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Hasegawa 1/72 Kawanishi H8K2 'Emily' (new tool)


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This will be my entry for this Group Build: the new-tool Hasegawa Kawanishi H8K2 'Emily':

 

DSCN6409.jpg

 

It looks a lovely kit, I hope I can make a decent effort of it. The initial edition of the kit came with a free cutaway poster of the aircraft which will be useful for painting the interior detail and crew figures (though the text is wasted on me, unfortunately):

 

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Pictured here are the instructions, and the canopy mask set included with the kit - this includes the turret glazing but not masks for the little fuselage windows:

 

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Transfer options are provided for 3 aircraft as well as the national markings and stencilling:

 

DSCN6417.jpg

 

I was a little concerned by the amount of carrier film around the wing walkway decals in particular, but this chap has built the kit and rated the decals very highly, so I am somewhat reassured :) 

 

On to the sprues then:

 

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...and four of these:

 

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Surprisingly (as most manufacturers including Hasegawa seem to have stopped doing this) a full crew of 11 are provided (actually 16 figures are included on the sprues so some can go to the spares box) as multi-part mouldings giving the potential for a degree of mix-and-match to avoid exact duplication... these are beautifully-sculpted little guys and I'm looking forward to making them up. For the purposes of display I'll need to attach the externally-fitted wheel arrangements and it will perhaps seem odd to include the crew with guns deployed as well as these, but I can't not use the crew so please indulge me :) 

 

The paint scheme is the same for each marking option: Imperial Japanese Navy D1 Deep Green Black* over aluminium. I'll be using Colourcoats ACJ01 IJN D1 Deep Green Black for the uppersurfaces and most likely Alclad Semi-matt Aluminium for the undersides. The interior is mostly (painted) aluminium, apart from the section forward of the wings - Hasegawa don't really give specific information on what this colour was, simply suggesting mixing 50% Mitsubishi Interior Green with 50% of a choice of three different greens. I'll be up in Aberdeen in a couple of weeks doing some Sovereign Hobbies stuff with Jamie and Gill so I'll see if we can match the colour with the interior pics shown on the cutaway poster when I am up there.

 

Apologies for the excessive preamble :)

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

* Nick Millman was kind enough to confirm this - the slightly lurid green used on the Emily that was until recently displayed in the USA was a post-war repaint from a time when we were perhaps less particular about the colour accuracy of paint used on restorations of captured aircraft.

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I've been looking forward to seeing this ever since you revealed the box to us Stew :thumbsup: .

 

It's superb that it has a full, and poseable crew. This should be a lovely kit to build.

 

:popcorn: 

 

Best regards

TonyT

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On 9/3/2017 at 8:44 PM, Greg in OK said:

That kit looks great.  An update on the old version was sadly needed...

Thanks Greg, the old kit is good for its age, but I was really chuffed when I saw they were making a new tooling.

 

On 9/3/2017 at 9:16 PM, TonyTiger66 said:

...It's superb that it has a full, and poseable crew. This should be a lovely kit to build...

I hope so Tony, it has had good reviews for the fit so I hope I won't be spending too much time filling and sanding. I was particularly pleased that they included the crew before I saw them - now I have seen them I am doubly happy as they are superb, but just hope I can do them adequate justice (I hope I can, given that most likely very little will be seen of them once they are inside!)

 

On 9/3/2017 at 9:36 PM, Procopius said:

It looks like a really cracking kit, and if anyone can make the best of it, it's Stew "Magic Fingers" Dapple. 

Haha I will settle for finishing it in a manner I consider satisfactory PC :) 

 

On 9/3/2017 at 9:41 PM, JOCKNEY said:

...This is a fantastic choice, like many looking at this, I have one in the stash, but not the posh new one.

Good luck with the build...

Thanks Pat, I think the old kit is still well-respected but... well, sometimes you see something and your heart overrules your head and your wallet, the outcome was never really at issue with me.

 

On 9/3/2017 at 10:57 PM, greggles.w said:

That is big! Confirmed when the kit includes two wing spars the width of the box...

