Aichi B7A Ryusei 流星 “Grace” Build in 1/72 Scale Part II

With the wheelwells rebuilt and the wing seam filled it was time to prime.  The model received a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000 and any remaining flaws were addressed and re-primed.  The surface scribing is faint and shallow to begin with and priming and painting are not going to help that.  The panel lines have almost disappeared already!

I rescribed the panel lines with a UMM scriber and a straight edge.  For the most part there was enough molded panel line left to locate the correct placement.  The Hinomaru are painted and masked with Maketar kabuki masks, and also the wing identification panels have been applied at this point.  You can find a few photographs of B7A with white borders on the fuselage Hinomaru if you look hard enough, but the vast majority were finished without the borders.

A view down into the office before the transparency is added.  Seats and side consoles are generally more visible than instrument panels, but modelers and the aftermarket concentrate on instrument panels.

The canopy was masked with a Dead Design set.  This one fit pretty well, with only a few panels needing trimming.  The canopy itself had some fit issues, with gaps in the center non-sliding section being particularly egregious.  I filled around the canopy with Perfect Plastic Putty, the main advantage of PPP is that the excess can be wiped away with a wet cotton swab leaving behind only what is required to fill the gap.  Easy fix for a tricky problem.

I used Mr. Color enamels for the camouflage scheme, if you’re modeling a Ryusei your choices are this scheme or the overall prototype orange-yellow as seen on the box in the first post.  No issues with the paints, here the model is ready for decals and panel washes under a coat of Testors Glosscoat.

The torpedo is a spare from a Hasegawa kit.  The wheelwells are in the transparent blue primer used by the Japanese.  This is Alclad Transparent Blue over Alclad Aluminum.  I replaced the gear covers with plastic sheet.

Tail numbers and the numbers on the wheel covers are from Aviaeology.  Antenna wire is Uschi elastic line, cannon barrels are from Master.  Sword also makes a Grace in 1/72, but I had this old Fujimi kit in the stash.  Overall it builds up well but can use some detail improvements and help in the big three areas – cockpit, engine, and wheelwells.  Well worth building if you like the type!

More finished pictures here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2020/05/21/fujimi-aichi-b7a-ryusei-%e6%b5%81%e6%98%9f-grace-in-1-72-scale/