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The Sufa Showdown - Hasegawa vs Kinetic 1/48 F-16I


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it's started already! this will be a comprehensive review of what to look out for, a comparison of parts and fitting and accuracy to the real sufa.

the hasegawa 5 part spine is assembled quick and easy.

hasspine5.jpg

some sanding down of the resulting seam line removes any traces of the middle joint seam

hasspine4.jpg

even the side chaff dispenser panels show little hint of seam joints, or as good as panel lines. with only minimal sanding.

hasspine6.jpg

next step was to mount all the small blips and antennae by drilling holes.

hasspine.jpg

hasspine8.jpg

Oops. there is an extra hole on the spine, don't drill the last one nearest the vert fin. it serves no purpose.

hasspine9.jpg

all the parts have been mounted. the round gps and rwr domes have little seams that will be filled by liquid putty later.

hasspine12.jpg

there is an add-on exhaust on the spine, which needs removal of a part on the spine in order for new part to fit.. circled in pencil . this is not written on the instructions.

hasspine10.jpg

hasspine11.jpg

Edited by Tomcat RIO
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i will now show the kinetic's spine

knnspine9.jpg

the sperated and multi part kinetic spine created many probelms of fitting for the small part. first, the refuelling receptacle could not fill up the moulded indent on the spine, and had to be filled with putty.

knnspine3.jpg

next the UHF antennae and intake near the canopy were seperate pieces. this sunk immediately into the hole provided, and i had to add placard inisde the whole, so that the 2 antennaes would be level to the rest of the spine.

knnspine5.jpg

knnspine6.jpg

still, after levelling, there were small gaps that will have to be filled.

knnspine8.jpg

knnspine7.jpg

compare that to hasegawa's moulded-on-spine antennaes. much easier to handle and less hassle. although they lack the thinness of the antenna, and the rear intake lacks the duct hole.

hasspine7.jpg

all the top domes have been mounted as 2 parts p22 and ss2. this facilates handling, no small fiddly parts to sand like the hase's.

knnspine4.jpg

the blanked out chaff dispensers were glued in.some sanding down to fit was nessacary.

knnspine2.jpg


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again the same probelm as the hase spine. no instructions to drill and place the auxillary exhaust! this even though the hole is provided on the spine.

knnspine10.jpg

knnspine11.jpg

knnspine12.jpg

next i have to make the short tail join the spine. another major issue of fitting because of multiple parts. i had to sand down the flat sides of the tail.

knnspine13.jpg

and even after that it would not fit.

knnspine16.jpg

knnspine15.jpg

because this is the probelm. the center of both halfs protrude outwards and need to be sanded down. this is illustrated in the pic.

knnspine14.jpg

and the vertical tail of kinetic, notorious already for the ejector pin.

knnspine17.jpg

and even after fitting, there is flash to remove.

knnspine.jpg

the hasegawa does not fare any better with her 2 part vert tail.

hasspine3.jpg

ok thats all for now. will update more later in the day.

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Thank you Tomcat RIO, those comparison are so helpful, and after watching all these, I would ask again that: Uncle Tamiya, please release an I version! (or any two-seats version will be fare enough...)

Edited by viperbite
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  • 1 month later...
  • 8 months later...

this thread is back on track!

the assembly of the main airframe has begun. starting from the landing gear bay.

As we all know, or have seen, from the kit that has been done to death, hasegawa's f-16 landing gear is moulded to the lower fuselage, with scarce detail from the 80s mould technology. (those were the days with the f-16A and Thunderbirds boxing being sought after like gold.)

sufashd27.jpg

sufashd28.jpg

the front and rear main landing gear bay walls have to be aligned carefully so as to make sure the mounting pin holes are on the center line. failure to do so would mean that the finished kit on its wheels will slant to one side. this task is not easy as the perfect semicircle roundness of the parts make it easy to slide around.

