McDonnell RF-101C Voodoo

Modelling world
by James Goulding
Two modern fighters from Hasegawa
McDonnell RF-101C

Several new Hasegawa kits have now been released in Japan and include the Convair F-102A Delta Dagger, Convair F-106A Delta Dart, Hawker Harrier, and McDonnell RF-101C Voodoo. I have recently made up samples of the Delta Dagger and Voodoo, and both are superb—apart from a tooling fault on the wing intake/fuselage joint on the Voodoo. It is very unusual to get a fault of this nature on Hasegawa kits, but I understand that the kit is being corrected.

It is to be hoped that all these kits will eventually become available through the Frog/Hasegawa agreement. All are, of course, to 1/72nd scale.

The McDonnell RF-101C is the reconnaissance version of the Voodoo, with the flat camera window in the extreme nose, and with additional windows in the sides of the nose. Two under fuselage long-range tanks are included in the kit.

Transfers are provided for two aircraft, one from the 1 5th TR Sqn, USAF, and the other from the 45th TR Sqn, USAF.

This is a big, impressive model of this most distinctive-looking fighter with its small wing area and massive fuselage.

AIRCRAFT Illustrated, February 1969

NEW AND IN VIEW New Aircraft Kits
HASEGAWA. McDonnell RF-101C Voodoo. 1/72 scale. Price 250 yen (Japan). (Also available in plated form)

This kit is a tragedy. It is in all respects excellent, except that it cannot be assembled as it comes from the box.

The trouble lies in the port wing. Somehow, the tooling for the upper wing half has gone wrong, so that if assembled as directed, this component is pushed outwards at its leading edge. The result of this is that the two halves of the intake do not line up, and an ugly gap appears at the joint between the two halves on the lower surface. This can be corrected by assembling the fuselage and the wings with Sellotape, laying the former on top of the latter, and marking out the true line that the root of the upper port wing half should follow, subsequently filing the wing to this line. So far, so good, but it will then be apparent that the port intake is smaller than the starboard one. The only cure for this is to build up the outer surface of the port intake until it matches its couterpart — the plastic is too thin to allow any cutting-down on the starboard side. After the port intake has assumed the correct shape in plan view it has to be cut away from the inside to restore the correct sharp leading edge.

We hope most sincerely that Hasegawa will take steps to correct what is probably the worst tooling fault we have ever seen in a kit as soon as possible, for in all other respects their Voodoo is excellent. It is accurate in outline, and beautifully detailed; the very colourful decal sheet is beautifully printed and the finish on the plated version is excellent.

The IPMS magazine, APRIL 1969 VOL. 6 No.4

Note on Review of Hasegawa Voodoo Kit (April 1969 issue)

In our review of this kit, we criticised it for having several irreparable moulding faults. We did in fact obtain several Voodoo kits, and found that each had the fault described in our reveiw — that it was not possible to align the port wing halves correctly, and that is this was done, but cutting and filing, the port intake was smaller than the starboard. This trouble was due to a tooling or pattern-making error. Since that review was published we have received several letters from US members stating that this was not so, and that the parts of their kits fitted together perfectly. We therefore checked into this and found that the kits now on sale in the U.S.A. have been corrected.

We do not claim that this was entirely due to our remarks, but we did try to make up the original kit and forwarded it to the manufacturer. It is not hard to imagine that he recognised this genuine mistake and had the tools corrected.

We only mention this to emphasise the point that we review kits in the Magazine exactly as we find them, and without bias. We do not soft-pedal error or fault and we do try to give members an honest and helpful review.

AIRCRAFT Illustrated, October 1969