Hasegawa 1/200 KC-767 World Tanker Combo Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

At the beginning of the 21st Century, the US Air Force released a long awaited requirement to replace the aging KC-135 tanker. The KC-135 was based on the 367-80 (Dash 80) jet airliner prototype to provide an all-jet air refueling solution to a growing fleet of pure jet fighters and bombers. While Boeing was scaling up the Dash 80 into the first Model 707 airliners, they chose a smaller airframe as the solution for the KC-135 mission. While never officially designated as the Model 717, the KC-135 was similar in size to the Model 720 which was also a scaled-down 707 for the commercial market. The KC-135 entered production in the mid-1950s and the last production tanker came off the line in 1965. Where the KC-135 was a specially-designed tanker solution, this time the Air Force wanted a tanker based upon a commercial airframe and the 767 was selected.

The Air Force awarded a contract to Boeing in 2002 for the tanker but this soon ran afoul of politics and the contract was scuttled, opened for competition which brought the Airbus A330 as an alternative which won that competition. Once again politics scuttled that award and Boeing won the third (and final) attempt. In the meantime, Boeing had already pushed forward on the KC-767 concept and sold the first four tankers to the Italian Air Force. Japan followed with four tankers for the JASDF while the Airbus A330 tanker was adopted by other air arms. Columbia acquired their own tanker from a 767 converted by IAI.

Here is Hasegawa's 1/200 Boeing 767-200 kit set up as the KC-767 and perhaps we'll see this kit again as the KC-46A once the US Air Force takes delivery of its own belated tankers. The kit is molded in light gray styrene and presented on five parts trees. Actually there are ten parts trees as Hasegawa provides two complete tanker kits in this box. The kits offer the following features and options:

• Simple construction
• Cockpit bulkhead serves as mount for heavy screws used for ballast
• Landing gear is posed extended only
• Two types of refueling drogue pods included (Italy or Columbia)
• High speed refueling boom included (Italy and Japan)

Markings are provided for three aircraft:

• KC-767A, 14-01/N767TT, Italian Air Force
• KC-767 MMTT, 1202, Columbian Air Force, 'Jupiter'
• KC-767J, 87-3602, 404 SQ/1 TAG, JASDF

The decal sheet has a nice set of maintenance stencils for the airframe as well as the distinctive markings for each of the subjects above.

Overall, this really is a nice kit which provides some well-thought-out options with the two different types of refueling pods and refueling boom to mix and match as needed to render each of the subjects above. With two tanker kits in this box, you can render two of the three subjects above or build one of them as a KC-46A (using your own decals...). Have some fun and give this release a turn on your bench!

My sincere thanks to Hasegawa USA for this review sample!