As a shocker to those of you who know me, this month’s prototype wears the stars and bars, rather than the Balkan cruz.  This is a one shot wonder that almost flew.  Yes folks, it’s our favorite flying saucer from our friends in the navy, the Chance-Vought XF5U “FLYING FLAPJACK”  an earlier and simpler version (the V-173) flew with few problems, but the more complex and powerful xf5u only did some high speed taxi tests before falling to the wreckers ball.

Manufacturer: Hasagawa                Scale: 1/72^nd                 Origin:Japan

Type: Injected Plastic, Clear styrene canopy, decals

Appearance: light gray plastic, single 2-sided instruction sheet, recessed lines.

Assembly: Pleasantly straightforward.  Since the fuselage is the wing, the join extends completely around the circumference and is easily sanded.  The landing gear can be added after decalling with no grief.  The only potential pitfalls or shortcomings:

1) Cockpit could be dressed up better, at least add some seat belts.

2) Since this was supposed to be a carrier based aircraft, Hasegawa should be ashamed that they left out a tailhook!  Add one.

3) The mass balances on the tail are very delicate and tricky to add.  Be extremely careful here.

4) Decals on the underside are tricky as well.  One set of Stars & Bars overlaps a landing gear door.  Likewise, the small decals on the prop blades are tricky, but look great!

5) The props themselves are very ticklish to assemble.  The blades are not keyed, so you have to eyeball them.  Read the directions! The props rotate in opposite directions and the blades reflect this.  The painting directions specify mahogany for the blades, I would think flat black with yellow warning tips would be more appropriate, as this would reflect metal rather than wood blades.

Painting and color: To paraphrase Henry Ford, “you can have any color as long as it’s Glossy Sea Blue”.  Otherwise it’s standard Zinc Chromate Green interior.  See my comments for the props above.

Summary: A fun and relatively easy kit to build (except for the props & mass balances).  It’s a definite eye catcher at shows and displays.  I’ve received some great comments on it’s unusual appearance.

Highly recommended!