Hasegawa 1:48 F/A-18D Hornet BuNo. 164035/VK-04, VMFA(AW)-121
The Story
In December 1989, VMFA(AW)-121 became the first Marine Corps F/A-18D
Night Attack Hornet Squadron. In January 1991, VMFA(AW)-121 was deployed
with their new aircraft to Shaikh Isa Air Base. During Desert Storm,
the squadron performed Fast FAC duties, locating enemy targets, marking
their positions with white phosphorus rockets, and directing other
aircraft to attack them. Because their mission was to direct other
strike aircraft, F/A-18Ds were lightly armed. On one occasion where a
F/A-18D descended to strafe enemy positions it was hit by a SAM but
still safely returned to Shaikh Isa. The Squadron flew 557 sorties in
support of the First and Second Marine Divisions liberating Kuwait; more
than any other Navy or Marine Corps tactical jet squadron.
The Kit
Hasegawa Hornets are quite nice and simple; but as with most kits the
cockpit can use some improvement. With such a large viewable cockpit
area on the F/A-18D, I decided to replace the kit cockpit with the Black
Box set. For Weapons load, I used two rocket pods from the Hasegawa Weapons Set
B, two AIM-7 Sparrows, and two AIM-9 Sidewinders. The rocket pods were
slightly altered by scratch-building some rockets to be protruding out
the front of the launchers. Painting was done with Gunze Sangyo acrylics. The decals are a
combination of Super Scale 48-439 and Repli-Scale 48-5038.
