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1/48 F-16C kits, Tamiya or Hasegawa?


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Hello everyone.

 

I want to two build two F-16C's, both block 50 (I believe - whichever has the GE F110's). I have one Hasegawa offering, the F-16CJ "Misawa". Has anyone built the Hasegwa and the Tamiya kit? As I'm getting close to wrapping up the Tamiya F-14D, and reading rave reviews of their F-4B, I'm curious if their F-16 kit has the same level of engineering.

Any thoughts and comments are appreciated.

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The Tamiya kit is the go to kit for a F-16, however there isn’t much wrong with the Hasegawa either, it’s just not as good as the Tamiya.  Throw some AM at the Hasegawa kit and you’ll end up with a decent build. IMO if you’re planning on building two F-16’s, I’d build one of each.

Edited by scotthldr
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The Tamiya one is excellent and goes together without any problems the same as their F-14. My only gripe is filling all the pin marks in the landing gear bay areas. It really slowed me down. 

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I’ve built several of each. Tam reflects mid 2000s technology resulting in crisp moldings and detail. That said, Hase makes in to a nice jet. I’d throw in a Quinta cockpit and better, non-yellowing decals, maybe a new seat, wheels and ordnance. If you want better gear wells, check out Aires. You can go nuts detailing to your particular taste and pocketbook. No matter what you choose, Hase is still quite nice.

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2 hours ago, BillS said:

If you want better gear wells, check out Aires.

My experience was the Aires wheel wells were more trouble than they were worth. The nose well is difficult to get thin enough to fit and main was too small in length and width.  I had to shim it in all directions to even get it to touch plastic. And to be honest once I build a plane it sits on a shelf and I rarely look underneath.

 

The Hasegawa kit was the best F-16 available until the Tamiya kit came out. The engineering on the Tamiya kit is a notch below their F-14 or F-4B, but still better than most kits you'll find. People complain about ejector pin marks in bad spots and cleaning up seams in the intake duct.

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I have built them both.  

 

Tamiya has better detail, the surface detail is exquisite, and things like the undercarriage are much more detailed. It also features Poly caps in places. The fit was just about perfect. All the things you expect from a modern Tamiya kit.

 

But .. The Hasegawa kit is still worth building. For an 80s kit, it is amazing. It must have been the greatest kit of it's day. The fit was pretty good, much better than any other 80s kit I have built.  One thing I like better is that the upper fuselage half is one piece.  The landing gear legs are installed at the end,  but on the Tamiya kit, the main landing gear has to be installed fairly early on.

 

Since you have the Hasegawa kit already, My suggestion is to get the Tamiya kit as well, since you want to build two. 

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, BillS said:

I’ve built several of each. Tam reflects mid 2000s technology resulting in crisp moldings and detail. That said, Hase makes in to a nice jet. I’d throw in a Quinta cockpit and better, non-yellowing decals, maybe a new seat, wheels and ordnance. If you want better gear wells, check out Aires. You can go nuts detailing to your particular taste and pocketbook. No matter what you choose, Hase is still quite nice.

 

Thanks for the tips. Honestly, I'm about at the point where I don't care if some details are missing, or flat-out incorrect. I'm currently working on a Hobby Boss "easy assembly" P-51D just to take a break from the Tamiya F-14D. Also, I've got AM decals for the F-16's I want to build.

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1 hour ago, Kurt H. said:

I have built them both.  

 

Tamiya has better detail, the surface detail is exquisite, and things like the undercarriage are much more detailed. It also features Poly caps in places. The fit was just about perfect. All the things you expect from a modern Tamiya kit.

 

But .. The Hasegawa kit is still worth building. For an 80s kit, it is amazing. It must have been the greatest kit of it's day. The fit was pretty good, much better than any other 80s kit I have built.  One thing I like better is that the upper fuselage half is one piece.  The landing gear legs are installed at the end,  but on the Tamiya kit, the main landing gear has to be installed fairly early on.

 

Since you have the Hasegawa kit already, My suggestion is to get the Tamiya kit as well, since you want to build two. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Kurt. I'm not sure if the main landing gear will be an issue, but it may be. I'm imagining that would be something to get broken off while painting, decaling, etc.

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It has been a few years since I built a Hasegawa F-16. They are nice kits shapewise, but Tamiya beats them in every department, be it details, ease of assembly and accuracy for the various blocks. Also, Tamiya has a full intake and compressor face, contrary to Hasegawa. IIRC the "Misawa"-boxing from Hasegawa doesn't inlcude a "big mouth" intake, which is present on block 50 aircrafts.

 

You can install the landing gears later in the build, if you don't glue J13 and F21 until the build is finished.

 

Markus

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6 hours ago, delayar said:

IIRC the "Misawa"-boxing from Hasegawa doesn't inlcude a "big mouth" intake, which is present on block 50 aircrafts.

There have been a few Hasegawa "Misawa" kits.  The first couple from the '90s were Block 30 NSI planes, but these are rare today. 

