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Description
Backround: Developed from the A&M Zero, the Rufe was a floatplane version of the aforementioned zero. Based on the A6M2 model 11, the rufe had 3 flaot, a big centre line pontoon and a smaller one under each wing. It was literally a zero with floats attached. The undercarriage was of course removed. Armament was unchanged, it had 2 20mm cannon and 2 7,7mm machien guns. The float reduced performace a lot, however it still managed to do 436 kph, which was pretty good for a floatplane. It also had remarkable maeuverability, which is not that suprising if you remember that is based on the zero. The need for the Rufe came in order to protect small islands or areas in which it was found impossible or unneccessary to install a runway, therefore the A6m2n was developed to provide fighter cover in such areas. They were moderately successful, they werent that successful as fighters, although they did score a number of kills, but they were pretty effective harrasssing troops or attacking PT boats with their heavy armament. They were also found easy to fly and mantain, they had reliable sakae engines. Interestingly, the A6M2 N had folding wingtis, something that was actually unneccessary as these aircraft werent placed on carriers. Today, none of the ca 327 Rufes built, exists.

The kit: This bird is huge! Its the 1/24 trumpeter kit. It costs 95€, but I got it for 50€, as the box was in very bad shape. Apparntly the model store had this kit for aa lot of years in their store and noone bothered buying it, until it caught my eye, and I immediately decided to buy it.

Detail: Trumpeter-the king of detail and they sure dont disappoint here, the engine and the cockpit are absolutely amazing, very very well detailed, the instruments are available as films that are put behind clear parts, pretty cool. There are alos photo etched parts for the flaps, so that they can be moved. However, not everything is perfect: The bomb racks are realy really simpleistic and not as well detailed
****

Quality: Its not the newest kit, Its from 2002 i think, despite that, the quality is not that bad; sure there are some ejection marks, on the flaps and some flash but its not bad at all
****

Fitting: Pretty good, even the really big parts fit fine, only the wing to fuselage fitting was a bit messy
****

Decals: A huge decal sheet comes with the kit,the decals are fantastic, very well done, they dont fold up that easily, they are thin and look erfect on the plane
*****

extrapoints: I like the kit, its my first 1/24 sclae built and its one hell of a good lookin bird. I also liek that it comes with the trolly that was used to get the aircraft on land and taxi it there.
Also like that all control surfaces are movable
*****

Result. An amazing kit of a bizarre, yet interesting japanese aircraft, definetely had to get m one of those, cuz it was missing in my collection. I would highly recommend the kit, its pretty straigth forward to assemble, even beginner shouldnt have that big of a problem with this kit
*****

Note: I actually only noticed now that the rufe was produced by nakajima, all the years I thought it was made my mitsubishi, cuz the zero it is based on was from mitsubishi, pretty cool actually.

Description
Backround: Developed from the A&M Zero, the Rufe was a floatplane version of the aforementioned zero. Based on the A6M2 model 11, the rufe had 3 flaot, a big centre line pontoon and a smaller one under each wing. It was literally a zero with floats attached. The undercarriage was of course removed. Armament was unchanged, it had 2 20mm cannon and 2 7,7mm machien guns. The float reduced performace a lot, however it still managed to do 436 kph, which was pretty good for a floatplane. It also had remarkable maeuverability, which is not that suprising if you remember that is based on the zero. The need for the Rufe came in order to protect small islands or areas in which it was found impossible or unneccessary to install a runway, therefore the A6m2n was developed to provide fighter cover in such areas. They were moderately successful, they werent that successful as fighters, although they did score a number of kills, but they were pretty effective harrasssing troops or attacking PT boats with their heavy armament. They were also found easy to fly and mantain, they had reliable sakae engines. Interestingly, the A6M2 N had folding wingtis, something that was actually unneccessary as these aircraft werent placed on carriers. Today, none of the ca 327 Rufes built, exists.

The kit: This bird is huge! Its the 1/24 trumpeter kit. It costs 95€, but I got it for 50€, as the box was in very bad shape. Apparntly the model store had this kit for aa lot of years in their store and noone bothered buying it, until it caught my eye, and I immediately decided to buy it.

Detail: Trumpeter-the king of detail and they sure dont disappoint here, the engine and the cockpit are absolutely amazing, very very well detailed, the instruments are available as films that are put behind clear parts, pretty cool. There are alos photo etched parts for the flaps, so that they can be moved. However, not everything is perfect: The bomb racks are realy really simpleistic and not as well detailed
****

Quality: Its not the newest kit, Its from 2002 i think, despite that, the quality is not that bad; sure there are some ejection marks, on the flaps and some flash but its not bad at all
****

Fitting: Pretty good, even the really big parts fit fine, only the wing to fuselage fitting was a bit messy
****

Decals: A huge decal sheet comes with the kit,the decals are fantastic, very well done, they dont fold up that easily, they are thin and look erfect on the plane
*****

extrapoints: I like the kit, its my first 1/24 sclae built and its one hell of a good lookin bird. I also liek that it comes with the trolly that was used to get the aircraft on land and taxi it there.
Also like that all control surfaces are movable
*****

Result. An amazing kit of a bizarre, yet interesting japanese aircraft, definetely had to get m one of those, cuz it was missing in my collection. I would highly recommend the kit, its pretty straigth forward to assemble, even beginner shouldnt have that big of a problem with this kit
*****

Note: I actually only noticed now that the rufe was produced by nakajima, all the years I thought it was made my mitsubishi, cuz the zero it is based on was from mitsubishi, pretty cool actually.