1:72 Mitsubishi F-1 (Early) Canopy Mask Hasegawa

A Japanese anti-ship strike aircraft

The Mitsubishi F-1 was the first combat aircraft of postwar Japanese design intended for attacks on ground and above all on naval targets. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force introduced it in the second half of the 1970s and anti-ship missiles of home manufacture became its main weapon. It stayed in service until the middle of the first decade of this century, when a more modern type replaced it.

How a two-seat airframe became a single-seater

The designers did not build on a green field: they took a proven supersonic airframe, blanked off the rear station and housed equipment for finding targets in the freed space. The glazing is therefore shorter than on the starting type and a metal cover continues behind the cockpit. The attribute in the name of the item refers to the early production form, which differs from later machines in details of the external equipment.

The covered rear part of the cockpit during painting

A smaller glazed area does not simplify the work as much as one would expect, because the frames stayed massive and the transition to the metal cover is sharp. Lay the pieces on with tweezers, run over the edge and only then spray. Japanese schemes tend to be two-color with soft transitions, so it pays to mask the cockpit before you take on the camouflage itself; putting right overspray at the edges of the glazing is then much easier.

Suitable for builders of Japanese equipment

• for collectors of aircraft of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force
• for modelers who build types with anti-ship armament
• for those interested in early production series of combat machines
• for those who want accurate frames without tracing by hand