Aviation of Japan 日本の航空史: Another Plastic E7K2 Kit!

Monday, 3 October 2022

Another Plastic E7K2 Kit!

Hat tip to Kevin Bade for alerting me to another injection moulded kit of the Kawanishi E7K2 variant of 'Alf'. This kit is to 1/300 scale and released by Nichimo circa 1981 in their 'Super Micro Series - Samurai'. Each kit contained two different IJN aircraft. Kevin's kit (above) shows pairing with an A5M whereas the box shown at Scalemates (below) pairs 'Alf' with a Zero.

The moulding looks remarkable for the scale and the kits came with decal sheets offering alternative subjects. With special thanks to Kevin for sharing the image of the kit box and parts.

6 comments:

WK said...: Thanks for the post Nick. Was this kit intended for some 1:300 ship model kit(I don't even know if that's a scale ship models even come in), or was it some kind of torture device designed by someone at Nichimo?; 4 October 2022 at 22:45
Baronvonrob said...: What a rare find indeed ... Kudos to Mr.Bade...do I sense an "Alf-Fest" around the corner :); 5 October 2022 at 02:24
MDriskill said...: Nichimo did indeed have a series of 1/300 scale ship kits in the 1970's and 80's, including such ambitious subjects as Yamato, Musashi, and Shinano. They also had a series of kits in 1/450 scale.

I believe the 1/300 "Super-Micro Series" included 18 different WW2 Japanese naval aircraft, and also some modern jets. As noted they were packaged 2 per box, in different combinations. I still have in my stash:

Fighters: A5M4 Claude, A6M2 Zeke 21, A6M3 Zeke 22, A6M3 Zeke 32, A6M5 Zeke 52, N1K1 Rex, N1K1-J George 11, N1K2-J George 21

Attack: B5N2 Kate, B6N2 Jill, D3A2 Val, D4Y2 Judy

Reconnaissance: C6N1 Myrt, E7K2 Alf, E13A1 Jake, E14Y1 Glen, E16A1 Paul, F1M2 Pete; 7 October 2022 at 14:20
Straggler 脱走兵 said...: Hi Mike

Thank you very much for those additional details about these 1/300 Nichimo kits.

Regards
Nick; 7 October 2022 at 18:22
MDriskill said...: Thanks Nick - I recall buying all of these that I could find back in the day, but have often wondered if there were others in the series.

Rufe, Jack, Grace, and a radial-engine Judy are conspicuously absent from this otherwise impressive selection of major IJNAF single-engined wartime types.; 8 October 2022 at 15:21
Ken Glass said...: Thanks to Kevin, Mike & Nick for this info.; 3 November 2022 at 13:12

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