1/48 Old Tool Hasegawa Kawanishi N1K2

[Ohm-men]

In anticipation of the painting of my Sanger Ki-67, I decided to do a "test" model to get my airbrush and model painting skills back to an exeptable level.
The model of choiche is the Old Hasegawa (Ex-Mania) kit of the Kawanish N1K2. I simply chose this kit since I had in my stash.
Since I also want to test out some new techniques, I decided to make a "trying to spruce up an old kit"
I will use some books publihed by the so called "Spannish School", mostly the works published by J.M. Villalba.

So here is what we got;
The Kit;

The Books of which I hope to learn some new things;

And the tools I used for the first round;

Since the Old kit of the N1K2 dates back to the early seventies, it's not up to today's (high) modelling standards,
though, the kit has pretty good and accurate outlines, still decent detail and not too many parts. Perfect for what I have in mind.
Cons are that the panel lines are a mix of engraved and non engraved details.

Some pics of what is in this old kit;

So far I rescribed the pannel lines and started "rivet-ing" the parts with the rivet tool I got from a Czech modeller years ago, but never used. (recently for this set while cleaning out some drawers....)

Resribing isn't really hard, you just have to be patient and make sure you don't scrib too far...
Rivet-ing is pretty easy as well, using a small ruler and some self adheisive strips for guiding the wheel. Ofcourse good scale plans are a huge help as well.

These are the results of a few hours work. Mind that with this build accuracy is not my biggest concern, more or less to learn and get used to some new modelling techniques (to me)

I hope to update this tread whenever I made some progress. I'm not gonna add anything aftermarket to this kit. And my goal is to finish it in 2 to 3 weeks. Painting will most likely be combined with the Ki-67.

 

[fubar57]

Nice start Ohm-men. You can never go wrong with a George. I have this kit and bookmarked the page for future reference.

Geo

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Beautiful work. I really like the effect of the added riveting.

 

[SANCER]

Very good start Ohm-men.

Sure is a good model in spite of his years, I'm slope to enjoy the improvements you are going to do.
I really liked the riveting, I had not planned do so in a way as to detail in my old P-47 Monogran . But you invited me to do it (why not? ), already I have wings joined to the fuselage, I hope it's not too late. I must be more careful.

By the way and taking advantage, you can tell me how to get or have a chart, cartogram or riveting plot of P-47 Razor?

Again I congratulate you on this project and I am attentive to development.

Saludos

 

[Ohm-men]

Very good start Ohm-men.

Sure is a good model in spite of his years, I'm slope to enjoy the improvements you are going to do.
I really liked the riveting, I had not planned do so in a way as to detail in my old P-47 Monogran . But you invited me to do it (why not? ), already I have wings joined to the fuselage, I hope it's not too late. I must be more careful.

By the way and taking advantage, you can tell me how to get or have a chart, cartogram or riveting plot of P-47 Razor?

Again I congratulate you on this project and I am attentive to development.

Saludos

Thanks! Though, I'm not sure there were a lot of rivets on the P-47. From what I learned, rivetting was more or less a surpassed production technique from the thirties. U.S. build aircraft used more advanced building techniques by then. From what I understood, the Japanese did not posses these more advanced techniques on pannel adhesion, so they stuck with rivetting.
But again, I'm not sure on this. I studied the P-47 a while back and from what I remember there aren't that much rivets. But I have a foggy memory when it comes to old projects....

 

[Wayne Little]

Nice!

 

[SANCER]

How good ! , I appreciate the time to answer, now I try to find more images, for better reference.

I follow closely the good work so far.

Saludos cordiales

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Capt. Vick]

Great start!

 

[Totalize]

Nice start Ohm-men.

I think you picked a great subject for learning and trying new techniques.

 

[Ohm-men]

Thanks!!
So, here we are with the nextr instalment on the old Kawanishi.
I've done some more work, since I want to move this little project forward.

