AZKevin Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 My recently completed Tamiya 1/48 N1K1-Ja Shinden. The model is built pretty much straight from the box. The only addition is the prominent spring attached to the landing gear retraction arm. My reference book (Aero Detail #26 N1K2-J Shinden-Kai) shows this spring rather plainly- I'm surprised it's not included the kit. The spring is made from 32 ga. steel wire wrapped around a #75 drill bit. The kit is painted with Tamiya acrylics (XF-11, and XF-16). The wing I.D. bands are kit decals, they seemed a bit thick and took multiple applications of Micro-Set & Micro-Sol to get them to conform to the leading edge. Other decals are ffrom the kit and went down on a coat of Future with no problems. Model was then sprayed with Testors Dul-Cote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Aldrich Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 Nice build! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonL Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 Looks great! Maybe that spring is some sort of interim factory mod, test or field mod, to deal with some issue they had with the gear? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 Looks great! No matter if the spring is right or wrong, that's an EXCELLENT tip on how to make such an item! Congrats on a fine build, and thanks for sharing! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZKevin Posted July 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2011 It looks very nice. The only references I have on the Shinden though, show no such spring. I've got pics harvested online that originate in Pensacola I think, and I also have a ModelArt mag with plenty of pics as well. Neither show any sort of spring. Hi Robert,My main (read only) reference is the Aero Detail #26 'Kawanishi N1K2-J George'. Thephotos I refer to are on pages 41, 42, 43 of examples at the former ChamplinFighter Museum and the US Air force Museum at Wright-Patterson. I did notice onre-reading the picture captions that these examples are both N1K2's and thatthe landing gear was not only modified (shortened) from the N1K1 but was also strengthenedand improved to retract in 8 seconds compared to 16 seconds for the A6M Zeroseries. That desire for an increase in retractionspeed might well be the reason for the additional spring. So Ithink you are correct in that the N1K1 model did not have the springs whereasthe N1K2 model did. My model may beinaccurate in that respect – oh well, at least I learned how to make reallysmall springs. One reasonfor the practice is that I have a Bandai 1/24 N1K2-J George in my stash and thesize of that model just cries out for some 'super detailing'. Thanks for pointing out the discrepancy. Guess now I am going to have to build that Hasegawa N1K2-J George. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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