Although the subject matter may not appeal to everyone, I cannot understand why this kit is considered to be one of Tamiya's most unpopular, as from a build perspective it is absolutely flawless and goes together without any filler. The only items I added to the kit were an Eduard etch set (48 152), True Details (46041) wheels and brake lines made from lead wire.
As I built this model some 6-7 years ago and back in the days when I used to mix my own paint colours, I cannot recall which Gunze colours I used or what the mix ratios were for the Kawanishi Green. However, as for the remaining colours they are pretty much whichever Gunze colours are appropriate.
The markings came from an Aeromaster decal sheet (48-326 Kawanishi Shiden Collection) and weathering consisted of panel line washes and paint chips using a Prismacolor Silver pencil. Personally I think this is one of Tamiya's nicest kits and in some respects is equal to or better than Hasegawa's offering.
My decision to complete this model as the Meteor F1 prototype was influenced by the fact that in 2013 - whilst on an overseas holiday - I got to see the real aircraft in the flesh at the RAF Museum in Hendon. What a liked about this scheme is that it offered a nice touch of colour in comparison to the other schemes on offer, which I thought were a little bland.
There were no major problems during assembly with the only areas needing some attention being the aft cockpit coaming to fuselage join and the fore and aft lower wing to fuselage joins, all of which were shimmed with some 25 thou plastic card. I also added an Eduard etch set (48 211) to improve certain areas and replaced the pitot tube with some Albion Alloy tubing.
With assembly completed the canopy was then masked and the model primed with Tamiya White surface primer to provide a suitable base for the tail band and underside colours. The tail band was sprayed with a mix of Gunze H25 Sky Blue and H21 Off White and once dry was then masked. The undersides were then sprayed with Gunze H413 RLM04 Yellow with selected panels then sprayed with Gunze H4 Yellow, just to provide a little contrast. Once dry the undersides were then masked and the upper surfaces sprayed with Gunze H72 Dark Earth. The camouflage masks were then cut from 10mm Tamiya tape - using the instruction sheet provided as a template - and applied to the upper surfaces with their edges slightly lifted. The upper surfaces were then sprayed with Gunze H73 Dark Green and once dry all the masks were removed.
Although I was happy with the overall finish of the model it didn't quite capture the look of the real aircraft, so in an attempt fix this I went over the green and brown areas again with a very dilute mix of Gunze H310 Brown and H302 Green. This was applied in lighter or heavier coats in certain areas until I achieved the desired affect as seen on the real aircraft. After this a coat of Future was applied to the model, followed by the decals and then a second coat of Future to seal them all in. I then applied a panel line wash to the upper surfaces using Mig's PLW Dark Green Grey (A.MIG-1608) and the lower surfaces using Mig's PLW Sky Grey (A.MIG-1607) and that's about as far as I went with the weathering.
The undercarriage and pitot tube were then fitted and the model sprayed with a 70-30 mix of Vallejo Satin (26.519) and Gloss (70.510) acrylic varnish to give it a slight sheen overall. The finishing touches consisted of removing the canopy masks, applying a coat of Future to the glazing's, attaching the movable portion and painting the nav lights, bringing yet another commission piece to a successful conclusion.
