Model Airplane International 06 2007

The sprues for the new' 60kg bombs will have you thinking 'why has this kit got floats?" Well the reason is simple, Hasegawa have just taken the sprues out of their A6M2-N Rufe' kit. which includes 60kg bombs, and put them in this box! The rest of this kit is their standard A6M2 Type 21 kit (#JT43) and is therefore moulded in the usual mid-grey coloured plastic with excellent recessed panel lines. The cockpit is made as a nicely detailed tub' that is inserted into the fuselage and the upper decking with 77mm machine gun barrels is also a separate insert. The correct style cowl with separate exhaust stacks is also included but work is required on the wings, as the recessed lines depicting the trim tabs need to be eradicated and the Trim tab linkage arms on the undersides need to be cut off. Other than that, this is a typical Hasegawa product, well engineered, moulded and packaged and it should not prove a problem for anyone to make, complete novice or ultra-experienced expert. The use of the Rufe sprues does mean you get a set of wing floats and two wheels from the beaching trolley, but hey. they will come in handy, right?

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Model Airplane International 04 2007

To be fair, sometimes it seems that we take ourselves far too seriously in this hobby. how many times have we heard arguments about the exact shade of RLM 83 and how many rivets are holding that widget onto the flange sprocket? Well, with these little babies it doesn't matter how many rivets, because we're not even sure they have widgets, let alone flange sprockets. Hasegawa of course have something of a history when it comes to the lighter side of this hobby, anyone remember the Egg planes' of years gone by? Marvellous stuff and the T4 Blue Impulse Junior set falls squarely in that fun' box. That's not to say that they are fictitious, far from it, these are fufly-fledged members of the Blue Impulse display team and used by the Japanese Air Self Defence Force for marketing and recruitment drives. The Juniors' are 50cc Honda Dio scooters, wrapped in plywood caricatures of the Blue Impulse Kawasaki T4's. Piloted' around air-shows and the maintenance bases, they delight of the crowds wherever they appear. Originally created by the servicing teams at the Matsushima air base they now follow the acrobatic team all over the world.

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Model Airplane International 10 2006

On opening the box I was amazed by its content. The level of detail is noticeably high and the finely engraved panel lines are equal to those we've come to expect from Far Eastern manufacturers, the only exception being thicker lines on the upper wing centre section. The amount of flash is kept to a minimum with only the struts needing a little cleaning up. Also sink marks are almost nonexistent; I found only two on the inner faces of the landing gear covers. The other feature that literally shocked me was the number of optional parts, allowing virtually any CR.42 variant to be built, i.e. fighter, fighter-bomber or night fighter, plus alternative styles of exhausts, intakes, undercarriage (spafted/unspatted wheels, skis), bomb racks, underwing searchlights and different spinners! Even the smallest parts look to scale, something that has not been typical of Italeri in the past. Perhaps the only downside to the kit is the slightly 'overdone' fabric effect, especially the ribs on the wings, which are too pronounced for my taste. The final surprise waited at the bottom of the box - a 48-page reference booklet!

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