Starfighter Decals 1/72 Hasegawa Curtiss SOC-1/2/3 Cockpit Set
By Matt Bittner
One of the last, older 'tweener kit that still needed attention was the Hasegawa 1/72 Curtiss SOC. Out-of-the-box the cockpit is rudimentary at best and provides nothing for the sides of the fuselage. Thankfully this release from Starfighter Decals allows one to have a complete cockpit with little work.
The one area you'll need to take care of on the kit is to remove the instrument panel "coaming" on the front of the fuselage. This is so the resin instrument panel will fit. While you'll need to follow the instructions provided I also feel the instructions could be improved. The images to help with parts alignment are extremely small and washed out. Because of this you'll really need to study them intensely before starting any type of construction.
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All of the resin pieces appear to be very well done. However, if you want to truly complete the cockpit you'll need to source your own .30 machine guns. According to the instructions you can either rob some from Dragon 1/72 US armor, Dragon 1/72 A-25 Shrike, or try to track down some from Aeroclub. Unfortunately that's it for sources, and unfortunate that Mini-World has never released a complete one in their brass line (they have released barrels, though). If you go with adding a .30 then you'll also probably want to track down Tom's Modelworks USN photoetch set to provide belts.
All in all this is an excellent set, much needed to enhance the Hasegawa kit.
Many thanks to Starfighter Decals for sending this set in for review.