Hasegawa 1/48 F-16D (Block 52 Advanced) Fighting Falcon Singapore AF Special Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

For a quick history of the F-16, look here.

For a look at the differences between F-16 blocks, look here.

Hasegawa reissued their F-16D kit with some new-tool sprues to render the Israeli Air Force's F-16I Sufa ( look here). It was clear from examining those sprues that we'd be seeing other interesting variants in our future. Sure enough, we have F-16D Block 52 Advanced Fighting Falcon as configured for the Singapore Air Force.

This release is molded in the standard light gray styrene and rendered on fifteen parts trees, plus a single tree of clear parts. The surface detailing is scribed, but the detail is a bit soft in comparison with the Tamiya and Kinetic 1/48 Viper kits.

The kit provides all of the parts for a standard Block 52 F-16D that we've seen before, but also includes the new parts trees for this release and a few parts trees that were introduced into earlier late-block F-16 updates. There are other trees still that are in the box for one or two small parts, but leave some left-overs for your spares box.

Among the features and options in this box:

• Nice cockpit straight out of the box
• Optional crew figures
• Positionable canopy
• Small mouth (NSI) inlet
• Pratt F100 nozzle
• Positionable speed brakes
• Dorsal spine for the advanced F-16D/F/I
• GPS dome
• Optional boarding ladder
• Updated missile rails for stations 1/2/8/9 for AIM-120 and AIM-9

As mentioned above, the detailing is scribed, but it is soft and not as accurately laid out as opposed to the newer kits. In addition, Hasegawa still insists that you buy this kit and then buy the appropriate weapons sets separately. The box art shows this aircraft with the Sniper pod on the starboard inlet station but the Sniper isn't included in the kit.

So in terms of external stores:

• 1 x 300 gallon centerline fuel tank
• 2 x 370 gallon underwing fuel tanks
• 1 x baggage pod
• 2 x AIM-120
• 2 x AIM-9L/M

Markings are provided for two aircraft:

• F-16D (Block 52), 96-0034, Peace Carvin II, Singapore AF, Luke AFB, AZ, 2013
• F-16D (Block 52), 96-0035, 425 FS, Singapore AF, Luke AFB, AZ, 2013

The decals are nicely done and include maintenance stenciling, and appropriate markings.

Despite the minor bugs in this kit, Hasegawa has done a nice job this this variant and remains the only kit manufacturer to produce so many F-16 variants in any scale.

My sincere thanks to Hasegawa USA for this review sample!