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Hasegawa 1/48 EA-18G Growler

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

Overview

With the Grumman EA-6B Prowler reaching the end of its life, the US Navy looked to the Super Hornet as a viable platform for replacing the electronic warfare aircraft. Boeing fitted the F/A-18F with the ALQ-99 EW system in 2001, demonstrating the concept, and the first EA-18G test aircraft rolled out in August 2006. Sharing more than 90% with the standard Super Hornet, the Growler's flight performance is similar, allowing for the EA-18G to fly with standard F/A-18E/Fs on combat missions.

By replacing the nose cannon with dedicated EW equipment, the EA-18G was able to keep all the underwing stations, the fuselage missile stations, and the centerline station. The wingtip missile rails of the F/A-18E/F were replaced with electronics pods. The Growler, therefore, is a more potent offensive platform than the Prowler it's replacing, and the advances in EW equipment give it more capabilities as well as provide ample room for future growth.

The first EA-18G to enter squadron service did so with VAQ-129 in June 2008, and will slowly replace the EA-6B Prowler over the next few years.

The Kit

A few years back, Hasegawa released 1/48 scale kits of both the F/A-18E and F/A-18F. Although based on an early Super Hornet, many were wondering if Hasegawa would update the kit and produce an EA-18G Growler. After a good wait, Hasegawa has done just that, and here it is. For those familiar with the Hasegawa Super Hornet kits, this one will look very familiar, and it does share quite a few parts with that kit. Molded in the standard light gray plastic, the kit features petite recessed panel lines, a detailed cockpit, and a nice decal sheet with markings for two aircraft.

As with most kits, construction starts with the cockpit. As this is based off the two-seat F/A-18F, there are two offices to work with. Hasegawa has provided an updated rear cockpit to better reflect the EA-18G's EW role, with a new instrument panel. The rest of the cockpit details are the same as the regular Super Hornet, with ejection seats made up from five pieces and separate control sticks for both front and rear cockpits. The completed cockpit then sits on top of the lower front fuselage piece, which is then sandwiched between the two nose halves.

As can be seen by the above, this is a rather complicated assembly, owing to the complex shape of the Super Hornet & Growler. In addition to the three nose pieces, the fuselage is further split into a rear upper and lower half, with separate intake assemblies. Those intake assemblies are also complex, with full intake trunking provided. That's split into right and left halves, with a separate engine face at the end. This fits into the main intake piece, which is made up from a further five pieces. All in all, building this fuselage will be challenging, but with plenty of dry-fitting, filler should be kept to a minimum.

Once the fuselage is together, the wings and tailplanes are the next step. The wings are split into upper and lower halves, with separate leading and trailing edge flaps. The leading edge flaps are different in the Growler, and Hasegawa has provided new parts for these. Also new in this kit are the wingtip pods, which are nicely detailed with separate fins. The vertical fins and stabilizers are the same as the other Hasegawa Super Hornet kits, with separate rudders provided.

Moving on to the underside, first up is the landing gear. This is very nicely done throughout. The wheel wells provided are deep and detailed, while the gear struts themselves are surprisingly complete. The nose gear strut has seven pieces, including the wheels, while the main gear struts have six pieces, including the two-part main wheels. For the underwing stores, the kit comes with a pair of fuel tanks for the inboard pylons and a pair of AGM-88E AARGMs for the outboard pylons. The center pylons get the ALQ-99 hi-band jamming pods, while the centerline has the ALQ-99 lo-band jamming pod. With a pair of AIM-120 AMRAAMs for the fuselage mounts, this Growler kit has just about everything an in-service EA-18G would carry.

With the basics out of the way, it's time to look at the specifics of the kit. First up, the most noticeable change from the original Hasegawa F/A-18F kit is the vent stacks on the rear fuselage. The original kit had a flush vent between the vertical fins that was found on early Super Hornets, while this kit has the ten individual stacks. Looking at the underside of the fuselage part, one can clearly see where this insert was put in. What is unknown is if this is a permanent mold change or not. Given that most Super Hornets now have these vents, a permanent change would not be a bad thing.

Aside from that change, and the aforementioned leading edge flaps, there are no changes to the basic airframe from the F/A-18F to the EA-18G. This means that the modeler will have to do some filling work. Most of this is noted in the instructions and involves filling in panel lines and the gun opening. What the instructions fail to mention is that the gun vents on the lower nose need to be filled in as well, and possibly the vent holes on the wing fold as well. The former are not present, as there is no gun in the Growler. The wing fold vent holes are another Super Hornet feature that seems to have been removed on the Growler. All the photos I have looked at show those as solid, but there might have been some produced with those.. Some filler should make quick work of those, though. Just be sure to remember to not apply the decals for these vents.

Speaking of decals, these are very thorough, providing the aforementioned vents for not only the unneeded gun and wing vents, but also all of the other various vents found all over the airframe, including the inside of the intakes. Stenciling is also very complete, and includes both the airframe and the stores. For the actual squadron markings, there are two choices. The first is the boxtop scheme, the VAQ-141 "Shadowhawks" CAG aircraft from the USS George HW Bush. This aircraft has a black tail with red trim. The second option is an aircraft from VAQ-129 "Vikings". It has a red tail with a yellow lightning bolt and sword. The decals are very nicely printed and should go down with no problems.

Conclusion

While some might complain about needing to do the extra work to make an accurate Growler from this kit, realistically this is the best balance between cost and detail. Hasegawa did go the extra step to provide the information in the instructions for modifying the panel lines, and the actual Growler parts are very nicely done. That, plus the vent stack update to the fuselage results in a good compromise that should not tax most modelers and will result in a very nice model of the EA-18G Growler. My thanks to Hasegawa USA for the review sample.