PREVIEW

Hasegawa 1/48 weapons set #4

by Steve Bamford (ARC Staff)

Hasegawa makes many aircraft model kits, but one sad surprise when you open their jet kits is the lack of ordnance.  Hasegawa instead prefers to sell the ordnance separately in 4 ordnance kits.  This is the latest in the series and is a welcome addition as the other sets deal with stores loads dating to the Vietnam War period.  As you can see by the picture above of the boxart....there is plenty of "stores" in this one box.

This set mainly covers US smart bombs and target pods, included are two GBU-10 Paveway II, six GBU-12 Paveway II, four GBU-16 Paveway II, two GBU-24 Paveway II, four AGM-123 Skipper, two TER (Triple Ejector Rack) , two AGM-84E Slam, two GBU-31 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition), two AN/APX-95 Tacts Pod, two AN/AAQ-13 Navigation Pod, two AN/AAQ-14 Targeting Pod, two AN/AAQ-13 Rack for F-15E, two AN/AAQ-14 Rack for F-15E, two AN/AAQ-14 Rack for F-16C. 

Also included is a quite complete decal sheet....the clarity of the text is clear and  readable.  The instructions include painting instructions using Gunze Sangyo Aqueous Hobby Color line of paints.  Considering there are only 7 colours mentioned in the paint guide in the instructions and they are very simple colours, I doubt anyone will have any problems using their favourite brand of paints.

The casting of the grey plastic is typical Hasegawa high quality.  Beautiful recessed panel lines and since this is a new release, the fit should be clean and perfect.  There was no flash on the example before me.

All in all a good set to have when you want to add these stores to your latest kit....especially if you want to do a jet from the Gulf War or later.

The complete kit.

Decals are clearer than this.....this is a low resolution scan.

Two of these sprues are included	Two of these sprues are included

Seeker lenses for GBU-24 Paveway II, AN/AAQ-13 Navigation Pod, AN/AAQ-14 Targeting Pod, AGM-84E SLAM,

Review sample kindly supplied by North American Hobbies.