Tamiya 61038 - 1/48 Kawanishi N1K1-J Type 11-Koh Shiden WWII  [61038]

Towards Kawanishi N1K1-Ja Shiden Type 11

Evolving from Kawanishi N1K1 "Kyofu" floatplane, the Imperial Japanese Navy's N1K1-J Shiden had a distinctive pedigree among WW2 landplane fighters worldwide. In January 1942, the Kawanishi Aircraft firm started adaption of the Kyofu into a land based fighter, strictly as a personal venture. This task had been quickly formally authorized in designation N1K1-J, aided by the very first model flying in December 1942.
The airframe was basically the identical to its predecessor, with main landing gear and tail wheel changing the floats. Instead of the Kyofu's Mitsubishi Kasei engine, an even more compact and powerful Nakajima Homare engine, an even more compact and effective Nakajima Homare engine ended up being installed. Excellent performance and superb maneuverability ended up being accomplished making use of this motor, nevertheless it created serious dilemmas.

To make use of every one of the available energy in motor, a sizable diameter propeller was required. This needed unusually long principal landing gear feet, because of the midwing setup. This caused difficulties in landing gear retraction system. Kawanishi engineers was able to resolve the issue by presenting telescopic main landing gear feet. The complex gear system and unreliability of this engine, plagued the N1K1-J throughout its job, before the introduction of the improved, low-wing N1K2-J Shiden-Kai. About 1,000 N1K1-J fighters were produced and had been active across the Philippine Islands, Formosa, Okinawa and on the Japanese Island of Honshu.