I’m ready to make a start my Kate from Hasegawa, only after I take pics of my completed Do 335 from Tamiya.
Only one part is rattling inside the single plastic bag, a prop cone. I don’t know why Hase doesn’t take the Tamiya and many other campany’s approach of individually bagging the sprues
Scheme chosen is Pearl Harbor’s 3I-318/Black 18. Since the belly is in NMF, I’m lead to think the pre-Pearl Harbor scheme was overall in unpainted metal, am I correct? If not, I’ll go for the green camou with brown mottling.
Well, instructions for this one say the undersides should be left unpainted, for Pearl Harbor. I’ll look around for other Kate builds to check for NMF schemes.
Edit: Thanks for your response on the GB topic! Very helpful.
It is possible that, the undersides were painted silver instead of a NMF. As Keavdog pointed out, the Japanese didn’t start leaving the undersides in NMF until much later in the war and for the reasons he specified. Also, the IJN units that DID have NMF undersides, I’m pretty sure were land based units.
I would think that any carrier based aircraft would be painted in something, not for any other reason than to prevent corrosion. Because of the harsh salt air/water environment carrier based aircraft operated in, they couldn’t NOT paint the airframe. Of course that’s just my opinion. As you mentioned, your research might shed a different light on this.
A second point to consider, is that before the war got going in earnest, these aircraft were painted overall silver, a black cowl and a red tail with white ID numbers and letters. It is entirely possible, as the Japanese prepared to attack Pearl Harbor, that the green was added as some measure of camouflage.
Just a couple schools of thought as to why the undersides were silver? I’m sure others know more than I so there’s that. No matter what you decide, it’s your model and it’s a hell of a beautiful kit!
I had that kit but sold it. I think it was the size. I did not know where I would display it if I did build it. I have since downscaled to the both the Airfix and Hasegawa versions in 1/72. Oddly, I also had and still have Hasegawa’s 1/48 B6N Jill and their C6N1 Myrt. Both look like beautiful kits – I may have to find shelf space somewhere for them…
Tell me about it, I used to have an obsession with RL. 76 and if it was a very light blue grey or just light blue. I ended up using RLM 65 for every Luftwaffe aircraft, just because the vibrancy of the colour maked the aircraft look good.
Before WW II, it was common practice to paint aircraft silver overall as a corrosion prevention measure, so the Kate may have been finished thusly, with the green added to the upper surfaces as camouflage as others have suggested.
Japanese aircraft colors are an ongoing debate, with new information surfacing all the time. Back in the 1970s, we all painted our Japanese WW II aircraft interiors with Aotake, using basically a mixture of silver and blue. But Aotake was actually a clear with an added tint of blue or green, to help the guy applying the paint to see it being laid down.
And then we learned that most Japanese cockpits were actually a green, although some exceptions like the Ki-61 Hien were more like a mustard yellow/brown. I think I have also read somewhere that a bluish-grey was used in some aircraft. And was it the NASM Irving that had Aotake used on the stringers inside the crew areas? So confusing!
Guess I’ll just stick to the instructions and paint everything as generic as possible . Japanese colours are really another can of worms, the first one is the Luftwaffe RLM shades!
New update! Cockpit has been finishes, quite a fiddly step with many small parts. Everything was painted “Interior Green,” IE whatever light green I had around!
The B5N was a big plane when compared to others. Just wait till the wings go on and you’ll see what I mean. She is looking really good so far, Sturmovik!
This is the one that I built for a Battle of Midway group build…
Wings have been glued to the fuselage. The only issue I had were the gaps on the wingroot. This was solved by inserting some sprue to widen the lower fuselage side.
I’ll let everything dry before I start filling, sanding and painting.
Learn something every day. I’ve never seen any IJNAF aircraft in Natural Metal Finish. I’ve done both Zeros and a Val and they had paint underneath. The fighters used an “offensive” camo scheme which on the Zero was the hard to duplicate amber-grey all around. On the A6M3 they switched to the “defensive scheme” which was a very dark green with the original Zero color underneath. The A6M5 was given grey below the wings. Why use NMF? For the USAAF it was to save a little weight - and they wanted enemy aircraft to find them. I can’t think of any German plane that used it. For the IJAAF planes I could see material problems being a factor late in the war but certainly not early. I believe the planes in “offensive” scheme were waxed to cut drag a tad. That wouldn’t have been a factor on a CV. So I’m stumped.
It’s a big un alright. I’ve found Japanese aircraft are more wings than fuselage, was this because the prevailing attitude of the High Command was to choose maneuverability over everything else?
If you give me the choice of flaps up or down, I’m choosing down, makes the aircraft look more alive.
Some painting has been done! Since I don’t know if Revell has all the different shades of "IJAAF/IJNAF Dark Green,’ I just use RLM 70/Revell Black Green 40 for the top surfaces. I can’t be bothered to investigate about shades and end up in a can or worms mistaking RLM 83 with dark blue or if RLM 84 was a real colour.
Lower surfaces were painted Revell 90 Silver with 59 Duck Egg Blue ailerons.
. Japanese colours are really another can of worms, the first one is the Luftwaffe RLM shades!
