Nakajima J9N - Japan's first jet - AZ 1/72

[John R]

Based roughly on the Me 262 and using engines based on the BMW 003 the Kikka made one flight in 1945 but the length of the take-off run caused concern so for the second flight booster rockets were fitted. Unfortunately these were mounted below the fuselage so when lit they caused the a/c to rotate and the tail to drag on the runway and presumably in a high drag situation making take-off impossible. The a/c was badly damaged and could not be repaired before the war ended.

One Kikka still exists in the USA

A fairly typical short run kit in that some cleaning up of the parts is required. The only tricky bit a found was installing the 'bullets' in the engine nacelles - which I didn't do terribly well.

I saw a revue of the original issue in a model mag a while ago and it mentioned using PE. None of this was present in the current issue. It also mentioned the lack of support for the nose gear - there is a gear bay in the current issue so there is no trouble there.

There is some confusion about the decals on the upper wing surface. The diagram shows them as red with a white surround but the numbers on the decal sheet suggest red only.

There are two colour schemes given. One orange all over and one with camouflage. Talking to the Japanese a/c Sig it was suggested that it should have been orange in accordance with Japanese practice but probably prudence resulted in it being camouflaged. The only pictures I have seen are of it in camouflage.

 

 

 

John

[Mountain goat]

Hi John,

 

Very interesting subject, and a very nice representation of it. Thanks for posting, including the short history.

 

Jay

[glatisant]

Great build.I have mine ready to start on the workbench.

[Knight_Flyer]

Looks very nice and can see the resemblance to the 262.