Kawanishi N1K1, Hasegawa 1/72

[Doc72]

Hi, I would like to enter into my second GB with Hasegawa's classic floatplane fighter.

I have long been fascinated by this plane: floatplane fighters are one of the most bizarre categories of military aircraft and almost a mission impossible to design. Floats are hard to reconcile with low weights and good aerodynamics. Nevertheless, Kawanishi had done a good job with the N1K1 (based on the equally fascinating E15K fast reconnaissance aircraft). A design so sound that it was later turned into a land-based fighter, the N1K1-J. This must be one of the very few cases when a floatplane or flying boat was converted into a conventional plane and not the other way round. The only other case, I can think of, was the Piaggio P.166 which was based on the amphibian P.136. Do you know others?

[JOCKNEY]

Great choice, welcome to the GB.

I believe the Blackburn Kangaroo was a floatplane first, this was unsuccessful so converted to a land plane and it was very successful.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackburn_Kangaroo

cheers Pat

[jrlx]

Hi Doc,

 

Welcome to the GB! Looking forward to seeing this aircraft taking shape!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[greggles.w]

2 hours ago, Doc72 said:

This must be one of the very few cases when a floatplane or flying boat was converted into a conventional plane and not the other way round. The only other case, I can think of, was the Piaggio P.166 which was based on the amphibian P.136. Do you know others?

Oh, this sounds like a fun game!

 

.. some like to make a link between the Supermarine S6B & the spitfire ... but beyond pedigree I think that’s fairly debatable ...

 

Otherwise, what about the Blohm & Voss Ha 139 floatplane, which transitioned to landplane as the Bv 142.

 

Will keep thinking if there’s others ...

 

Good luck with the build!

[Doc72]

Good point. I forgot about the Ha-139.

And I had never heard about the Kangaroo. Blackburn always seems to be a good place to look for oddities. 

Edited September 5, 2019 by Doc72

[greggles.w]

18 hours ago, Doc72 said:

Blackburn always seems to be a good place to look for oddities. 

so true.  A relevant case in point: Blackburn B-20 float plane with float that retracts into said plane to become .. flying boat .. I think?

 

 

[Thom216]

Looks like something out of some anime. Kinda cool!

[greggles.w]

1 hour ago, Thom216 said:

Looks like something out of some anime. Kinda cool!

Funny you should say that: the only kit I know of it comes from the land of anime, Japan, by Akatombo Works in resin at 1/72:

 

 

 

[Doc72]

That's really an exotic design. The basic idea is clever, however. Blackburn even worked on a seaplane fighter based on the same principle and taking the Firebrand as a starting point. The resulting B.44 never left the drawing board unfortunately.

In retroperspective, it's really astonishing that Blackburn designed such an outstanding aircraft like the Buccaneer after so many odd and mostly mediocre or worse designs.

[Doc72]

I actually managed to glue some plastic together and throw paint at it:

 

This is an interesting kit. Instead of instructing you to put some lead into the nose, Hasegawa supplies us with a solid chunk of plastic that fits into the float. Does anyone know if this is sufficiently heavy? Maybe I will drill a hole into it and insert some lead to make sure.

 

The only problem so far is that I can't find spruce G. Either Hasegawa forgot to put into into the box or a new and highly voracious subspecies of carpet monster ate it. Most scary, especially because there is no carpet where I am modelling.

[greggles.w]

3 hours ago, Doc72 said:

This is an interesting kit. Instead of instructing you to put some lead into the nose, Hasegawa supplies us with a solid chunk of plastic that fits into the float. Does anyone know if this is sufficiently heavy?

That is novel! Sorry I can’t provide the answer, but I would have thought one can trust Hasegawa? .. or is that a little naive!

[Thom216]

Trust Hasegawa, they know what they're doing...

 

But, when in doubt, grab some old nuts and bolts!

[Doc72]

Better safe than sorry...

 

Have a good look at the cockpit. It will hardly be visible once in the fuselage.

[Doc72]

Due to the missing sprue I actually had to buy another kit. This has turned out to be an expensive model... At least the decals in the second box have yellowed less.

 

 

Looking good so far. And it is no tail sitter, actually it sits quiet comfortably on its little dolly.

 

I thought about fitting the central float only after painting to save me some masking. However, there is some need for filler so I have glued it at its place already at this stage. The smaller floats on the wing look like they will break away easily so they rest apart for a while, at least until everything is puttied and sanded.

[Graham Boak]

On 9/7/2019 at 8:44 PM, Doc72 said:

That's really an exotic design. The basic idea is clever, however. Blackburn even worked on a seaplane fighter based on the same principle and taking the Firebrand as a starting point. The resulting B.44 never left the drawing board unfortunately.

