Meng Models Kayaba Katsuodori

I am not in possession of a one-track mind. I tend to have lots of projects on the burners at once. In modelling, that often means that models will get finished in groups. You saw that earlier this year when I broke through the mojo logjam and finished a number of models. I currently have a small group of kits making their way into the final stages and will be presenting them over the next week.

First up is the diminutive Kayaba Katsuodori. This was an interesting little IJN46 paper project that was intended to act primarily as a parasite fighter.  Hook it up to your Rita or Peggy, and carry it along until you found a swarm of Allied fighters to go up against. The Katsuodori could then use a rocket-assist to gain some height and then convert over to jet power to do its fighting. Somewhat similar to the Me-163, at least in usage.

The kit is the first 1:72 aircraft subject of a new kit manufacturer, Meng Models. They’ve already announced their second (a Manshu Ki-98, another project, this one similar to the SAAB J-21R). I have seen some of their armor as well – someone had completed their massive minefield crusher at last week’s Spring Show – and it looked very nice. I can attest that this kit is well engineered, with good fit and detail, and certainly won’t tax your building skills since it has a minimum number of bits. I even cut that down by using the trailer instead of wheels and not adding the RATO pods.

Markings are from the kit and are, of course, speculative. The overall IJN Grey paint job with Red tail (in this case twin fins) is pretty typical though. Decals were a bit too matte, but laid down well on the Xtracolour surface. I sourced my kit through Lucky Models, but they have since shown up at Sprue Bros, which is where I will likely get the Ki-98. A very nice job (especially given that the only previous kit of the type came from Unicraft) and I look forward to their future releases.

This is completed model #386 (#11 for the year), finished in April of 2012.