Yokosuka K5Y Akatombo 赤とんぼ (Red Dragonfly) “Willow”

The K5Y Akatombo was a primary trainer in service with the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1933 through the end of the Pacific War. It was called Akatombo (Red Dragonfly) after a Japanese children's poem of the time due to its bright overall orange-yellow paint scheme. There were two variants in service, the wheeled K5Y1 land-based version and the K5Y2 floatplane. The two versions differed in their landing gear and in the chord of the vertical stabilizer, that of the K2Y2 was more broad to compensate for the surface area of the floats. A surprising bit of trivia - the last US warship lost to kamikaze attack was the destroyer USS Callaghan (DD-792), sunk by a K5Y on 29JUL45.

There are two moldings of the K5Y available to 1/72 scale modelers. The LS molding was first released in 1973 and came in boxings with either wheels or floats, although both versions came with the small-chord vertical stabilizers. The AZ molding was released in 2013 and includes resin details, PE instrument panels, and parts to build both the land-based and floatplane versions.

I rebuilt the cockpits with Evergreen. The vertical stabilizers on both kits required correction. Ignition wires were added to the engines, and all handholds were either drilled out or replaced with wire. The beaching gear was scratchbuilt and is only my best guess given what could be seen in photographs.

Construction thread here for those interested: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/?s=akatombo+part

20 additional images. Click to enlarge.