I recently built the Hasegawa 1/72 T-2 for a detail set review. I ran into a large problem. The decals in my T-2 were many years old, had yellowed, and I didn’t want to do the Blue Impulse plane anyway. I went to my bookshelf, and I had only two references to the T-2, and one of them was for the Blue Impulse. I found a photograph of an aggressor which I used, but this book would have been a super reference, and saved me a lot of trouble.

The text is Japanese, but by golly the profiles, photographs and 1/48 scale drawing all translate nicely into whatever language you use, and there are 4 pages of English translation in the back of the book. It’s the history of the T-2/F-1 and assigned units, which covers pages 10-18.

Another super feature is the time line for 11 T-2s. It shows delivery date, IRAN (Inspect and Repair As Necessary) and the color schemes used on that aircraft with the dates. This covers 4 pages, and is just mind boggling in its detail. Someone has really done their homework here!

Next are 24 pages of detail photos, starting with the nose probe and ending with the tail cone. There are a number of photos where access panels have been opened to show interiors. And that’s just the T-2!

The F-1 follows. This starts with 9 pages of detail photos, going from the nose probe to the tail. I’ll have to say that photos 1 and 2 of the tail are a rivet counter’s dream, even if those are Phillips-head screws.

There are 8 pages of “large format” profiles, most of them 3-views. Note the inclusion of size reference for the unit badges, and location info for the wing and fuselage national markings. The next page has a bottom view, and includes sizes and spacing for the aircraft numbers and sizes for the Hinomarus. This is everything you’d ever want to make your own decals or cut stencils.

The modeling section builds the Hasegawa 1/48 T-2, and F-1. The T-2 build answers one of my questions. On Aggressor T-2s the Hinomarus and serial numbers are not bright red, but have a gray tint. As shown in steps 45 and 48, you just paint them over with the background color. Yes, the Hinomarus are treated the same way.

Another feature of the build section is that they show the aftermarket available for the kits. Watch for the yellow “Check” circle. For the F-1 build, they used a Fine Molds mask, Hasegawa weapons set and the Platz PE set.

The modeling section concludes with a listing of all the T-2/F-1 kits available. Hasegawa has 1/48 and 1/72 kits of both aircraft. There’s also a 1/144 T-2 by Platz.

So is it worth $28? Yes, Recommended. If you read Japanese, or have a friend who can translate for you, then it’s highly recommended. The detail photographs are priceless, the color information is very useful, and the modeling section certainly taught me some things.

Thanks to Dragon USA for the review copy, and IPMS USA for the chance to learn from it.