MAW Decals (And Resin!)

1/48 Poseable AN/AAS-38 FLIR for F-18A-D Hornet For the Hasegawa kit

Stock Number: 48-R015

Reviewed By   Andy Renshaw, IPMS# 35806

MSRP: $4.99 Website: www.mawdecals.com MAW-decals by fellow IPMS member Creighton Henthorn Jr. also has a fine range of detail bits and conversions for modern USMC and USN aircraft. This small resin set contains a AN/AAS-38 FLIR pod with a positional head. Yes, one of these comes in the Hasegawa kit, however the head is molded with the body so you have no options other than what is in the kit. This little set allows you to position the head however you choose. The parts come in a small plastic bag with card label, and include three resin parts. The body is split width-wise into two parts, and the head is the third part. All the parts were free of imperfections and I did not find any bubbles, holes, or rough casting. Fine panel lines are apparent on the parts as well. To assemble, all the parts were removed from the small casting plugs and cleaned up. Extra care was taken to ensure that the mating ends of the two body halves were square as this would be critical. There are no locating tabs, so use the Hasegawa kit parts as a reference on how to align the two resin halves. A bit of superglue made for fast assembly. Any remaining crack was quickly filled with gap filling glue followed by a drop of accelerator and quickly sanded smooth. The head fit so well it press fits into place and can later be secured with a drop of glue. Use the clear parts from the Hasegawa kit for the glass panel. This is a very simple, yet effective set to add a little something different to your F/A-18. I already have plans to hang this on a F/A-18D build using several more MAW-decals products! Very recommended if you have a F/A-18 in the stash. Thanks to MAW-decals and IPMS for the review sample.