The Kit
This kit is from Hasegawa, is in 1/72 scale, and was released in 1989. The instructions are nicely done (only a couple illustrations could be improved upon to show the proper angle of some parts during assembly). The kit has marking for two different aircraft from the Hamamatsu Training Wing. Decals are plentiful and well done (although some were printed a tad off-center and required a lot of trimming). Panel lines are lightly done. The cockpit lacks much in the way of details, however, you do get some nice decal control panels. There are no PE parts included.
The Build
I chose to build the aircraft shown on the box-art. It is aircraft 605, from the 31st Training Squadron, 1st Air Wing, JASDF. I hesitate to criticize this kit as it is well-thought-of in many reviews. However, I will say it gave me more than a few problems or, shall we say, challenges, throughout the build. For example, if you are used to kits having fuselage assembly's that come in two halves that glue together, well, think again. This kit has SIX parts (cockpit tub, two forward halves, two rear halves, and bottom)! A little over-engineered which requires a lot of filler and extra work fitting parts together.
My skills at filling and sanding are really not up to scratch.
So I hate having to do it for kits when I don't think it is necessary in the first place. But I did what I could. There are really a lot of things I need to learn to improve my builds. Here, I wish I was better at rescribing panel lines, along with the aforementioned filling and sanding. Decals I am okay with, except when you get those decals which require special effort to make right. In this case, all the day-glo orange decals which didn't fit the best to begin with. The decals at the top of the vertical stabilizer were especially difficult. I used some orange paint to touch-up the decals where I damaged them during application / fitting. The orange paint (acrylic 
) didn't match, but it is hard to see unless you have the model in hand.The clear parts had become loose in the box, so they were pretty scratched when I got to using them. I had to use plastic polish to polish out many of the scratches to make them clear again. They had also lost their shape a bit over the course of time. This made them difficult to attach correctly to the fuselage.
Right now the model is in its shiny clear-coat best. The weather here isn't right for using Dulcoat, so I think I may need to get some brush-on matt finish to make it look correct. A few of the decals didn't go into their correct positions (per the instructions) owing to them being a tad larger than they should have been (you can only trim so much). But that isn't too noticeable - at least that is what I keep telling myself.
For a relatively small model it took a lot of time and effort to build. Still, I like how it turned out. That said, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Please feel free to offer any constructive criticism you may have so I can learn. Thanks!
Photos
Here's a pic of the cockpit before the canopy went on. You can see the nicely appointed decal cockpit.
