[Don Boose]

Herewith begins Boose’s OTDAEABT Shiden build thread.

The kit is Mały No. 3/99 and is by Ryszard Maj, who seems mostly to have designed armored fighting vehicles, although he did also design the Mały Grumman J2F-5.

The aircraft depicted is a Kawanishi N1K1-Ja Shiden [Violet Lightning]. The N1K1-Ja was the early model of the land-based fighter version of the Kawanishi Kyofu floatplane fighter, with the mid-wing configuration and long undercarriage. The later, improved, N1K2-J Shiden Kai had a low-wing configuration and other changes.

The difference between the N1K1-J and the N1K1-Ja is that the "a" model had no 7.7mm machine guns in the nose, but was armed with four 20mm long-barreled Type 99 Mark 2 Model 3 cannon; two in the wings and two in gondolas under the wings. The model is consistent with this configuration.

The upper surfaces of the model are printed in a very dark green that is roughly consistent with the "black green" associated with the Shiden. The undersurfaces are gray. The interior is also gray and probably should be a shade of green.

The only markings are the red Hinomaru national markings, outlined in white on the fuselage and with no white outlines on the wings; bright orange leading wing inner leading edges; and the katakana character “tsu” [ッ] dash seven [ッ-7] on the vertical stabilizer. This would indicate that the model represents Aircraft No. 7 of the Tsukuba Kokutai [Tsukuba Naval Air Group], an operational training unit located at Tsukuba Air Base in Ibaraki Prefecture near Tokyo.

The model description includes the sentence, “Model samolotu został opracowany w skali 1:33 w barwach japońskiej grupy szturmowej marynarki wojennej ‘Tsukuba’.”

I make this out to mean something like “The model aircraft was designed in the scale of 1:33 in the colors of the Japanese naval assault group "Tsukuba". All the references I can find to the Tsukuba Air Group indicate that it was an OTU, but perhaps Shrike, Charlie C, Mike Krol, or one of the other markings mavens can provide more info.

The kit consists of four pages of thin glossy stock on which the cover, instructions, and Mały advertisements are printed; four pages of thin matt stock on which the three-view drawing, assembly drawings, and the keel, formers, spars, and ribs are printed; and four pages of .009” (0.23mm) stock on which the colored parts are printed.

The .009/0.23mm stock is of a slightly soft consistency, but does not contain mineral impurities and is nothing like the 1980s-era Mały paper. It is certainly superior to that of my Horrid Hampden. It can be rolled (carefully) without cracking and will take a compound curve, especially if dampened slightly.

As I have said elsewhere, my current printer is adequate for printing out downloaded models, but does not seem capable of accurately scanning the colors of this kit, so I have ordered a couple of spares (I actually had two kits, but one of them had the framework parts out of register, so I scanned that sheet – black and white scans are okay). I also scanned some of the parts, such as the cowl, for test fittings, in the course of which I found that the parts do not actually match up well – it is a pre-2000 Mały after all – so I can blame all of my poor craftsmanship on the kit!

More later, when I get the szkieletowej of the kadłub assembled.

Don