Thanks Greg - yes, when the kit s complete the wings are actually designed to be removable for storage, apparently it works very well, but i'll have to see how mine turns out... if I remember I'll put up some pics with the Italeri Sunderland for comparison, I don't feel it is that much bigger but I'd be interested to see... incidentally my friend and evil overlord Jamie from Sovereign Hobbies referred to the Emily as "the steampunk Sunderland" :D 

 

On 9/4/2017 at 0:44 AM, jrlx said:

...Welcome to the GB! Impressive machine you have chosen, really looking forward to seeing it taking shape...

Thanks very much Jaime, and thanks for having me - I'm looking forward to building this one too :) 

17 hours ago, AlexN said:

I just ran out of 'likes', but I will be following this one! Must have a look on HLJ... ;)

Thanks Alex - but beware, that way lies madness :) There is a forthcoming H8K1 in October, I believe. I believed so much that I ordered one :blush: I'm not sure what I was thinking and I'm not sure I care :D 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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As mentioned above, I thought it might be interesting to compare the kit for size against the Italeri Sunderland - wings, Emily at the top:

 

DSCN6439.jpg

 

Rather greater in span but narrower in chord. The fuselages, lacking turrets and other protuberances (emily at the top again):

 

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A bit longer for Emily, but slightly less deep. Seeing them next to each other made me realise the Emily looks less like a Sunderland than I subconsciously imagined it did. Both very big and impressive though.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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5 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Seeing them next to each other made me realise the Emily looks less like a Sunderland than I subconsciously imagined it did. 

Less friendly. The Sunderland looks like it handles the mail run to the isle of Sodor.

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Interesting comparison - the typically restrained and more-appropriate-to-scale surface detailing of the Hasegawa kit is really evident compared with Italeri's Marianas subduction zones. An all-too-common fad at the moment - looking at you, Airfix!

 

Having said that, the Sunderland looks to be a good kit to get one's grubby little paws on, too! :D

 

Cheers,

Alex.

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I remember seeing a kit of this aircraft in a model shop at the end of the 1960's (cannot remember who the manufacturer was), and have been intrigued by this ever since. I knew that it was big - approximately Sunderland size - so it was very interesting to see the comparison photos. Will be following along with interest as I have so much to learn about this aircraft.

 

P

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/7/2017 at 5:32 PM, rob85 said:

Stew! I've really been looking forward to this one, the kit appears to be a good one.

 

Rob

Rob! Good to hear from you mate; the kit is a beauty, it really is, all I need to do is to do it justice :D 

 

On 9/7/2017 at 11:21 PM, AlexN said:

Interesting comparison - the typically restrained and more-appropriate-to-scale surface detailing of the Hasegawa kit is really evident compared with Italeri's Marianas subduction zones. An all-too-common fad at the moment - looking at you, Airfix!

 

Having said that, the Sunderland looks to be a good kit to get one's grubby little paws on, too! :D

 

Cheers,

Alex.

I know what you mean Alex, but I think to a degree we do get what we ask for - as we demanded engraved panel lines rather than raised ones it may have caused a feeling amongst manufacturers that more must be better. In fairness to Airfix apart from a couple of the early Hornby-era kits (the Spitfire and the Bf110 in particular) the panel lines are  (in my opinion, for what that's worth) no worse than on Hasegawa's He111 series. The detail on the Italeri Sunderland is a bit much even for me and I am generally a forgiving soul, but I will wait and see what the MPM/Special Hobby one looks like (the surface detailing appears to be much more restrained) and if they extend the series to do a Mk.I I might just get one of those instead.

 

On 9/7/2017 at 11:29 PM, pheonix said:

I remember seeing a kit of this aircraft in a model shop at the end of the 1960's (cannot remember who the manufacturer was), and have been intrigued by this ever since. I knew that it was big - approximately Sunderland size - so it was very interesting to see the comparison photos. Will be following along with interest as I have so much to learn about this aircraft.

 

P

That might well have been the earier Hasegawa kit if that model shop tended toward the exotic, or perhaps the FROG rebox; I went through much the same process having seen the kit in Everybody's Hobbies in Ipswich around the same time... 

 

On 9/28/2017 at 10:15 AM, CedB said:

Ah there you are! Looking forward to this Stew, especially your crew painting (as usual!).

