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Hasegawa ¶¶¶ Reviewed by You remember this one!
The Hasegawa Me-262 in 1/32 scale... This kit reached the shelves
during the (first) Hasegawa 1/32 golden age, along with the Me-109,
the P-51 and the Fw-190. Curiously, this kit was released just after
the Revell offering in the seventies.  My sample box art. I think the last box to be issued was the Galland commemorative issue. I don´t need
to warn anyone about the historical importance of this aircraft but,
unfortunately, there´s only two games in the 1/32 town: Revell
and Hasegawa, and none of them are in their current catalogues. The
Revell´s one has very serious accuracy and shape problems, and
that´s why I decided to review the Hasegawa´s one first.
Comparing both kits, the latter is a way better model, and definitely
the one to choose, unless you´ve been drinking the same stuff
that Brian Cauchi
is. For nostalgia purposes,
here´s the original box art (we´re getting old, eh?):  If I recall correctly, this was the first box art of this kit, sometime during mid 70´s. Those closing B-24´s still scare me. On to the sprues The kit comes with 130 light grey plastic arranged in four sprues, plus four clear parts. Instructions are in the form of an eight pages booklet. The painting/decal placement guide comes as a separate sheet printed in color - nice touch. My sample didn´t
show any significant flash, but there are many seam marks. In addition,
I found at least a half dozen sink marks along the fuselage halves,
all of them around locating pins. Look for them carefully, because
the are there, albeit very subtle. Apart from that, the kit is very
well molded, and remember that all the surface details are molded
raised. The parts breakdown follows the classical way, the exception
being the center lower wing, which Hasegawa thankfully made as a single
part (after cleaning the parts properly no dihedral deviation should
appear). All parts of the sample show a very polished finishing, indicating
that the molds have not deteriorated in the last thirty years or so.
The rudder comes
as a separated item, but it is not to be glued angled as its leading
edge strangely is not as rounded as supposed. All other control surfaces
are molded in. There´s no separated flaps to be glued deployed.
That´s fine you may wonder. However, there´s no separated
wings leading edge slats neither. Now we do have a problem, as in
the real machine the slats were automatically deployed once the aircraft
decelerated to a given speed. In other words: slats of grounded Me-262
are always down. On the other hand, the corresponding recessed lines
are so heavy that they almost do the trick!
 A close look to the leading edge slats in the NASM Me-262. Hasegawa´s representation of the fasteners and screw heads rivals the best Revell efforts of the time. Even the slots in screw heads are there. I don´t know why modern kits have abandoned this sort of thing (all you get today is a recessed or raised circle).  Surface details at a glance - lower center wing.
Cockpit An interesting feature of this kit (and also in the real aircraft, I suspect) is that the complete cockpit tub can be inserted after the fuselage halves are glued, making the modeler´s life much easier. The Me-262 could
be equipped with either the EZ-42 gyroscopic gunsight - introduced
late in 1944 for the last generation of fighters, or the Revi 16b.
Check your references as they are very different. The picture below
shows the former one mounted on the NASM´s Me-262A. The modeler can
use the kit parts as indeed a good starting point to make a better
cockpit. The pedals and the seat must be replaced for an authentic
aspect. Another point missed by Hasegawa is the area atop the control
panel. It is closed in the kit but it should be open, showing the
rear of the control panel and all those gauges and wiring and stuffs.
The area inside the rear canopy, just behind the headrest, also deserves
some attention, because there´s no detail molded there.
I know Eduard used to produce one or two photoetched sets for this kit. A better option is the resin cockpit produced by Grand Phoenix Productions. It replaces completely the kit cockpit and incorporates many details of the bottom of the cockpit tub. These details are visible from the main wheels bay.  The Grand Phoenix Productions resin cockpit set for this kit. Landing gear The landing gear
parts are well molded, but suffer from countless ejector pin marks
on most of them. Hasegawa opted for molding the brake lines with the
landing gear legs. If you don´t like the idea, be prepared for
a very boring removal task.
 Landing gear details. Note the molded-on brake lines. Also visible are the nose wheel bay and the bomb racks. The nose wheel is fine, with very subtle details and the characteristic tread representation. The corresponding bay and doors, however, is another story. The bay is basically an empty box with a slot to attach the nose gear leg, while the doors are simply plain plastic rectangles. Detailers will test their skills improving these areas. I included some pictures below as a starting point. 
The kit wheels. Main (left) and nose (right). The former is just symbolic.  Some detail shots of the nose landing gear and wheel bay (looking forward). If the nose
landing gear is barely acceptable for a detailed model, the main
one is even worse. The wheels are completely wrong, as the hubs
are devoid of any detail (compare with the picture below) and there´s
no representation of the diamond tread at all. Jerry Rutman's
Me 262 wheels and tires set will be a valuable time saver
here.But a yet worst area is the main wheels bay.
As one could expect, the area is open and the bottom of the cockpit
tub is visible, as well as all the surrounding details: oxygen and
compressed air tanks, lots of plumbing, perforated plates, wing
spar, fuselage structural details and who knows what else. This
is the weakest area of the kit, in my opinion, and its improvement
will require a lot of elbow grease. There is no detail set to help
you here (that I´m aware of).
