Kawanishi N1K2-J Shidenkai (George)

This 1/72 scale kit is from a Japanese model company called Hasegawa. The last kit I’ve built from them was very good and this one is no exception! The pros for this kit are as follows: you have two paint schemes to choose from and the one I did is on the cover called 343rd Naval Kokutai (Wing in Japanese) 301st Fighter Hikotai (Squadron in Japanese) flown by First Lieutenant Kanno from Tokushima Naval Air Base 1945. The other one is called 343rd Naval Kokutai 701st Fighter Hikotai flown by First Lieutenant Oshibuchi from Kanoya Naval Air Base 1945. The illustrations are quite good for a non-Airfix kit. The painting of the airplane was a pleasure. Most of the decals were applied perfectly. Finally there was no need to add putty to fill in the gaps whatsoever as every component fits perfectly! The cons for this kit are as follows: I just wished it had the option where if you wanted the landing gear down, you wouldn’t have to cut the landing covers. I had some difficulty on getting the landing gear covers to align dead on. I also had some difficulty with the big stripe decal for it ripped slightly apart. With a little touchup, I managed to fix this issue. In conclusion, I give this kit a rating of 4.5 stars out of five. Hasegawa if you’re reading this it is an another job well done! With some improvement, you can definitely challenge the likes of Airfix, Revell, and Italeri for best modeling company in the world.