1:48 B5N1 Kate

The most modern carrier attack aircraft of 1937

When Nakajima introduced the Type 97, its design had no equal anywhere in the world. An all-metal airframe, retractable landing gear, hydraulically folding wings and tanks built straight into the structure made the aircraft a whole generation ahead. The Allies later gave it the code name Kate and underrated it for a long time.

The first model, which missed its big day

The figure one marks the first production form, armed with bombs and used over China. It operated from carrier decks and from land airfields, and its crews trained the technique that the Imperial Japanese Navy later made famous. Before December 1941 came, however, the main role passed to the rebuilt B5N2 with the stronger Sakae engine. The B5N1 machines went to training units, where a large part of them received a second set of controls for an instructor and served out their days as trainers. A few returned to patrolling over the sea toward the end of the war.

Why a long greenhouse canopy is hard to mask

The cockpit covered three men and ran over half the fuselage, so it carries more frames than any single-seat fighter. Cutting tape by hand takes a substantial part of an evening here. Pre-cut parts shorten that step and, above all, keep the frame widths even, which the eye spots on a model at once.

Box contents

The manufacturer lists a pair of glazing masks, outer and inner, and three separate parts for the national insignia. The red discs are therefore produced by spraying rather than with a decal, and they follow the texture of the paint beneath them exactly. Plastic parts and paints are not included; the set serves the build of a particular model.