This kit is Hasegawa’s boxing from 1999; the last of 3 incarnations of a kit that was originally the only offering of the now defunct company Model USA. Hasegawa obtained the moulds and initially produced a JASDF variant in 1996 before deigning to produce a no doubt more popular version with Vietnam markings in ’99.
The kit comes in a pretty standard 90’s top opening Hasegawa box with some very nice commissioned artwork; good enough to frame in my opinion and kit no. is 51662…..or possibly SP162, you decide.
Upon opening the box we aren’t met by a huge amount of plastic; not surprising given the subject’s diminutive stature, but what there is in the box is sensibly packaged to avoid damage.
The decals are, to my eyes, in register although I’m always a little dubious of Hasegawa’s US roundels both in colour and size. Other manufacturers, and indeed specialist decal producers, do seem to do these a lot better. That said, so long as you don’t mix and match on a model then the Hasegawa ones are fine. There’s some carrier film, but no more than you’d expect, and we do get the choice of some instrument/radio decals.
Ah, familiar Hasegawa instruction sheets with, predictably in this case, just a few steps. These are actually taken pretty much straight from the Model USA version but revised to the Hasegawa format which, of course, makes perfect sense.
The instructions reveal that we get quite a nice amount of internal detail including a nicely representative Continental O-470 engine. I’m not sure if anything would be visible on the completed model but it’s a good basis should your plans include a deeper level of detail.
The final shout from the instructions are, of course, the marking call-outs for two Vietnam machines; one the colourful box art version with a more common grey/white option as an alternative. Disappointingly these are both simply listed as “USAF” with no indication of unit or date. If something a little different takes your fancy I’ve found half a dozen different aftermarket decal options with varying levels of current availability and release dates so you could be a little spoiled for choice.
With all the fluff out of the way, let’s take a look at the plastic.
As mentioned this is nicely and sensibly packaged and this packaging is in the form of a single bag split into two cells; one cell contains two sprues of rather soft mid-grey styrene and the other, smaller, cell contains the single clear sprue. When we cut into this rather pleasing combination is where, unfortunately, things take a slightly left turn.
Sprue 1 has the fuselage halves and almost all the internal parts save the cockpit floor.
A closer inspection reveals some quite nice, if rather soft, internal detail. Unfortunately…
…it’s flash and sink mark city in there. A real shame as there’s clearly a lot of effort gone into creating the detail. Sprue 2 is no better……
Those sink marks in the wing-tips, on both sides are particularly disappointing and it makes you wonder how much of that nice, but soft decal will be retained after all these little issues are corrected.
However, some redemption can be found in the clear parts. I used the kit instructions as a clarity test:
The level of clarity is pretty impressive even through the curved parts; making it all the more important to get the interior right. The upper-wing windows (skylights?) do appear to have some dips in them but it may be possible to get away with Clearfix on these as they aren’t too big and if they turn out to sit proud of the wing could potentially be polished back quite effectively.
In conclusion: If you want a 1/48th Bird Dog there are currently 2 options available; this one and the Roden offering from 2018. I’ve seen pictures and reviews of the Roden version and, in all honesty, it doesn’t look any more advanced than Hasegawa’s kit; just quite a bit more complex.
The moulding issues are, on the surface, not encouraging; flash is likely a sign that the limited run US Model moulds were at the end of their usefulness by 1999 but the sink marks are just down to poor production quality so is entirely down to Hasegawa cutting corners. The result is that each part will require some attention before assembly; either in the form of flash clean-up or filling/sanding or, in some cases both and you could argue that this is unacceptable for a kit of 1999 vintage and a Hasegawa kit to boot. But do consider that, relatively, there aren’t actually a lot of parts to deal with. Attempt the more modern Roden kit and I’d put money on the certainty that you’d be doing the same but with a lot more parts and with parts fit that’s dubious to say the least. Out of the two, this is the kit I’d go for.
As an additional piece to this review; one of Eduard’s early etched sets is designed for this kit and can still be picked up if you look hard enough; also True Details offer a resin cockpit and there are myriad reference sources.
All-in all, despite the flash and sink marks, I’d recommend this kit to an experienced modeller and fan of the type.
