Building the Border 1/35 Kate. Got paint!

[Archimedes]

The thing is that you really do have the ability to do justice to what is clearly a nicely done kit. I am lapping this up with a spoon!

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[Dpgsbody55]

That wing centre section looks amazing.  The surface detail and the way it's constructed really shows some thought has been given to this. If we get any more 1/35 scale models to this standard, we could well see many converts.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Borsos]

15 hours ago, PEYSSON Gilles said:

Hi Quang

 

Just one adjective :  superb .....

 

Gilles

 

 

So true!

[somebody]

this looks good.....fighting the temptation 

[quang]

Primed, masked over and READY FOR THE PAINT SHOP!

Note the spectacular wingspan. Fortunately the wings will be folded for display.

I just realized I never showed the outer wings.

Aotake brilliance 

 
Like on most IJN planes in 1941, the basic color will be the so-called J-3. AK Interactive produced 2 versions.

Nakajima Grey-Green…

… and Mitsubishi Amber Grey.

Descriptions of the ‘Hospital Kate’ remains downed at Pearl Harbour during the attack called for a caramel or light mustard colour. Some mentioned a brownish RLM-02 influence. 
That wouldn’t prevent me to try a 50/50 mix of the two greys applied on the trusty Nieuport mule. I also added the obligatory hinomaru to complete the general effect.
What do you guys think? 

[Borsos]

I‘d go with the last version, it’s your mix I think. That warmer hue would fit the green on the upper sides better, I‘d say.

[mozart]

The kit looks to be superbly produced and engineered Quang, it goes without saying that the Maestro is performing his usual magic.  If this company made an aircraft that interested me, the scale factor issue would be outweighed by the accuracy.

[quang]

27 minutes ago, Borsos said:

I‘d go with the last version, it’s your mix I think. That warmer hue would fit the green on the upper sides better, I‘d say.

I concur. Although there’s some difference between what you see in the photos and the real thing under natural light. Like always…

 

16 minutes ago, mozart said:

If this company made an aircraft that interested me, the scale factor issue would be outweighed by the accuracy.

Rest assured Max. Wait and it’ll come. 

[quang]

… and the beat goes on. THE KATE GOT PAINT!
First, a few words about the choice of the machine (info courtesy of David Aiken).

It would be AI-316, a Nakajima B5N2, type 97, model 3 from the Akagi Air Group in December 1941. This machine participated in the Pearl Harbor attack, carrying a 800kg bomb. It was part of the high-level bomber group which was personally led by Mitsuo Fuchida (AI-301).

It was flown by shotaicho (leader of 3 planes) PO2c Yuichi Takizawa (pilot), indicated by the single red horizontal tail stripe.

Position of AI-316 in the group during the PH raid

 

Screen captures of AI-316 en route for Pearl Harbor:

Artist’s impressions…

The third profile is wrong in several instances as we will see later on.

 

A few months after Pearl Harbor, AI-316 was also present in Indian Ocean, notably the operation ‘C’ against British navy in Ceylon (march-april 1942) as can be seen taking off from Akagi on these film captures.

 

Note how after the few months active at sea, the green paint on the upper surfaces had degraded and peeled. The same spectacular effect can be seen on Fuchida’s airplane on the widely-published photos, wrongly attributed to the December 7th raid.

Also note on the last picture that the outer wing panels seem to be devoid of the dark green paint.

 

Obviously, the painting on the Ceylon raid machine is the more appealing (a-peeling ) but also the more challenging of the two schemes. Guess which one I chose? The CEYLON KATE!
There’s still some controversy about what’s under the peeled paint (bare metal or underside grey?) and also the nature of the apparently bare outer wing panels. As nobody seems to have the definite solution, I took it to myself to decide what could have been and proceed.

That is what we’ll deal with shortly in the next episode.

 

 

Thank you all for looking. All comments and questions are welcome.

Until next time,

Cheers,

Quang

[dennismcc]

5 hours ago, quang said:

There’s still some controversy about what’s under the peeled paint (bare metal or underside grey?) and also the nature of the apparently bare outer wing panels. As nobody seems to have the definite solution, I took it to myself to decide what could have been and proceed.

That is what we’ll deal with shortly in the next episode.

 

Looking forward to it

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[PEYSSON Gilles]

Hello Quang

 

Profiles are often wrong !

If possible, you should find a real photo.

 

Gilles

 

 

[quang]

Thanks @dennismcc @PEYSSON Gilles

 Here it comes.

 

First a quick recap of the Nakajima B5N Kate career in the IJN.

-1938: the B5N goes to war in China as a land-based bomber in natural bare metal finish.

-1940: the B5N2 starts practicing torpedo launching in provision of the PH raid. Still in bare metal finish but with LARGE digits added underwing to facilitate plane identification during the exercises. The number replicates the two last digits of the plane code: i.e. 16 for AI-316.

