ON A ROLL - HOT STUFF FROM HASEGAWA

SMN report:

Hasegawa of Japan is bringing us hot new and revised products at a pace-and-a-half. Here a taste of what’s in store - space, sci-fi, aviation, and... girls!

Dreamliner

The 1:200 scale Boeing 787 Dreamliner comes in two flavours, JAL (Japan Airlines) and ANA (All Nippon Airways), differentiated in several ways, such as the differing engines used by the two airlines. At this scale, the changes are visually minor, but Hasegawa has detailed everything you need for an accurate finished model.

Voyager

Real-space fans have a treat in store with the 1:48 scale Voyager space probe. Two were launched back in 1977, their mission to record data and information about the outer planets. After swooping past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, they are now drifting into interstellar space, beyond the Solar System. 

Golden Record

The Hasegawa kit includes a scale representation of the ‘Golden Record’, a video disc containing the sights and sounds of Earth. There’s one aboard each spacecraft, a time capsule message, just in case they bump into intelligent aliens, sometime in the distant future.

Flood of science-fiction

Sci-fi fans have their hands full with a bunch of Hasegawa releases. Perhaps the most interesting is the forward-sweep combat fighter to 1:72 scale, representing an aircraft featured in the PS3/XBox 360 video game ‘Ace Combat’. The machine is packed with  advanced design features, such as canted tail fins and swivelling engine exhaust. Convincing stuff this, even if it is pure fiction.

More sci-fi

Two more jets feature in the Hasegawa release list: a 1:48 scale Macrosse robocraft, and a 1:72 scale Macrosse Plus, in UN Spacy markings. Both are neat models, reissues of kits dating back to the 1980s. 

Robot attacker

Meantime Maschinen Krieger comes out shooting, with another 1:20 scale robotic fighting kit, the Grosse Hund, and very convincing it is too. 

Space fighter

The Creator Works single-seat space fighter is perhaps a little less so, if only because Star Wars and its X- and Y-Wings have trodden the same path so well. Still, this one’s not Star Wars, so brownie points for that, as well as for being to model aircraft-standard 1:72 scale.

Girl power

Last but not least, we have a series of combat jets painted in girlie shades, courtesy the Japanese anime series Idolmaster, which is hugely popular with young teens. Hmmm... an F-15 Eagle, F-22 Raptor and Sukhoi F-33 dolled up in pinks, greens and blues, plus pretty girls painted on the wings is a different take on the term 'warpaint', and makes a refreshing change from the oh-so-serious camo schemes that are the usual paint jobs on these jets.

Summation

We’d build them all if we had time - but given a choice of one, it has to be the Maschinen Krieger release for the sci-fi freaks at SMN Towers. Yes please: Ma.K just has to be the best non-Hollywood sci-fi kit series ever released.

All sorts of Hasegawa kits here.

Kit images courtesy: Hasegawa, Boeing 787: Eric Prado

LAST F-22 RAPTOR UNDER CONSTRUCTION, BUT THE STEALTH FIGHTER STILL FLIES HIGH IN THE KIT WORLD

SMN report

The last of 195 F-22A Raptors for the US Air Force is now under construction, yet the entire F-22 fleet remains grounded over concerns about the pilot's cockpit breathing system inside the cockpit, which has been under investigation since November 2010, when an F-22 crashed mysteriously in Alaska. No emergency call was received from the pilot, and the assumption is that he passed out from oxygen loss before the crash.

No flying high at present

It’s a major blow as, without oxygen, Raptor pilots can’t fly at high altitudes. Yet technically, the F-22 remains the most advanced fighter jet on the planet, but its place is largely taken for the time being by the older F-15 Eagle. F-22s may yet fly on what are known as “national security directed missions,” but otherwise the high-tech stealth jet might as well be an expensive brick. Here's hoping the mysterious problem is cracked very soon indeed.

Stealth weapons

However, all that doesn’t stop the F-22 being a popular choice in the model world, and one of the best available is Hasegawa’s 1:48 scale release. Probably the most luscious elements of the assembled kit are the triple weapon bays. 

Being a stealth design, the F-22 has internal storage, as hanging ordnance under the wings would destroy the aircraft’s stealthiness, and Hasegawa really has gone to town with these features. The ventral bay can be packed with up to six air-to-air missiles, while two more poke out at the correct angle from the side bays behind the air intakes. 

Neat canopy details

The lift-up canopy is smooth and clear, with just a hint of the tint that marks out the real thing, and the cockpit is reasonably detailed. As ever, the finished appearance will depend on how much work you put in. We particularly like the internal canopy frame, which has correct side-handle and other detail. Nicely done, Hasegawa.

Panel detail is appropriately fine, as this is a stealth fighter after all; Hasegawa’s publicity pix show quite a bit more emphasis than in the real thing, but for a model, this is perhaps no bad thing - it certainly adds visual interest to what is a very plain-Jane colour scheme.

XBox link

Mind you, if it’s wango-tango markings you’re after, then you should head off to another Hasegawa range, the Idolmaster series (officially, it’s iDOLM@STER), linked to a Namco Bandai anime creation for the XBox and other game machines. In the real world, it’s unlikely to be possible for such markings to be applied directly to stealth-type materials, but if you like pink - and something very different on the display shelf - then here’s your stick of bubble gum!