After a few challenging builds it was nice to do something easy, the Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden-Kai. I chose the unique "White 15" markings of Naoshi Kanno of the 343 NAG. Kanno, commander of the 301 FS, was an aggressive pilot and had 25 confirmed kills. I read that he had the double yellow stripes painted on his machine to lure allied pilots into battle. He also volunteered for a Kamakae unit, but they deemed him too valuable. In August of 1945, he went MIA after combat with P-51 Mustangs who were escorting B-24 bombers.
This seeming newer tooled kit is wonderful and a pleasant surprise. It's right up their with their Ki-84 in surface detail and ease of contruction. The person I built it for said he wanted it heavily chipped so I used it as a chipping fliud/liquid frisket exercise. It's a bit much for my personal taste but I'm still quite happy with it. All markings were painted on with Montex masks. I added PE seatbelts, wired the engine and gear legs, and added Quickboost cannon barrels. My research said that Kawanishi Green tended to turn brown with age and sun exposure, so I made a custon blend of this color by adding XF-49 Khaki and XF-68 NATO Brown to XF-70 IJN green until it looked good to my eye. It was then faded with XF-57 Buff for further fading. I was pretty happy with the color as opposed to the typical blue green used on most Japanese naval stuff. The underside was a mix of Alclad and AK Extreme Metal.
I was initially more partial to the appearance of the N1K1, but now I think I like the Kai better, which apparently means "advanced" in Japanese. To my eye it looks like a Japanese P-47. I'll be staying in IJN mode as I have started a Pearl Harbor Kate torpedo version.
A few in-progress pics....
