I’m about half way through building Hasegawa’s F/A-18C Hornet and I was dry fitting the two tail fins to the top of the fuselage and the instructions say that they are set at 25 degree’s , but when I sighted the aircraft from the front the tail fins looked to be set too far out . Checking through some of my referrence books which show a few line drawings from head-on it appears that the tail fins are closer to 18 degree’s off-set . I’m not trying to be a perfectionist but 18 degree’s just look’s right !!
Should I follow the instructions or not ?
I would say check your references and go with your gut instinct . If it looks wrong then its not going to feel right to you . you might want to check it out a little more to just to fell certain . Can you find some scale plans or check the web for more references ? Best of luck to you ! …Peter.
Thanks for the advice peter ; I’ve decided to go with my "gut " as you have suggested and I glued the tail fins to what appears to be the appropriate angle . I also spent some time looking at different F/A-18 web sites ; reading lot’s of technical spec’s about the Hornet and the only reference I could find about the tail fins , or rudders as thay were described was that when the aircraft was on it’s wheels , the rudders automatically toed in at an angle of 25 degrees . " This only confused me even more " . So anyway I’ve glued them in place now , it looks right , I’ll continue on .