The main wheel. Some details of the wheel bay are partially visible. The main landing
gear doors are correctly shaped, but the only details of their internal
side are the annoying ejector marks. The doors attached to the gear
legs need only minor detailing, if any. But the inner ones must
be corrected. I included a picture below to illustrate the missing
relief.
 Main landing gear doors.  The correct configuration of the outer (left) and inner (right) landing gear doors.
The bullet shaped
stuff in the center of the intake housed the Reidel two-stroke starter
engine. The kit representation is good, but does not have the characteristic
lanyard handle used to start the engine. The first stage compressor
blades are provided in the kit, and all they need is a good drybrushing
after a paint coat. These parts are quite visible looking from the
jet intake.
Weapons & ordinance
Hasegawa molded
the gun bay doors in a single piece. The photo below show the correct
configuration, with each side hinging separately. The gun muzzles
should be visible from the nose openings, and the insertion of a piece
of tubing will make the model more realistic there.
A complete set of the R4M rockets are also provided by Hasegawa. While the rails are good enough, the rockets are simply a bunch of plastic sticks. Comparing with the real weapon, they are too rounded at the tip and don´t have the fins at the rear end. Remember that the rails were made of wood, and many times not painted as the rest of the aircraft underside.
Clear parts Only four parts
here. Three for the canopy, and a small reflective glass to be used
in what I think is the Hasegawa´s renderization of the Revi
16b gunsight. The parts are well molded, very translucent, and have
a good scale thickness. However, Hasegawa molded a slot to cement
the armored headrest inside the canopy, an this is not correct. In
addition, the slot will be quite visible, not to mention eventual
glue spots. No easy solutions here. You have either to scratchbuilt
a new center section or sand/polish the slot. Decals The decal sheet
provides three options: two fighter birds from the JG7 and a bomber
from KG51, all operating during early 1945. One of them (´white´
3) was possibly flown by Adolf Galland. Hasegawa provided a separated
color printed sheet as decal placement instructions. My sheet is a
bit too old, and seem to be of the thick type, typical of Hasegawa
decals until some time ago. Fortunately, the modeler have a good number
of aftermarket choices. Some still easily found are:
The unit numbers and the squadron badges are possibly usable, but the (very) few stencils provided are really bad for today´s standards. I can not recommend enough the new Hobby Decal dry transfer stencils for this kit. Fitting and accuracy
At the time of this
release, the quality of Hasegawa moldings used to be head and shoulders
ahead the Revell´s one, particularly in what concerns surface
details and fitting. On the other hand, Revell used to beat Hasegawa
in shape and dimensional accuracy. We have an exception to the rule
here, gentleman. The fit is excellent,
with almost no need of filler. Even the wing root resulted a hairline
gap that won´t require putty or sanding.
I was very concerned
about the gaps around the center bottom wing. However, Hasegawa achieved
a very good fit there, too. With a careful application of liquid cement,
only marginal amounts of putty will be necessary.
As for the shape
and dimensional accuracy, contradicting the fame of other kits of
that time, this one is very accurate, in shape and dimensions. I
found just a small discrepancy on the length of the inner slats
of the outer wings.
 Fuselage accuracy.  Wing accuracy.  Stabilizer accuracy.
This is a
grea kit, even if built out of the box. Rescribing is up to you
and, even if you can live with the kit´s cockpit, definitely
the wheel bays will deserve some attention. There are just too
many details there to leave the area simply empty. You don´t
need to count rivets: add some structural details from plastic
stripes and some plumbing/wiring. "Use gizmology", as François
Verlinden would say.
Here´s an example of what can be done if you really care - a fully detailed main wheel bay built by LSP contributor Matsumoto Naoto:  The fabulous work of LSP contributor Matsumoto Naoto on the wheels bay area. You can have a better perspective of what can be done with this kit after reading the following LSP articles (although Sašo used the Revell offering):
It won´t be
difficult to cut the flaps off, or to make new slats from scratch.
Also, the Sturmvogel carried signal flares along the lower port
side of the fuselage. Drill the eight corresponding holes there. Just remember
we are in the final months of the war. The Luftwaffe is starting
to show signs of a chaotic production, maintenance and training.
All these would reflect on the aircraft condition. Each Me-262 used
to have its particularity, even inside the same squadron, no matter
it was about cammo application, markings or anything else. So
you are plenty of choices about camouflage, markings and weathering. Whatever
is your case, check carefully your references. Here is a short
list to start from:
And don´t
forget to check the fantastic list
of detail references compiled by Charles Metz. A nice kit. Easy to build, reasonably detailed, good fit. It is simply too old to get four stars, and many details are missing. With a bit of work, a fabulous model will result:  A nice Me-262 built by Jean Claude Adriaens (courtesy: Patrick Spitaels and his Ans Modelisme web site)  A fantastic Hasegawa Me-262 cutaway presented at the AirZoo Invitational in 2001. Until Hasegawa or Tamiya come up with a new one, this is the 1/32 scale Me-262 to be recommended. |
