YOKOSUKA D4Y2-S "Judy"
by DAN SALAMONE
| I started the model in fall of 2003, and worked on it off/on until May 2004. I used all Tamiya acrylics, XF-61 for the overall green, XF-11 for the "new" green, and a mix of XF-49
and XF-20 for the lower color. The prop is XF-68, cockpit a mix that started with XF-13 and was tweaked to match FS 34095. The fabric flight surfaces were painted FS 16314(lower sides only), but sadly I did not document
what Tamiya colors I used for this! I used artists' oils for a wash, pastel chalks for weathering, and finished the paint scheme with Testors' lacquer clear coats. It is the original issue of the 1/48 Fine Molds Judy, kit#FA 6, with white metal cockpit and landing gear parts. The overall detail on the kit is very nice, although I had to fill and or scribe some small details like access doors, and fill some small sink marks on the fuselage sides. The fit of the main parts was poor, much like a limited run injection kit, or even a vacform kit. That said, patience, and dry fitting allowed acceptable fit, and I filled gaps with Tamiya epoxy putty. I used both the kit clear parts, plus a Squadron vacform canopy for the sliding parts I wanted to position open. Plastic strip was used as internal canopy rails that are missing from the kit as well. I added a Fine Molds photoetched gunsight inside the windshield frame for the oblique cannon gunsight, and used decals from Revi's decal sheet #48002, for the Yokosuka Ku red codes. I also needed to fabricate the inner gear door actuators, as the kit lacked them. I used the basic part from a Hasegawa Model 52 Zero, replacing the thick wire portion with stainless steel wire of the correct width. Finally, as references, I used FAOW #69 on the Judy as a basic guide, with Koku Fan #96 on the 302nd Ku as a reference for the details on the nightfighter version of the Judy, such as gunsight and canopy details. Dan Salamone |
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