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ACE Corsair II Kit in 1/72


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If they followed their usual pattern, they would have been Hasegawa or Revell toolings.

 

There were so few actual Corsair II toolings in 1/72, and we can usually tell by the weapons included with a kit, but, Revell and Hasegawa included the same weapons in their A-7 kits, so that is not a help.

 

I only know that the kit is NOT of the Airfix, Esci or Fujimi tooling groups, but, I can no longer show proof of that, I threw out everything A-7 except the Fujimi and Esci kits here at my place. (before I started keeping one of each tooling of each kit)

Edited by Rex
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Okay, I kept the instruction sheets. If the Ace kit has folding wings option, it is the Revell kit. The weapons included in both kits, but, they are built different ways. Hasegawa has the bombs with round holes to go onto pins on the MERs and TERs, as in the Hasegawa and Revell A-6 Intruder kits. Revell uses their once popular "two rectangles in the bombs" method, and their MERs and TERs attach with these huge slot things onto the pylons.

 

Other differences are in the cockpit. Revell gives an intake trunk with a mounting for the seat, and a pilot. Hasegawa used the ever popular "glue the pilot to the seat, and glue the seat to the fuselage" method of providing a "cockpit." Another way to tell is that Hasegawa gives the speed brake for the belly, but Revell doesn't. Hasegawa has a two piece canopy, and Revell a one piece. Hasegawa gave the nose cone as a separate part, and Revell has it molded into the fuselage halves. And lastly, Hasegawa has a one piece nose strut, and Revell has a two piece nose strut.

 

If you can see any of these areas on the kit, you can now tell which one it is.

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Assuming there aren't any other ACE boxings I haven't seen, their Corsair II family appears to be "inspired" by the ESCI kit (also put out under the AMT label, and later by Italeri with addition of an intake cover), but they are definitely *not* the same tooling.  I don't have immediate access to the stash to compare but I know the sprue layouts are different. Engineering is very similar for both kits (short intake, garbage Sidewinders that match no actual variant, interchangeable parts for the various type-specific add-ons, etc.).

 

Fujimi is still the best kit out there, the ESCI and ACE are middle of the pack and roughly equivalent to each other (aside from decals being universally better in any ESCI or even an AMT boxing).

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Gents,

 

I have at least one each of every 72nd A-7 kit known to man and the ESCI and ACE kits are identical - I just hauled them out and checked.  Ace tooled a number of kits for ESCI, including their awful F-8's.  Revell has used ACE - their 48th Rafale kit was by ACE, but in the late '80's when the A-7 came out, their principal Korean tool maker was Kangnam: the A-5, A-6 and their F-8 were all by Kangnam, and all knock-offs of Hasegawa kits, but with recessed panel lines.

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

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Okay, Tom. Good to know. The Esci/ERTL/AMT/Italeri/Ace kits are good "fix it" kits for the Hobby Boss nose issue. I mis-spoke, I do have two of the TA-7C kits that I kept from Hobby Boss. Esci nose is just right for replacing that nose and eliminating that F-100 look.

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