Overview

The Hasegawa quarter-inch scale Draken kit has been around for several years now, released in the markings of all of the European countries that flew it, including a number of special anniversary schemes for Swedish, Danish, and Austrian aircraft to commemorate the aircraft’s decades of service. This kit provides decals for the Finnish anniversary scheme to highlight the aircraft’s 28 years with Finland’s Ilmavoimat.

The kit itself is a relatively simple and easy build, with a fairly low parts count compared to many Hasegawa kits. One of the nicer aspects of this “special” kit is that, with the exception of decals and weapons, all the parts are included to build a Finnish Draken at any time of its service with the Finnish Air Force. That includes extra antenna, optional gun ports for dual cannon-armed aircraft, parts for late model aircraft with rear fuselage flare dispensers, and an optional chin mounted IR seeker.

Thanks to SAC for providing IPMS USA the opportunity to review one of their prolific product line…and IPMS USA for letting me take a gander!

First and up front, this is not a build review. That is because there are no more Special Hobby UC-78/T-50’s out there to purchase! (And, no, I am not paying e-bay collector prices for a kit that I would not normally build.) I thought this gear went to a build on another aircraft called a T-50, which is a Korean trainer jet. I’m working that review right now…and an excellent kit it is.

This kit of the F-94C Starfire is a new release by a new company, Kitty Hawk. If this is any indication of future releases, I can’t wait.

I just love the whole line of early Lockheed fighters beginning with the P-80 and the T-33. This is the last of their subsonic fighters and the first one to be radar-equipped. The F-94 is actually an interceptor. It was armed with missiles that fired from four doors on the front of the nose. This was not too successful, as the firing of the missiles often caused an engine flameout. The “C” model added two rocket pods to the wings, and they were back in the interceptor business.

Now, on to the kit. To begin with, the F-94 is a big plane. All of the kit parts are nicely molded. The cockpit is especially well detailed with some perfectly fitting photo etched side consoles. The one failing in the cockpit is the seats. They are pretty basic. I replaced them with True Detail seats from Squadron.

Major Alexander de Seversky, a Russian ace with 13 kills during WWI, defected to the U.S. in 1918, founding the Seversky Aviation Corp. in 1931 on Long Island, NY. Alexander Kartveli emigrated in 1928, joining Seversky as his Chief Engineer. The Seversky/Kartveli team would become the Republic Aviation Corp. which would gain fame with the P-47 Thunderbolt whose lineage was directly traced back to the P-35 as both a combat pursuit fighter and a racer, setting speed records and participating in the Bendix and Thompson Trophy races. If your model collection strives to include landmark or significant historical aircraft, then I would state that it is incomplete without a P-35. Without the powerful P-35 impressing the military and sustaining the Seversky Aviation Corp. through the turbulent 1930s, there never would have been the P-43, P-47, and subsequent series of jets that served lengthy careers destroying our enemies and saving our pilots’ lives.