Thank you to the Eduard Company for sending this detail set for review, it is always a pleasure to see what Eduard’s new products bring to the scale modeling world. Thank you also to the IPMS Reviewer Corps staff members who do the hard work in getting us modeling products to review, the reviews posted, and the news spread to the world.

The photoetch frets arrived in excellent shape in a sealed plastic package with the distinctive Eduard knight logo. One cockpit fret is 2.75 x 1.6 inches on polished metal with color-etched laminated details, and the other fret is 3.1 x 2.75 inches on polished brass. Side consoles and instrument panel parts are provided for either a F2H-2 or F2H-2P. Internal and external details for one model are on these two frets. I particularly appreciate having three clear HUD pieces included on the film part. Only one is required, but I need two of them to complete the set. You can speculate why! I worked up the fighter version for this review.

History

The T17 Staghound Mark I armored car was designed in the United States based on British specifications at the beginning of World War II. The British were looking for a wheeled reconnaissance vehicle with a high level of armor, well-armed and highly mobile. Chevrolet started production in late 1942 and a total of 3000 units were produced. British and Polish units started fielding this vehicle in the spring of 1943 in the Italian Campaign. The Staghound was used by many different counties during the post war era up into the late 1970s.

This is not a highly-detailed kit, but can be an entertaining build for both less experienced and more advanced modelers. Less experienced modelers will enjoy the ease of assembly, and can build the kit without painting. More advanced modelers looking for construction equipment will find the kit to be an opportunity for some extreme weathering.

Background

This is the second kit Hasegawa has produced based on the Hitachi tracked excavator. The first was the Double Arm Working Machine Astaco Neo released in 2015 and updated in 2017 with new parts. This new Hitachi Zaxis kit retains the grasping claw from the Double Arm kit, but adds an excavator bucket and dozer blade as additional options.

The Zaxis 135US-6 excavator is used by contractors needing a tight tail-swing radius to work in confined areas around obstacles. The excavator is equipped with an Isuzu engine.