1/48 Scale
The U.S. has exported the popular F/A-18 Hornet all over the world. A huge fan, Raúl had to dress one as a member of Spain’s famed Gando Hawks.
Finish an F/A-18A as a Spanish EF-18 Attention to small details makes all the difference • BY RAÚL CORRAL
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ou may not know this, but the F/A-18 Hornet is my favorite jet fighter. A couple of years ago, I had the great pleasure of touring Gando Air Base on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, where the Spanish air force’s Hornetflying 462 Fighter/Attack Squadron — named the Gando Hawks after its smiling, hawk-face emblem — is based. One of the squadron’s pilots, Lt. Caballero (nicknamed “El Cañonero”), took the time to walk me around the base and an actual F/A-18 (EF-18 as 30 FineScale Modeler September 2015
it’s known in Spain). There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to model one of these battle-ready beauties. I picked up a HobbyBoss 1/48 scale F/A-18; this would be the first Hornet I built in that scale, and I felt it would be a good starting point to model the Spanish version. Luckily, I had notes and photos from my time at Gando to help out, and El Cañonero graciously continued to answer my questions during the build. I also picked up an Aires resin cockpit (No. 4371) and decals.