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Newman R & D 1/72 XA3D-1 Resin Conversion Kit

By Norm Filer

If you are interested in prototypes and early Navy jets, this one is right down your alley.  This neat little box of parts and any of the several versions of the really nice Hasegawa A3 Skywarrior will produce a very neat model of the first Whale with the stovepipe J-40 engines.

The set contains the two resin engines, new pylons, a pointed nose and tail turret, and the football shaped fairing that goes on the tip of the vertical tail.  Also included is a new canopy and a very nice set of ALPs printed decals.

If you have the “Early Version” of the Hasegawa kit you know what the new nose and tail turret look like.  The parts in this kit are not copies, there are small differences but they are the equal of the kit parts.  The nice thing about this kit is you now can do the prototype without using up the rare “Early Version” kit.

Everything is first class resin casting.  The engines are cast in two halves, front and back and require careful alignment in the middle.  The advantage is a very nice and deep intake with the splitter plate in the opening.

The kit comes with two letter-sized pages of instructions with full sized drawing to help with the surgery.  Since the nose and tail cuts are on panel lines that should not be too painful.  The engines are of course replacements for the kit engine/pylons so they should be straightforward as well.

Also included is a full-page color illustration and drawings for decal placement.

The early Whales had a rather different canopy framing layout.  The kit has a very effective process for accomplishing that.  They give you a new vacu-formed canopy and the framing is decals.  Getting the proper shapes painted on the canopy that match the decal frames will be interesting.  All the help you need is provided in the drawings.

There were not a lot of blue Whales, and the J-40 engines are significantly different than the normal J-57s, so this easy conversion would give you a different looking Whale for little effort.

All in all, a very innovative and interesting conversion kit.

Our thanks to Newman R&D for the review sample.