 

Around 2000 Hasegawa came out with their "2nd Generation" F-16s that added new sprues to cover the Big Mouth/GE planes as well as other updates for later Block aircraft like heavyweight landing gear and bulged doors. Kit 07232/PT32 F-16CJ "Misawa Japan" has been Hasegawa's standard catalog  F-16C for some time and it's got all the parts for a proper Block 50 along with HARMS and the HTS.   So it's one of the few Hasegawa kits that has a full weapon's load. http://modelingmadness.com/splfeat/kr/has48d.htm  

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2 hours ago, Crash Test Dummy said:

There have been a few Hasegawa "Misawa" kits.  The first couple from the '90s were Block 30 NSI planes, but these are rare today. 

 

Around 2000 Hasegawa came out with their "2nd Generation" F-16s that added new sprues to cover the Big Mouth/GE planes as well as other updates for later Block aircraft like heavyweight landing gear and bulged doors. Kit 07232/PT32 F-16CJ "Misawa Japan" has been Hasegawa's standard catalog  F-16C for some time and it's got all the parts for a proper Block 50 along with HARMS and the HTS.   So it's one of the few Hasegawa kits that has a full weapon's load. http://modelingmadness.com/splfeat/kr/has48d.htm  

 

As I said, it was some time ago. To be more precise, it was in the 90s. 😉
So, good they fixed that.

 

Markus

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On 1/26/2023 at 11:52 AM, Thadeus said:

I never heard of anyone complaining "man, I wish I had gotten the Hasegawa F-16 instead of Tamiya one".

 

LOLOL!  A couple of weeks ago I saw a seller had one on ebay, $37 OBO, plus $8 shipping from Japan.... my offers were rejcted, now they're all in the high $40 to mid $50 range. I've seen the Has offerings in the low $30 range, I'm just not sure I want to spend the extra dough. But maybe I will.

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On 1/26/2023 at 11:34 AM, Crash Test Dummy said:

There have been a few Hasegawa "Misawa" kits.  The first couple from the '90s were Block 30 NSI planes, but these are rare today. 

 

Around 2000 Hasegawa came out with their "2nd Generation" F-16s that added new sprues to cover the Big Mouth/GE planes as well as other updates for later Block aircraft like heavyweight landing gear and bulged doors. Kit 07232/PT32 F-16CJ "Misawa Japan" has been Hasegawa's standard catalog  F-16C for some time and it's got all the parts for a proper Block 50 along with HARMS and the HTS.   So it's one of the few Hasegawa kits that has a full weapon's load. http://modelingmadness.com/splfeat/kr/has48d.htm  

 

So I have kit 06110 (V10), Block 50, and the chart on the Modeling Madness site indicates the large mouth intake is included, as well as the "Wild Weasel" armaments. So yay for that much, at least.

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These are the two I plan to build - Cripes-A-Mighty, and the SEA scheme.

 

EDIT: Aaaaaannnnnd I just saw that Cripes-A-Mighty was a Block 30 with regular intake. The Has V10 kit has wide mouth. Hmm...

 

20201115_101117.jpg

20220305_132114.jpg

Edited by MA Cooke
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The Hasegawa kit you have should have both intakes, so you are covered there.  When I built the SEA camo F-16 I was advised to get the Tamiya Aggressor F-16, which has all the parts to accurately build that plane.  

 

 

Edited by Kurt H.
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2 minutes ago, Kurt H. said:

The Hasegawa kit you have should have both intakes, so you are covered there.  When I built the SEA camo F-16 I was advised to get the Tamiya Aggressor F-16, which has all the parts to accurately build that plane.  

 

 

 

Good info, thanks Kurt. (Just 5 minutes ago I put in a bid for a Has CJ kit, PT32, also a "big mouth" intake, but hopefully it has both, too. The seller has it priced low, it's missing decals and instructions. If this falls through, I'll look at the Aggressor from Tamiya.)

 

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44 minutes ago, MA Cooke said:

 

EDIT: Aaaaaannnnnd I just saw that Cripes-A-Mighty was a Block 30 with regular intake. The Has V10 kit has wide mouth. Hmm...

 

 

 Check again - the parts for the MCID large inlet (and GE engine and bulged gear doors etc) are on separate add-on sprues, meaning the original NSI small inlet and PW engine parts are still on the main sprues.

 

edit -  ninja'd due to my slow connection speed....  😞

Edited by habu2
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It looks to me as if the Hasegawa F-16 PT32 boxing (the ordinary white box edition) has all the stuff already in it. It's probably as much block 50/52 as Hasegawa can get OOB. Certainly both types of intakes and both types of exhaust.

https://www.super-hobby.com/products/F-16CJ-Night-Falcon-Misawa-Japan.html

 

It could be a cool project building a Hasegawa and Tamiya kit side by side. Just sayin'!

(Or Tamiya and Kinetic, or Hasegawa and Kinetic, or any other kit vs any other kit 😉 )

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Built the Hasegawa F-16 kit and am currently building the 1/48 Tamiya F-16. Big T is a much better kit, but not as quick of a build as the Hasegawa offering. With the new Kinetic kits coming out I doubt I'll ever buy another Hase again expecting all the blocks to be covered. 

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