Aichi's B7A Ryusei (Shooting Star) was code-named Grace. But she was not built to bring grace, rather tribulation! High performance, designed to be as manuverable as the Zero, it was fortunate that only 111 were built and there were not enough crews to exploit the potential of this beautiful, world-class warplane.


























Hasegawa's 1/48 kit built OOB except for Squadron's Fast masks, aftermarket seatbelts up front, and homemade in back. Painted with Aeromaster Nakajima Green and Polly Scale aluminum underside. Hasegawa shows a 3-color special mix for the interior color. J-Aircraft has a few photos of the Ryusei at NASM, and the colors tend to match, but I speculate that it is a 'normal' interior color that is mutated by the photography, a'la the Monogram Japanese Aircraft Interiors shot of NASM's A6M5.

Hi Fred!

That's what I call paint chipping! I think only some WW2 French planes can top that. Amazing job! Did you use your famous salt technique? On the front you can even see the three layers of paint: silver, then green and finally black! It's all in the detail!

I would only be critical on two things (sorry). The first one is the decal seatbelt. I personnaly don't like it... it's not to the level of the model... but it's just my opinion! The second one is the glossy finish of the pilot figure... don't you think some matt coat would make him look more realistic?

Well, these are only details and the fact is the model is great! You don't see many of them around... just like the real one!

Jean-Luc

JPTRR,
as usual great build! I'll be using that technique (sticky tape pull) on my next japanese aircraft... thanks for sharing...

archerwin

I loved my Grace! It was such a fun kit to build. I love yours to, the peeled paint is a fine addition to an already beautiful kit.

~CHip

I loved my Grace! It was such a fun kit to build. I love yours to, the peeled paint is a fine addition to an already beautiful kit.

~CHip

Very nice job Fred.

Superb work, that weathering is awesome. Looks like it took a real battering!!

Marvelous work!!!

thats one hell of a chipped airplane paint!

Mirko

Hi Fred!

Appart from the "Shinning" Pilot figure and the decal seat belts, like Jean-Luc mentioned, I have only to say that your Grace makes a real justice to its name!
You model looks wonderful - love the antena cable insulators and of course the chipping

Congratulations!

Skipper

PS: about the pilot, I thought it was there for scale perception - so I didn't mind much about it

I like the worn look Fred, very much so. It only looks to me that the edges of the canopy ( the sliding pieces) have not been painted? But then again, I don't know much about planes, being a landbased builder...

Great looking plane and replacing the decal seatbelt will improve it even further.

Cheers
Henk

Hi Guys,

Just read your comments, thank you all

Last night I painted the bare edges of the canopy sections and replaced the decal shoulder belts.

Thanks for pointing these out. I can not emphasize how valuable it is to view your model through photography--it reveals all manner of goofs and oversights.

Rui, "about the pilot, I thought it was there for scale perception...", you are right, because for Imperial Japan, this was a huge single-engine beast. I have my Nichimo 1/48 Kate (built c.1977) that I might shoot next to it to compare the size. Rob, how big is your Jill, dimension-wise?

New, updated pix soon!

This is almost

Hi Fred

As most of us modelers who started building when very young, you have all "period tendencies": WWII planes, WWI planes, Modern planes, WWII German Armour, WWII... and so on and so on, until you find that one that you suddenly realise "This is it!"

For me it was 1/35 (or 1/32) submarines....
Well this long intro, just serve to say that a few decades ago I also had (another one) a passion for WWII japanese planes! It was fun to place all the planes displayed in the shelves and notice the huge difference in size of some single engine fighters:
- F6F-3 Hellcat versus A6M4 Zero
- P-47D Thunderbolt versus ME-109G

This also gave me the sense of scale (it also helped visiting some Museums and see the real thing) for Airplanes, Armour and so on!

This Grace is huge

Thanks for not falling asleep

Skipper

Hi All,

For those who think my weathering/chipping is a tad extreme, I offer: My Weathering is Subtle

Nice job on this one!

Now thats what i call chipped up! Nice work there. Did you use a specific reference picture when building this model?

I like the photography touch where you obviously took it outdoors making it look even more realistic.

Hi Jazza,

I did, from photos in Don Thorpe'S 'Japanese Naval Air Force Camouflage and Markings, World War II'
(Aero [USA], 1977; 193 pages; approximate value US$35 [out of print]) Three pix of Grace; additionally I used some other pix of Graces, including a photo I can no longer find of the top of the wing; as well as badly weathered Kates, etc.