1/72 Hasegawa Nakajima G8N1 Renzan "Rita"

The Aircraft: Nakajima G8N1 Renzan

Allied Code Name: Rita

In 1942 the Imperial Japanese Navy had the need for a long range, land-based four-engine bomber. This aircraft would be used to support the fleet and aid in operations penetrating deeply into allied held territory in the south pacific. As the replacement for the G4M series, the G8N1 was the bomber for this role of long range offensive bombing. The first prototype was completed in October of 1944, and by the 23rd of that month the Renzan made her first test flight. Three additional aircraft were constructed by the end of December of the same year. However due to constant allied air attacks and a critical shortage of light alloys the Japanese Navy was forced to cancel the program.

The Kit: Hasegawa 1/72 scale

This is one of Hasegawa’s older kits. I appropriated this kit at a local contest back in ’97. The kit is molded in green hard plastic. All of the panel lines and the rivets are raised. Unfortunately there is very little detail for the interior especially the flight deck. All of the transparencies were scratched badly and I was concerned whether I would be able to use them or not (In ’97). As always with Hasegawa the instructions were clear and precise. The decals were ok. With only the box detail to go by I built it, messed it up, and then put it on the shelf…

… After many years and much modeling research I decided to do some justice to this kit and try to fix several mistakes I made while building it the first time. I figured this would be a good model to try things I have learned off of this site (Aircraft Resource Center). It was fun, and a challenge.I built this kit out of the box, and added no addition detailing. First big mistake was to fix the canopy and the rest of the transparencies that I messed up! When I first attempted building this kit in ’97 I hand painted the canopy w/ out masking them. Well needless to say they looked awful. I tried to be resourceful and hide the canopy under a “tarp” made from Elmer’s glue doped up paper towels. That looked swell. Yikes! So when I began my rebuilding session these were the first to go! Then I used nail polish remover to remove the bad paint job. The striping process went rather well.

To get the canopies clear and shinny I tried a rather harsh approach. I first tried to polish them with a polishing kit, but I think I scratched them worse. Next I took my Dremel tool with the buffing pad and went to work. That was the trick! They turned out pretty good. After a little soap and water they were ready to mask and spray.

The previous picture does an excellent job of letting the reader see the outcome of the canopy. I used masking tape to mask the glass, and then placed the canopy on the model using Elmer’s glue. After the glue dried I sprayed the canopy area w/ a clear coat to help seal the area where the tape ended. (To keep the edges nice and crisp) Next I sprayed the aircraft with Model Masters metalizer, and last with the orange. I did not remove the mask until the model was completed.

Finishing:

Before I started to repaint the model I looked for any holes or seams that I did not fill the first go round. I used a technique learned from this site to fill the little cracks and holes. Elmer’s White glue. I used it like caulking a counter top. Run a small bead of glue down the crack and then with a damp towel I removed the excess. I let the glue set up for 24 hours and then it was ready for painting! I was happy with the results. I had a good reason for using this technique. As I said, I was redoing this model and for the most part it was already assembled, so the glue/filler process worked well in this situation.

The fuselage was first sprayed with Testor’s Buffing Metalizer, left to dry 48 hrs, and then over sprayed w/ Model Masters flat yellow and a drop of international orange. I used masking tape to pull up the orange topcoat from the metalizer for the weathered effect. It worked rather well.

For the exhaust stains I used burnt umber Acrylic Model Masters airbrushing in the direction of the exhaust. (See above picture) This old kit has been through it so I wanted to try some techniques that were new to me. For the most part they worked. I would like to see Hasegawa re-release this kit, maybe adding more detailing in the flight deck. Overall this is a good kit and I had fun doing it and then redoing it. I guess that is the point then isn’t it?

Hope you liked the Rita.

References:

1. Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Rene Francillon Naval Institute Press. 1970, 1979.
2. Hasegawa Box Cover

Happy Modeling

Bobby