Trumpeter vs Tamiya aircraft.

That make sense then. I'm gathering all the little detail parts now. looks like some of the trumpeter planes have drop tanks to add so that's cool. I may do the 8 blades since it looks pretty cool too. I have a set of 8 blades to put on a 1/144th hawk eye at some point.

salvine - I'm sorry, I thought you were doing a 1/720 carrier, so, no! What I meant by that comment was, if you were doing the Hawkeyes with the updated 8-bladed props, you could buy the WEM airplane bits PE set and glue two 4-bladed props to each engine nacelle front to get the effect.

Starfighter Decals is your source for airwing markings

The 1/700 scale props work for the hawkeyes?

IIRC, Tamiya's kit represents Enterprise as she was in the early 80's so Super Hornets would not be appropriate anyway.

Just found navysite.de and found the answer. No.

Anyone know if the super hornets were ever on board at the same time as the tomcats? I would like to build it with both if that was ever a possibility.

It kind of depends on what time frame you are modeling your Big E for - mine was for a 2005 deployment, where I needed EA-6B Prowlers. The clear canopies were worth it to me to get the gold-toned effect they have (which lookes pretty cool from certain angles); plus, I think the Trumpeter aircraft have a little crisper molding and I hand painted all the ones for my build anyway (no canopy masking!). If you're going to use F/A-18C Hornets, look for the old Fujimi set (cheaper than Trumpeter and has some small deck tractors included).  

As far as PE goes, the Gold Medal Models supercarrier set is outstanding; if you want to add 8-bladed props to your Hawkeyes, the 1/700 aircraft bits fret from White Ensign Models can provide the necessary props and some other helpful bits. 

To me the clear canopies are the big thing. I would make the decision on that basis- are the clear canopies worth the price to you?