Japan Air System McDonnell-Douglas MD-90 "The Kurosawa artworks" Hasegawa 1/200

[Alex1978]

Some more Hasegawa airliners to come off my assembly line.

I had a 2 week hollyday leave,and had so plenty of time to finish some part started and shelf of doom kits,that were laying around for quite some time.

Most of them I started last year,but due to our house renovation I was forced to shelf them until the work was over.Unfortunately ,since then these kits stayed in their boxes unfinished as I was working on other airliners .

So I thought these 2 weeks would be a good time to finish them before starting new projects.

 

The MD-90 kit is a rather new Hasegawa kit,that came out around 1996/7.

Its very different in quality compared to the older kits from the 80s.But not in a positive aspect.

 

This kit,like the Boeing 737-400/500 look more like those snap-fit kits with absolutely no surface detail on the fuselage and also no open windows.

The only parts with detail are the wings.The fuselage is not the usual halves,Hasegawa decided for unknown reason to divide the fuselage in two horizontal pieces

I must admit,when I firs saw these kits I was sligtly disappointed,because the older kits were so much more detailed and accurate.

 

Anyway I liked the paint scheme of the Japan Air System MD-90s,so I decided to have a go anyway.

The fit is as usual very good with only minor filling and sanding.

 

The paintwork and decaling was the most time consuming aspect,esp, for the emerald green version.

I made a copy of the rainbow decals first to have a template to outline the area for the green part.The instructions suggest to mix green and white but I didn't like this idea.I found this emerald green from Mr.Hobby which looked close enough.On the pictures it looks darker than it actually is.

 

 

Japan Air System (JAS) chose to paint seven of its MD-90s in a special rainbow scheme.For this task they acuired cult director Akira Kurosawa who created each of the seven schemes.

Hasegawa produced 2  2in1 and 1 3in 1 kits ,so one could build up the entire fleet.

I was able to get only one of those boxings,so my kits represent aircraft number 3 and 4 of the bunch.

 

They are a real eye catcher in my vitrine and will make fine companions to the JAS rainbow Boeing 777 which I will start soon.

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Turbofan]

Less detail but accurate shapes though.

Quite dinky compared to all your wide bodies recently, must have felt strange working on them.

I always think the MD-90 engines look oversized, it must have been like taking off in a rocket!

Cheers,

Ian

[Alex1978]

Thank you Ian,

 

Yes,compared to the other kits,they were quite fiddly.

The engines are indeed huge,but the MD-80/90s were rocket like all the same.

I remember a flight back in 1998 in a Crossair MD-83,when after the take off,it felt  the MD-83 climbed almost vertical.It was probably the fastest climb to cruising altitude I had ever experienced....

[Skodadriver]

I’ve enjoyed seeing all your excellent 1/200 models Alex although personally I find the scale just a bit too small, particularly for narrow bodies. The last 1/200 model I built was a Doyusha(?) DC-8 about 30 years ago. My eyesight isn’t what it was in those days! That said, in the right hands the Hasegawa kits give excellent results as you’ve shown.  Thanks for sharing.

 

Dave G