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Hasegawa model in 1/72 scale kit review and modelling report
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The Hasegawa kit is excellent although rather simple with only the major parts being provided in this quite expensive kit. The kit, no. K41 depicts a A-3B Skywarrior of the US Navy with a choice of decals for a VAH--11 and a VAH-10 aircraft of the US Navy in the common gull grey /white scheme.
The 1/72 kit has a very good fit and
good panel details and will get you a nice quite big model.
The following changes are however
made to this model:
- Looking at pictures it was seen that every Skywarrior standing at the platform or carrier deck have their slats and flaps extended because of the lack of oil pressure. So it was needed to cut out all slats and the inner flaps.
- To do some more detailing also the two rear fuselage air brakes were opened by cutting open the bays in the rear fuselage area.
- Also, the crew access ladder is provided opened in this kit so it was decided to open the hole in the cockpit floor and to detail the cockpit also.
- To have something to be seen later on, also opened up the sliding hatch in the upper cockpit glazing. Be carefully when making a cut in the glass!
- The cockpit area was detailed with some sprue and pieces of plastic with the lower area near the hatch also being detailed with some scraps and pieces from the spares box.
- The opening within the main undercarriage bay giving a see "through" effect could not be seen in pictures so the hole as covered.
fuselage comparison, Hasegawa's A-3 on top
wing comparison
Hasegawa A-3 and Italeri B-66 kits
The changes are done on the main
parts so the next step is to glue the main parts together in next stages.
Derived from the navy version of the A-3 also a USAF variant was made, the B-66 Destroyer. It has externally some differences to the A-3.
- longer engine nacelles ;
- different cockpit area ;
- other rear tail area ;
- yehudi (being a chord extension at trailing edge) of the inner wing;
- different slat layout
In parallel, also the Italeri kit of the A-3 family member the B-66 Destroyer was tackled. Check the B-66 kit out here...
Detailing was done on the A-3 by cutting also out the air brakes. Plastic pieces of cart cover the holes with some panels being inscribed .
The A-3 received it first coat of white; note cut out leading edges and flaps
I assembled the A-3 and this gave no problems.
.. 
The slat leading edge areas undercoat was also made white and painted red later on.
Cockpit now awaits the seat belts and the instrument decals. The canopy will than be fitted with some white glue to fill up the gaps and the edges/framing painted.
References
- Douglas B-166 Destroyer, Minigraph
- Navy Attack, Osprey series
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Created June 15, 2002