In retroperspective, it's really astonishing that Blackburn designed such an outstanding aircraft like the Buccaneer after so many odd and mostly mediocre or worse designs.

I think I would say fortunate rather than unfortunate.

 

When I was at Pages, I was told that the Buccaneer was largely designed by ex-Handley Page staff who left HP when the Victor design past its peak.  That might explain something...

 

I have a resin and a High Planes Kyofu awaiting significant work, so would be willing to take the unwanted spares off your hand for a reasonable price.    What's on sprue G anyway?

[Thom216]

5 hours ago, Doc72 said:

Due to the missing sprue I actually had to buy another kit. This has turned out to be an expensive model... At least the decals in the second box have yellowed less.

And now you have another kit to build, once you replace that now missing sprue. Contact Hase...

Edited September 20, 2019 by Thom216

[Doc72]

14 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

I think I would say fortunate rather than unfortunate.

 

When I was at Pages, I was told that the Buccaneer was largely designed by ex-Handley Page staff who left HP when the Victor design past its peak.  That might explain something...

 

I have a resin and a High Planes Kyofu awaiting significant work, so would be willing to take the unwanted spares off your hand for a reasonable price.    What's on sprue G anyway?

The shape of the wing of the Buccaneer and the Victor look similar, so this would support this theory (or this design was just fashionable at the day).

 

Thanks for your offer to take the surplus sprue. Sprue G carries the cowling mainly. Although less than 100 N1K1s were built in real life, Hase produced 3 versions of it, each in different boxing. The difference is mainly in the cowling and the propeller. That is probably why they mixed it up.

Actually, before I promise you the parts, I will wait to finish the model. Maybe I mess up some parts and need replacements.

[Graham Boak]

I suspect (pretty sure) that the aircraft configuration will have been settled long before any transfer of people, and would only involve a handful of specialists anyway.  I agree that the modifying the sweep outboard was common by the time the NA.39 was conceived, as one of the means of solving the problem of spanwise airflow on  highly swept wings   Increased chord (Vulcan, Hunter, Swift) was another, as were notches and fences.  The Victor just had it first for real - the idea was lifted from Arado work.

 

No rush for any parts, just drop a PM should you have any available at the end.  Thanks.

[Doc72]

Just a sign of life here. Actually there has been only limited progress.

 

Now the small floats are on. This is a fairly fragile construction. Ideally Hasegawa should have made a kind ol L-shaped design to anchor the struts in the wing. This would have made it easier to get the angle right, too.

 

And I painted the wooden walkways on the dolly. I am quite satisfied how the wood effect came out. This is the old technique where you apply a solid base coat first, then cover everything in dark oil paint and finally wipe away the still wet oil with a small piece of sponge.

 

BTW: does anyone has a good guess about the colour of the dolly? I think the kit's instruction don't give you the colour. Often modeller's choose black, brown or dark grey. The N1K1 restored in Fredericksburg, Tx has a light or medium grey dolly, however. Well, I won't get too pedantic about the colour on Japanese Navy dollys.

 

 

[Courageous]

A very purposeful 'throaty' look, nice.

I like your wood effect. What's your base coat colour for your wood effect? Oil colour?

 

Stuart

[Doc72]

The base coat is a mix from some Tamiya sand tones (something like XF-57, XF-59, ...). Of course, for used and weathered wood you could also go more into greys. Actually, I airbrushed the Tamiya paint and let it dry for only 10 minutes or so before I applied a rough coat of artist oils direct from the tube with a tooth stick. Still no problems with the oils attacking the acrylic paint. But I will leave the oils to dry for a couple of days before everything gets a clear coat.

A helpful tutorial can be found here (a little bit moe sophisticated): http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&page=1&artid=3009

[Doc72]

Oooops, what have I done?

 

Stressed skin is the fashion right now. We'll see how it turned out after sanding and polishing.

[Courageous]

9 hours ago, Doc72 said:

Oooops, what have I done?

Exactly...what have you done. Hope you know what you're doing 'cos I don't have a clue.

 

Stuart

[Doc72]

Well, my attempt at stressed skin. It is meant to replicate the dents and buckling on a real plane made of thin aluminium sheet riveted to frames. It's an experiment. Probably not all that much will be visible after sanding, polishing and a coat of primer.

 

It might be a cliché that all Japanese planes werde made from paper-thin aluminium sheet, but a least I will avoid the other cliché of huge parts of the paint scheme flaking off everywhere!

[jrlx]

I was a bit worried with the photo above... I'm now curious to see how it turns out.

 

Good luck with your experiment

 

Jaime