Hasegawa 1/72 Bell UH1H Iroquis

[Gregers]

This kit is quite an oldie. I suppose it could be called a "Classic Japanese kit" it dates from the very early 70's I built a couple of these in the past and both came with AirCav markings though I did one as a F.I.G.A.S. machine. Both of those werein green plastic and were very crisply molded. This new one is a later H Model and the kit does not come with the weapon packs of the early version but now has door steps. These looklike they will be fiddly to assemble. Also this new one is molded in grey plastic and has quite a bit of flash. Not quite enough to make it look like a vacform. Still, it's a Hasegawa kit and I don't forsee any issues in assembly. One thing I found when I built the previous two though is it is best to insert all the windows before joining the fuselage halves as if you drop the windscreens or lower windows in afterwards they will be a pain to get back out. Over to the pics.
Two sets of markings are provided.
1 kasumigaura flight school J.G.S.D.F
2 U.S.Army aviation detachment. Japan.

All the best.

Greg

[Spearjig]

That looks a little bit worse than the Tamyia/ Italeri one I'm currently fighting with at the moment!

[Gregers]

To be honest it's the worst Hasegawa kit I have ever had my hands on. We have four more of these at work so I will have a look at them to see if they are the same. I spent about 30 mins earlier with a scalpel and fine file sorting the flash whilst watching Dr Who. It should be ok to build now but I will let you guys know how it goes.

All the best.

Greg.

[Crashpilot]

Thank you for the little review, Greg. It´s good to know, that this H-model is just a reworked B-model tooling.
These Hase Hueys pop up regularly on ee-bee, so now, I´ll be cautious, in case I post a bid.

[RayS]

Nice review Greg.

I built one of these a couple of years ago and found the interior detail lacking. There are no control columns or collectives and the cabin is bare. I ended up scratch building new pilot seats, adding the control parts, and inserting seating for the cabin.

The Italeri/Esci offerings are far superior when it comes to interior detail.

[Gregers]

Thanks guys.
Ray, I hadn't noticed the lack of flight controls to be honest and I agree about lack of interior. Never done the Italeri/esci one but will watch out for it. I was hoping to source some side guns for this to do a NASA base security helo.

All the best.

Greg.

[Tiger Hobbies]

Greg here. Am at work so am signing in using the works account. I checked out the other five (we had five, not four as stated) of this kit we have on the shelf. All have flash to varying degrees but nothing that would stop them being built. I cut some parts off the sprue of the one I have at home and dry fit of the parts showed there shouldn't be much of a problem building it.

All the best.

Greg