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Best 1/48 F-15J or DJ kit,Hasegawa or GWH?


dreamwriter

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Hi everyone,

The topic title says everything, I would like to know what´s the best 1/48 kit for the Japanese F-15. I´m guessing it´s the GWH F-15J or DJ,but it´s very hard to find in Europe and the prices in Asia are very high and adding customs it goes higher. So,is it worth the higher price comparing to the Hasegawa kit (that isn´t cheap either!)? Or the Hasegawa kit is good enough and can be built accurate OOB?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,

Bruno

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The GW F-15 is the overall best F-15A-D, since they made their forward fuselage and radome fixes. Beware of the first issue F-15B/D kits as they had the terribly inaccurate forward fuselage cross sections. There are still some areas to be addressed or fixed; like the over scaled Ejection Seats, too long exhaust, and way too narrow intake ducting.

Hasegawa is a solid 2nd runner.

Mike V

Edited by Mike V
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Thanks for your replies guys,but I already have the F-15B/D in my stash with the corrected parts. Now I want to buy the J or DJ version and I want to know if the GWH F-15DJ or the GWH reboxed by Pit-Road F-15J is better than the Hasegawa kit and it´s worth the higher price.

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That depends. While most of the surface detail and cockpit (minus the seats of course) is better than Hasegawa and come with nice box stock missiles, it still has a few major issues with the Intakes, Exhaust, Engine FAN/IGVs, and seats that justifying the $100+ price tag may not be enough for most modelers. I have the later F-15C kit, but really can't justify buying another one as I'll end up having to fix or replace the Exhaust, Intakes, Engine Fans, and Seats (probably the wheels too as I'm not sold on their accuracy or pudgy tires), when I can get second hand Hasegawa kits with AM for about the same price.

It all depends on your budget and quality standards. The GW is indeed a nice kit, but not without its major issues, but overall better than Hasegawa. The Hasegawa is still a contender, especially since they can be had for less than half the price of the GW kit if one looks around.

Mike V

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Mike,

Thanks for your reply. In fact what made me ask the question was really my budget,because GWH kits of the Japanese F-15´s are beautiful but are high even in Asia,making it impossible to buy one without paying customs charges. But I needed to know if it they justify the extra cost comparing to the Hasegawa ones. Given your reply and given my idea is to build the 2013 Agressor with the splinter camo with two tone blue, I´ll opt for the Hasegawa F-15J/DJ kit which is cheaper and easier to find in Europe. Pity Eduard doesn´t make a PE set for the japanese Eagles. I have to find out if I can use one of PE sets they make for other F-5 versions.

Cheers,

Bruno

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Antoine I live in Portugal so,custom charges apply,and over here if a package goes over 40 euros (kit+shipping) we have to pay VAT and other customs charges. A GWH F-15 ordered from luckymodel would climb to almost 80 euros or more after customs.

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don't forget that Wolfpack do an upgrade set for the JASDF F-15 . Aires exhausts are a must have on the kits as they add so much detail to this wide open area of the plane.

DXM do the decals you want for the blue splinter plane, but of course that comes back to paying duty again unless it is below the limit

Have fun doing it

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I forgot to say that you do not need to worry about weapons as the most that are seen are ECM pods on the centreline (or a tank) plus and AAM3 training round on a pylon. Wing tanks are pretty common for the agressors. Search the net and you will see what I mean

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If the GW kit has all these issues - which seem like quite major issues to me on reading this thread - and the Hasegawa kit is a close contender; it begs the question what are the even greater major issues with the Hasegawa kit which mean the GW is still better?

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Red Dot I tought about the Wolfpack update set but it has been descontinued by Wolfpack and it´s hard to find.I already bought the Hasegawa F-15J/DJ JASDF kit and since one of the more noticeable differences between the Hasegawa and the GWH is the static arrays on the nose cone, and the Hasegawa F-15J MSIP comes with a PE set representing those arrays, I´ve sent an email to the Hasegawa german importer to see if they can send me that PE Set and the resin parts included in that kit,so the kit can be as accurate as possible. Already ordered the DXM decals too.

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If the GW kit has all these issues - which seem like quite major issues to me on reading this thread - and the Hasegawa kit is a close contender; it begs the question what are the even greater major issues with the Hasegawa kit which mean the GW is still better?

Understand that the major shape errors with the forward fuselage and radome/nose cross sections have been fixed, so all current releases should be fine. However, the over scaled Ejection Seats, too narrow intakes, inaccurate Engine Fan/IGVs, and too long Exhaust Nozzles still remain. Despite that, yes overall the GW kit is now better than Hasegawa F-15; taking into account the Hasegawa F-15 kit shortcomings.

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I'd be interested to know what is actually wrong with the Hasegawa kits. The go together well enough with a little patience and if you add resin engines, look great too

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The main issues with the Hasegawa kit are the cockpit and Intakes. While the IP and consoles are well detailed, the same can't be said for the rest of the cockpit. The ACES Seats are not all that well done. The cockpit also rides too high, rendering practically no sidewalls.

While the kit comes with full run intakes, fairing the intake ducts (once built up) to the forward integrated intake walls is a major PITA! The secondary and diffuser ramps are partially extended, when they should be fully up. You should be able to see the entire Engine Fan when looking directly down the intake.

The area around the speed brake is slightly raised, though not to the extent as the Academy kit.

The wheels are quite inaccurate and the main gear generic in detail. Note that in the Hasegawa High Grade F-15 kits, they come with super detailed metal gear which is the best in this scale.

Early kits came with feathered Exhaust Nozzles, but these were void of internal Divergent/Convergent segment detail and the turkey feather count is too much. The Exhaust ducting is also too short. Later and all current Hasegawa kit have detailed featherless Exhaust nozzles, but still retains the short Exhaust ducting.

The Exhaust, cockpit, and soon the wheels and intakes can be replaced with AM.

That covers the major issues.

Mike V

Edited by Mike V
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Thanks for that Mike. To be honest, i have replaced most of those bits with resin anyway, so got around the 'problems' without knowing it. The wheels looked okay to me and i detailed the legs myself from photos in books.

I cast my own seamless intake trunks and if you do the build in a certain order using milliput or some other water based filler, shaping the fore trunking with your finger meant it all went together fairly painlessly. The only thing i didn't realise was the the ramps should be open. I'll save that for my next one whenever that might be

It still looks like an F-15 though!

Edited by Red Dot
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