Nakajima Ki-201

[Gondor]

This is a placeholder for about a week, until the Scottish Nationals are past. It has been sitting in the visible stash for some time and fits nicely into this Group Build. Progably gong to be option One on the box.

[Gondor]

Here is a picture of the box, an unopened bag of parts that are hopefully the parts to build the subject, and the instructions, which I shall use to make sure I don't put the rear of the engines at the front and silly things like that.



So far, the cockpit floor, the front and rear bulkheads for the cockpit, have all been removed, cleaned up and glued together. More tomorrow, hopefully.

[Old Wombat]

...[snip]... and the instructions, which I shall use to make sure I don't put the rear of the engines at the front and silly things like that ...[snip]...

If you do, you wouldn't be the first to do that with a kit of either this aircraft or the Me.262 & you won't be the last. Good luck!   

[buzzbomb]

...[snip]... and the instructions, which I shall use to make sure I don't put the rear of the engines at the front and silly things like that ...[snip]...

If you do, you wouldn't be the first to do that with a kit of either this aircraft or the Me.262 & you won't be the last. Good luck!   

What he said. I can put my hand up for that sort of thing.

[frank2056]

Me 262 engines are like USB plugs. There's the right way, the other way, then the correct way.

[Rick Lowe]

Me 262 engines are like USB plugs. There's the right way, the other way, then the correct way.

  

[PR19_Kit]

How much of a 262 was there in the Karyu?

It looks as if the wings weren't quite so swept, but that could be an optical illuison.

[Gondor]

To answer some enquiring minds about the similarities between the Ki-201 and the Me 262, I have taken a few pictures.

First up, the Wings from the kit with a sprue from a Revell 262.



The Revell wings on top of the Ki wings. Not necessarily exact, but the best I could do.



Fuselages halves next to each other



And the wings again, this time with the Airfix kit.



And the fuselages.



Lastly, the Airfix and Revell fuselages together.



Probably a case of convergent evolution.

[PR19_Kit]

Those wings aren't quite as swept as the 262s, but there's very little in it.

Thanks for the comparison pics Alastair. 

[Gondor]

Those wings aren't quite as swept as the 262s, but there's very little in it.

Thanks for the comparison pics Alastair. 

The fuselage is slightly longer as well. It's as if they had a three-view drawing, such as we find in books to go on and came out with something that was close, but no cigar.

[The Wooksta!]

For the same reason, the Japanese version of the Me 163 Komet is larger all round.  IIRC they worked it backwards from a sample rocket motor and the pilot's notes.

Interestingly, the Lindberg Me 163 kit is actually the Japanese version - they'd measured up a surviving Japanese one in error.

[Gondor]

A few bits were stuck together yesterday.

The intake and exhaust pipes are supplied in two parts. So eight half tubes, each with a chamfer on the outside of one end and all the same. No problems with getting intake and exhaust tubes mixed up, thankfully.



The upper sections of the wings were also glued to the single-piece underside. There was an ejector pin mark protruding from each upper wing section, which needed to be filed down, so I used my Shimomura Alek file to do this, as well as making sure that the parts were nice and thin.



An interesting thing about this file. One of the cuts is a curve rather than straight, while the second cut is straight. An ideal tool for a job like this.

[Rick Lowe]

What is the purpose/reason for the curved cut?

[Gondor]

What is the purpose/reason for the curved cut?

That is a very good question, one I would like the answer to myself.

[Rick Lowe]

What is the purpose/reason for the curved cut?

That is a very good question, one I would like the answer to myself.

  

Does it cut better or differently?