HASAGAWA 1:72 RA-5C VIGILANTE

Reviewer: Myself  (braithy@bigpond.com) (boxart supplied by Todd Merrill)

The A-5 Vigilante was designed by North American as a strike aircraft capable of carrying nuclear loads.  The RA-5C is essentially the reconnaissance variant of this aircraft and the bomb bay was replaced with fuel to extend the aircraft's range.  The addition of an underbelly canoe housing cameras and sensors was also a feature of this variant which saw extensive use in the Vietnam war, although was maintenance intensive requiring anything up to a hundred hours for just one in the sky.  The aircraft was soon retired after the Vietnam war and was not replaced in US Navy service.

At the time this kit came out (sometime ago now), it was the best one could purchase in this scale of the RA-5C in spite of some basic flaws and imperfections.  Hasagawa have not updated this kit in any way and sadly, it's still about the best one can get today.  It's a large and 'chunky' looking model with a reasonable amount of detail and engraved pane lines.  The injection molded plastic is good quality, in light grey and about 60 parts in number.  There is a fair bit of ejector pin marks on the parts as well as other small imperfections.  The instructions are in the form of the usual Hasagawa fold-out strip that includes a sprue diagram and a sketch showing comparisons between different Vigilante versions.

The cockpit detail is basically non-existant, all you are provided with are two seats, two figures, a base and a main instrument panel (with decal) for the pilot.  There is no bulkhead or panel between pilot and rear navigator although there is a small internal wall area molded into the respective fuselage halves.  I guess it is not a huge issue anyway, because there is only small porthole like rectangular windows that the rear-seater can see out of.  The interior received a sea grey wash with black consoles and anti-glare nose panel.  The fuselagae halves went together rather well and I packed some bolts in blu-tak behind the nose section to prevent a possible tailsitter.

Wings were then placed on and needed a bit of attention to sit in the correct position, a bit of filler was required for the wing joints.  Most of the parts were attached with straightforward ease and there were no real fit problems to highlight.  There was a bit of concern with the nose cone, which is shaped incorrectly and took a bit of coaxing to sit in the best position the kit would allow.  If there were an aftermarket resin correction set available, the nose would be the one part on the kit that would have to go.  The undercarriage was constructed with relative ease and needed a bit of attention to also coax in the right sitting position - the gear doors would require sanding and filler if the model was to be shown in the wheels up configuration.  The tailplanes also provided a bit of a challenge to sit correctly against the rear fuselage but was overcome with only a minor amount of sanding and filling.

The only stores available in the kit are underwing pylons featuring large capacity fuel tanks which are slightly off-centre when affixed according to the alignment pin holes.   This can be overcome by cutting off the pins and filling the holes then sanding the area for a butt-join. 

Two examples are reproduced by the kit and both are finished in the same upper Light Gull Grey and lower White surface scheme.  Leading edges are painted in Aircraft Grey and nosecone is coloured in a yellow-brown like finish (see sideview art below).   Decals are supplied for an example from RVAH-14 "Eagles" US Navy and RVAH-9 "Hoot Owls" US Navy. I chose the former and painted it in the suggested scheme.

The kit captures the unique RA-5C lines well although the nose cone is shaped incorrectly and I am not convinced of the upper fuselage lines, they look just a tad overdone to me.  The kit itself is also fairly large and by my reckoning is a few millimetres overscaled - it was not of the usual Hasagawan standard, it was chunky and while the fit wasn't poor it wasn't really that good either.  Mind you, it's still probably the best kit on the market for this aircraft in this scale (much better than the Revell offering that tried to copy Hasagawa - see separate review) and I would still recommend it for those of intermediate skills and above - I can't see a better offering to become available in the near future.

Related Reviews:  Revell 1/72 RA-5C Vigilante

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While not the exact example provided in the kit - this is a sideview of an RA-5C, note the sensor canoe in the belly
This also gives you a good view of the colour scheme common to RA-5's.