Background

The Littoral Combat Ship is the Navy’s latest controversial shipbuilding program. What was originally designed to be a winner-take-all competition is now a ship construction program with two distinct classes. The LCS-1 USS Freedom Class is a more traditionally designed mono-hull, while the LCS-2 USS Independence Class is the trimaran hull form. Those of us with longer memories remember how controversial the Spruance and Oliver Hazard Perry classes were when they were under construction and during their early service – both were designed to be manned with smaller crews and the ships were delivered before their major weapons systems were ready: Harpoon, Sea Sparrow, SLQ-32, CIWS, and LAMPS Mk III. The LCS program is in a similar position; the hulls are delivered with small crews and without the mission modules, which are lagging the hull production. Many observers question the viability of the program.

History

The Grumman FF-1 biplane two-seat fighter was the first complete airplane design from the Grumman Corporation, located in Bethpage, New York. Prior to this, LeRoy Grumman had separated from the Loening Company, and had manufactured amphibious floats for the Vought O2U and O3U observation biplanes, using landing gear designs he had developed for various Loening types.

I want to begin this review with a disclaimer. I am not an armor guy. I am an airplane guy. But I just wanted to try out – at least once – building an armor kit.

This kit has about 440 plastic parts, about half of which are individual links for the tracks. It also has a small photo-etch fret and a turned metal barrel for the cannon. The surface detail is superb and there was no flash whatsoever in my example.

Assembly of the hull and rolling wheels is simple. I had all the body and wheels assembled in about 4 hours. Fit is good, with little need for filler in the body. The turret is molded in two halves, which leaves a large seam that needs treatment with filler. It is not difficult, just a bit surprising, given that the rest of the engineering of the kit is really good.

I am not a Phantom Phreak. Just because I have built about 4 dozen F-4s, in every scale from 1/32 to 1/700, have stopped in a drugstore parking lot and got out of the car to see one of the last Phantoms land for a Luke air show, and have driven a 150 mile round trip to see the last of Springfield IL’s Rhinos take off, does NOT make me a Phreak. A Phan, yeah, but not a Phreak, OK?

I jumped at the chance to review Master’s F-4 Short Nose set because some of my older built kits need some repair. The pitot and ram air inlet on the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer are thin, fragile, and easily damaged. Also, the ESCI Phantom, while a fine kit, does not include the angle of attack probe on the side of the nose. As a hint, the Revell/Monogram 1/72 F-4 does have one.

The set is for the B, C, D, J, K, M, N and S short-nosed F-4s. These are the ones without the pitot on the nose, but instead it’s on the tail.

The Set

First, thanks once again to Carol Pesch at Hobbico for providing IPMS/USA yet another new item to review. Grateful as always, we are… keep the cool stuff coming!

Here we have a plastic model of a plastic airplane. Admittedly, this new addition to the airways is graceful, and definitely has a different look. When IPMS/USA provided me the opportunity to build Hasegawa’s new ANA 787, it was an easy choice. I am hopeful this bird is as successful as everyone expects!

I tend to build rather fast; that has pitfalls, but in the case of this model, the build only took three separate sessions; the painting and decal effort added another six! The kit consists of approximately 57 parts; included is the standard metal screw weight thorough the forward internal bulkhead to ensure the nose sits on the ground. A smoke-gray clear stand is included, along with gear doors in the closed position if you choose to show the model in flight.