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Hello Dear Friends, Before I get my hands on the new Eduard tool, I decided to give it a go to this classic Tamiya 'oldie but goodie' tool from 1973, the Nakajima Rufe fighter seaplane. I build it almost OOB, except for an added aluminum bracket for the oil line coming from the engine to the float pilar. I used a mix of AK Real Colors, Tamiya and Mr. Color paints. Rivets were also added to improve close visual effect. Black primer, silver/aluminum paint, IJN red/brown primer, Green Gray (AK) and Nakajima Dark Green (Mr. Color) were layered upon each other in order to represent an aircraft with some weeks of duty on the South Pacific front. Hinomarus were also masked and airbrushed. The model represents a Rufe from the 452nd Naval Air Group, embarked on the Seaplane Tender 'Kamikawa Maru', February 1943, Solomon Islands. Pretty satisfied with the result. Always a pleasure to build a Tamiya kit, even an old one like this 50-years kite. Happy modelling and greetings from Santiago, Chile. Cris

This is Tamiya's aging 1/48 "Rufe",(released in 1973!) Its a nice, simple build out of the box, and with a little help, can look quite presentable. I tweaked it with lots of weight in the front of the float, added Eduard's photoetch in the cockpit, along with some scratch building and detailing, wired the engine, riveted the airframe, and replaced the antenna, pitot, and cowl guns with brass pieces. Paints are Tamiya acrylics, and decals are a mix of kit (yes, 50 year old decals!) and Techmod nationality markings. Hope you like, Colin

My "real entry" for the floatplane GB, the Tamiya A6M2-N Rufe. I couldn't find any of the Japanese WWII float planes I really wanted to build for this GB without them being in the 'wrong scale' or just being ridiculous prices. Then I found this for just under £14 including shipping from Japan I couldn't resist buying it... The bags are still sealed as I'm trying to get some other stuff finished first before allowing myself to open them. Plus I need to pick up 3 or 4 paints I need but don't have.

This is Trumpeter’s 1/24 Nakajima A6M2-N “Rufe” Floatplane. This has been on my shelf of doom for about 5 years for a very pitiful reason; I needed to get some weights to put in the main float and I didn’t have any. I put this aside meaning to get some weights, a couple of weeks went by and then I forgot about it. Sheesh, what a dunderhead am I! My goal is to clear out my shelf/shelves of doom by May 2015; a daunting task if you only knew how large a shelf it is. This is one off of the list. It is mainly an OOB build; the build thread is here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234970811-zero-floatplane;-a-big-rufe-rufe-finished;-well-almost/. There were a couple of modifications to the kit. I added Eduard seatbelts and I got stumped about a hole in the main float that just looked stupid. Kind people on this site who know a whole lot more about the Rufe than I told me the hole was for an oil cooler. I half-heartedly scratched an oil cooler inlet/vent. The major modifications to this kit were done on the beaching trolley. It was rebuilt to look like some photos as the kit version was somewhat simplified. This was an enjoyable build. The parts fit well, the kit is well engineered, and the detail is really good. I understand there is some shape issues regarding the fuselage aft of the cockpit, but I am not skillful enough or knowledgeable enough to correct it. The kit decals were used and they went down without a fault and behaved perfectly with the Micro Sol setting solutions. I would recommend this kit in a heartbeat if what you are interested in is an enjoyable build. It is, however really big once completed so have some room. Here is the beaching trolley by itself. And, last but not least, the infamous oil cooler that is difficult to see and probably no one but me will ever notice. So the Rufe gets its own little shelf due to its size. So far it is playing well with its shelf mates As always, all comments are welcome.

To prove I wasn’t kidding about trying to eliminate my shelf of doom here is the Trumpeter Nakajima A6M2-N “Rufe” Floatplane. I know I started a new build when I publically stated my goal was to only eliminate the shelf of doom, but sometimes you just gotta build something you want to build. These kits were on the shelf of doom for a reason. A brief history of this kit. I got it when it went on sale about 7 or 8 years ago. I began construction probably within the year I obtained it. Now I know it has some shape problems regarding the rear of the fuselage, but at the time I began it my modeling skills were not that good (and now only marginally better, maybe . . . possibly. . . oh crap, they haven’t gotten worse at least!) and I knew I couldn’t do the surgery to fix it. So this is an OOB build with the exception of some Eduard seat belts. Would you like to hear about the inertia of a model builder, mainly me? As near as I can determine, the only reason this kit was put on the shelf of doom was due to my not having enough fishing weights to weight the float so it wouldn’t sit on its tail. I put the build aside with the mental note to go get some weights and then life got in the way. It was set aside out of sight; other models came and went; I forgot it was there; and when I was rearranging my kits, I discovered it in its present state. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with the kit, and it was nothing wrong with the kit, just with me. So here is its present state of build. Most of the kit has already been built up. What is left is to attach the main floats, whatever miscellaneous pieces that need to go on prior to painting and then paint the beast. I noticed I have already broken off the radio mast. Luckily, it is in the box. (Curiously, there are a couple of 1/32 Eduard German seat belt sets also in the box, have no idea why they are there. Does this happen to anybody else?) The cockpit needs a bit more work in it though. It is much too shiny, what was I thinking? The front coaming with the gun sight has been built up. I have a lot of the parts built up as sub-assemblies. It looks like I was building it with all the control surfaces being moveable and the wing tip fold working. I even built the docking trolley. And here are the culprits that needed the weights to be added. I did find some in progress shots I did when I first started building this kit. Here they are. For the life of me I don’t know why everything has such a shiny finish to it. Oh well, it is nothing a quick coat of dull coate can’t cure. Back to building this kit, I installed the appropriate nose weight, (I hope) in the front of the float held in place with a large amount of blue tack. The two halves were then joined. While the main float dries, I need to fix a couple of things on the main body. It looks like the engine cowling is coming off and has to be reattached. I also need to check and see if the engine itself is loose. Also needed is a paint plan for this kit. I need to figure out how much to weather it and the colour scheme. Anyway, it doesn’t look like this kit will be too hard to finish. Just a lot of painting. The existing seams need to be checked to see how they are holding up prior to painting. As always, all comments welcome.