I may be wrong, but I don't believe anyone ever made it in 1/48 (there is, of course, Anigrand's beautiful 1/72 one). If you are going to do the conversion in 1/48, hunt down the original issue of Esci's F-18 in that scale, it still has the slots in the LERX and, being closer to the prototype configuration, is a easier starting place. Of course, if you don't want to go that far, the same kit can be used to produce a production F-17 or a F-18L.