Doyusha/Swallow N1K2-J George 1/32

[Matt_L]

Hello all, 

 

Been off BM for a little while, lots of life happening at the moment - job change, trying to buy a house...

 

Anyway, some modelling has taken place, including this classic 1/32 kit, that's been boxed by quite a few Japanese manufacturers - Doyusha and Swallow at least. I picked this up under a club table at Bolton for a bargain. It's at least a 1970s moulding (but so am I) but the surface detail is great- all recessed and riveted.

 

There are some snags though - it was meant to be a motorised model (I think Tomy had the moulds first?) so there is a bizarrely shallow cockpit:

 

So, some scratch building and raiding the spares box is needed. Luckily I had a spare pilot from the Hasegawa Tojo who could fill much of the void. So, here's what has been done so far:

Skinning the interior with plasticard and strip, and various semi-accurate(ish) spare parts:

 

IP from an ancient paper set of dials I got from somewhere - onto plasticard, with rough go at dial houses and wires...

 

 

Floor, consoles, seat etc are plasticard and spares. And here's the pilot:

 

 

 

Buttoned up - a nice fit overall:

 

And how the IP sits in the cockpit:

 

So, that's taken about a month on and off, hope to pick up speed now!

 

More soon, Take care, 

Matt 

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2017 by Matt_L
more pics

[Matt_L]

Hi, 

 

Not been as rapid progress as I thought with this, largely due to the terrible fit of wings to fuselage, which got this build paused. But, after working out the right dihedral, and how to make the front of the cowling at least vaguely the same shape as the fuselage it joins to, and laying in more Milliput, we have this:

 

 

 

 

 

You can just see (poor focusing for some reason) the old Hasegawa Fw-190 engine standing in for the blob in the kit. 

 

I've just received the Master gun barrels and a resin pitot (for a Zero, but hey), so nearing the end of construction. 

 

All comments gratefully received, 

 

Take care, 

Matt 

[Matt_L]

Well, the undercoat is now on, (nearly) all seams dealt with and the lovely brass Master barrels in place. The pitot was briefly accompanying them, but pinged into the ether - good job there's two in the pack!

 

 

 

There's some rescribing and rivet detail to replace, but i'm quite happy with how the wing roots turned out, given the amount of plasticard shimming and filler involved.

 

And, a better shot of the engine - nicked from an old build of the Hasegawa (1970s) 190.

 

Next is to polish back the Halford's primer and get the metallic coat on. George's were aluminium all over with the dark green laid down directly on top, no primer, so lots of paint flaking.

 

Take care, 

Matt