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TopDrawings 100 Nakajima B5N Kate B5N1, B5N2 (9788366148635)


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TopDrawings 100 Nakajima B5N Kate B5N1, B5N2 (9788366148635)

Kagero Publishing via Casemate UK

 

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The Nakajima B5N was a torpedo bomber nicknamed “Kate” by the Allies to ease identification by crews with simple, familiar names that were easier to pronounce.  It was an interwar design that first flew in 1937, and saw service in the Day of Infamy at Pearl Harbour that brought the US into WWII, as well as some other major battles later in the war, despite its increasing obsolescence in the rapidly developing battle-space of WWII.  It soldiered on until the end of the war due to the delay of its successor, the B6N which saw little service due to the deteriorating circumstances toward the end of the war in the Pacific.

 

It was a three-crew monoplane with folding wingtips for stowage on an aircraft carrier, which was its main operating base.  The mechanism that folded the tips was so unreliable that it was eventually replaced by a manual version, a truly retrograde step that showed something about the engineering situation in Japan at that time.  By the time of Pearl Harbour, the B5N2 was the current model, with the B5N1 involved in the earlier war with China where its shortcomings were first discovered, leading to the B6N’s commencement in a search for higher speed and greater range.

 

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We have kits in all scales down to 1:350 for your carrier models, with many manufacturers getting in on the act in all the major scales, showing that it's a popular subject along with the usual brace of Zeroes.  The TopDrawings series majors on scale plans, which is the main thrust, but also includes a little background information, some pertinent profiles, and a separate A2 sheet printed on both sides with drawings in 1:32 and another A3 sheet in 1:72 of sub-variants of the aircraft.

 

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The book is written in English on the left of the page, with Polish on the right, which translates to top and bottom for the captions to the various drawings within.  The book itself is bound in a card cover and has 20 pages, and the rear cover is devoted to additional profiles of two B5N2s.  After the introduction the first half of the plans show the initial B5N1 in 1:72.  Following this are the colour profiles with four pages of profiles of B5N2s wearing some interesting and varied camo schemes with copious scribble pattern applied to the sides of some.  After the break there is another set of plans for the B5N1 and B5N2s in 1:48, showing the differences between the two types and exhibiting clearly the streamlined cowling of the later model.  Throughout the book, there are numerous smaller diagrams that show the aircraft from front and rear, scrap diagrams for weapons, profiles with weapons slung under, and cross-sectional drawings of the fuselage and wings.  There are also drawings of the engines used on the Kate, and some more detailed drawings of the torpedoes and bombs that were carried by the type.

 

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Conclusion

These books are essential for the modeller that enjoys comparing their models against scale plans, and wants them to be as accurate as possible, with the separate large-scale plans quite useful, especially if you model in 1:32 and 1:72 or have a couple of stains on the wall that could be hidden by posting the plans over it to enjoy.

 

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Review sample courtesy of

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