OUT OF THE BOX
I along with some of you have
enjoyed the Nichimo B5N2 Kate. The kit originated some years ago
and for it's time was not bad at all. However the kit had several
deficiencies. This new Hasagawa kit corrects them and gives you
an opportunity to build a great looking model of the B5N2.
CONSTRUCTION
I assembled the interior first as per the instructions. I then air brushed it with Testers Medium Field Green. The interior goes together quickly and is nicely detailed. You have the option of using decals for the instrument panels, or painting the dial faces. I could not bring myself to obliterate the fine detail of the instrument faces just to use the decal. I chose to paint my panel black and drybrush the gauges white. This leaves the decal available to put on one of my Nichimo Kates. I did the detail painting on the cockpit sides. Again the detail is very good.
Next, I began the wings and the dropped flaps. The wings are a total of 3 pieces and fit great. I chose the dropped flap version. They are easy and look great. The tail planes are one piece each side. They fit perfectly. The fuselage is 2 pieces and fits very well. The wing to fuselage assembly again fits well . The entire nose/engine section is a separate assembly. I am sure that in the future Hasagawa will market a B5N1 version. Engine detail is good. Fit is good. I like this separate nose section because I can paint it black separately from the rest of the aircraft. No masking! I was able to paint the rest of the aircraft separately. Again no masking.
I chose to paint mine in the more difficult scheme of BI-318. I sprayed overall Poly-Scale Concrete straight from the bottle. Then used Floquil I.J.N. Green (34 0 92) in patches on the top. Next came Poly-Scale I.J.A. Brown in smaller patches around the green. I then used Testers Clear Gloss Acrylic to seal it. The decals are very good and include extra markings to do aircraft from any of the Pearl Harbor Attack Force. They even include the data stencils for the cowling and fuselage. I used Micro-Scale decal setting solution (in the blue bottle) to set them. I then went on to add the finishing details. The landing gear is good. The gear doors are thin and look accurate. The 800kg bomb looks very good I drilled some shallow holes in the nose to make it more accurate and then painted it Gunshot Grey.
I modeled mine with the canopy
open. The kit comes with open and a closed canopy. I will try to
use the closed canopy on a Nichimo Kate. Today I will spray the
top surface with Testers Clear Flat Acrylic and the project will
be complete.
CONCLUSIONS
It took me 5 hrs to build, paint and finish the Kate. The strong points to the kit in my opinion are the good over all fit of the kit. The engraved panel lines. The decals ROCK! Interior details are good but not much can be seen once the fuselage is assembled and the canopy is on. The only downer for me was the "Special Sight " located on the cowling. This sight was used for torpedo runs. I am very glad that they included it, but it looks way too thick. The ones on my Nichimo Kate's I have made out of thin wire. What a great kit! I highly recommend this kit to any Pearl Harbor collection.