Number 13 in my Year of the Axis build is the Kate.

When I was growing up, the only kits I would be able to find on store shelves were from Monogram, Revell, MPC, Lindberg, Aurora, and perhaps Airfix (rarely).  I had a fascination with the Japanese aircraft at Pearl Harbor, but neither the Kate nor the Val were ever available here in SE Texas.  When I got back into the hobby in the mid 1990s, the world had expaned, and suddenly there were all these Japanese manufacturers that were producing kits that I could get simply by ordering out of a Squadron mailer (and it was FSM that introduced me, via an ad, to Squadron).  When I saw the Kate, I grabbed it.

I've had this one in the stash for a long time, since the early 2000s, and had always intended to build it with the wings folded.  But when I finally decided that I was going to build it, I could not go through with actually cutting the wings.  I wanted to be able to see those huge wings spread in all their glory.

Paints are a mix of Vallejo and Tamiya.  Markings are 99% paint via Montex masks for this kit - I did use decals for the "18" on the gear doors and for the instruments. I added seat belts made of aluminum foil covered with Tamiya tape.  I kept weathering to a minimum as I figured the Pearl Harbor birds were probably in pretty good shape given how the war was going for the Japanese at the time.

The scheme belongs to a B5N2 that flew from the Soryu in the first attack wave. I painted the green first, then covered the entire aircraft with Silly Putty and used a tooth pick to open up areas of varying sizes and shapes to do the brown splotches.

This was a fun kit to build.