Most mystery-craft subjects end up as one-piece curios or large speculative dioramas, so a small-scale kit that pairs two tiny jets with a 3D-printed capsule feels like a genuinely different route. The subject is the 2004 sighting in which F/A-18F crews reported an oblong object, and this kit renders it at 1:350, a scale more often reserved for warships than for unidentified craft. ModelChili Scale Models takes it on as a limited run, numbered 004/014 and produced in New Zealand.
The build itself starts with the capsule: two hollow grey resin halves were joined over four white styrene guide pins, with Gorilla Super Glue brushed onto the mating edges. Once cured, the seam ridges were sanded with a sanding block and a handheld rotary tool, the leftover gap got a skim of Tamiya Basic Type Putty, and excess filler was ground back using the rotary tool and wet/dry sandpaper. For the escorts, upper and lower fuselage sections were clipped from two clear sprues of Trumpeter parts and joined with liquid plastic cement, and the vertical stabilizers were positioned and secured by hand.
Several details stand out. Two identical decal strips, printed by Oldmodels Decals in 2023 for VFA-41 F-18Fs, come with the kit, along with a flat rectangular wooden base for display. Mixing injected styrene, clear plastic, resin and wood in one small box makes for an appealing combination.
The trade-off, as I see it, is that hollow halves leave a joint line, so the seam work takes up a bigger share of the effort than a solid casting would. The finished smoothed capsule was displayed, and the alignment of the assembled clear jet airframe was inspected, which at this scale looks like a job demanding real patience.
Project by ModelChili Scale Models. Watch it on their YouTube channel: