Hasegawa's 1/72 scale
Mitsubishi G4M2E Betty
with MXY7 Ohka Mod. 11

by Chris Wauchop

images by Brett Green

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Chris Wauchop's latest project is Hasegawa's 1/72 scale Mitsubishi G4M2E Betty, kit number 51208. This version includes a MXY7 Ohka Mod. 11 Kamikaze rocket plane. The origins of this moulding is older than the recent Betty kit.

Hasegawa's Betty is nicely detailed straight from the box, but Chris made the following additions and enhancements:

• scratchbuilt nose antenna array

• added DF loop from fine wire (a plastic part was supplied but it disappeared during construction, only to reappear after the new part was fabricated!)

• Gun muzzles were drilled out

In addition to these custom modifications, Eduard's photo-etched detail set no. 72 226 was employed. This set supplied details for the interior in addition to the fuselage antennae, machine gun ring and beads and many other small details.

Fit was generally good, but the join line for the nose cone must be eliminated (it does not fall on a natural panel line) and the clear canopy part is fractionally too narrow at the rear.

Painting

The model was painted using the Testor Aztek A470 airbrush.

Paints used included the following:

• Interior

  • Mix 60% Gunze H58 Interior Green with 40% Tamiya XF-2 Flat White.

• Under Surfaces

  • Mix 50/50 Gunze H61 IJN Grey with Tamiya XF-12 IJN Grey

• Upper Surfaces

  • Mix 50/50 Gunze H59 IJN Green with Tamiya XF-11 IJN Green and some touches of XF-13 IJA Green

• Leading Edge ID panels

  • Mix 50/50 Gunze H24 Yellow Orange with Tamiya XF-3 Flat Yellow

• Propellers

  • Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown

The clear parts received a coat of Future floor finish carefully applied between the frames after they were painted. This eliminated a number of obvious imperfections, including two seam lines moulded on the front of the windscreen.

All canopy framing received a thin black wash around the edges. This is a simple yet effective method to add depth to the framing.

Chris employed his usual weathering techniques, including post-shading panel lines with a thinly sprayed mix of Tamiya acrylic 70% XF-64 Red Brown and 30% XF-1 Black.

Edges and natural wear areas were "chipped" using the point of a silver artist's pencil.

Prior to applying decals, Chris polished the surface of the model with a fine cloth.

Markings

Kit decals were used.

Most of the markings settled down after a short fight and a coat of Mr Mark Softer, but the fuselage meatballs were particularly uncooperative, especially over the round hatch. The serial number also needed extra attention to avoid silvering.

We do not seem to see many of Hasegawa's new-tool 1/72 scale Bettys built, but it is an impressive and attractive model. The addition of the Ohka, either slung under the belly or alongside the bomber on its trolly, adds even more interest.

Chris completed the model in a total of 67 hours.

Photography

The photos were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 5700 digital camera against a plain white background.and optimized in Photoshop CS.

The resulting images were cropped, resized to 700 pixels in width, and saved as a .jpg file for posting on HyperScale.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Mitsubishi Type 1 Rikko Betty Units of World War 2 Combat Aircraft 22   Author: Osamu Tagaya Illustrator: Mark Styling US Price: $19.95 UK Price: £12.99 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Publish Date:  April 25, 2001 Details: 112 pages; ISBN: 184176082X Shop Buy it from Osprey Publishing

Model  by Chris Wauchop
Text Copyright © 2005 by Chris Wauchop & Brett Green
Images Copyright © 2005 by Brett Green
Page Created 30 March, 2005
Last Updated 29 March, 2005

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