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After designing the F-16, I wanted to design the F/A-18 Hornet as I am a fan of “The Mover and Gonky Show”, where two ex-fighter pilots, who have flown the F-16 and F/A-18, and their guests discuss everything from aviation to racing to life and anything in between, highly recommend to check them out on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/@themoverandgonkyshow

McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a twin-engine, midwing aircraft, it also served as the baseline for the later Boeing Super Hornet.  While it does not have a blended wing body design, it does have leading-edge root extensions (LERX), which the 10x3 curved wedges can be used again.
 
The 12x6 wedge plates are perfect for the F/A-18’s wing, a trapezoidal shape with a 20-degree sweepback on the leading edge and a straight trailing edge. While I managed to recreate the shape of horizontal stabilators very well, I couldn’t do the canted vertical stabilizers with the pieces available.

A pair of 4x1 inverted curved slopes are used for the rectangular caret intakes, this combined with the large leading-edge root extensions made this alternate build a mix of the original Hornet and Super Hornet.
 
The 45° cut tiles in white, dark azure and dark blue gave me the chance to try out many different splinter camouflage patterns, I tried to emulate the camouflage used by the Fighter Squadron Composite 12 (VFC-12) from the United States Navy Reserve, those patterns replicate the ones deployed on Russian fighters like Su-35s. VFC-12 serves as an aggressor squadron, simulating enemy tactics and aircraft to prepare US Navy pilots for real-world combat scenarios.

The Hornet is bigger than my F-16 alternate build even though it uses less pieces. Like most of my other designs, it’s solidly built and passes the swooshability test from my son.
 
I kept the black display stand as it is, so you can build a spare stand and use it for your other MOCs. The F/A-18 looks great in-flight on display, you can easily remove the landing gear pieces from the model if you prefer to see it flying.

Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/216889

 

 

LEGO Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet Aggressor - Alternate Build of 2 x 31160 Race Plane

 

LEGO Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet Aggressor - Alternate Build of 2 x 31160 Race Plane

 

LEGO Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet Aggressor - Alternate Build of 2 x 31160 Race Plane

 

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