Hi everyone, this is my first "official " entry to the ARC website. This is my 1/48th scale Italeri F/A-18E Superhornet. The kit was built straight out of the box, the only thing added is the pilot coming from Monogram 1/48th scale F-4. This kit was built for one of my colleagues, so he can have an airplane in the office. (I do work at Aero Vodochody in the Czech Republic, and our Aerostructures division is currently manufacturing Gun Bay Doors and other parts for the "Superbug") 

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There were many reviews written on this kit to date I believe, so I will not go into any detail. Few things that do not help the otherwise good quality model, are the cockpit and air intakes. The cockpit in this scale calls out for a lot more than simple decal. It is good that Eduard came out with photo etched sheet. When I build this model for myself next time this will be a must. (Or I will keep hoping that someone like Aires, CMK or Pavla will come out with a resin kit) Also the ejection seat is rather toy-looking so that is the reason for the pilot in the cocpit. As for the air intakes, they are just a poor fit and shallow, but with a little patience one can get them right. But I do not want to badmouth the model anymore.  The rest of the model fit together very well and other than the before noted areas not much filler was needed. The engraved panel lines were quite nice. One thing I forgot to do was getting rid of the airbrake between the rudders, well next time. The model was painted with Model Master Enamels, and weathered using drafting ink and chalk. After all was decaled and weathered all was sealed with Revell flat clear coat thinned with zippo lighter fluid. Doing this was an experiment for me, weathering and such techniques were studied here at ARC (many thanks to all you guys sharing your tools and tips) and this is one of my first weathered models.