This model was built straight out
of the box. The reason for this was that I wanted to see what problems there
were with the kit before I built the other two in my collection and I got this
one cheap.
The Hasegawa Skyraider has been
around for a while and is typical of the company's later releases with very good
detail, except for the cockpit, and nice crisp panel lines. This version
is for one of the late Korean War aircraft and the colour scheme is something
different from the normal VA-165 Bumblebee scheme you see on most US Navy
Skyraiders.
There are four sprues of light
grey plastic and one of clear parts. There is also a small sprue of
plastic grommets for attaching the propeller. In this case I did not use
the two underwing tanks or the four munitions dispensers, as I want to build it
as per the box top with just the centre line tank added. The only thing missing
from these 1/72nd scale kits is the option for the different USAF wheel hubs.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The kit went
together very well except for a minor problem where the trailing edge of the
wing meets the underside of the fuselage and I had to apply a small amount of
filler and rescribe the panel lines after joining them. Next time I will insert
a small plastic tab into the fuselage to act as a stop so that the wing trailing
edge has something to rest on and doesn't want to push through into the
fuselage.
Whilst I was fitting
all the underwing pylons I discovered I had lost the pitot probe, lucky I have
two other kits in the store so that I was able to use one of them in it's place.
With this version you have to remove some of the aerials that are positioned
along the centre line of the fuselage. Look at your references before
doing so, as Hasegawa are sometimes very wrong about their aerial placements.
I originally painted
this with Testor's MM FS 35042 Non-Specular Sea Blue and whilst this is the
right colour it went on with a really matt surface that kept soaking up the
gloss coats and not even Future could shine it up.
I then gave up and
resprayed it with the Gunze H55 Midnight Blue as per the instruction sheet and
this actually went on with a fairly decent gloss that came up quite nicely under
a coat of Future.
The decals are quite thin and not like normal Hasegawa decals and I paid for the
difference when I applied them and used Micro - Sol to settle them down they
went all soft and partially tore. I was used to using heaps of Micro - Sol
on Hasegawa's thick decals but these were very thin. This has led to some
touch up work on the decals to fill in some small holes. I was impressed
with the decals and it was my hamfistedness that caused the problems, these are
some of Hasegawa's best and I look forward to the next two Skyraiders.
This is a nice kit that I would recommend to anyone regardless of your
experience as it just about falls together and there are some great colour
schemes available for the "Able Dog".
My kits cost US$10.00 for this one and US$19.00 each for the other two.
Phil
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