1/72 B5N Kate (Hasegawa/Mania)

[-Neu-]

Hey all.

I promised Pete I'd build something for this GB, and I'm kinda late! So as a background, I've been building A6M2s from the Zuikaku as a bit of a project:

I have two boxes of the hasegawa B5N2 Kate kits with a resin 800kg Bomb. The in-box scheme is for an Akagi aircraft at Pearl Harbour, which doesn't really help (I'll take a photo of it later)

However rising decals just put out a new decal sheet for Carrier Torpedo bombers, which had a Zuikaku high level bomber scheme perfect for my group build.

I'm also using eduard's massive photo etch set from 1997, that basically revamps the entire interior of the aircraft.

The missing sidewall is on the aircraft.... so lets get to the good stuff. The interior with the photo etch is really detailed. Seats, radios, instrument panels control columns, 1/2 of the floor, the sidewalls and ammo drums get replaced.

Afterwards, I started assembling the model. Since this aircraft will be on the carrier, I decided to have the wings folded as the photo-etch set offers that as an option. Its a bit of artistic license: I haven't seen many photos of them in that state on the deck (I think its largely for when they are inside the hanger.) I needed to add some filler in the wings in order to keep someone from looking through the wings.

I then cut the wings with my trusty razor saw:

I then hit my first big problem: The canopy doesn't fit. A friend of mine has an extra one, and its on its way to me now. so I decided to continue painting it as best I could:

And that's where its at today. I think I can get it done soon after the weekend, a bit late, but pretty good.

[Spectre711]

Nice!