Just completed another oldie-moldie kit. The Johan 1/72nd Japanese Rufe floatplane which was released in 1973. I had all 4 of Johan’s releases from the early 70’s and sold them in a big sell-off in 2012 but I picked this up for $7 since it had no decals. I added a cockpit set from CMK and used the AK 3rd Gen paint for IJN Colors. The kit itself is a simple build until you add the cockpit set which complicates the fitting process.
I scraped off the engine pushrods and replaced them with plastic rod and added wires. The machine gun barrels were added using Albion aluminum tube. The non-existent exhaust ports were added using plastic tube. The open slide back portion of the canopy was vacuformed to allow it to fit in the open position. The antenna is MIG super fine rigging. I printed the decals for the all the markings except for the hinomaru’s and fuselage bands which I airbrushed. For the base I cut the mask for the Japanese flag on my Silhouette 3 cutter and used a 3/16 brass rod to attach the plane.
I first primed the model with gray hardware store lacquer based primer and the preshaded the panel lines with black. I then added a coat of Quick Shine acrylic before detailing the panel lines with Tamiya charcoal (mixed) Accent Color. Another coat of Quick Shine was added before and after applying the decals. The final coat final is Testors Dullcoate.
The plane represents a Rufe from the Shortland Island seaplane base in the Solomons, 1942.
It’s not a “contest model” (too many tiny flaws), but it was a fun build of a cool looking old war bird.
