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Midway Kate


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It's way beyond time I started to document my builds for this GB.

 

So here is the first one; a Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" operating at the Battle of Midway from the Airfix kit.   I orginally intended to use this boxing:

 

N001.JPG

 

But then I realised I had a dogfight double in The Stash which features Midway markings.

 

N001a.JPG

 

But you will still see bits from the original boxing, as I've nicked the cockpit bits for my concurrent Aichi D3A1 Val build.

 

Anyroads...   here are the sprue shots.  This kit is well up to the current Airfix standard. 

 

N002.JPG

 

N003.JPG

 

N004.JPG

 

N005.JPG

 

Lots of ordnance - not all of which will be used.  The model can be built with folded wings but avoids the potential problems of many similar kits.  Rather than having to deal with a joint line between inner and outer wings, the kit requires that you cut the outer wings away and insert components for the wing structure.   But none of that for this one.  I'll be building it with wings in flight configuration.

 

 

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The cockpit floor is an integral part of the upper wing assembly.  It was sprayed with Tamiya XF-71 cockpit green.   The wheel wells were sprayed aluminium from a rattle can and then lightly oversprayed with Lifecolor UA-136 Aotake.

 

N006.JPG

 

Cockpit complete, mainplane assembled and the fuselage halves are ready to be joined and assembled to the mainplane.

 

N007.JPG

 

Like so.

 

N008.JPG

 

The extreme forward fuselage is a seperate component specifically for the B5N2 version.  If you buy the B5N1 boxing, the forward fuselage is a different shape with a totally different cowling.  These parts are included on a seperate sprue.

 

 

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Minimal cleaning up required on this one.  It's an excellent kit.

 

Having primed it with grey plastic primer from a rattle can, I then had to consider the main colours.   I originally sprayed the uppersurfaces with Tamiya XF-70 IJN Dark Green.  that seemed far too dark.  :(  I then tried XF-11 IJN Green.   Too light. :fraidnot:     I experimented with a number of greens and eventually settled on Lifecolor UA-520 RAF dark Green.   The LC paint is not a good match for RAF Dark Green. It's far too bright - and sort of blueish. But it seems to work here.

 

The undersurfaces were sprayed with Tamiy XF-76 IJN Grey-Green.

 

N009.JPG

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That’s looking superb Enzo, but you really must start your posts earlier in the piece as all this rapid looking progress still makes procrastinatiors like me blush - especially when you scroll to the photos before reading all the text!! 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Great choice Enzo! And as a little footnote the new tool airfix kits is it would seem all gems. 

 

The work you have done so far truly compliments the kit. 

 

Carry on Columbus. 

 

Regards:

Shaun 

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Good one Enzo,

 

Your progress has left mine coughing your dust!! 😊

 

I see you have picked a straightforward scheme for yours. The one in have chosen is ambiguous to say the least lol

 

Well done she's looking good.

 

Cheers Greg

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Gee Enzo give me a chance to catch up with your builds before you complete them all! :D

 

It is nice to see some Japanese aircraft show up in the build, and these new Airfix models do look amazing. It's a pity they're only in 1/72nd, it's getting too small for me these days.

 

Good luck with this one to, it'll be great to see her finished. So how many more will we see from the Enzo production line?

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