Depicted as first attack wave commanders aircraft from the IJN Carrier Akagi Pearl harbour December 1941. Crew: Captain Matsuzaki Mitsuo (pilot) Commander Fuchida Mitsuo (observer) and Airman First Class Mizuki Morinobu (radio operator)
Japanese World War 2 subjects are not something that I usually build. In fact I have only ever built one other, that being a Tamiya Zero . I picked this up at the local hobby shop as it was in the 50% off rack to build as a quick palate cleanser.
The Kit
- 1/48 Hasegawa Nakajima B5N2 Carrier Attack Bomber (Kate) Model 3 (Kit No 09076/JT76)
Aftermarket
- Eduard Self Adhesive PE set, Parts used - Instrument panels and seal belt.
The Build
Hasegawa give you a magnificent cockpit straight from the box. I should have used the decals for the IP but was to lazy so went with an Eduard PE one.
I did find out I painted the cockpit the wrong colour (Tamiya IJN cockpit green XF71). I had matched it to the coloured PE (which I didn't end up using) rather than using the colour called out in the instructions (Mr Color 127) which is a light tan colour. But as this is a simple palette cleanser I decided to leave it and crack on. Once you put the cockpit assembly into the fuselage not a lot can be seen anyway.
Fit on this kit is pretty good. A few seams needed addressing as usual but the only other filler needed was where the leading edge of one wing joined the fuselage.
The main issue was the faint, in places Hasegawa engraving. This needed re-scribing and this is a part of modelling I despise. Hasegawa's rock hard plastic does you no favours here. Thankfully all the engraving that needed fixing were a 3 or 4 long straight lines.
Markings
I wasn't so sure about the Hasegawa decals as this is an old kit, and as the markings are pretty straightforward I figured I'd paint them. I usually like to do the markings after the main colours as I find I have less issues that way. But decided to do it first this time.
Masks were made by scanning the decal sheet and tracing with Corel Draw, then cut with my Silhouette Portrait.
I prefer the tape over vinyl as it is much easier to burnish down. The stripe on the tail is Tamiya tape for curves. The red is Mr Color Red Madder, my favourite red. Whilst it's way brighter than the Hasegawa markings I know it will darken under a sepia wash.
Painting and Finishing
Mr Colour 15 Dark Green Nakajima, as per the instructions was used for the upper green colour. Mr Color Super Silver and Tamiya AS12 were used on the underside. Other shades of greens were sprayed through various splatter masks to try and break up the solid colour. I think I ended up using to much paint on this model. The trick with the technique is knowing when to stop.
Once everything was dry I gave the model a rub with some paper towel to remove some roughness in the finish that resulted from not taking care when spraying. Once the surface was smooth enough I applied a wash of ABT 502 Sepia.
A gloss coat was sprayed over the tail prior to applying the Hasegawa decals. These are very thin and fragile but they settled down well just with Micro Sol.
Mr Color GX114 flat was used to flatten everything down. After a couple of coats of GX114 the carrier film was still visible on certain angles. To fix this I applied a coat of VMS Flat, and the carrier film vanished. Acrylic flats like VMS have some magic super power that makes stubborn carrier film disappear.
Coloured pencils were used to add some scuffing and scratching. I didn't spend to much time on this as it was intended as palette cleanser.
Final Touches
As usual fitting the clear parts, undercarriage and remaining small bits took way longer than I wanted them to. Once I'd got everything on I wasn't happy with the flatness of the finish so I sprayed some semi gloss over much of the model. I make my semi gloss by mixing SMS gloss and flat to get the sheen I was after.
Rather than use the kit pitot probe I made one from 2 sizes of brass tube.
Conclusion
Despite being first released in 2001 this kit still holds up well. Fit is excellent and detail is more than adequate. It is a great example of why Hasegawa kits were (and are) well regarded by modellers.
The only issue, which, in my humble opinion, is typical of Hasegawa kits in general, is that the panel lines can be a little faint/shallow in places. This kit needed a couple of lines rescribed, but thankfully they were simple straight lines.
If I ever built another I'd do the canopy the closed. The stacked canopies fitted well enough but they do look a little out of scale.
The Photos
