1/72 Tamiya N1K1-J Shiden "George"

Gallery Article by Jerry Hawhee (Old Blind Dog) on July 21 2010

 

Kawanishi’s Shiden (Allied code-name “George”) was a land-based variant of the N1K1 Kyofu floatplane (“Bea”).  Employing the smaller, more powerful Nakajima NK9H Homare Type 21 radial engine, the new design required a large four-bladed prop to take full advantage of the added power, which in turn necessitated the development of longer main gears, giving the plane its unique stance. The complicated folding mechanism on the gears, among other things, plagued the type with difficulties on the ground; but the Shiden displayed superb flying characteristics, and proved formidable in air to air combat. In all, 1,007 were produced beginning in early 1944. (see Axis Aircraft of World War Two by David Monday, (London: Chancellor Press, 1984) pages 137-139)

 

Tamiya’s 1/72 “George” is, as one would expect, a marvel of precision engineering in miniature, and builds up into a model with real presence and character—assuming one can avoid certain pitfalls in the process where painting considerations affect construction. It took me three tries finally to get this one right, but, eventually I figured out what I needed to do.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

Prior to construction, I pre-shaded all panel lines with a mechanical pencil, periodically sharpening the lead on a coarse sanding wand. The building process itself began with the cockpit, which was fully assembled before painting. I sprayed the entire subassembly as well as the fuselage interior with Tamiya XF 71 (Japanese Cockpit Green), and used the kit-supplied decals for the seatbelts and instrument panel.

 

The plastic in this kit is not typical of Tamiya’s more familiar product, being somewhat softer with a dull, light-gray-green hue, as opposed to the usual glossy neutral gray. While the fuselage and wing sections went together quite well using Testors Liquid Cement (applied from the glass bottle with a Microbrush), there were two fairly substantial gaps at the wing roots, which had to be filled with Tamiya Basic Putty.  The circular nub/engine mount, which comes together horizontally when the fuselage halves are joined was slightly out of alignment and had to be re-shaped with a rifler file for the engine to fit properly.

 

I assembled the nicely detailed three-part radial engine, hand painting it with a combination of Tamiya Metallic Gray, Model Master Acryl Steel, Citadel Chainmail, and a wash of The Detailer, black. I waited to attach the engine to the fuselage until the exterior painting was complete, tacking the cowl in place with poster putty, and masking off the empty engine bay with scraps of wet paper towel.

 

The biggest mistake I’d made when trying to build this kit in the past was attaching the centerline fuel tank, oil cooler, and under-wing machine gun pods before painting. Do this, and, believe me, all kinds of wackiness ensues when you try to mask off the undercarriage. For one thing, Tamiya’s tolerances are so precise that the protruding machine guns will interfere with the upper gear doors, making it next to impossible to attach one or the other at the end; for another, it takes a lot of masking tape to cover all those bumpy components sufficiently to avoid unsightly bleed-under. After some head-scratching, I decided to build and paint the various protuberances separately, keeping them off the main body of the model almost until the end. This time, it worked.  

I sprayed Polly Scale IJN Sky Gray on the underside (as well as the separate under-wing components), ghosting it in several light coats to allow the pre-shading to show through. After masking, Polly Scale IJN Green was ghosted on to the upper surfaces, followed with a couple light coats of PS Clear Gloss. Reluctantly, I went ahead and used the kit-supplied decals, typically thick and somewhat sluggish, but serviceable and fairly sturdy when actuated in extra-hot water. The yellow leading edge stripes gave me the worst fits, though, to me, their rough and ragged appearance gives the model a certain battle-weary look—call it character. Decals were sealed in with an additional coat of PS Clear Gloss, followed up with another light coat of PS Clear Flat. Markings represent a plane of the Tsukuba Fighter Group of the Imperial Japanese Navy circa 1944.

 

The main gears and wheels were sprayed with Tamiya AS 12, Bare Metal Silver directly from the rattle can. Machine guns were hand-brushed MM Acryl Gunmetal. Polly Scale Grimy Black was used for the tires, applied with a Microbrush. The prop was hand-painted Polly Scale Roof Brown to simulate the Tea Brown color of the original, and the spinner was mounted on a glob of poster putty impaled on a decapitated Q-Tip, and sprayed Polly Scale IJN Green.

 

They say the third time’s a charm. All I know is it’s nice to finally finish a model, and actually get it right. Thanks for looking.

Jerry Hawhee (Old Blind Dog)

Photos and text © by Jerry Hawhee (Old Blind Dog)