Regional jets have been a common sight at airports for more than 10 years, so it’s surprising that it’s taken mainstream kit manufacturers until now to take notice. It’s equally surprising that Hasegawa, better known for 1/200 scale major airliners, is the first company to produce a modern regional jet kit.
What is not surprising is the quality of the kit. Molded in gray plastic, the parts feature fine engraved detail including panel lines and control surfaces. The wings’ trailing edges are accurately fine. The winglets, molded with the wing upper halves, look good but are perhaps a little thick. There are no clear parts: the windshield and cabin windows are represented by decals.
Hasegawa included a metal screw that mounts to a bulkhead in the front fuselage and provides enough weight to keep the nose grounded. There is an alternative part to pose the gear up when the model is modeled in flight on the smoke-colored stand. Note Step 2 and open the hole in the belly if you wish to model the aircraft that way.
There are clear color callouts referring to Gunze Sangyo paints, and a well-printed decal sheet covers any of J-Air’s 10 E170s.
The parts fit very well. I used a small amount of super glue as filler to eliminate a few seams on the fuselage and wings. The biggest issue is the belly insert: It is more rounded than the fuselage, so there is a step behind the landing-gear well.
I was impressed by the antennas and other bumps molded on the fuselage. They look close to scale, and I managed to avoid knocking any of them off while sanding and painting. If you do, however, Hasegawa provides replacements on the sprue and a diagram to help you locate the right ones. Very nice!
I attached the wing to the fuselage before painting, but left the engines, horizontal stabilizers, and landing gear off.
I sprayed the fuselage with Tamiya white primer, which provides a great surface but is also a good, clean white, perfect for airliners. Then I masked and airbrushed Tamiya medium gray (XF-20). It was listed a couple of places as an equivalent of the light gull gray (FS16440) called for in the instructions, but is clearly too dark. After touch-up, I gave the little airliner a coat of Pledge Future floor polish in preparation for the decals.
The markings went down very well on the gloss, are adequately thin, and responded well to Micro Sol and Solvaset. There are lots of little stencils, so pay attention. Also watch the cabin windows: The two sides look identical but are subtly different, so make sure you get the right one.
I was impressed with how the door and windshield decals exactly matched the molded details.
There were gaps around the edges of the red decals on the tail and winglets, but Model Master insignia red is a perfect match. I added a dark pinwash to the control surfaces to highlight the detail, used Bare-Metal Foil for the leading edges, then sealed everything with Future.
The rest of the parts went on cleanly. The landing gear is a little thick for the scale, as are the gear doors.
I spent about 12 hours on the model, much of that painting and masking. The finished model is about 8" long with a 71⁄4" wingspan, and it captures the shape and stance of Embraer’s little jet.
There are a lot of great schemes on these aircraft, so I plan on building more soon. Hey, Hasegawa: How about an E190 next?