sufashd30.jpg

next i assembled the Kinetic's landing gear bay. the front and back walls come with the ejector pins marks, some flash that has to be removed. the edges of these parts are better given a light sanding down or carving with a xacto blade. this will improve fit later.

sufashd31.jpg

putting on the walls, i realised that the internal semicircle area does not fit well to the main piece. despite sanding and triming, it appears that the curvature was already faulty from the mould. i forced it as best as i could, broke off a mounting pin and then sent it to the blade to get more trimming before it could fit.

sufashd32.jpg

sufashd33.jpg

sufashd34.jpg[

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while the glue was hardening on the MLG bay, i detached the intake assemblies of both aircraft and glued it together. a comparison shows the less hassle of the kinetic intake which has less seam lines to fill. The hasegawa intake has a mysterious bump on the lower edge forward of the front landing bay. this is (i presume) a left over from the old mould tooling of the f-16A/Bs and has never been removed.

the detailing also shows how much mould technology has improved over the years, and how research by the manufacturers improve the quality of the kits. Kinetic's detail in the landing gear bays department is definitely better than hasegawa

sufashd7.jpg

sufashd8.jpg

the intakes of both kits are also different. Hase's famous wall of nothingness ends the duct halfway while kinetic(like tamiya) goes on till about midships with an engine fan. the seam line fixing is also different, as is the overall shape.

sufashd9.jpg


Next, i stuck in the cockpit of both kits onto their upper front fuselage after painting. ( will be revealed further on) I tried to fit the fuselages together. Here was where Hasegawa's famous shake and bake worked like clockwork, the kinetic, however, required some minor surgery such as sanding, trimming and lots of clamping.

sufashd14.jpg

sufashd4.jpg

the cause of the probelm was identified as the rear cockpit well being obstucted by the intake splitter. Some simple carving solved it.

sufashd5.jpg

sufashd6.jpg

after this dried, i mounted the rear upper fuselage of the kinetic. This split of the upper fuselage creates a massive seam that has to be filled. It ain't a tamiya fit, thus putty will have to be shed.

of course, on the venerable hasegawa kit, there is no issue to speak of.

sufashd18.jpg[

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following this, i mounted the hasegawa's intakes. The sufa has a blanked off intake scoop that is in the deep recesses of the splitter V. i used placard for this.

sufashd20.jpg

sufashd15.jpg

sufashd16.jpg

on the kinetic kit, this different intake was provided on a new sprue, thus no trouble at all.

sufashd17.jpg

Next came the great stage for the kinetic kit. Assembling the 3 main components together. Swiftly, otherwise i would never get over sanding the seams and gaps.

i trimmed the intake and the edges that will possibly obstruct a good fit. some dry fitting is essential

sufashd10.jpg

lots of clothes peg were needed to keep the intake tightly glued to the lower fuselage.

sufashd11.jpg

4 stubs on the MLG plate attaches to the inside of the lower fuselage, providing a very strong guide for the positioning of the bay.

sufashd12.jpg

more clips needed to keep the intake tight

sufashd23.jpg


the spine was attached to the top fuselage.

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sufashd19.jpg

and in 1 swift moment, all the parts came together with much clamping. And yes that is a huge clothes peg.

sufashd21.jpg

sufashd22.jpg

After the main fuselage glue dried. i went on to clip the wings together. this is my method of ensuring alignment and good fit, never have too much going on at the same time.

sufashd25.jpg

The hasegawa also got its wings mounted. 2-piece wings of the classic mould, some slight sanding to get a better fit, and glued toegther with no fuss..

sufashd24.jpg

the spine was also mounted.

sufashd26.jpg

here is the last comparison photo of the spines side by side. the panel lines are at different positions, the round blip of hasegawa translates to an oval on the kinetic. Every one be his/her own judge here.

sufashd.jpg

that's all the updates for today. more will come in the next few days and weeks.

Edited by Tomcat RIO
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Awesome work and a very interesting comparison indeed!

