A ‘George’, by George! Hasegawa 1/72 N1K2-J

I don't know how long I've had this kit, but Scalemates shows this ‘Blue B1' boxing being released in 1980 (original tooling from 1977 – but it might even be an older Mania kit?). Impressive kit with very nice fit and nicely recessed paneling lines, but not much detail in the cockpit and plain wheel wells.
This little guy went together very quickly, but I stalled a little when I looked at the later released kits and noticed the sqn lettering and fuselage striping should have been yellow, depicting First Lieutenant Tokushima's aircraft with the 343rd Naval Wing 301st Fighter Sqn. Other web searches identified Tokushima's N1K2 with different positioned striping and a white ‘15'. I tried to look for replacement decals, but didn't want to spend more money than what I spent on the kit.
Even though I'm pretty sure the undersides should be a natural metal finish, As per kit instructions I proceeded to do an easy broadcast spray of XF-11 and Xf-12 for the JN colours. When it can time to finish, I decided to celebrate the original kit with the issued decals and I was pleasantly surprised just how nice they settled into place and sank into the recessed paneling. Not sure if the victory stamps should be there, other views show the stamps to be upside down (yikes). Later tried to do some panel accents which came out fine on the Grey and not too noticeable on the Dark Green.

Thanks for viewing.

6 additional images. Click to enlarge.