From the last F-Toys VS collection was this lovely B5 Kate moulding.
While working on my first build from this boxing, a B5N1 in a 1938 scheme, I used painting instructions from the Airfix kit via Scalemates (as the China war example was unsurprisingly not included in this kit aimed at the Japanese domestic market). I noticed the Airfix club boxing of their 72nd scale kit had surrender markings and found a photo online to back this up.
It is a fascinating and unique use of this strategy to denote surrendered forces. There was, understandably, great concern that large pockets of Japanese resistance might remain and continue to attack Allied forces, however the dishonour of doing so in a plane lacking the hinomaru which represented the divine Emperor, would be impossible to countenance.
I thought this scheme (also unsurprisingly missing from the F-toys series) would make a very good use of the pre-painted model F-Toys as it would provide an authentially green base with yellow wing fronts for the roughly applied white paint. Although this photo has limited detail, first hand account of these aircraft describe hastily applied white paint with the original markings often quite visible underneath.
Interestingly the Airfix Kate has partially scratched out Hinomaru which are definitely not visible on this photo and I have seen it represented elsewhere in model form as a bare metal bird. I decided tp stick with the white and base it on the photograph.
I painted the cockpit seats and sides in appropriate green, then sealed it up with Tamiya ET. Some filler was applied and I overpainted this with green from the AK 3G IJN set - not a perfect match for the F-toys greens, but sufficient for this project.
Next up, the decals. In a way these were the motivating factor to get this build moving along so quickly. The F-Toys decals are notoriously thick - making them easy to handle but they don't like panel lines or curved surfaces and on my last build - a P-40N from VS9 boxing, I had to peel them off and start again.
Therefore before risking my carefully painted B5N1, I applied these decals to the N2 and fortunately they generally behaved with some panel line conformity and those on the fuselage sides remained in place too.
For the scheme, I don't have a reference for the underlying scheme or even the unit to which the white Kate belongs. The kit I chose had markings for the 931st Naval Air Unit which, accord to limited info I found online, operated from 1944 until the war's end from Kushira Air Base in southern Japan and appears to have operated from several islands including Saipan - so it is not unreasonable that one of their Kates might have been used after the surrender to convey a dignitary or just for a US pilot's joyride perhaps?
For the late-war look I stippled on some metallic paint to represent peeling green paint, then after varnish, painted over the whole thing with a heavily thinned white paint.
The iconic green crosses were created with Printscale decal stripes.
One thing I particularly love about the F-toys kits are the prepainted wheels and undercarriage detail. These are often parts I lose motivation to do at the latter stage of a build, so just being able to cut and stick is great.
Of course it wouldn't be one of my builds without a suitable base and I used some contemporary photos of Okinawa airfields to make a little dusty, rocky texture with a strip of PSP from the Sweet sheets.
The vehicle is the always lovely Heroes Models Clarktor, but I replaced the driver with a 3d printed figure from 3djson who suited the period better. Added details included some Brengun tools and it was all complete.