I'm in :popcorn:

 

Hi Ced, nice to have you along, I am looking forward to the crew as well, they are superb figures :)

 

Well I thought I'd better get started on this, and in a startling turnabout construction does not start with the cockpit! I know, it is rather perverted isn't it, but the instructions advise that you build the engines and wings before starting on the fuselage, and who am I to argue? So I cracked on with the engines. Now for a sum of monies, Eduard will provide you with a set of resin engines but given the close-cowled nature of the engines and the large propeller spinners fitted I couldn't say if it is worth the money, unless you intend to have at least a couple of the engines with the cowlings off undergoing maintenance - which you could do, as Eduard also provide an etched-brass set to deploy the leading-edge maintenance platforms, which swing down from the wings in much the same way as those on the Sunderland.

 

I'm just going with the kit engines anyway, as they are beautifully moulded and the cylinders are very finely ribbed, for your pleasure:

 

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Hasegawa provide their usual poly-caps which go inside the crankcase/reduction gear/whatever that lump on the front of the engine is. This means you can fit and remove the propellers at your leisure and the are also handy for inserting a cocktail stick into for ease of handling while painting the engine parts. I glued the two sets of cylinder banks for each engine and once they had a few minutes to set I attached the reduction gear covers with the enclosed poly-caps:

 

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Later on I will paint the engines and attach them to the bulkheads. The instructions indicate that the inside of the cowlings and the bulkheads should be painted the same green as the cockpit area, but since the rest of the fuselage interior is painted Aluminium I'm not sure that Kawanishi would go to the trouble of painting the cowling interiors in the cockpit colour - I could be wrong, but I'm going with Aluminium for mine.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Nice engines Stew :)

I'm with you on the interior colour, although I guess some areas might have had a 'protective coat' and others just left 'natural'?

Bit like tanning I guess...

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On 10/4/2017 at 7:55 AM, CedB said:

Nice engines Stew :)

I'm with you on the interior colour, although I guess some areas might have had a 'protective coat' and others just left 'natural'?

Bit like tanning I guess...

Thanks Ced :) - the Aluminium colour of the interiors is a protective coat of paint, not bare metal. The cockpit itself is painted a greenish colour but the remainder of the interior is Aluminium (much the same as the interior of the Sunderland, in fact). I seem to recall reading somewhere that the greenish colour used in the interiors of British aircraft was supposed to be easy on the eyes; if that is correct there wouldn't really be any need to paint the insides of the engine cowlings in that colour - in any case, I am guessing, but as you can see below, it doesn't really make any difference... :D 

 

On 10/4/2017 at 12:42 PM, pheonix said:

That is a good start. Those engines will look god enough if you do not intend to have the front covers off.

 

P

My feelings exactly mate :) 

 

On 10/4/2017 at 1:20 PM, jrlx said:

Good start, Stew! The engine detail looks good.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

Yes, they are quite lovely, I have been very impressed with the moulding of this kit :)

 

Heard from HLJ that they have taken the payment for the H8K1. There goes my disposable income for the month... 

 

Anyway, here's what I did with the engines - first a coat of Vallejo Metal Color "Exhaust Manifold" on the cylinders, followed by a wash of black (Citadel Nuln Oil - the bottom left one hasn't been done, so you can see the before/after effect):

 

DSCN6469.jpg

 

Then a drybrush of Vallejo Metal Colour "Silver" (again the bottom left one not done):

 

DSCN6471.jpg

 

There aren't many colour pictures of Sakae radial engines on the interwebs, but most of those that there are seem to indicate black push-rods, so I painted them accordingly:

 

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The reduction gear covers were painted in Neutral Grey as per the instructions:

 

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... and the whole lot grubbied up a bit with a brownish-black wash:

 

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The same wash was radomly slopped on the cowling interiors and engine bulkheads after they had been painted with Vallejo Metal Colour Dark Aluminium:

 

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... to which the engines were attached:

 

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... and finally the cowlings fitted:

 

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...which brings me nicely to the end of stage 1 of the instructions. Next up will be the assembly of the wings...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello stew,

Sorry, did'nt see her before, impressive kit !

Let's see Emily play !

Will look at her from time to time, very promising job.

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

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