Mitsubishi G4M1 Isshikirikko Type
11 ("Betty") 4th
Chutai, Kanoya Kokutai Japanese
Navy Air Force Sasa
Airfield, Davao Mindanao,
Philippines January, 1942
Here is another addition to my
WWII in the Philippines aircraft collection. This Tamiya Betty was built
straight out of the box. Overall fit was very good except for some gaps
that I encountered when installing the wheel wells to the lower wings.
This was fixed with a few drops of CA and Mr. Surfacer 500. The rest of
the assembly was straight forward.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I used my own
mix of Mitsubishi Interior Green using Tamiya paints. The wheel wells were
painted with silver and then lightly airbrushed with clear blue to simulate
"aotake". The model was built in
sub-assemblies and I left the landing gears, cowling, props, and other small
parts aside to be attached towards the end. Masking the canopy and
other clear parts were a challenge. I spent almost an entire day for
this. I used a combination of Tamiya Masking Tape and Gunze's liquid
mask.
Once the clear parts
were installed, I sprayed the frames with Mitsubishi Interior Green. After
considerable drying time, the entire model was sprayed with Mr. Surfacer 1000 to
hide and blemish or sanding scratches during the assembly phase.
The paint guide
called for Japanese Navy Light Grey for the underside but the most of the
early G4M1s had natural metal undersides so I used Gunze Mr. Color No. 8 Silver.
Then this was followed by the "kumogota" scheme for the uppersurface
camo. I have my home brew mix of the kumogota
brown using Mr. Color paints and I airbrushed this free hand. Then
this was followed by Mr. Color # 124 (Mitsubishi Green) which was also applied
free hand. The model was left to dry and afterwards prepped for decal
application.
There was a problem
with the kit "hinomarus" as they disintegrated and broke apart while
being they were being removed from the backing paper. I decided to
airbrush the hinomarus instead. The tail numbers faired better but I had
to trim the letter "K" as it a was a oversized. The
"359" came from mix of numbers that came with the decal sheet.
The model was given a wash after the decals were set and I applied the
chipping effect using a fine brush with Tamiya X-11. The exhaust stains
were airbrushed using a mix of brown and black.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I attached the rest
of the sub-assemblies, the last being the cowling and the propellers. I
used stretched sprue for the aerials. Overall it was a good build and
the finished model required a considerabe space in my display shelf.
The model depicts a
G4M1 Betty with the 4th Chutai of the Kanoya Kokutai when
it was stationed at Sasa Airifeld, Davao on January 1942. Originally
based in Formosa, the Kanoya Kokutai's 4th, 5th and
6th Chutais were active over the Philippines. (The 1st, 2nd and
3rd Chutais were assigned in the Malayan operations and participated in sinking
the Prince of Wales and the Repulse) On December 8, 1941 together with
elements of the Takao Kokutai (also flying G4M1s) they hit the USAAF
base at Iba Airfield in Zambales during the opening stages of the war.
Cheers and Happy
Modeling!
Tony
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