Sunshine over Zaragoza, EF-18AM with TAURUS

Hello, this is my first try with Kinetic kit. The fitting was not quite good, with nasty seams on the rear fuselage and the base of windshield. I used a lot of putty and had to sand it with a FILE, yes, a FILE. I chose the Spanish scheme C.15-25 (15-12) in its 2015-2016 status (no roundel over left wing, no obvious walkway over LERX). I grabbed spare TAURUS and IRIS-T missiles from an old Revell Eurofighter Typhoon kit. As for the landing gears, I opted to modify them into in-flight mode.

Putting the difficulties aside, Kinetic did a great job in depicting a modern F/A-18A+/B and CF-188 aircraft by providing abundent details including all the stiffeners and reinforcement plates to the vertical fins. As for the landing gears, I chose Hasegawa F/A-18F's main legs since they have the hinge details and were easier for modification. So the main gear legs are combination of Hasegawa (gear strut and wheels) and Kinetic parts (shock strut and side strut). As for nose gear, I just follow the instruction, except for replacing the shock strut with a 2 milimeter steel tube with modified torque link. Only to find that C.15-25 has its carrier landing indicator lights removed, and the launchbar was replaced by a dummy one.

The decals were excellent to provide large number of stencils so as to depict the service panel markings for the aircraft maintenance crew. It was a fun build when the airplane gradually came into shape with its gears dropped as in flight mode, and the build brought about more fun when I came to the painting and weathering part. Generally I recommend this kit.