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John Healy
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1/48 A2N3 Naval Fighter – Empire of Japan Group Build.

June 29, 2020 · in Aviation · · 31 · 1.9K

This is the new A.B. & K. kit which I purchased direct from the manufacturer in the Czech Republic. This model really came out of left field and represents one of my Holy Grail subjects which I thought would never be kitted in . I've come to believe that if you wait long enough, someone in Eastern Europe will make a decent kit of your most obscure desire in 1/48! This one really is a winner. It is well designed, well molded, and simply engineered. It went together well and reminds me of 's second generation WW1 biplane models. I finished mine using the kit markings to depict an example from the carrier Ryujo in 1936. The seatbelts were modified from an RAF set and I rigged it with stainless steel wire. If you want to see construction photos, they're posted in my thread on the Japanese group build page. Thanks for looking.

Reader reactions:
17  Awesome

9 additional images. Click to enlarge.


31 responses

  1. That looks really nice John. You're right about it being on the "I'll never see a kit of this one" list. Great result!

  2. Beautiful clean build. Very nice.

  3. Having followed this beauty from the start, I was amazed by your quality work at each stage, John!
    Congratulations again, my friend! This a rarely seen beauty!

  4. I guess this kit is another nail in coffin of that old discussion about the end of our hobby...new kits pop almost daily and some subjects we thought would only become available in highly expensive multimedia boxes (as a best case scenario that is!) are now becoming available in plastic and judging by your fantastic model, some are real gems. Splendid job, congratulations!

  5. Would you be so kind as to post a brief description of how you put the lines between the wings on. It looks great. Thank you.

    • Thanks, Jim. I drill shallow anchor points where each wire connects to the kit, measure the length with dividers, affix with a tiny dab of super glue.

  6. Great job on this John. This kit is a new one on me.

    • Thanks, Dale. It’s right up your alley. Check it out. You can get them from the manufacturer or from Scott’s Model Workshop eBay store.

  7. Wow, that is really beautiful, John. Perfectly executed!

  8. Beautiful build of a kit that like you I thought would never be tooled.

  9. Might I add that all the pluswords you used to praise the kit, adheres to the finished build too? Well done indeed!

  10. Nice and clean build John.
    Very good looking rigging you have done.

  11. Beautiful clean paintjob. Nice work. Best regards

  12. Great job! Striking paint job. Love the red on silver.

  13. That is a one sparkling NMF. This is one of those planes I didn't even know existed.

  14. Looks great! Love the Japanese silver/red schemes - looks good with their meatballs.

  15. Really nice build of a beautiful looking plane. Great job!

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