I've completed the riveting on the wings and fuselage and started with some "corrugated wing structure" I know that the N1K2 was build more solid then the Ki-43 (which was more prone to the corrugated effect on it's wings and fuselage) I decided to give it a try on the Kawanishi.
(Pictures of museam kept K1N2's do show this effect on the fuselage. I just exagerated it a bit)

The trick is to scrape away some plastic in the center of a pannel, which sits between the rivets, this technique alows the modeller to kind of suggest high wing loads on the aircrafts structure. This is especially visible on bare metal aircraft.
I made a small scraper from a X-acto 11 blade for this purpose. This is how it looks after the surface has been polished.

and the sides of the fuselage

And the top of the airframe

Next I started some painting to the various smaller parts. I won't add too many things to this build.
It's more or less an exercise in painting the parts with "modren techniques" in order to achive a higher
standard finish on an older kit.
Some parts were painted while still in the frame, less handling means better adhesion of the paint.
I used enamel paints for the base

These parts will be finished later on.

Then I started the cockpit painting. Again nothing was added.
This is just the base paint, washes and detailing still has to be done.
I followed the above mentioned techniques as described in the books.
New stuff to me, as I usually approach cockpits in a different way.

The "dash" again kit part, but carefully painted. Enamel base with details picked out with Vallejo acrylics.
(again a first for me)

And last, the engine. same as the other parts. Kits content with some painting and washes.
Doesn't look too bad to me. Though most will be hidden once the cowl is installed. Hence the reason
I didn't go overboard on this part.

Tommorow I hope to get some more work done. Since I had too much overtime at work, I took a day off.

 

[Wurger]

Interesting. Are you going to make a derelicted kite? Judging by these cavities you are.

 

[javlin]

Interesting. Are you going to make a derelicted kite? Judging by these cavities you are.

I think Wojtek an A/C that has seen some wear?The tin cans(destroyers) of WWII really Showed the effect he has represented on the fuse/wings.

 

[Ohm-men]

Indeed, I want to do a somewhat worn aircraft. I know that the effect on the wings is a perhaps a bit overdone and too much, but again it serves a purpose. I want to see what this effect is once the airframe is painted.
I also want to try some weathering techniques and see how the riveting and corrugated wing looks once done.
Hence I can use this build for future reference to see where I've done too much or too liitle.
The undersides will be worn bare metal, so I overdid the corrugation there. Where on the fuselage I went more lightly.
I also want to paint the Hinomaru on the wings and see how the corrugated wing looks with a few layers of paint.
Since it has been a really long time since I painted a model, I just have to see how this goes.
I hope to try this on future builds to, but more controlled.

 

[Wurger]

I think Wojtek an A/C that has seen some wear?The tin cans(destroyers) of WWII really Showed the effect he has represented on the fuse/wings.

I'm sure that the effect is going to be achieved. Unfortunately the way of getting of a worn metal skin isn't that one that should be used. A such one is more suitable for corroded, collapsed metal covering of aircraft wrecks that spent a lot of time in a jungle for instance. The effect of worn metal skin of planes that are/were operated , I mean in service, appears because of forces on wings, fuselages covered with the stressed skin. The formers and stringers of the semimonocoque structure are compression-taking and tension-taking elements. The metal skin is riveted to these elements what keeps it, so to speak, flat. But all areas that aren't riveted to formes and stringers usually are bulged but not collapsed . As a result it looks like the rivet lines run in "depressions". In other words , if we want to make a such stressed metal skin , we have to make collapsed areas for rivet lines but not for metal covering that is among these lines. The effect can be seen in these shots below...


The pic source: Modelarstwo z pasj? ? Zobacz w?tek - [LOTNICZE] Odwzorowanie odkszta?ce? powierzchni poszycia

 

[javlin]

I see what you are saying Wojtek on the real bird the dimple/concave is less than the pronouncement between the rivets.It will still be part of a learning curve for the future

 

[Wurger]

True Kev.

Here a couple of shots more. The entire process may be seen here ... picture source :

Odwzorowanie odkszta?ce? poszycia samolotów

 

[Ohm-men]

Thanks for posting this Wojtek! I find this very intersting. Indeed a verry different aproach to the stressed skin effect on scale models.
I simply copied what I read in the books I used, without really checking other sources/real warbirds.

Though, I'll see how this pans out once the Kawanishi is painted. So I'll carry on with my kind of "reversed stressed skin"
But I'm saving the pics you posted for future reference!

That's what I like about these message boards, you learn new things every day!

 

[Wurger]

Glad I helped. Keep working...