After finishing my Sufa, be it wiht a IsraCast conversion, I´d say that the Gawa kit is getting a bit long in the teeth. Compare it with their F-2.......if they only hade made a new F-16 at the same time......

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  • 4 weeks later...

mounted the IFF antennaes on the hasegawa kit. remember to drill holes before gluing the fuselage together, or u will have a ball of a time aligning them later!

sfblips7.jpg

the kinetic was easier to attach as it was a single piece. but after that, the ENTIRE nose area require puttying and sanding because of the seamlines prodeuced.

sfblips12.jpg

sfblips.jpg

attaching the kinetic nose blips was easy as it sticks over the smaller rwr of the moulding. however, it requires some sanding, and also cleaning up the seams produced.

sfblips9.jpg

i move on to the next exciting section of the comparison. the various vents and bumps!

here is the intakes found on the side. both manufacturers give different shaped intakes. hase is sharper at the tip than kine, and also has more defined inlet 'W' shape.

sfblips6.jpg

another view

sfblips5.jpg

and the important outlet vents are made in different shapes too!

kine has a perpendicular outlet, while hase makes it the 50degrees slant.

sfblips3.jpg

another view, showing the inside. hase inteprets it as a big hole, while kine has added vanes.

sfblips4.jpg[

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mounting the lumps and bumps was simple for the hasegawa, it provides points and holes that you need to drill before hand. some putty needed to fill those seams.

sfblips8.jpg

sfblips2.jpg

on the kinetic, the putty required was significantly more. however, this may be partly due to modeller's fault of not sanding and dryfitting before whacking the cement. lol.

sfblips10.jpg

sfblips11.jpg


mounting the landing gear bay of the kinetic was difficult. i had to cut it in half and sand down to fit the poorly measured gaps.

sfldg2.jpg

sfldg4.jpg

added the lower fuelage piece and it had massive gaps too, again bcos of modeller fault i hope.

sfldg6.jpg

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finally, the rim of the intake was mounted. bad cutting from the sprue left a mark that will need to be filled and sanded later.

sfldg.jpg

for the hasegawa, i filled the redundant vents and sanded it flush before attaching the sufa's vents

sfldg5.jpg


the next is a comparison of the pylons. hasegawa's 20 year mould cannot compare in detail to the newer kinetic kit, and moreover has more flashes and seam lines.

this is the newer Lau-128? pylon

sfpylons.jpg

another view

sfpylons2.jpg

the old launcher

sfpylons4.jpg

sfpylons5.jpg

the center pylon was however difficult to assemble for the kinetic, requring removal of ejector pins

vv48225-1.jpg

vv48214-1.jpg

vv48218-1.jpg

sfpylons3.jpg

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mounted the plastic CFTs. both fitted very well, but required some filling at the gun vent area.

sfcft2.jpg

sfcft5.jpg

sfcft3.jpg

sfcft4.jpg

added the chin pod pylons. i made a copy of the kinetic to mount on the hasegawa( because hasegawa provides it in another weapon set, bah.) Fitting was good, requiring some putty to clean up the seam lines.

the casted kinetic on hasegawa

sfpodpylon3.jpg

sfpodpylon2.jpg

original Kinetic

sfpodpylon5.jpg

sfpodpylon.jpg


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Great work, Tomcat! Really fascinating to see what differs from one kit to another....If I´m allowed to keep score I think the Kinetic Sufa has the lead at the moment. And so it should since it´s a muche newer mold!

Keep up the good work!

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thank you all for the kind comments so far. i'd just do this pair as best as i can OOB and hopefully people can stop arguing over the hasegawa-kinetic issues and decide for themselves.

added the engine exhaust areas.

the engine exhaust pipe was sprayed and mounted. here is a comparison shot. kinetic has a complex halfs that has incredible detail, and incredible seamline. hasegawa's fan face is more emphasised.

sfeng.jpg

kinetic's exhaust plug is a big headiache as many ejector pins need to be removed.

sfeng2.jpg

sfeng3.jpg

Edited by Tomcat RIO
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