1/48 Tamiya G4M1 "Betty"

Gallery Article by Chris Wallace on Nov 6 2012

 

 

I like the Pacific Air War and I like anything with radial engines.  I picked up this kit for a song from a good friend of mine who was sure he would never build the airplane models that mysteriously appeared in his collection over the years.  He likely picked it up from another builder because some of it was started.  The previous builder did an adequate job with the wings and the cockpit.  All I did was finish the build and added paint.  I built the Betty out of box and considering the size of the plane, it went together very quickly as there are few parts.  However, anyone who wanted to could add considerably to the kit and get an outstanding result. 

 

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I used Tamiya acrylics exclusively.  The interior was painted with Tamiya's IJN interior green.  The bottom was painted with various custom shades of medium Grey and the top was painted with custom shades of IJN Dark Green and Red Brown (per the kit instructions).  All markings were masked and painted on.  The only decal was the plane number on the fin. After a future coat I washed the model with Promodeller wash: Dark on the bottom and Black on top.

I highly recommend this model to beginners as well as advanced builders.

Chris Wallace

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Photos and text © by Chris Wallace