**** DONE: GB-41 1:48 KAWANISHI N1K2-J "EARLY" - PTO from 1937

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Nice work geo.

I would recommend you check the harness requirements for this bird. Some Japanese harness was a single over the shoulder type. others were two shoulder strap types. I'm not sure what was the norm for the "George". For the J2M I recently built I found it to be a two strap type harness. For the simple reason that the George and the jack were contemporary to each other, it might be that a two strap harness is correct for this bird.
 
Id go with that. truth is there is some doubt about the specifics of harness the Japanese used. I'm of the opinion they tended to mix and match according to what was available at the time.
 
Thank you. Started putting down a wash on the innards using mainly Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color and some Citadel washes. The Tamiya is super diluted and just a touch to the part sends the liquid flowing. The one on the left is done. I can never seem to get a good photo showing the difference.


Tamiya is an enamel so how long should I wait before putting on an acrylic clear coat? My searches have never shown a time limit but I recall reading to wait at least 24hrs.

 
Finally finished those pesky ejector marks in the wheel wells or so I thought. Before I resized this shot I saw that I have a bit to do yet, mostly where the putty has attached to some frame work. I also see that I missed cleaning up an attachment point.


Hasegawa gives one the option of cutting off the wing tip lights so one can install a clear replacement, probably after one drills a hole in it to represent a light bulb


I was just about to get adventurous when I decided to check references and sure enough...

EDIT: The two above photos are crops from one large photo found here but no sources...
紫電改の空輸 - 空のむかしばなし:楽天ブログ
松山城から南レクへ - 角瓶写真館
 
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Its very subtle, but there is a difference. Nifty paint colour....need some of that myself I think
Which one Michael? The green was made using .4ml of Tamiya XF-62 Olive Green/.4ml of Tamiya Thinner and 4 drops of XF-4 Yellow Green. The Panel Line Accent also comes in Black, Grey and Light Grey. I have the last two and will be using it on this model as well
 
Thanks Andy. I thought maybe there was a cure time as it's enamel. Anyhoo.....I waited 5 hours and the flat coated the front bulkhead as a test bed, reasoning this would be the easiest to fix in case things went South. An hour later all looked good so I did the rest. The Tamiya even brought out the detail on the map case.


The floor and the bulkheads. The edges of the I.P. need to be painted as it looks like the will be visible when the fuselage is closed.




Speaking of closed fuselage, with the wings glued together I thought I would tape up the fuselage, test drive the fit and then slam everything together. Lefts side looks good...


...right side....not so good...




I was stunned....stunned I tells ya!!! I have no idea what's gonna on yet as I just walked away. I don't recall any other builds mentioning a wing/fuselage issue. The fuselage almost seems warped as nothing seems to be catching. I head back into camp tomorrow and during my down time I'm going to go over other builds. Its definitely nothing that can't be over come.
 
Interesting....I went and checked the fit of each fuselage half with it's respective wing and the fit was dang near seamless. Camera battery is charging so I'll get pics up shortly
 
Probably not worth fussing too much until the fuselage is actually glued together. Once that's done you may be able to add some struts to push out the walls.
 
Glue the fuselage together, you should find that once the cockpit assembly goes in it will spread the fuselage to meet the wings, glue only one side of the cockpit to the fuselage that way you will have a little bit of give/movement to get the fuselage/wing joint to fit right if you need a shim or spreader to help get the perfect fit.
 
Thanks all. I did a quick test fit with everything taped in place and it looks like the gaps will be small to nil, thanks Wayne. As I have learned in the past, no major gluing on my last day off. Looking at the landing gear area now. The insides of the gear doors look like they are painted a combination semi-gloss black and silver and I've seen some builds with the gear painted semi-gloss black. I don't know about the last part so if off to the books. I may get these painted before the bus
 
It seems the insides of the gear covers were; silver, silver/black or black and the landing gear silver...



HOWEVER....I was looking through a Polish book


On pg.27 it shows two photos of landing gear and sure enough....one is semi-gloss black. I thought these were of two different aircraft but to further muddy the waters, the caption says, "The left side presents Shiden Kai's chassis produced at Shöwa, while the right leg of the chassis from the Naruo taxpayer.............
 

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