Aircraft Weapons:V (U.S. Missiles and Launcher Set)
kit no. X72-009 / 35009
Review by Al Magnus - one72guy(at)gmail(dot)com

The kit

Inside the box there are 3 sprues of hard, light grey injected plastic with a total of 105 parts. Each sprue contains 35 pieces.
Five different missiles are available. They are:

 Missile   No. of
Copies 		  No. of Parts
per MIssile 		  Kit Part
No.s 
AIM-7M Sparrow 6 5 A3(x2), A4(x2), A5
AIM-9M Sidewinder 6 3 A13, A14(x2)
AGM-84E SLAM 3 2 A1, A2
AGM-119A Penguin 3 3 5 A10(x2), A15(x2), A16
AIM-120B AMRAAM 6 1 A11


Also included are LAU-129 launch rails for F-15 and F-16 fighters (parts A8, A9, A18), CBU-87/B cluster bombs (parts A6, A7), and AN/APX-95 TACTS pods (part A17).

This is one of Hasegawa's newer releases. The parts are excellently molded with fine engraved detail, minimal mold seams and no flash. The fins are thinner than found in their earlier releases, though still somewhat thick.

There are three 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 Hobby Color and Gunze Sangyo Mr. Color paints. US FS numbers are included where applicable.

I built two of the missiles in this kit, the AGM-119A Penguin and the AGM-84E SLAM.

Construction of the AGM-119A was straight forward, though the tabs on the fins are just slightly smaller than the slots for their location in the body, so you will probably need to apply a spot of filler at one end or the other to fill the tiny hole that remains. Make sure the fins are at right angles to the body while the glue dries.

The SLAM was a bit more effort to build. The body comes as two parts, but the split is not exactly down the centerline, resulting in a slightly out of round exhaust end that needs to be sanded to get it to a more round shape. Also the mating surfaces of the two body parts are slightly raised, so when the two halves are joined they produce a noticeable ridge down the length of the body that will require more than a cursory scraping and sanding to remove. I had to rescribe the lines afterward as they were obliterated by my work on the seam.

The decals are well printed but I found their application a bit of a trial. They are very thin and have a habit of folding up on themselves if you're not careful. Also be very sparing in the application of setting solutions. They will literally disolve if you put too much on. Note that the AGM-119 Penguin decal is misspelled as "Pengun"!

Conclusion

All in all, this set is a very good value for the money.

Addendum: 08/April/2020

Parts of this set have now been exclipsed by many newer products that have come on the market since this set was first released circa 1999, some 20 plus years ago. It remains a decent value for those wishing to arm their model aircraft on a budget, and, as far as I know, is still the only source for 1/72 scale Peguin & SLAM ER.

Review Last Updated: 08 April 2020

© AC Magnus 2006