*** 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer - DNF ***

For twin prop-engine aircraft used in the air-air combat role. Any era, any kit, any scale.
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Martin R
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*** 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer - DNF ***

Post by Martin R »

During February, I will be mostly building the Revell Kawasaki Ki-45 'Toryu' "Dragon-Killer", known as 'Nick' to the Allies. Although conceived originally as a long-range heavy fighter, the 'Nick' is perhaps best known as a day and nightfighter countering the massed formations of B-29s raiding Japan late in the war.

I can't remember exactly where I picked this up, but I suspect it was from the "Sell" section of Britmodeller. The kit didn't come with a box, so I can't show you the cool artwork of this particular 'Nick' diving through a formation of B-29s. <Edit: Yes I can!>

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Revell-1-72-K ... _25wt_1151

Since I got my act together and took it out of the unsealed bag it arrived in, the bits have resided in this freezer bag.

Image[/URL]

I have gone through the bits and I notice that one of the separate panels for one of the engine cowlings is missing. It's probably in one of my boxes of model kits in the loft, ergo it's lost. The shape doesn't look too complicated, so I'm hoping I can make a replacement from plastic sheet. We'll see. Here's what I've got:

Image

I believe this kit was first released by a Japanese manufacturer (LS?). It exhibits wholly acceptable levels of detail for me throughout, so I'm hoping for a simple build oob. I will be aided in this by knowing very little about Japanese aircraft of WWII and having zero references on this particular one.

One thing of interest. Looking at the surface, there are a lot of rivets, no? Actually, no. Run a finger over the surface and that's very fine recessed detail. Cool! I hope it builds as well as it looks, cause I'm really looking forward to this one.

The only problem is likely to be the decals. The one in the kit look as if they might be cracked, so I may have to source some others. Does anyone have the Aeromaster sheet that includes this plane? I would be seriously interested in relieving you of them.

Now, does anyone know what colour the interior might have been painted?

More when the GB opens.

regards,

Martin
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Martin R
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by Martin R »

Another interesting thing: I don't know if it shows in the pictures but the 'Nick' is a pretty compact twin. Not as dinky as a Whirlwind admittedly, but pretty small. Wingspan according to Bill Green was ~49ft, versus 54ft for a Mossie and ~57 for the admittedly brick outhouse-like Beaufighter, so the 'Nick' was quite ickle. Packed a fair punch, mind. :shock:

regards,

Martin
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PaulBradley
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by PaulBradley »

Quite a looker is that Nick. Very smart, indeed.
Paul

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justplanecrazy
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by justplanecrazy »

I'm looking for one of these to do in 'Red' Chinese markings so will be following your build with interest.


Nick
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Martin R
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by Martin R »

justplanecrazy wrote:I'm looking for one of these to do in 'Red' Chinese markings so will be following your build with interest.


Nick
Hi Nick,

I hope the build record will be of use to you. I washed the sprues last night and did some test fitting. There's some warpage in the fuselage halves that I'm going to have to sort out. The fit isn't stellar in some of the smaller pieces either. I'm now thinking that, with the somewhat thick plastic, this build may be more of an effort than I had hoped. Watch this space!

regards,

Martin
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justplanecrazy
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by justplanecrazy »

Thanks Martin, I'd sooner use Revells 30 + year old kit than fork out nearly 30 quid for the not that much better Hasegawa kit.

I kind of like the Idea of Nick 'Toryu' Dragon slayer. I'm a Drugs worker so 'slaying the dragon' is part of what I do lol!


Nick
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Martin R
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by Martin R »

justplanecrazy wrote:Thanks Martin, I'd sooner use Revells 30 + year old kit than fork out nearly 30 quid for the not that much better Hasegawa kit.

I kind of like the Idea of Nick 'Toryu' Dragon slayer. I'm a Drugs worker so 'slaying the dragon' is part of what I do lol!


Nick
Nick,

I know what you mean. I wouldn't pay full price for any Hasegawa kit any more.

I found out from Britmodeller that a 'Nick' of this vintage should have a basically olive drab interior, so that's easy. The raised area between the pilot's and gunner's position looks something like a fuel tank to me - although it may just be a cover for the wing spar carry-through structure. I'm thinking of painting it matt black (tho' not much will be seen from outside anyway). I'm not sure about the wheel wells. Silver?

regards,

Martin
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Martin R
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by Martin R »

OK, sitrep:

1) Despite washing, the silver-coloured plastic doesn't like acrylic. If I was sensible, I'd give everything a scoosh of primer at the start. I'm not sensible. Result? This:

Image

I reasoned that if the paint finish on the outside of late war Japanese aircraft wasn't up to much, then maybe neither was the interior. I also like the trasnlucent effect, and I don't reckon much of the sidewalls will be visible anyway.

2) The plastic is somewhat brittle. I've already broken (and repaired) the rear machine gun mount (which I've shown as stowed because if I had tried to stick it out of the cockpit, it'd have pointed almost straight up. Very strange).

I didn't try to button up the interior as I want to add some seat belts, then cement in the cockpit and let it dry, to act as another alignment point for the fuselage sides.

regards,

Martin
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justplanecrazy
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by justplanecrazy »

Hey Martin I like the look of this however unintentional it was.


Nick
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Chris
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by Chris »

Looks like a good start on her.
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Martin R
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by Martin R »

Thank you, chaps.

So I started this evening at the workbench in sparing no effort to cut some Tamiya tape belts for the seats and then cemented the cockpit floor in place on the fuse half with the Schrage Muzik cannon.

Do you remember that I mentioned that the fuse halves seemed to be badly warped? Well, I let the cockpit floor dry a bit then used Revell contacta along the fin / rudder and rear fuselage up to the back of the cockpit and wrapped it tight in tape. The result is as below. You can see the resulting fuselage fit at the nose :shock:

Image

I then went to watch "Top Gear" for an hour. When I returned, taking inspiration from the "three cheese pizza", I decided to try the fuselage join as a "three glue concoction". So, the nose joint up to the front cockpit was dealt with by smearing the joint with medium superglue, pressing together and setting it off with accelerator. The mid-fuselage was then sorted by using plastic weld top and bottom with more tape. The result after all that was this:

Image

You can see the remaining mismatch in the fin / rudder halves.

After some sanding of the fuselage top and bottom joints, I added the tailplanes, which were a good fit:

Image

I then spent a small amount of time applying brute force to unbend the lower wing halves; these had been distorted at the outer nacelle wall so that the dihedral drooped on the outer wing sections. This seemed to sort it out. I then taped the wing halves together and dry fitted them to check the fit with the fuselage. They seem to be a good fit.

Image

I hope to spray the wheel well interiors Aluminium tomorrow and get the wing halves joined, but we'll see how it goes.

regards,

Martin
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by BlohmWolf »

That's looking quite shiny in it's normal plastic. Nice job with the cockpit too!
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by Chris »

Sometimes those old kits can be a pain in the butt.
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justplanecrazy
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by justplanecrazy »

Great start Martin, beginning to look like an aeroplane. To be fair to the age of the kit I have has much newer kits with warpage.

Nick
Talking about aeroplanes is a very pleasant mental disease. — Sergei Sikorsky
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Re: 'Nick' the Dragon-Slayer

Post by fearless frankie »

Must admit there is one in the garage left over from my early teens and it makes into a great looking plane but sadly in those days I could do it no justice
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