Hasegawa 1/48 Kyushu J7W-1
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Introduction
Funny how time flys. This kit came out at a time when I had a part time
job in a now long gone hobby shop/toy store in Oklahoma City (Toys By
Roy in Crossroads Mall). I can remember the amazement at the new level
of detail in this great new Hasegawa 1:48th kits. Also odd that it’s
taken me 25 years to finally build one.
The Kyushu J7W-1 was an Imperial Japanese Navy attempt at a point defense
fighter specifically designed to counter the US B-29 bombing raids. The
pusher/canard configuration was used to supposedly allow for the installation
of a jet engine when it became available. As it was, the J7W never flew
in its original prototype configuration; on a take off attempt the aircraft
over rotated and damaged the pusher propeller. Two small wheels were added
and the aircraft became what is modeled here the J7W-1. This aircraft
did fly for three flights totaling 45 minutes in the air. There were problems
cooling the radial engine, compounded with some torque related and vibration
problems. The program was terminated with the end of the war. A single
example still exists awaiting restoration at the Smithsonian. Some film
footage of the early flights exists on YouTube.
Construction
The kit stems back to the early 80’s and consists of three gray
and one clear sprues holding under 50 parts, including a two-piece standing
pilot figure. Decals are limited to the prototype aircraft. I think this
particular kit is a later 90’s re-release of the kit, but the dies
have held up well with very little evidence of flash or short shots.
The build went simple and quick. The cockpit was painted and assembled,
with little time spent adding any significant detail.
The airframe went together easily, lots of room in the nose for the
needed 10 grams of lead shot nose weight. I build without putty so you
can see how nicely the seams cleaned up right out of the box.
One nice feature was the propeller shaft had its own retaining cap.
This allowed assembly of the tail of the plane for painting and still
allowed the propeller to turn freely after all the details were taken
care of.
The exterior was airbrushed in Aero Master IJN Gray and IJN Green paint
with my Iwata BCS airbrush, then given one coat of future.
I had a moment of terror when it took a good minute long soak in warm
water to get the old decals to release from the paper, but with this little
than normal longer soak, all of them went down well. They also responded
well to Micro Sol.
Conclusions
Nice fun quick build. Hopefully you’ll have seen this one on the
OOB area at the US IPMS Region 6 contest in Texas.
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