Hasegawa’s “Hubble Space Telescope” Model Kit

Several years ago, I watched PBS‘ excellent Nova: The Planets special and, among other things, it made me want to find and build a model of the Voyager interstellar probe.  During COVID, I was able to find a nice Voyager kit from Hasegawa¹ that turned out to be a really fun build.  At the same time, I was also on the lookout for a model kit of the Hubble Space Telescope, but sadly was not able to find one.  Until a few weeks ago, that is.

Somewhat like the Fujimi Blade Runner “Spinner” model, this Hasegawa Hubble Space Telescope² kit has some quirks.  The box says the kit is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of “The Repair”.  Hubble’s original mirror had an aberration that needed to be corrected before the telescope would be fully capable.  STS-61 was the 1993 mission of Space Shuttle Endeavor to fix this glitch.  My presumption was “The Repair” was that mission.  However, the box arrived with an STS-109 mission patch, which was the fourth of five missions to service Hubble, flown by Space Shuttle Columbia in 2002.  STS-109 was Columbia’s last mission before it was destroyed in 2003.  

The quirk here is that the kit includes decals for a space shuttle model, it just does not include any of the pieces to build a Space Shuttle.  In fact, there are five decals for the Hubble model itself, the vast majority of the decals are for a Space Shuttle model.  And, this includes decals to make any of the Space Shuttles, other than Columbia or Challenger.  My guess is that this kit used to include both Hubble and the Shuttle, but with NASA’s retirement of the Space Shuttle, the shuttle part has either been dropped or moved into a separate kit.

The big quirk with this kit, and the one every modeler should know about, is that all of the pieces are chrome plated.  This makes painting the model and applying decals particularly challenging.  I didn’t want to chemically strip the pieces, so I ended up breaking out the sandpaper and removing chrome that way.  That means the entire inside barrel of the telescope itself, the solar arrays, and the inner pieces of the telescope.  As you can see in the center/left below, the mirror piece (which does need to be chromed) is molded together with an elongated part, which features graduated steps.  Sanding that down without scratching the mirror itself was not easy.

All-in-all, I would have preferred that Hasegawa not chromed every single piece (other than the stand), and just did the mirror.  It’s true that Hubble is highly reflective, but there are any number of bright, metallic paints that could have achieved the look very well.  And, having everything chromed means that using putty to fill in gaps and seams is virtually impossible.  I am very happy to have a Hubble model, especially one with this level of detail, but this feels like a missed-opportunity.  The kit is great, and it pretty easily could have – should have – been a lot better.

As I said, the details on the kit are fantastic.  The fact that you can look down the barrel and see a reflection back is such a nice touch.  I decided to paint the solar panels rather than use the include decals, and am glad that I did. Even with sanding, the gaps between the panel segments would have made it tough to apply the panel decals.  For this, I used the Tamaya Navy Blue (US Navy AS-8).  There are a few places to brush on paints:  Testors Flat Black for the telescope interior, Testors Gloss Yellow and Gloss White for a few exterior details.  Then I finished the model off with a coat of Testors Clear.  Other than that, the kit only has about 12 pieces, which makes it seem deceptively simple.  For this Hubble model, the work is really in preparation for the next step.  Additional recognition goes to Hasegawa for the stands these models come with; they have an unobtrusive design which, at the same time, complements the Hubble and Voyager models very well.

Finally my Voyager model has Hubble for companion on my shelf, and Hasegawa including the STS-109 mission patch is a nice touch.  Quirks aside, Hasegawa’s Hubble Space Telescope model kit was a lot of fun to build and I think that it came out quite well.  

Happy modeling!

Hasegawa Hubble Space Telescope Model Kit³ –

Pros:

• The only Hubble model kit I could find
• And, fortunately, its a great model with terrific detailing
• Even the stand is well thought out

Cons:

• Every piece except the stand is chromed, and it’s not a snap-together kit, so one way or the other the modeler will need to spend time stripping chrome for paints and glue
• The antenna and solar arrays are fragile, so you cannot easily set the model down for decals and painting.  Depending on your handedness, or techniques, you may have to do some steps out-of-order, so you can have good grip on the model while working on it

Verdict = Recommended!