Small Scale Military Headquarters

There are almost no worthwhile pictures of the Kates that took part in Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. A few very poor black and white shots seem to show that some Kates from the carrier Soryu sported a blotched camouflage on their upper surfaces, which some have interpreted as brown blotches applied over a green base. This belief has led kit-makers like Hasegawa to include such schemes in their painting instructions, an example of which is seen in the following picture. Note how neat the brown blotches are in this rendition. The carrier boys must have had lots of time of their hands to put out such beautiful work:

Some modelers have even reversed the pattern, coming up with an Italian-style sand and spinach scheme, as shown below:

Despite the contention of many U.S. researchers that the green and brown schemes are a misinterpretation of the pictures and, in addition, make little sense for over-the-water camouflage, many Japanese collectors and HM's Japanese distributor prefer this motif. This has led HM to put out two green and brown Kates. Here's a picture of one of them:

There is reason to believe that Kates from the carrier Soryu were painted in an over-all mustard-like yellow, prior to departure for Pearl, and that the carrier hands applied a dark green coat---without the proper priming----on the plane's upper surfaces. This, of course, would have led to a lot of green flaking off when the planes took off and flew towards Hawaii---which is probably the explanation for the "blotches" that appear in the old photos. Accepting this as a plausible explanation, I took a green and brown HM Kate and gave its upper surface a green coat. Then, I applied chipping, revealing the mustard-like yellow---a fairly dark color---below. Staining and other weathering refinements are reflected oin the repaint, below:

Here's another shot, from the front:

Finally, one showing the underside:

VERY VERY VERY NICE. I love japanese aircraft. My favorite still remains as their 2 engined bombers such as the Nell or the 4 engined Betty.

Very cool.