Kit: No. BP5
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: Hasegawa, distributed by Marco Polo Import, 532 S. Coralridge Place, City of Industry, CA 91746
Price: $23.98
Comments: Injection molded, 66 parts, decals.
The radar-carrying interceptor version of North American's famous Sabre saw service with the Japanese Self Defense Force as well as the USAF and a few other air arms.
Like other recent small-scale kits from Hasegawa, this one exhibits beautifully recessed panel lines and near-perfect fit, but an overall treatment of simplicity. The cockpit panels are flat, with decals for the instruments and switches. Two pieces represent the ejection-seat back, and they meet the bottom of the seat molded into the cockpit tub. The two tiny sub panels that attach to the front of the cockpit cutouts in the fuselage halves are difficult to handle.
The landing-gear detail is superb and includes retraction struts for the nose gear and closing arms for the gear doors. You have the option of posing the canopy open or closed and finned underwing tanks are provided. Tiny vortex generators are molded into the rear fuselage and horizontal stabilizers, but an additional six are separate and must be attached above the tail cone -- tweezers time!
You can pose the ventral rocket pack in its lowered position, but there are no positive locators for it. Carefully center it directly behind the nose-gear bay. If you want to show it in the raised position, don't use the pack.
The fit was nearly perfect. I had to sand a little around the nose cone, but everything else just clicked into place.
I painted this model with Alclad aluminum and shaded panels with Metalizer. The kit decals are translucent and don't stick well to the slick natural-metal finish. I persuaded them with diluted white glue here and there. You get a choice of two markings as the commander's bird from the 4th Fighter Interceptor Squadron or the 324th FIS.
The finished model is handsome and took only 15 hours to build and paint. It measures correctly with the dimensions in several books.
Hasegawa molds the leading-edge slats in the retracted position, but they were automatic, "air-loaded" slats. When the aircraft was parked the slats would deploy down and forward. As the Sabre gained air speed, the slats would retract flush with the wing surface. So the kit is wrong, right? Well, I found several pictures in my references of parked Sabres with slats retracted, but it appears the slats either were taped or pinned in this position to make the airplane look "clean" for the camera. Experienced modelers may want to perform minor surgery to drop the slats.
Hasegawa's Sabre Dog looks great slats-up or -down. I hope more 1950s-era jets come our way!
Paul Boyer