Part II - The Build

First, for any of you who may have been waiting for part two of this review to help make a decision on whether to buy the Hasegawa kit, or one offered by another manufacturer, I apologize for the lengthy build period on this one. But, for those who have been waiting, read no further. BUY THIS KIT! If it is sitting on the shelf down at your favorite hobby shop, GO BUY IT NOW! Don’t wait to buy it on the internet, go pay the folks at your local hobby shop their more than reasonable mark-up to have this kit sitting there waiting for you, because YES, IT IS THAT GOOD!

Loon Models (Roll Models brand) has added another aircraft seat to their 1/72 aircraft accessory line. This one is for the Messerschmitt Me-262. Loon Models don’t specify a kit for this seat, but you will want to use one that has a normal cockpit in it. The kit I picked out for this review is an older Hasegawa kit of the Me-262A.

The LOON seat is two quality pieces of resin; smooth, seamless and bubble free. The detail is also very nice, and it doesn’t need any extra work to bring out the detail. The beauty of this piece is that all I had to do was paint it, assemble the tow parts, and add a drop of super glue for the install. No cutting needed on the original cockpit floor, just drop it in. This seat has no seatbelts molded on it, which is good if you want to add a pilot or add PE seat belts.

History

Once the Japanese Pacific "empire” had expanded to its greatest extent in mid-1942, the Navy General Staff realized that their supply lines -- basically consisting of slow, plodding “marus” usually sailing independently and not in convoy -- were extremely vulnerable to American submarines, which patrolled almost unopposed throughout the empire.

The Japanese considered the submarine mainly a weapon to be used against enemy warships. But American submarines were used primarily as commerce destroyers like the German U-Boats, and took such a toll of Japanese shipping that more and better aircraft were required for anti-submarine duties. In 1942, the Watanabe Tekkosho, later Kyushu Hokoki, was assigned the task of developing a specialized aircraft for this role. A design was quickly developed, the Q1W1, which appeared as a three-seat twin engine monoplane emphasizing endurance over speed.