Sunday 26 February 2017

Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai (George) by RON CLINE pt.1

My first completion of 2017, the Hasegawa 1/32 Kawanishi N1K2-J "Shiden-kai" (George). I started this at the very end of 2015, worked on it a while, then set it aside. I resumed the project last October, and finished it 2 weeks ago (I'm slow...). As is normal for me and 1/32 kits, I didn't build it straight out of the box.
 I used the Eduard photoetch set along with scratchbuilt details to dress up the cockpit. The instrument panel is the Eduard face with Airscale and MDC instrument faces.
 
 


 

 
 
 


 
Hasegawa simplified the main gear wells, so I did some correction work there too. Again, I used Eduard and scratchbuilt bits; the rivets are from Archer. The plumbing is done with solder, while the control cable runs are stainless wire. The kit comes with the oil cooler exit between the gear wells molded fully closed; I wanted mine open, so I opened up the belly and built the well for the cooler, along with a simple cooler. The exit door itself came from the Eduard set.
 
 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The kit also comes with the cowl flaps in the closed position. I used the cowl flaps in the Eduard set to open mine, but Eduard forgot the lowest flap on both sides, so I built those out of thin brass. I wired and plumbed the engine, but I didn't realize until after I took the photos of the completed build that I didn't take any photos of the engine before the cowl went on (DOH!).

2 comments:

D. Chouinard said...

Brilliant! Love the details!

Anonymous said...

Amazing work! The cockpit is so well detailed, I wish you had just left it out of the model as a separate exhibit. I can only imagine how good the engine looked before you mounted it.

Wind Swords