Hasegawa

1/48 Nakajima B5N2 Kate, Coral Sea

Kit Number: 9717

Reviewed by  Dave Morrissette, IPMS# 33653

MSRP: $36.50 Hasegawa has gone through several reissues of their B5 Kate. There have been several different versions including ones for Pearl Harbor, one with folded wings, and also several variants. The latest in these releases has markings for: · I.J.N. carrier Shokaku Code: EI-306 May 1942 · I.J.N. carrier Zuikaku Code: EII-323 May 1942 The kit is very well molded with nicely detail cockpit, excellent engraved panel lines, and the option of dropped flaps and open or closed canopy. I have built this kit once before (for a club Pearl Harbor day theme contest) and when the chance to review it came up I jumped on it. The build started with the cockpit that includes 30 pieces and has very nice detail. You have the option of decals for the radio and instrument panels in several types. There are no seat belts so they need to be added. Built OOB, this builds to a very nice cockpit. There are some ejector pin marks on the sidewalls that need to be addressed but are hard to see once complete. I left off the gun until painting was complete.

The rest of the build is straightforward with the cockpit getting trapped in the fuselage and the wings and tail added. Fit was good with filler only being added at the back of the wing-fuselage joint on the bottom. I elected to build the flaps raised (liked the way they looked) and after a general sanding, I was ready for paint. Of the two choices listed, I selected EI-306 that had an undersurface in either natural metal or Nakajima green. I went natural metal and went with a good primer of Mr. Surfacer 1200. This was left dry and polished and the bottom sprayed with Alclad dull aluminum. Several shades were added and the top masked. This was painted in Xtracolor IJN Green. This was set aside to dry and the landing gear and torpedo finished. I did buy the Meteor Productions Canopy mask- this is HIGHLY recommended for this kit. The greenhouse canopy would have taken hours to mask. With the masking set, 20 minutes and it looks great.

When I added the decals, I had some difficulty getting them to want to slide off the paper. I used warmer than normal water, allowed a good soak and they came off and still allowed positioning. A little Solvaset, and they settled perfectly. A good shot of Testors DullCote and the canopy and gun was added and the kit looked great. How good is the kit? Start to finish, a week as there were no problems or issues. The kit, OOB, almost builds itself and for the super detailers, this is a very good starting point. My thanks to Dragon for the chance to review this excellent kit. This kit is highly recommended.

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