Hasegawa's new 1/48 scale
Mitsubishi F1M2 Pete

by Rafi Ben-Shahar

Hasegawa's 1/48 scale F1M2 Pete is available online from Squadron

In all honesty, I feel a bit of deja vu when it comes to paint chipping WWII Japanese aircraft. Nonetheless, a recent preview of the new Hasegawa F1M2 kit captured my attention. And, indeed my expectations were fully met. Hasegawa has done a remarkable job attending fine surface details and going out of their customary Spartan cockpit style to present an outstanding kit.

Yes, I know your next question. And, the answer is yes. Since you would want to match with the finess of the kit, you would require to buy also the photoetch fret. The good news is that many parts are duplicated in plastic, (such as intstument panels) and you may, like I did, use the fret as a master for additional kits. Here, after some abortive trials with tape, I cut strips from the transparent envelope of men's underwear to represent the bracing wires.

True to their origin, the "wires" were stiff enough to do the job. However, I left them un-painted as I could not figure out from photographs the true colour of the wires.

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2009 by Rafi Ben-Shahar
Page Created 5 August, 2009
Last Updated 5 August, 2009

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