Does said Air Force guy know a *Naval* Super Hornet's weapons/racks/pods?
Over at another forum I go to, we have a Naval weapons guy whose main job for the past couple years was evaluating Super Hornet weapons--what they can and cannot carry, in what configurations. I've saved a lot of his notes/comments over the years. Anyways, exactly what's up with the Witty Super Hornet since you asked/don't seem very convinced:
1. Color. Trust me, I've seen plenty of real ones. It's too dark. Or, just know that the F-14, 15, and 18 all use the same shades of grey, mostly. Yet the Witty Super Hornet is much darker than any other F-14/15/18 model I own. (Best greys out there are Dragon's F-15's IMHO) Technically, the Witty Super Hornet, Dragon Legacy Hornet, Dragon F-15A, and Hobby Master A-10 "Mil Killer" should all match each other exactly.
2. Weapons color. They're white. US hasn't painted stuff white since the 80's, most of the remaining white stuff was purposely used up in Desert Storm. A few bits even survived until OEF/OIF, but there's no way a Super Hornet's going to have a full load of white. Also, the AIM-9X and AIM-120 are new enough that they were NEVER white. Which are the only weapons Witty included.
3. Targeting pod. It's a FLIR pod, not an ATFLIR pod. Hornets use FLIR, Super Hornets use ATFLIR. A major component of a Super Hornet's targeting system for ground attacks. They used the one from the wrong type of Hornet. That's nothing compared to Dragon using the wrong type of Hornet rear fuselage, but still shows a lack of research ETC. Also, it's in the wrong place, a good inch or so off. Not a scale inch, a real inch. That's many feet in real life. And, it's on a totally fictionally shaped fairing. It's just wrong. (and it's not a FLIR pod's fairing either---it's unlike an Hornet pod fairing----more like an F-15/16 LANTIRN pod fairing than anything)
4. The AMRAAMs are on HARM rails. That can't happen. HARM rails carry HARMs, and nothing else. AMRAAMs on an inner or mid pylon can ONLY be loaded in pairs, on LAU-128 rails, attached to a LAU-7 (the Sparrow rail), underneath a jettison spacer adapter. It's a big, complex setup that weighs a lot and adds lots of drag. Having an AMRAAM on a HARM rail is not only technically wrong on close inspection, it's very wrong at a glance, since a small single rail is clearly not dual rails mounted on a larger rail mounted under a spacer. (Surprised "Air Force guy" didn't notice this---F-16's use the same HARM rails as Super Hornets, and nigh-identical AMRAAM rails--though F-16's only carry AMRAAMs singly, never paired)
Now, the vast majority of these weapons gaffes can be easily explained by the simple fact that the Witty Super Hornet is an exact copy of Hasegawa's kit. And Hasegawa's kit has all those same errors, even little things like the wrong color of striping on the missiles, and the wrong type of pod. (the pod fairing issue is unique to Witty though). Now, Hasegawa's instructions do specify the right color for missiles, but all their "example" models on the boxes show white missiles---they must have hired a new guy to build them who thinks missiles are still white or something. So if you copy what Hasegawa did exactly, but with metal----you get a Witty Super Hornet.
Which is also why physically, the Witty Super Hornet is excellent----they copied Hasegawa. I've removed the pod and AMRAAMs (better nothing than the wrong parts, IMHO) but never got around the cleaning it up and making it look good where stuff was removed, adding HARMs to the HARM rails, etc. (I'm kinda waiting to see if Dragon's VFA-2 re-release is with the improved mold or the old one, or if Dragon does the newer version of VFA-102's CAG)
The casting/mold of the plane itself is among the best of all 1/72 jets. The finished product is just annoyingly flawed by the paint and weapons. So close, yet so far.