Hasegawa 1/12 kits

[flyonthewall]

I rediscovered these the other day, i forgot they existed! Has anyone built, own one or tell me anything about them? Last time i saw one for sale was at a show about 4 years ago, i also heard they are not made from styrene plastic.

[Veyron]

Have never had one or built one, but I do know they are a combo of styrene and cast metal.

[Jay!]

Legends has both those kits in stock, at least last time I was there. I think Walter said they still had them when he bought his 1/12 NSX, and that they are ridiculously marked up... somewhere between $400 and 600...

[wkma7six]

Originally posted by jay@af
Legends has both those kits in stock, at least last time I was there. I think Walter said they still had them when he bought his 1/12 NSX, and that they are ridiculously marked up... somewhere between $400 and 600...

Yes. I think the Mazda was marked at 600 US and the Nissan was at 500-550 US dollars. Ridiculously overpriced. I considered one while I was still employed, but they were cheaper several years ago. Get them when you can afford them! They look very challenging. Are they yours Chris?

-Walter

[freakray]

Walter,
Chris doesn't have them yet, so I would have to guess he is considering them.....are you Chris?
They both look like nice kits, although I don't know much about them.

Ray

[flyonthewall]

Those are not mine, i would very much like to get hold of them but at the right price of course! $500-$600 is far too much to pay unemployed or not! How much did these retail at? I think the one i saw was about £60.

[lotus_man]

I'm sure Tamiya Modelling Magazine built the Nissan years back. I'll dig around and see if I can find that issue anywhere... I must have it in a box some where (just moved house... my whole life is in boxes at the moment)

[UKSupraboy]

Don't know if this is of any interest to anybody stateside??

[Jay!]

Originally posted by UKSupraboy
Don't know if this is of any interest to anybody stateside??

I have great interest, but no capital...

[erix7]

Originally posted by flyonthewall
I rediscovered these the other day, i forgot they existed! Has anyone built, own one or tell me anything about them? Last time i saw one for sale was at a show about 4 years ago, i also heard they are not made from styrene plastic.

The Fairlady comes with a die-cast floorpan, a polystyrene body with separate doors and hood and a
pre-assembled metal engine block with tranny.
The body parts are factory painted red (doesn't do the model justice IMHO).

The RX-7 is mostly made of styrene but body, doors and engine lid are made of ABS and some details
are cast metal (intake manifold etc).
The ABS body poses two problems: you need to use a special primer to paint it
(the red one is rather translucent) and if there is any poor fit due to warped parts it is hard to fix
(ABS is not thermoplastic ie. it won't soften when heated).

HTH,
-- Eric.

[flyonthewall]

Originally posted by erix7


The Fairlady comes with a die-cast floorpan, a polystyrene body with separate doors and hood and a
pre-assembled metal engine block with tranny.
The body parts are factory painted red (doesn't do the model justice IMHO).

The RX-7 is mostly made of styrene but body, doors and engine lid are made of ABS and some details
are cast metal (intake manifold etc).
The ABS body poses two problems: you need to use a special primer to paint it
(the red one is rather translucent) and if there is any poor fit due to warped parts it is hard to fix
(ABS is not thermoplastic ie. it won't soften when heated).

HTH,
-- Eric.

ABS! That's what i heard! The same stuff you make car bumbers from!

Sounds like they are not as good as i thought, who wants their model pre assembled/painted?

[erix7]

Originally posted by flyonthewall


ABS! That's what i heard! The same stuff you make car bumbers from!

Sounds like they are not as good as i thought, who wants their model pre assembled/painted?

Yup, ABS. Good thing about ABS is that it retains its shape much better than polystyrene,
that's why the polystyrene-bodied Fairlady got a die-cast floorpan.
You also get a very smooth and shiny plastic body, the black RX-7 kit looks almost too good to paint,
unfortunately the red RX-7 body is a bit translucent which spoils the effect.

Hasegawa tried to do the same thing as Pocher does with their recent big car kits: easy to assemble, pre-painted,
lots of screw or snap assemblies.

The kits are by no means poorly detailed or a let-down in other ways (apart from the paintjob
on the Fairlady body: not good enough and too thin to polish). Each is good value for money given the
retail prices. Trouble is those darn collectors jacking up the prices sky-high

There are some similarities between the Fujimi 1/12 Skyline kits and the Hasegawa 1/12 kits,
maybe some of the same people did some design work there...

-- Eric.