This is the 1977 Hasegawa kit. It has all the typical Hasegawa shortcomings of its time – basic cockpit, crude engine, and shallow wheelwells. An additional problem which is often missed is it displays a shape error concerning the width of the vertical fin. Kawanishi produced both a broad- and narrow-fin N1K2, Hasegawa’s kit splits the difference and so has to be modified to properly represent either version. On this build the fin was widened to represent one of the first one hundred examples produced.
This aircraft carries the markings of Chief Petty Officer Shoichi Sugita of the 343rd Kokuti operating from Matsuama Japan in March 1945. CPO Sugita was credited with approximately seventy victories, including seven in the Shiden-Kai. He was killed on 15APR45.
More N1K models here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2020/05/14/hasegawa-kawanishi-n1k2-ja-shiden-kai-%e7%b4%ab%e9%9b%bb-violet-lightning-george-in-1-72-scale/
Beautiful. Thanks for the decals.
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Glad you got them okay, I hope they are of some use!
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Very nice- an impressive tally of kill markings there.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Agreed. Not sure if those are the aircraft’s kills or what, Sugita was only credited with seven kills on the Shiden-Kai.
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Beautiful build Jeff.
– Did you deepen the landing gear bays?
– How did you widen the tail?
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I did seven Shiden family kits at once (surprise!). Build posts are here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/?s=shiden+batch+build+part
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