Revell 1:32, Kawanishi N1K1-j Shiden “George”
Hello,
This is the very old Revell N1K1 Shiden, I believe it's produced in the late 70's.
Build the plane about a year ago, OOB adding only some seatbelts made of Evergreen and breaklines.
Everything is painted with Tamiya acrylics, only decals used are the numbers on the tail.
best regards;
Ulrich
Oooooooooh I have always wanted to see one of these built, as I have one. This is a favorite aircraft of mine, prefering it to the more common Shiden-Kai. I keep looking the Very rare kit over trying to decide whether to build it or not. You have done a great job on it, the weathering is fine. Did you do anything with the interior? For it's age the surface detail is quite good. Great build, keep the Japanese stuff coming.
If you build it, keep in mind that the wings don't join very well to the fuselage on the bottomside, the decal are "c**p" as you can see at the tailcode ( hinumarus are painted), exhaust-pipes can use some patience when you build the engine, And if you can get a pair...use A6M Zero wheels because these were not the proper size and shape.
Best regards;
Ulrich
One of the "Holy Grails" of the Revell 60s-70s 1/32 kits, the series included a Tony and one other I can't think of right now. The molds were lost in a shipwreck from what I read. right now there is a collector weeping bitterly because you built it, but it is a great job and I am glad you did. Kits are meant to be built!
"The molds were lost in a shipwreck" is an Ancient Mariner's Tale.
The George, the Typhoon, and the Beaufighter are kits in the series that still stand the test of time: accurate outline and not that hard to bring to contemporary standards with a bit of "some modeling skill required" - as you have clearly demonstrated here.
Not a complaint, but passed on for others: all the N1K1s and N1K2s had aluminum undersides. For a long time the "experts" thought otherwise, so no one should be faulted since even the gods were caught short.
This puts me in mind to be looking forward to Hasegawa's coming release this summer of the 1/32 N1K2 (I hope they just pantograph up the 1/48 kit, like they did with the P-40s and the J2Ms and the Ki.84).
Very nice work.
Nice build...and a unique piece of "artwork" you've used as a 'base' for your kits - I've noticed that before, but neglected to comment on it.
Beautiful jpb Ulrich, Outstanding work Sir. I love the paint chipping and the weathering. Very nicely done, and not OVER done. Wow.
Tom: Thanks for answering my next question as I am gearing up to paint my N1K1-Ja, (1:48). I was just wondering about the underside coloring as I have seen it depicted both ways.
Again Ulrich, your model is Beautiful! Thanks for posting!
Freddie
To all of you;
thanks you for your compliments!
Here is the build in Dutch;
http://plakkers-inc.nl/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1728
and better pics...
http://plakkers-inc.nl/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1745
@ Tom; according to the building instructions the underside should be silver, but the model didn't went together very well at the bottomside and everybody knows how it will have looked if I sprayed it silver... 😉
but on the web looking at several pics of the N1K1 it's hard to tell if they were IJN grey or Bare Metal. And looking at some pics I discovered that on some planes the rivets weren't visible so i assumed they were painted.
And about the missing molds; This could be true considering that there were NO re-re-releases of the Revell Tony, Jack and George after the early '80's like Revell did with their F4U, Spitfires, P-51's...
Best regards;
Ulrich Schütt
I'll put the same question to you, Ulrich...what's the story behind those brown propellers the Japanese were so fond of..?