Bill Gilman
@Burkard - your hypothesis sounds good to me. But I see no significant difference in the wing and stabilizer incidence angles. Look at the rest - every panel line is identical, the breakdown of the parts is identical, etc. So I form my own hypothesis: Definite collaboration going on! Most likely sharing of the master from which the moulds are made. That fact the Frog and Hasegawa collaborated is well known.

The only real difference I see is the lack of the belly cannons and the associated blisters on the Frog.

So the Internet story of Hasegawa "correcting" the moulds probably refers to adding the belly cannons to the master, which were part of the F.6, but missing from the original Frog kit. Once this was done, they could have laid out the sprue arrangement any way they like, to suit their production equipment, etc.

Normally, I would study two different sets of sprues like these, and say "counterfeiting, with some rearrangement of the layout to avoid making it too obvious." This is seen today with some of the lesser-known brands from Asia. But I would like to think that Frog (British) and Hasegawa (Japanese) would not have done such a thing. I am a firm believer now, from studying these sprues, that there was a collaboration of some kind. The parts are much more than "similar."

And I am also relieved to know that my mind is still intact. I did indeed have three identical kits in boxes from three different companies! 🙂

Bill Gilman
@John - I only have half of my Matchbox kit. I used the rest in my Trumpeter kitbash! 🙂