to land on a carrier at all.

But i'm quite certain that from the outside nothing much is different from a US aircraft, it's all internal differences. Of course there has been avionics updates over time that have probably added some bumps and antennas etc. So if it's absolute accuracy you're after right down to a certain time frame then i guess you'll need some good pics.

Andrew

Actually the 'lightweight' airframe variant was the F-18L and it never saw production as buyers preferred the proven F/-18A/B (and later C/D). All F/A-18 production used the navalized airframe. Both Canada and Australia were originally offered the L and Canada intended to buy it before the Iranian F-14 debacle (the L order got shelved as it looked like Canada was buying the Iranian F-14 fleet, but the buy got shelved when Canadian aid to US diplomats during the Hostage Crisis became public knowledge).

The Canadian CF-188's were delivered as straight-up F/A-18A's with the sole significant change being the spotlight. The Canadian Hornets are nearly fully navalized and retain the heavy-duty landing gear, folding wings and arrestor hook of the USN version. I'm not sure if the CLS is installed on the Canadian version but it is otherwise fully carrier capable.

The Australian version had the catapult bar removed from the nose gear (later refitted with a dummy version due to nosewheel shimmy), a lighter arrestor hook installed and the CLS removed and replaced with an ILS/VOR system. It's otherwise a straight up A/B model aside from avionics differences. The Australian version is not carrier capable due to the lighter hook and lack of functional catapult attachment bar.

Or givin we have now bought the super hornet you can build one of these.