Reviewed by Rodger Kelly
 

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FirstLook

Cutting Edge Modelworks CED48229 is the final sheet in the Cutting Edge Decals Hornet’s Revenge trilogy covering F/A-18s of the Atlantic Fleet.  This sheet features two further aircraft of CVW-17 that flew from the flightdeck of 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 165215, modex 302 belonging to VFA-83 “RAMPAGERS” and assigned to Commander R P “Regbo” Carpenter.  307 features the standard tactical paint scheme (TPS) worn by F/A-18s of FS 36320 dark ghost grey over FS 36375 light ghost grey with a tan radome that has a stainless steel tip. 

At first glance 302 looks pretty drab but she does have some rather unique markings for a standard “line aircraft”.   Firstly, she carries the name “Avery’s Aviator” on both sides of her nose as well as a bomblog.  She also sports a little colour in that the eyes of the “RAMPAGERS” rams head markings are red.  The remainder of the markings are standard and they include: 

• A set of lo-viz national insignia.

• 02 modex for the fuselage sides (the swept back ones), tops of the flaps on the wings, and abbreviated 02s for the outer sides of the fin caps.  As with the other two sheets in the Hornet’s Revenge series, there is a further set of modex supplied but the placement guide does not provide any clue as to where they should go.

• AA airwing identifiers for the vertical stabilizers

• VFA-83 titles for both sides of the spine.

• Commander R P “Regbo” Carpenter name for both side of the fuselage below the windscreen.

• The plane captain’s name for the nose wheel door.

• CVW-17 titles, NAVY titles, USS Washington 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.

The other aircraft is Bureau number 165214 belonging to VFA-34 “BLUE BLASTERS” of CVW-17 aboard the USS George Washington. 

Finish is also the standard Hornet TPS of FS 3620 dark ghost grey upper surfaces over FS 36375 light ghost grey, with a tan radome that has a stainless steel tip.  The placement guide shows that the fin caps are painted black. 

The majority of decals for this aircraft are provided in black.  They consist of: 

• CVW-10’s AA airwing identifiers for the outer surfaces of the rudders.

• 200 modex for the sides of the nose and tops of the flaps.  The fin caps sport white double zeros.

• CVW-17 scripts for the spine.

• USS Washington scripts for the base of the outer surfaces of the vertical stabilizers.

• CAG and DCAG names beneath the canopy.

• Bureau number data block. National insignia, and Navy scripts.

• BLUE BLASTERS scripts for the drop tank.

Befitting a CAG aircraft, it has some colour in its markings and these consist of: 

§         The VFA-34 squadron insignia of a smoking winged skull whose eyes and nose are cleverly depicted as and old fashioned batsman for the outer surface of the port vertical stabilizer. 

§         A playing card Joker wielding a .50 Cal machine gun for the outer surface of the starboard vertical stabilizer. This is the old WWII VF-20 "Jokers" squadron insignia from which VFA-34 descended from. 

The major stencil data is supplied for each 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.  As with the two other Hornet’s Revenge sheets 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.  The same comments apply; 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. 

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. 

A nice sheet from Cutting Edge that gives you alternative markings for the BLUE BLASTERS’ than those provided in the CAM Decals 48-113 sheet. 

Recommended. 

Thanks to Cutting Edge Modelworks for the review samples..

Review Copyright © 2003 by Rodger Kelly
Photographs Copyright © 2003 by David H. Klaus
This Page Created on 10 April, 2003
Last updated 14 August, 2003

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