Aircraft Weapons:III U.S. Air to Air Missiles
kit no. X72-003 / 35003
Review by Al Magnus - one72guy(at)gmail(dot)com

The kit

Inside the box there are 4 sprues of hard light grey injected plastic with a total of 66 parts. Sprue A (2 copies) contains 18 pieces and sprue B (2 copies) contains 15 pieces.

Ten different missiles are available. They are:

 Missile   No. of 
Copies 		  No. of Parts 
per MIssile 		  Kit Part 
No.s 
AIM-4D Falcon 4 1 B2
AIM-4G Falcon 4 1 B1
AIM-7E Sparrow 4 1 A6
AIM-9B Sidewinder 4 1 A1
AIM-9D Sidewinder 4 1 A3
AIM-9E Sidewinder 4 1 A2
AIM-9J Sidewinder 4 1 A4
AIM-9L Sidewinder 8 1 A5
AIM-54A 6 2 B8, B9
AIM-120A AMRAAM 4 1 A7


Missile rails are included for the AIM-9 missiles in USAF (part A9) and USN (part A8) versions. Also included in the set are parts for the SUU-20 Dispenser with training bombs (parts B3, B4, B5) and the GPU-5/A Gun Module (B6, B7).

This is a kit that has been around for some time, but the quality is still excellent. The molding of the parts is very nice with minimal mold seams and no flash. All panel lines are raised and very fine, though removing the mold seams does tend to also remove the panel lines.

There are two decal sheets containing the various lines and stencils for the missiles. The decal film is a bit thick as is common with Hasegawa kits, but the images respond to Microsol very well and snug down tight. The images are opaque, clear and well printed.

The instruction sheet contains colouring and marking info. Paint numbers are for Gunze Sangyo Aqueous and Gunze Sangyo Mr. Color paints. United States FS numbers are included where applicable.

Conclusion

All in all, an excellent value for the money and can't be beat if you need early US air-to-air missiles for your modeling project.

Addendum: 08/April/2020

This set has now been eclipsed by many newer products that have come on the market since this set was first released circa 1987, some 30 plus years ago. It remains a decent value for those wishing to arm their model aircraft on a budget.

Review Last Updated: 11 April 2020

© AC Magnus 2006