1:48 J1N1-S Gekko

The Nakajima J1N1-S Gekko in 1:48 scale, masking set

The masks are listed for the night fighter version of the Gekko and they make painting easier where work by hand would take hours: on the many-framed glazing of the cockpit. Sprayed frames have a uniform width and an edge that a brush cannot hold on such a small area.

Nakajima J1N1-S

The Gekko was originally created as a twin-engine escort fighter, but it did not succeed in that role and moved to reconnaissance. Real use came to it only with the conversion into a night fighter: obliquely upward-firing 20 mm cannons were built into the fuselage, with which the pilot attacked American bombers from below. It was precisely this way of attacking that other night fighters later took up. The Allies designated the machine with the code name Irving.

Painting advice

The long greenhouse glazing of the Gekko has a number of narrow bars, where the exact seating of every piece of the mask decides. Work dry and with fine-tipped tweezers, lay the pieces down one by one from one end and keep checking whether the frames line up straight. Before you let the final shade go on, spray the glazing thinly with the interior color: the frame will then look right from inside and any seepage will not catch the eye. Night schemes tend to be dark, so build the opaque coat up slowly, otherwise it will fill the fine bars.

Who the set is for

• Builders of Japanese night fighters in 1:48 scale
• Modelers who would rather not tackle long greenhouse glazing with a brush
• Anyone interested in the less usual twin-engine machines of the Imperial Japanese Navy
• Those who want clean framing on a dark night scheme