Reviewed by Rodger Kelly
 

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FirstLook

Cutting Edge Modelworks CED48227 is the first of three new sheets covering F/A-18s of the Atlantic Fleet. 

This sheet features two aircraft from CVW-17 that flew from the USS George Washington during the Afghanistan and Iraq combat cruise between July and December of 2002. 

The first aircraft is F/A-18C Bureau number 165228, modex 307 assigned to VFA-83 “Rampagers”.  307 features the standard tactical paint scheme (TPS) worn by F/A-18s of FS 36320 over FS 36375. 

307 differs from her squadron sisters in that she wears an unusual tail marking consisting of the “Xmas Grinch” character riding a black ram and brandishing a smoking pistol.  Decorating one of their aircraft in a Xmas theme is a tradition of CVW-17 and the tail markings borne by 307 are the result of this tradition.  The remainder of the markings are standard and they include: 

• A set of lo-viz national insignia.
• 307 modex for the fuselage sides (the swept back ones), tops of the flaps on the wings, and abbreviated 07s for the outer sides of the fin caps.  There is a further set of modex supplied but the placement guide does not provide any clue as to where they should go – perhaps they are spares.
• VFA-83 titles for both sides of the spine.
• Pilot’s names for either side of the fuselage below the windscreen (different names for either side).
• The plane captain’s name for the nose wheel door.
• CVW-17 titles, NAVY titles and the Bureau number block for the rear fuselage.
• “RAM ON” slogans and pin striping for the wing fences.
• RAMPAGERS titles and VFA-83 zaps for either side of the drop tanks – you get six in all.

Next is F/A-18C Bureau number 163471, VFA-61’s “Sunliners” CAG bird.  Finish is TPS and as expected of a CAG aircraft it sports a little colour. 

The markings are made up of: 

• Blue 400 modex for the nose, tops of the fin caps, and tops of the wing flaps.  As with the “Rampagers” aircraft, there is a spare pair provided.
• Blue VFA-81 titles and “Golden Spanner” award for the spine.
• Full colour squadron insignia for the outer surfaces of the vertical stabilizers
• Black AA airwing identifier with a red lightning bolt for the inner surfaces of the vertical stabilizers
• Black SUNLINERS titles and small orange squadron zaps for the drop tanks – again, you get six in all.
• Blue USS WASHINGTON titles with black NAVY tiles and Bureau numbers for the rear fuselage.
• Blue CAG and DCAG titles and names for either side of the nose beneath the windscreen.  The former is Captain Dana Potts, a name that is familiar with Hyperscale visitors.
• Blue ground crew names for the nose wheel doors.
• A set of non-standard sized full colour national insignia for the fuselage.

Unique stencil data is supplied for each aircraft (red intake warnings, arrestor hook and beware of blast for the Sunliners option with the corresponding ones in grey for the Rampagers) as well as single generic set for both aircraft.  Whilst there is not a great deal of on the sheet is still a lot more than Cutting Edge normally supplies – to be truthful, what they have supplied is probably enough to make your model look busy and any more would probably be too much as it does tend to merge into the background of the paint scheme on the 1-to-1 scale examples anyway and is not all that visible. 

The decal placement guide follows Cutting Edge’s normal fashion of a full colour double-sided a-4 sized sheet.  It shows left hand side views of both aircraft on the front and a single top and bottom generic view on the back.  The side profiles show the radomes of both aircraft to be grey.  I’m not convinced that this is correct as the normal practice for F/A-18s is that the extreme tip of the nose has a small stainless steel tip and a tan coloured vinyl/rubber covering over the first third of the radome.  If you follow this link you will see a picture of the Sunliners aircraft that illustrates this point:

http://www.news.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=1898   Further reference photographs of this aircraft can be found on Bertrand “Big Bear” Deleest’s US Navy CAG site at: http://www.amv83.org/navycag/   a great site too by the way! 

There is no identification on the decal sheet as to who printed it but my bet is that it was Microscale such is the quality of the printing.  The decal sheet and placement guide come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag. 

The recommended kits are the Monogram F/A-18C and Hasegawa F/A-18C. 

This is a nice sheet from Cutting Edge. 

Recommended.

Thanks to Cutting Edge Modelworks for the review samples..

Review Copyright © 2003 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 20 March, 2003
Last updated 14 August, 2003

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