Tamiya 60768 - 1/72 Kawanishi N1K1-Ja Shiden Type 11 Koh WWII  [60768]

Kawanishi N1K1-Ja SHIDEN TYPE 11

Evolving from the Kawanishi N1K1 "Kyofu" floatplane, the Imperial Japanese Navy's N1K1-J Shiden had a unique pedigree amoung WW2 landplane fighters worldwide. In January 1942, the Kawanishi Aircraft company started adaptation associated with Kyofu into a land based fighter, strictly as a private endeavor. This task had been soon officially authorized in designation N1K1-J, with all the very first model flying in December 1942. The airframe ended up being essentially the exact same as the predecessor, with primary landing gear and tall wheel changing the floats. In place of Kyofu's Mitsubihi Kasei motor, a more compact and powerful Nakajima Homare motor ended up being installed. Excellent performance and superb maneuverability ended up being achieved by using this motor, however it brought about serious issues. In purchase to make use of most of the available energy in the engine, a sizable diameter propeller was required. This required unusually long main landing gear legs, because of the midwing configuration. This caused problems within the landing gear retraction system. Kawansihi designers managed to resolve the problem by presenting telescopic primary landing gear feet. The complex gear system and unreliability associated with the engine, plagued the N1K1-J throughout its job, before the introduction for the enhanced, low-wing N1K2-J Shiden-Kai. About 1,000 N1K1-J fighters had been produced and were active across the Phillipine islands, Formosa, Okinawa and on the Japanese Island of Honshu.