Hasegawa 1/72 A-3B Skywarrior

HASEGAWA 1:72 DOUGLAS A-3B SKYWARRIOR
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Paul Wherran (rec.models.scale)
- A Built up review of this kit exists on this site - see links at bottom of page

Kit Details: Hasegawa #4041/K41 - 1/72 A-3B Skywarrior

Aircraft History: The Douglas A-3 Skywarrior was one of the largest and heaviest aircraft designed for operation from aircraft carriers. It was intended primarily as an attack bomber with tremendous strike capability to meet a late 40's US Navy requirement. The Douglas design was that of a high-wing monoplane, with retractable tricycle landing gear, two podded turbojets beneath the wings, a radar controlled 20-mm cannon rear-turret and a large internal weapons bay that could cater for up to a 12000-lb bombload. The wings were swept back 36 degrees and had high aspect ratio for a long range. All the tail surfaces were swept and the outer wing panels and vertical tail folded. The first prototype flew in 1952 but had engine problems and the first delivery of aircraft, designated A3D-1 Skyraider, occurred in early 1956. In 1962 the designation was changed to A-3, and the A-3B examples derived from the versions that entered service in 1957 and were nicknamed the "Whale". These variants had more powerful engines and an in-flight refuelling probe. The A-3B variant was by far the most numerous Skywarrior version with several subvariants branching off from the B - these included TA-3B (trainer); KA-3B (tanker); RA-3B (reconnaissance); EA-3B (ECM aircraft); EKA-3B (tanker/countermeasure/strike aircraft) and one VA-3B (VIP transport). The A-3B was only operated by the US Navy had a range of more than 1600 km and its maximum speed at sea level was 982 km/h.

Kit Parts: The kit itself comes in a pretty big box with a fairly hefty price tag. Inside you will find about half a dozen sprues, a couple of which are pretty small holding the light grey crisply injection moulded parts together. The surface detail and engineering is what we have all come to anticipate when buying a Hasegawa kit. Panel lines are engraved and the clear parts provided are quite nice too.

Instructions: This follows the standard Hasegawa fold out format with clear assembly diagrams, four view diagrams for the two examples you can build from the kit, a brief history, sprue diagram and painting information from the Gunze Sangyo range.

Colour Options: There are two US Navy choices for colour options in this kit, both in the standard light gull grey over white, one from VAH-10 and the other VAH-11. The difference is in the markings they wear with the former sporting some red bands and stars and the latter a checkerboard scheme as shown on the boxart.

Decals: Pretty standard looking Hasegawa decal sheet with good colour density although the decals have a bit of thickness and glossy look to them. In any event I don't anticipate any problems putting these on the model. Some stencilling and wing walks are also provided on the sheet.

On the Sprue Impressions: This kit came out in 1998 at a time when the only way you could put an A-3 into your collection was via either a small scale inaccurate Revell kit or a pretty crude vacform option from Rareplanes. So when the "Whale" was finally produced in injection moulded form - and by Hasegawa no less, it really was a boon for the US Navy modeller! In spite of this the kit is actually difficult to get, unless you shop around on the Internet to find one, I could not get one through any local hobby stores - such is its popularity or limited run from Hasegawa!

The breakdown of the parts occurs pretty logically although four sprues are taken up by just 11 parts; one containing engine and fuselage halves; another containing the other halves; a third sprue containing the upperwing piece and the final sprue containing the wing lower halves and tailplanes. The fuselage halves each cover literally nose to tail, so these components are not separate. The main wings are lower halves onto a single upperwing piece, and the engine pods, already attached to their pylons are affixed to the lower wings, with a "saw tooth" like gap at the leading edge to blend them in.

According to the instructions there are a few holes that need to be opened up, as well as a few other parts trimmed. This of course confirms the fact that the same mould is used for a number of different Skywarrior variants, with the company having released the early A3D-2; KA-3B Tanker; NA-3B and EKA-3B versions as well.

The interior for the three crew members is very sparse, although not much will be seen once the cockpit is closed over anyway. Seats, control wheel, radar console and instrument panels are the only things provided in the kit. Decals are supplied for the instrument panels which do not have any raised detail on them.

There is no in-flight refuelling probe provided, and initially I thought this was a research blunder on Hasegawa's part but this kit really only caters for the early A-3B version up to the early 60's which did not have probes. Another confirmation of this is by the separate bomb bay part which could be replaced with an ECM canoe for that particular variant.

Test fit of some of the components reveals a superbly engineered kit that should in the main provide little assembly problems for most modellers. However, there are lots to add in prior to the fuselage half affixing stage (cockpit, bomb bay, wheel wells etc) suggesting that this might be an area that provides a little bit of concern during the build. The instructions say to attach the wings onto the plane and the engines later, but I will probably do this the other way around. The engines include a small blade fan that is trapped between the vertically split halves.

Conclusion: This is the only injection moulded game in town, so there really is not much other choice if you want a 72er Whale in your collection. This kit is superbly engineered, and looks to be another typically well moulded Hasegawa product that should build up nicely and earn a highly recommended tag to all.

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