B5N1 Type 97 "Kate"

by Jean-Baptiste Verlhac

images by Mike Good

Hasegawa's 1/48 scale Kate is available online from  Squadron.com

This is my 1/48 scale Hasagawa Kate that has been built straight from the box and painted according to Hasegawa instruction sheet (Soryu markings). My only deviation from the kit painting guide was the underside color, as it seemed that this aircraft did not wear natural metal lower surfaces, but navy grey.

The weathering has been very light as these planes were almost new. I've just made subtle changes in the green color between the different panels in order to reproduce the modification of tone due to variation of the incidence angle of light. This effect was achieved by airbrushing different green tones and once the brown spots were painted, I applied filters of different colors in each panels in order to modify slightly the green and brown colors (another way to obtain the effect mentioned above).

The display base as well as the photos have been made by Mike Good for Marco Polo Import.

The full article appeared in the July 2001 issue of Wingmasters (N° 23)

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