1/48 XF-85 Goblin

Description

This is an injection-plastic jet aircraft model kit.

This is the Special Hobby McDonnell Douglas XF-85 Goblin kit imported by Hasegawa for Japan.

It’s a limited run kit (so no locating pins, some flash, soft plastic) consisting of 36 styrene parts on one sprue, 14 resin bits, one vacuformed canopy and decals for both test aircraft. This airplane had no landing gear, so it’s a good thing SH gives you the trolley.

Panel lines are finely engraved; resin parts are crisp and defect-free. Decals, printed by Propagteam, are perfectly registered – if you haven’t used their products before, the decals are ultra thin and can be translucent (though over all-metal finish this should not be a problem). The modeler will have to make some parts from stretched sprue, strip stock or rod (like pitot tubes and the prominent landing skid); the (pictorial) instructions show where this is required, and how long the parts should be.

Finished model is small – maybe 10cm long and 15cm wingtip-to-wingtip … but then again, the real machines were designed to be carried in the bomb bays of B-36’s. (Kit description courtesy John Lester)