Grumman's F11F-1 was the Navy's first fighter capable of supersonic flight without having to do it while diving. There are stories about the aircraft being so fast that one was shot down by its own bullets! A much improved F11F-1F was able to go mach 2, however, it was not chosen for production as the Navy had already picked the F8U-1 Crusader. The F11F-1 had a rather short career in the Navy only being used in operational squadrons for four years being phased out of carrier units in 1961. This marked the first time since 1933 that there were no Grumman fighters on board carriers. This was to remain as such until the mid 1970s when the F-14 Tomcat was deployed aboard the USS Enterprise with VF-1 and VF-2.

The TIger was very much a pilot's aircraft, and because of that it was chosen to replace the F9F as the mount for the Blue Angels in 1957. Initially the early F11F-1 with the shorter nose was used as these planes were quickly replaced in fleet squadrons by the longer nosed variety (VA-156 was the only fleet unit to use the short-nosed Tiger). As more of the later versions were made available,  so the shorter nosed Tigers were retired or used by non-fleet units. The F11F (redesignated F-11A in 1962) was used as a Blue Angels mount until 1969 when replaced by the F-4 Phantom II.

To those of us who have been building model plane kits for several years, the Hasegawa Tiger is an old friend. Still the best F11F in any scale, this old warrior has been boxed as a Blue Angles plane a number of times. In fact, the standard boxing of the kit includes Blue Angel markings. Hasegawa has chosen to mold this particular kit in blue (apparently thinking we won't need to paint it), but is no different from the 'normal' boxing.......except for one thing. This kit includes a new resin nose. 

Jumping right to the resin nose, it is very well detailed with nicely engraved panel lines. The weight of it is such that you will not need any additional nose weight to assure that the kit sits on all of its landing gear. Installation is a breeze as well. One simply cuts the old nose at the location given in the instructions and once the fuselage halves have been glued together, simply install the new nose. There is just one resin block that needs to be removed, but that  be done after it is glued in place. Probably the only 'bad' part about this nose is that to have it match the kit, you will have to rescribe the entire kit as it has raised panel lines! Those of us who are a bit too lazy for that will simply install the nose and be happy about it. If you don't want to use the kit decal sheet, you'll have to come up with Microscale Sheet 72-255 as it does include decals for VA-156.

As for the standard kit, you get a basic cockpit with seat, stick and instrument panel. The instruments on the panel and side console being provided in decal form. If you want a better cockpit, then Airwaves makes a set for this kit. There is a two piece canopy so you can display it in the open position should you wish. Underwing stores consist of four sidewinders and two fuel tanks. You can either do all four positions carrying missiles or replace two of those with fuel tanks. For a Blue Angels aircraft, the holes in the underside of the wing will have to be filled as no weapons were carried. The guns were removed from Blue Angel aircraft as well, but the opening remained.

Instructions are all we have come to expect from Hasegawa over the years. You get the standard instruction sheet, but, as with all 'special' boxings that Hasegawa does, there is an addendum sheet that pertains to the variant being kitted. On this sheet is the color guide, a diagram on how to cut and install the new nose, and another showing how to remove the small wing leading edge extensions that were not present on the short-nosed F11F-1. Naturally the plane is in overall Blue Angel Blue with polished leading edges to the flying surfaces as well as intakes and exhaust cone. You can build any one of the 6 planes and number/buno matchings are given. The decals are standard Hasegawa and should work quite well, even on the dark blue background.

Overall, the kit will be a pleasant build and with the new short nose, you'll have a variant that was not available in 1/72 before.

Review kit courtesy of Marco Polo Importers. Thanks for your support.

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