Improving Hasegawa 1:48 Tomcat – 16: Wings (II)

[Thadeus]

Oh I hate not finishing models. Even if I cut corners or diverge from the initial ambitious plan I try to finish a kit once started. Although my most ambitious project is a far cry from Your Tomcat.

With such a magnificent build like Yours, I hope You'll not get too distracted from finishing it because of a minor thing such as wheel wells.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for You!

[Lucio Martino]

@Mr. Happy
@RichB63
@Sernak
Thank you all. It is because of your interest that my Hasegawa Tomcat is again on the workbench.

 

@Storm
About the Aires stuff I do agree with you. Every time it is always the same, an exercise in cutting and sanding. Check this thread to see how much I had to work on the Aires cockpit to get a fit. That's why I didn't go for the Aires wheell wells. Nice to know that I am not the only one loosing interest in a build.

 

@A-10 Loader
Thank you for your offer that I decline. Back in the days, I had five Hasegawa Tomcats in my stash: an early A, two A, a B, and a D. As soon as I got the rumor that Tamiya was realesing a new 1:48 Tomcat I sold them all with the only exception of the A now on my workbench.

 

@Gwen phoenix
Thank you very much for your interest. I have to say that 2021 and 2022 weren't good years for me in general, and for my hobby in particular. But now is getting much better and I'm curious to see how far this build will go. Stay tuned.

 

@Thadeus
I know, it is strange, but for me finishing a model is not so important. What is important for me is spending enjoyable time working on that model. And yes, you're rigth, I shouldn't focus so much on the wheel wells.
 

_____________________________________________

 

Improving Hasegawa 1:48 Tomcat – 15
Wings (I)

 

In the end, I shouldn't have forgotten that my goal was to improve this kit, not to build a "perfect" replica. Otherwise, the Tamiya Tomcat 1:48, or the one in 1:32 from the same company, would have been a much better choice. With that in mind, I've just retrieved my Hasegawa Tomcat off the shelf of doom.

 

Let's start from the Hasegawa wings (pic 233).

 

 

Dimensionally, and shapewise, the Hasegawa wings in the "clean" configuration are fine (pic 234).

 

 

Unfortunately, the same is not true about the "dirty" configuration. As David W. Aungst explained twenty years ago on Hyperscale (1), Hasegawa's flaps are too long in their chord (pic 235).

 

 

To increase their accuracy they should be shortened by something like three millimeters. In my opinion, the best way to do it would be cutting away the slice of plastic between the two panel lines running near the leading edge of the flap (pic 236).

 

 

In addition to the inaccurate flaps, each Hasegawa wing is lacking four of the six hinges/actuators that connect the wing to the flap (pic 237).

 

 

Not to mention that these two "hinges/actuators", generously made available by Hasegawa, are ridiculously basic, being nothing more than a strip of plastic. As a result, I strongly suggest anyone who dares to build this kit to go for the "clean" wing configuration.

 

Instead of getting my razor blades and giving to my "neurosurgeon" skills a chance, just to engage soon after into a scratchbuilding effort aimed at duplicating the six hinges/actuators for each wing, my lazy solution was to take advantage of my friend Alberto Borzellino offer and to discard the Hasegawa wings altogether for the AMK ones, whose flaps are of the rigth dimensions out of the box, not to mention the level of detail shown by the AMK hinges/actuators. By the way, AMK is giving not two hinge/actuators but all twelve of them... (pics 238, 239).

 

 

 

Pic 240 shows the AMK on top of the Hasegawa wing.

 

 

Dimensionally they are quite much the same. The most important difference is a step running all along the leading edge area. A step rightly missing on the AMK wing, as you can see on pic 241. Rightly because there is no step there on a Grumman Tomcat wing.

 

 

About the AMK wings, my only real criticism concerns the heavily engraved panels, but it is an easy fix (pic 242).

 

 

By the way, the dimensions of the AMK flaps are very, but very, close to the dimensions of the flaps of that Tamiya Tomcat famous for being the most accurate replica of this aircraft released so far.

 

So, the problem now is how to get the AMK wings mating the Hasegawa fuselage.

 

(1) https://www.hyperscale.com/features/2001/f14constructiondwa_3.htm

 

Edited yesterday at 12:17 AM by Lucio Martino

[Lucio Martino]

 

Improving Hasegawa 1:48 Tomcat – 16
Wings (II)

 

Mating the AMK wings with the Hasegawa fuselages turned out to be much easier than I thought. Clearly, these two kits have a lot more in common than it seems at first glance.

 

In my opinion, the best strategy to insert the AMK wings into the Hasegawa fuselage is to adapt AMK central spar, part V3 (pic 243 and 244), to the Hasegawa upper fuselage, part A7 (pic 245).

 

 

 

 

To this exent, only three quite simple steps were required: The first was to cut off the two pins from part AMK V3; the second was to increase the diameter of the two holes on the AMK V3 part; The third was to shorten the distance between the two holes cutting a slice of plastic from the middle of part AMK V3.

 

Pic 246 shows the cutter used to remove the pins from AMK V3, the mitre box and the saw used to cut AMK V3 in two halves, and the drill bit used to increase the diameter of the AMK V3 holes to the needed five millimeters (pic 247).

 

 

 

Pic 248 and 249 show the original and the enlarged hole (apologies for the low quality pics).

 

 

 

After cutting the part AMK V3 part in two pieces (pic 250, 251), I kept removing a little of plastic from both halves until they were still touching each other but, at the same time, it was possible to get them firmly in position taking advantage of the two pins on Hasegawa A7 (pic 252).

 

 

 

 

At this point, using some Evergreen stripe to give the bond greater strength, I glued together the two halves of the AMK V3 part (pic 253 and 254).

 

 

 

In the following pics (255, 256, and 257) you can see part AMK V3 inserted into the AMK wings and then all this assembly inserted  into the Hasegawa fuselage. Any feedback is very welcome.