by: Steve Manchur [ ]
From all the reveiws of the Academy F/A-18 it seems the only real complaint about the kit is the ejection seat, and after a trip out around the Tokyo area and ending up with Academy's 1/32nd scale bug. I asked Santa (my wife) for a new seat to drop in my hornet. What I got was a new resin cockpit from Cutting Edge Modelworks. Gotta love Santa's Attention to detail!!!! What Ya Get!
This set includes a new tub with integrated rear decking. The Decking has a space for the Avionics bay behind the seat. The avionics bay itself, with separate boxs for the items inside. there is also a mesh screen to make the cover for the bay!!! A new seat with cast in seat belts (a vast improvment to the kit seat,) side walls, bits and knoks for the contols, plus new canopy rails. A nice addition to this set is the clear resin instrument panel and acetate guage face for the analog guages. Also included are the a set of black magic masks for the MFD screens. all inallalot of parts for this update. Instructions
The instructions are black and white photos with lines to lableing part locatins and give tips and hints for construction of the cockpit. I havn't started to build this set yet, but the assembly and painting seems straight forward. There also is a template for the mesh cover for the avioncs bay. Cutting Edge points out what kit parts are still used in the update set. These are mostly for the canony raising piston assembly and the cockpit coming.
Conclusions
I recommend this kit to anyone wanting to build the academy kit. Cutting Edge also has 2 other set for an A and early C model Hornet. They give their kit numbers in the incase you ordered the wrong cockpit for what you want to build. The set was direct from Meteor Productions and I also recommend using them if you need any Cutting Edge products. Their sustomer sevice staff are very nice and helpful in getting you order taken care as quickly as possible.
About Steve Manchur (stugiiif) Copyright ©2021 text by Steve Manchur [ ]. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved.
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