F/A-18 Super Hornet

This is a model of the iconic Blue Angels F/A-18 Super Hornet, finished in the squadrons signature livery. Designed to capture the legendary skill and refinement exuded by the demonstration team, this model features smooth modelling and detailed landing gear. The F/A-18 Super Hornet is perfect for any collectors who wish to pay tribute to one of aviation's most recognizable symbols.

About the design

I designed this model primarily in blender, and painted the AMS coloring on in Bambu studio. It underwent many iterations over the past month to optimize the design and coloring. When I scroll through Makerworld, I rarely come across fighter models including landing gear, and this is a feature I am always looking out for that is almost always present in traditional molded aircraft models, but rarely in 3D printing. Therefore, I bring you an F/A-18 with landing gear, that is accurately depicted regarding the real aircraft. The landing gear was difficult to model in a small enough size to fit on the A1 Mini bed. My solution for this optimizes the bed area to its maximum size, which mean that a sufficiently maintained and well performing printer will be necessary for printing. Some parts of this model, such as the landing gear struts and tires are small, with less area to contact the bed. I did all the print testing on, and recommend that you print this model with the Bambu Cool Plate, as it provides unparalleled adhesion, allowing ambitious models such as this one to succeed. I was originally planning to release this as a Kit Card, but the size constraints of the A1 Mini have made it impossible to fit parts at this scale, and I found it very difficult to print the landing gear at any smaller of a scale than 147%, which is the default print profile I have set. The model is split by default into two plates, with the canopies by themselves on a different plate. This not only saves filament and time due to less layer changes on the primary plate, but also permits users with one AMS unit to use a 5th color for it, such as translucent PETG. Please read the assembly instructions before building your F/A-18, and enjoy printing!

About Assembly

A forewarning- When placing the cockpit canopies into the slot on the top fuselage of the model, please exercise caution and be gentle, as the section separating the two parts is only a few walls wide, and can be easily broken from careless assembly. The tolerances are not that tight at default scale, so please reduce the amount of force during this step of assembly. Additionally, ensure you remove all supports and excess material from components. I recommend the use of sandpaper on inserts if they do not fit in their slots, as tolerances with different printers and filaments can be imperfect. Please download the PDF of the guide under the Documentation section below.