Hasegawa has re-released their 1/48 F-2A, this time as a “Detail Up” Limited Edition, with photoetch parts. The detail set includes seatbelts, landing gear wiring and some details for the underwing pylon stations and air discharging cones in the wings/tail section.

When opening the box you find 12 sprues for a total of 179 pieces. Typical of Hasegawa the underwing stores include drop tanks and, as a nice surprise, some air-to-air missiles (AAM-3, I’ve believe). This boxing has regular Hasegawa printed decals for 3 different versions of the F-2A in Japanese service.

Construction starts with the cockpit and with the air intake. Both subassemblies have good fit and decent detail, but probably the cockpit instrument panel could use a PE replacement, even more considering how visible it is under the clear bubble canopy. I wished the PE fret would have included some instrument panel detail.

This is a multimedia kit comprised of 470+ styrene parts on 24 sprues, DS tracks, two small photo etched fret, decals and the set of instructions that need to be reviewed very carefully before gluing any parts together. The DS tracks have no shape or sag. I have tried to introduce this shape by using the Hobby Trax forms. Generally I was successful, but if your model is to be shown in a contest, I suggest that you replace the tracks with individual links (magic tracks or Fruil).

Most Dragon models today are a collection of old sprues and new sprues added to create a new kit variant. In this case, Dragon has done so and you will have some sprues with the same letter but are called out by the color (see Sprues Blue A & L).

Master Box continues to surprise with interesting vignettes, all in one package. This set includes their Type 170 German staff car and five figures – two US Paratroopers and a civilian family. The US officer is consulting with the father in the family to determine where he’s going, and the child has squirmed out of his mother’s arms to get a closer look at the fascinating soldiers. I was attracted to his model from the moment I saw it – anything about the lighter side of warfare appeals to me anyway, and Master Box had come up with something really interesting.