Tamiya Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu Type 11, No. 135, "Sasebo Kokutai", 1/48 scale

This is the Tamiya Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu Type 11, No. 135, "Sasebo Kokutai", 1/48 scale, kit #61036 First issued in 1994 I bought this for a reasonable price on Ebay and it had been sitting in my collection for at least 10 years. I am not very knowledgeable about WW II Japanese aircraft but I find float planes very appealing. This is built out of the box with the only additions being seat belts and antenna wire using Infini rigging line. The kit, although not current level Tamiya technology, is well engineered and offers a very good level of component fit. Tamiya includes the correct size weight tht is added inside the float to stabilize the model correctly. The dolly for the aircraft is a very nice addition. The only areas that needed attention are the strut fit to the main float and the rear joint with the wing and the fuselage. that required some plastic recontouring and filling.

The paint finish is Tamiya silver airbrushed as the basecoat since my intent was to attempt to replicate the paint chipping weathering notorious on late war Japanese aircraft. This paint coat was thinned about 50/50 with generic Kleenstrip formula lacquer thinner (a traditional cellulose lacquer thinner) that improperly applied to styrene will severely soften and craze it. However it can be used if applied in misted coats by airbrush; one must avoid wet coats at all costs to avoid underlying styrene damage but once applied and cured the paint layer is near bullet proof with regard to lifting and scratch resistance. This was followed by preshading panel lines with Tamiya gloss black followed by Tamiya IJN Green/IJN Gray, a thinned Future clearcoat with Tamiya gray panel liner weathering and scalpel paint chipping. The final clear coat applied to seal it all is Testors DullCote lacquer. Kit decals were used and although old and typical Tamiya quality they applied as well as one could expect with Tamiya decals In summary a typical Tamiya excellent quality kit with superior engineering using 1994 fabrication technology. A pleasure to build and a good choice for beginners and less experienced scale modelers.

15 additional images. Click to enlarge.