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Reviews : Japanese Last Updated: Aug 21st, 2020 - 13:06:35

Nakajima Kikka. MPM. 1/72nd
By Peter Scott. mmpbooks.biz
Apr 11, 2006, 10:15

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Injection moulded, with etched brass details.
First impressions were of a finely executed moulding, with very restrained engraving to the main parts. Smaller parts were not so refined and were more prone to flash. The instruction sheet was easily read and also advised that sprue was required within the nose wheel bay to support the nose leg. After around an hour of cleaning up the parts, construction commenced with the cockpit. This is made from a solid floor, etched brass rudder pedals, framework for the seat, brass seat belts and either an injection-moulded instrument panel or a brass one with photo film dials. The two panels were not the same shape, however and the plastic one fitted better. The cockpit wails were complete with ribbing, to which brass throttle quadrants and levers are attached. The entire assembly looks very busy and paints up very effectively.

Some extra weight was put in the nose to prevent tail sitting and, most importantly, a bulkhead was fitted to prevent daylight showing into the cockpit via the nosewheel bay. The main wing came as one complete part, which resulted in commendably thin trailing edges and the down-sweep at mid width was accurately portrayed. However, the wing to fuselage fit was not good and the jet pod l main wing connections also required filler. The tail-planes were butt jointed to the fuselage, which did not make for ease of positioning, nor was the final joint positive.

The undercarriage doors were in one piece, rather than the three doors to each wheel of the original machine. Although reasonably thin, they were replaced by card. All of the wheels were attached to their parent sprue in three positions, which made cleaning up more difficult than usual. Brass torque links were provided for the main undercarriage legs. The legs were intended to be butt jointed into the wheel bays, but holes were drilled instead, to make for a more positive result.
The final part of construction was to add the canopy, which was thick and distorted all the details below.

Only one original prototype was actually completed and this crashed on its second flight, when the RATOG produced an uncontrollable pitch-up (the RATOG gear is not included in the kit). The kit basically can only represent the prototype or the others that were completed after the war to meet the requirements of the Americans. The kit decals are about right in colour, but are too small to capture look of the markings used on the prototype. Furthermore, the white outlines of the hinomaru were off centre. MPM also provide white codes for 724 Kokutai, but these are spurious. There have only been two kits in this scale and three resin ones, all of which are difficult to obtain now. From comparisons with the plans in Monogram Close-Up 19, the kit is 2mm too short and 3mm too wide. Nevertheless, it certainly captures the look of the prototype well enough, and was an enjoyable little project.



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