-1941: getting ready for the PH raid, before boarding the carriers, ALL the participating planes received an overall J3 grey factory coat. The finish was adequately primed and fairly resistant to weathering. Plane codes were added to the tail together with the command stripes.

- 1941: IJN task force en route for PH. During the 10-day cruise, it was decided to add a green camouflage to the upper surfaces of the B5N2 as a protection from enemy fighters.
The new paint was added hastily without adequate preparation by the crew on everyone of the 6 aircraft carriers involved.

That would explain why the added camouflage was different from carrier to carrier and also the peeling green paint after a few months at sea.

With this info in mind, we can now have an idea of how our AI-316 looked in April 1942, four months after the PH raid.

The plane is painted overall in J3 navy grey, described as ‘grey poupon’ (which is Dijon mustard for us in old Europe) or strangely ‘ grey-green’.

The green paint on the upper surfaces peeled away revealing the weather-resistant J3 underneath. Not the bare metal as one may be tempted to think.

 

Now for the light-colored outer wing panels, one may note that the difference starts exactly at the wing fold. Some think that the green camouflage was added when the plane was in the carrier hangar with its wings folded so it makes sense that the outer panels were not accessible.

 

Backed with the above argumentation, I set out to work on the kit.

Following the chronological order, I first did some basic pre-shading …

… and gave the model an overall coat of AK RC303 Amber Grey.
I found the Amber Grey too ‘amber’ (fuselage bottom) and swapped it for my own version of J3 grey: 50/50 AK RC328 Grey-Green + Gunze 336 Hemp (wings).

 

 

I added the walkways and sprayed the markings expertly manufactured by my old chum Masker Max.

 

Max also made the ‘16’ numerals for the wing undersides.
Regretfully just after receiving the masks, I discovered this period photo of the ‘Hospital Kate’ downed at PH.
The actual numeral is MUCH bigger than the one shown on the profile. I didn’t want to bother Max further so I decided to do it by hand.

I hope my grumpy chap won’t mind.

 
I know that my 6 is not perfect but I think it adds to the authenticity’.

I’m astounded by the precision of Max’s masks despite the bumpy rivets.

Chip ‘n Dale, next time !

Cheers,

Quang

[Archimedes]

That is phenomenal work @quang. The masks look very effective but your freehand ‘6’ really does look authernitic! I agree with Mozart that, for subjects that interest me, the accuracy might well outweigh the scale issue. I really don’t want to move away from 1/32 but if we end up with a 1/35 Zero/Kate/Val trio I could be persuaded.

 

Keep it coming!
 

Kind regards,

Paul

[amurray]

On 2/8/2024 at 4:17 AM, Borsos said:

I‘d go with the last version, it’s your mix I think. That warmer hue would fit the green on the upper sides better, I‘d say.

 

Bright pink would be my choice!  

[amurray]

21 hours ago, quang said:

… and the beat goes on. THE KATE GOT PAINT!
First, a few words about the choice of the machine (info courtesy of David Aiken).

It would be AI-316, a Nakajima B5N2, type 97, model 3 from the Akagi Air Group in December 1941. This machine participated in the Pearl Harbor attack, carrying a 800kg bomb. It was part of the high-level bomber group which was personally led by Mitsuo Fuchida (AI-301).

It was flown by shotaicho (leader of 3 planes) PO2c Yuichi Takizawa (pilot), indicated by the single red horizontal tail stripe.

Position of AI-316 in the group during the PH raid

 

Screen captures of AI-316 en route for Pearl Harbor:

Artist’s impressions…

The third profile is wrong in several instances as we will see later on.

 

A few months after Pearl Harbor, AI-316 was also present in Indian Ocean, notably the operation ‘C’ against British navy in Ceylon (march-april 1942) as can be seen taking off from Akagi on these film captures.

 

Note how after the few months active at sea, the green paint on the upper surfaces had degraded and peeled. The same spectacular effect can be seen on Fuchida’s airplane on the widely-published photos, wrongly attributed to the December 7th raid.

Also note on the last picture that the outer wing panels seem to be devoid of the dark green paint.

 

Obviously, the painting on the Ceylon raid machine is the more appealing (a-peeling ) but also the more challenging of the two schemes. Guess which one I chose? The CEYLON KATE!
There’s still some controversy about what’s under the peeled paint (bare metal or underside grey?) and also the nature of the apparently bare outer wing panels. As nobody seems to have the definite solution, I took it to myself to decide what could have been and proceed.

That is what we’ll deal with shortly in the next episode.

 

 

Thank you all for looking. All comments and questions are welcome.

Until next time,

Cheers,

Quang

Question re: first photo down:  Behind the spinning prop is a circular mechanism in light gloss color.  What is that?  I've never seen it depicted in kits as a light color.  Instead it is always depicted as dark gray or dark metallic.