History

The T-2 CCV was an experimental aircraft used by the JSDF Technical Research and Development Institute to study technologies required for the development of future fighters.  CCV means "Control Configured Vehicle," to increase its maneuverability by virtual stability generated by computer.
The third T-2 trainer aircraft produced was modified to a T-2 CCV, which had one vertical canard wing on the belly, two horizontal ones on both sides of the fuselage, a flap on the trailing edge which is converted to a flapperon, and was also equipped with a digital fly-by-wire system to operate the control surfaces.  
After the first flight on Aug. 9, 1983, the T-2 CCV was serviced to fundamental experiments for flight control technology and other subjects for a total of 90 flight hours through 2 years.

In the box

This kit of the T-2 CCV was first released by Platz as the JASDF T-2, Blue Impulse kit back in 2014, which was based on the 2013 Mitsubishi F-1.

The kit is packed in a top opening box with a rather good artists impression of the T-2 CCV in flight on the box top. The majority of the text other then the product name is all in Japanese, which does continue onto the instructions.
Inside the box you will find -
7 light grey injected plastic sprues
1 clear injected plastic sprue
1 medium sixed decal sheet
An instruction booklet

Packaging is fairly good with the sprues bagged in one clear bag, with the clear parts having their own bag within the main bag, so scratching of the clear parts should be non-existent.
A lot of the parts, such as the external weapons are not used for this variant, and a parts tree guide is supplied, with the unused parts shaded out.

The kit has some very nice and fine engraved panel lines and access hatches on the wings and fuselage, with some nice rivet detail also present.
The wings have separate flaps, but look to be only posed in the closed position.
The aircraft has two air brakes, which can be posed open or closed.
The lower canard which are on this variant, needs a hole drilled into the lower fuselage part for fitting and Platz show exactly where this should be done in the instructions. The two intake canards are butt fitted onto fairings on the side of the intakes.
As the weapons are not used, Platz have included a couple of fairings for the underside of the wings, to go over the weapon stations.
Two holes need to be drilled into the top half of the wings for two clear parts.

Interior detail is pretty good considering the scale, and gives a nice busy look to the cockpit.
The cockpit has decals for the instrument panels and side consoles. The seats although one piece are fairly good, but don’t have any harness's moulded onto them, so resin replacements or added harness's would really help detail the cockpit up.

The engine intakes are closed off, so the see through look is avoided, but there is no fans inside. The exhausts tubes are also closed off, but do have an afterburner ring inside, which looks to be a bit awkward to paint, as the exhaust tubes are one piece and small. The tubes are finished off with a two part jet exhaust, which has some fairly intricate detail moulded onto them.

The undercarriage bays have a little detail inside in the form of spars, and once painted up should look fairly decent. The main undercarriage doors are closed when the gear is down, so the internal detail is pretty much not seen.
The undercarriage legs two parts for the nose, and four parts for the main gear. Detail is pretty good with the main gear legs having a clear parts for the undercarriage lights. The wheels are one piece, and have some very nice hub detail moulded onto them.

The clear parts are clear with no distortion visible. The frames are raised, quite considerably on the windscreen, so masking should be fairly easy. The canopies can be posed open or closed.

Instructions and decals

The instructions are printed in the black line drawings we are all familiar with internal colours are given along the way. Colours are given for the Model Color and Model Master paints.
Although the build text seems to be mainly in Japanese, there is English underneath it, so all the helpful hints are there, unlike the last kit I reviewed from Platz which was solely in Japanese.
The build sequence looks a little daunting when you first look at it, but on closer inspection is pretty easy to follow and logical.
Any optional or work needed is in a separate insert box within that stage.

The decals are well printed, in register and have all the red areas of the markings as decals, which is very handy, as you wont have to try and match paint to decals.
You will still have to paint the black canopy surround and the nose anti-glare panel though.
The decal and paint guide is found on the end of the instruction booklet and is in black and white. Full stencils are supplied.
A full colour painting guide can be found on the underside of the box, along with a brief history of the aircraft.
Two different marking options are supplied for the same airframe, with one being from 1983, with the later one being from 1994. Differences between the two are very minor.

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