Lockheed T33A 'checker' JASDF

[Miko]

a 1969 vintage kit that cost around a tenner, it's difficult to find fault given it's age, went together well, a bit fiddly in places and primitive to kits just a short time later, I assume styrene injection molding in those days was still being perfected as the ejection pin and small sink marks show with a tiny bit of flash. Hasegawa seemed to be pretty much 'state of the art' back then at least and better than the likes of Airfix Revell and of course Frog with whom they shared molds with.
If I were to criticize anything, that would be the instructions, a little confusing and decal placement and paint call outs vague at best, this is where a Google search is your friend. The most impressive part of the kit, as with the F-104 built recently, despite being decades old the waterslide transfers behaved magnificently!

One Hasegawa 1/72 Lockheed T33A as a flight calibration aircraft licence built by Kawasaki in 1958



Miko (the T33A was still in service with JASDF until june 2000!)

 

[Ian M]

I see a theme here. Not quite got to the bottom of it. is it Japanese or the Checkers?

A nice tiny tidy build. quick to.

Now have a song by the vapors buzzing around my head. lol

 

[Miko]

I see a theme here. Not quite got to the bottom of it. is it Japanese or the Checkers?

A nice tiny tidy build. quick to.

Now have a song by the vapors buzzing around my head. lol

Yep, I usually build in themes, the last related to the next

The Vapours? wow, haven't heard that name for a while!! questionable lyrics as I remember?

Miko (speaking of the link thing I build to, not the case this time nothing Hasegawa, Japan, check flight or cold war. . . .no wait! calibration aircraft? I wonder!)

 

[Lee Drennen]

Miko looks great very clean build turned out nice for such a old kit.

 

[yak face]

Great job miko, I do love a good oldie . The hasegawa kits from the seventies/ eighties were very nicely tooled . I remember building their F11f Tiger as a kid and marvelling at the fit and detail compared to other makers , might have to get me another one . Cheers tony

 

[Miko]

Great job miko, I do love a good oldie . The hasegawa kits from the seventies/ eighties were very nicely tooled . I remember building their F11f Tiger as a kid and marvelling at the fit and detail compared to other makers , might have to get me another one . Cheers tony

Hey Tony, yep, you're right. I know we live in a second golden age of plastic scale modelling where little seems impossible to be potentially made into a kit (take a bow eastern European manufacturers) but there was something about the sixties and seventies kits that captured our imaginations as young lads to build models that inspired us, maybe they aren't as super detailed as modern kits but they do have a charm of their own these days, maybe it's nostalgia and a reflection of of days gone by but they are fun to build. What I don't understand those who criticise older kits, they are a great training ground to develop skills and learn how to make a great model. Hasegawa made that simple, Airfix not so much, which is a good thing, it's possible to have a kit that's too easy to build!

Miko (modelling philosopher)

 

[yak face]

With your penchant for japanese subjects and older hasegawa kits this might tickle your fancy https://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/hasegawa-1-72-beech-t34-mentor-finished-pics.41688/