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Better 1/48 F-22 Raptor kit?


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My vote goes to Hasegawa. Main reason, the shape of Hasegawa captures the real aircraft much better, I cannot live with the nose Academy has. Also, I think Hasegawa has better details in the wheel wells and weapon bays. If you have the weapon bay doors from Hasegawa, it does not need any aftermarket at all but in my case it was hard to install them, etched doors are slightly larger than the bays. another thing, I secretly like the exaggerated surface detail on Hasegawa :D

Edited by foxmulder_ms
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Not positive, but I think later releases of the Academy kit corrected the initial nose issue. I haven't actually built mine, but did look at the nose and it looked okay.

I have heard they corrected the fuselage halves but have not saw the later kit.I have 2 early Academy 1/48 Raptors and 2 Hasegawa ones

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I built both and both are quite nice and look nearly identical on first glance. Hasaegawa's overdone surface detail might be a turnoff for some but it does have a slightly better weapons bay and gear wells. either way you can't go totally wrong.

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I have heard they corrected the fuselage halves but have not saw the later kit.I have 2 early Academy 1/48 Raptors and 2 Hasegawa ones

Yes they did re-do the mold slightly.

I have four Academy kits, and all were the original molds. I replaced three of them with the newer versions.

Overall the difference isn't really that dramatic, slightly longer nose if i remember.

The one i'm actually painting and building now is oddly the older one (haha).

You can call the company in new jersey and request to get the upper and lower fuselage parts.

What you will need is to cut out the proof of purchase thing on the side of the cardboard box.

You need to talk with the person in the exchange or missing parts department and they will arrange for an RMA number, and you will tell them the parts you need.

If i remember right, the fuselage parts do not have part numbers (at least in the manual), so you just write upper and lower fuselage as parts.

They will charge you a flat fee of like 12 dollars or something for as many parts as you need. it includes postage back. I think their fee went up a few times in the past few years.

The return time can be months before you get your parts, but you will get them.

You can do this for any kit from academy.

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. Hasegawa is also particularly cheap nowadays.

'

Yeah.. I bet they were expecting huge numbers to sell which didn't happen so they had to lower the price to get rid of the stock. Which is a good thing for people like me because I got three of them for almost the price of one I bought earlier :D

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'

Yeah.. I bet they were expecting huge numbers to sell which didn't happen so they had to lower the price to get rid of the stock. Which is a good thing for people like me because I got three of them for almost the price of one I bought earlier :D/>

I think it was mainly the pink IdolMaster kit that they reduced the price drastically. Something like 60% discount:

http://www.hlj.com/product/HSGSP271/Air

vs the 'normal boxing':

http://www.hlj.com/product/hsgpt45/Air

They probably didn't sell enough of the Idolmaster one in their home market (Japanese modelers seem to prefer 1/72 scale...possibly because home space is premium over there) hence the drastic price reduction. Though Hasegawa does kit the Idolmaster F-22 in 1/72 also, it is a rebox of the Revell kit and not an original Hasegawa F-22.

Still, most of us won't care if the plastic is pink because it is almost US$17 cheaper and the pink can easily be sprayed over with a cheap can of primer :)

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I think it was mainly the pink IdolMaster kit that they reduced the price drastically. Something like 60% discount:

http://www.hlj.com/p...ct/HSGSP271/Air

vs the 'normal boxing':

http://www.hlj.com/product/hsgpt45/Air

They probably didn't sell enough of the Idolmaster one in their home market (Japanese modelers seem to prefer 1/72 scale...possibly because home space is premium over there) hence the drastic price reduction. Though Hasegawa does kit the Idolmaster F-22 in 1/72 also, it is a rebox of the Revell kit and not an original Hasegawa F-22.

Still, most of us won't care if the plastic is pink because it is almost US$17 cheaper and the pink can easily be sprayed over with a cheap can of primer smile.gif

The only problem now with the pink F-22 is that aftermarket decals for line jets are starting to dry out :/

As for the Academy kit, they fixed the nose shape but IIRC the vertical tails are still undersized. Sierra Hotel were supposed to release corrections but their page shows they aren't available yet.. http://sierrahotelmo...ts/show/4057136

Edited by Inquisitor
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I finished the Hasegawa kit a couple of months ago, it looks great, but I didn't enjoy building it, the multi part main gear is very weak and fragile. If I build another one I will go with the Academy kit.

Have no one released a metal gear yet?

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