Esci 1/72 Skyhawk

It's accurate, and a very nice kit from what I remember. However it's a bit difficult to get hold of these days. If you have one, all well and good. If not, go for the Fujimi one. The Italeri kit is also quite accurate but is somewhat simplistic.

Except that the leading edge slats are firmly molded in the closed position. Okay for an in-flight model or a Blue Angels bird but the Fujimi kits are better overall and have separate leading edge slats.

The Hasegawa single seat Skyhawk is too long in the fuselage (forget the specifics, but it is not correctable). Their TA-4 is fine - and the only kit you will get a boarding ladder out of!

I agree with Al - the Fujimi are the best Skyhawk kits in 1/72 on the market.

John Alger IPMS 10906 Charlotte Scale Modelers

Hasegawa seems to have used the TA-4J fuselage dimension to mould the A-4E, which is why it's too long. One would have to do quite a job of trimming out the extra length and reconnecting the fuselage bits to get it back to the correct length. I believe it's all forward of the engine inlets but I've never checked.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

"Jacob" skrev i en meddelelse news:44fb24b5$0$4171$ snipped-for-privacy@nntp02.dk.telia.net...

You are correct sir! I wasn't going to say anything because I don't have one in my stash to re-check the dimensions on. But this is why it is uncorrectable - if you cut out the extra 2 or 3 feet forward of the intakes, you can't match the angles of the remaining pieces.

At the time, Hasegawa was pretty well known for accuracy in dimensions (though they never got big marks on cockpit detail) and it took quite a while, as I recall, for someone to notice this huge Boo-Boo on their part. Remember, this kit came out in the late 60's and most of us were not as fanatical about details like this back then - if it looked OK it passed muster. I don't recall when I first heard of the error, but it was well into the '70s.

John Alger USN(ret)