"This first look review is of Hasegawa Models 1/700 scale photo-etch upgrade set, " IJN Rangefinders". "

Introduction

While browsing the local hobby shop’s Photo Etch and Accessory cabinet today, I happened across a new item for me, checking the date on the packaging shows it to be from June of 2007 so perhaps some of you may not be aware of it quite yet. But for us 1/700 scale modelers it offers another choice of goodies to add to our small scale efforts.

Hasegawa has brought out a few items of late that have been right up on the ball, this is another one. I have seen offerings of Rangefinders from other PE vendors but they seem to be sort of one dimensional effort.

the set...

Hasegawa is offering this set of five different types of optical rangefinders that were commonly found on IJN ships of WWII. They include 24 of the binocular type, 7, 9 and 11 of the other sizes that were of the tube type. What makes these a little more uncommon from the one dimensional variety that most of the other vendors have out is that they are designed to be folded to offer a thicker cross section and with the addition of some Gator Glue or Elmer’s White Glue to give the proper parts a rounded appearance would look a lot more like the real deal even in this tiny size.

As most kits barely make the effort in this scale, most rangefinders are either a small post or a "Tee" shape with or without a bulb on the end; these little gems can be worked with to give the 1/700 scale ships a proper appearance to something that is mostly forgotten about or shown in a limited effort.

I will apologize for the objectionable flash in the close-up photo, but that was the only way that I could get enough detail in this small size, the whole fret is all of 2 3/4"X 3" in size.