Hasegawa 1/72 Mitsubishi G4M1 Type 1 Attack Bomber (Betty) Model 11 'Green Cross'
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Overview
The Mitsubishi G4M Type 1 Attack Bomber was the primary land-based bomber flown by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War. While it had good range and performance, it was an easy target for Allied fighters due to its complete lack of armor plating and no self-sealing fuel tanks. Well over 2000 G4Ms were built and the aircraft served through to the end of the war. In fact, this kit provides markings for some of the very last G4Ms to operate, those of the surrender force.
The Kit
To say that the Hasegawa 1/72 G4M kit has been around for quite a while would be a bit of an understatement. This kit first appeared sometime in the 1960s and has been a regular feature in the Hasegawa catalog ever since, with the occasional new parts being added. For the most part, though, the only change has been decals, and that's the case with this one. Molded in white plastic, the kit is state of the art for a mid-1960s kit, with petite raised details (including rivets), a basic interior, and overall simple construction. The decals are simple, as these aircraft had all markings obliterated and only wore green crosses.
For construction, there's not much to this kit, so a straight out of the box build should go very quickly. The interior consists of three seat shapes, two control columns, and a one-piece floor. The instrument panel is also separate, and the decal sheet provides the instruments. With the addition of three pilot figures, the entire interior is done. For the most part, the interior is not very visible, but in this day and age, one will likely want to add additional details. Luckily, there are plenty of aftermarket sets available for this kit to do just that.
Once the fuselage is together, the next step is the engines. The nacelles include the main wheel wells, and like the fuselage interior there is not much here. The main landing gear strut fits into a couple of holes, and that sums up the main landing gear bay. The nacelle is built up from three parts, with the cowling being a separate fourth piece. The engines are represented by a flat face, while the propellers are simple with only separate spinners. Final assembly puts the upper and lower wing halves together onto large tabs found on the fuselage, and the single-piece stabilizers peg into matching holes. Add all the clear parts and you're ready for paint.
As this is the surrender envoy transport aircraft, the painting is very simple if you want it to be, or could be complex if you choose that route. There are two options, with the only difference being the thickness of the green crosses. Both aircraft are overall white, and that is the route you can take if you want it simple. This white, however, was a temporary paint, and the more challenging finish would be to paint the model in the standard IJN color scheme and then build up the white on top of that. The subtle effect that can result from that will give quite a bit of depth to the finished model.
Conclusion
While around 50 years old, this kit remains the only option for this aircraft in 1/72. Until someone decides to do a new-tool version, dust off your old-school modeling skills and have fun with this one. My thanks to Hasegawa USA for the review sample.