1/48 Italeri EA-18G Growler

Gallery Article by Philipp on May 18 2011

 

Alright folks, this is my second build I'm showing here on ARC...the "Shocker"!  First I used to build only USAF jets, but when I first saw this elegant grey thing I was in love! I purchased it as usual from the internet.  The kit itself looked okay in first.  The only thing that sucks is the poor cockpit that Italeri included (just like the A-10īs).  Unfortunately I didn't find a resin cockpit for the EA-18, so I chose to look in my trash box to find something to pimp the cockpit.  And again the F-15E from Academy gave me the parts I needed, so far so good.  But as I tried to fit the body parts together I was shocked about the poor fit of the big parts...TERRIBLE! Gaps overall.  The landing gear was also very simple but at that point I knew it would be a hard build with lots of scratchbuilding.  The decals weren't usable, I have no idea what Italeri wanted to show with those...I purchased the Afterburner Super Bug Shocker decals which were absolutely perfect.

I started with the landing gear, added some wiring and stuff.  I choose to show the tires in half flat as if the weight of the plane laid on it.  So I heated it up and flattened it.

Next was the cockpit.  I cut some parts out of the instrument panel of the F-15E to add some structure to the flat panels of the Shocker.  I know this is not really realistic and stuff, but it gives a really nice look.  I had some decals from a Harrier I built before which I applied on the new scratch panels.  I also cut little pieces of a landing gear I had in my trash box to add buttons on the sticks.  I also pimped the ejection seat with some wiring and a little structure.

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Next came the nose of the plane.  I filled the gun barrels and scratchbuild the "Pizza Box" on the front from styrene and filler.

After that I started to build the fuselage.  After many times of filling and sanding it looked okay.  The fit of the wings was also terrible.  But somehow I managed it.  The engine inlets were horrible.  Nothing fit as it should.  So I filled and sanded again.

The antennas on the spine were also scratchbuilt from styrene.  The satcom hump was made of three layers of styrene and filled and sanded again.  The rest of the build went without bigger problems.

I wanted to build an armed Shocker, but the kit didn't provide the HARM missiles I needed.  Instead I have two more sidewinders for my trashbox...I thought about ordering the Hasegawa weapons set, but I don't have that much money and it doesn't seem economical for me to spend 20 Euro for just 2 missiles.  So I ordered the HARMs over Revellīs department X.  Their F/A-18F Super Hornet has two of those in the box.  And voila, after three weeks Revell sent me the two HARMīs FOR FREE!!!  The decals came from my decal trash box.  After painting with Revell colors and applying the decals I choose a light weathering with acryl colors.  I added a pilot figure from Hasegawa to give it a living touch.

Afterall it was much fun, but also a lot of work...but now it's a nice piece in my collection.  Sorry for the picture but my cam isn't the best...I hope you enjoy it.

Philipp

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Photos and text Đ by Philipp