Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 003 - Danilo Renzulli

The subject is an OOB Nakajima Ki-27 "Nate" RS Model kit in 1/72. The interiors arranged with photo etched parts provided in the kit are difficult to see once the canopy is closed. Decals by Rising Decals - the only details I added were the pitot pipe made of metal wire and a small plastic rod and the navigation light (wings' tips and top of rear fuselage) made by drilling a small hole filled with a tiny drop of Cristal Clear and a drop of Future mixed with some water based acrylic color.
I tried to imitate the elusive green-grey finish typical of these aircraft using a mixture of Humbrol colors. That's all!

Danilo Renzulli - Rome, Italy

 

Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai (George) by RON CLINE pt.1

My first completion of 2017, the Hasegawa 1/32 Kawanishi N1K2-J "Shiden-kai" (George). I started this at the very end of 2015, worked on it a while, then set it aside. I resumed the project last October, and finished it 2 weeks ago (I'm slow...). As is normal for me and 1/32 kits, I didn't build it straight out of the box.

 I used the Eduard photoetch set along with scratchbuilt details to dress up the cockpit. The instrument panel is the Eduard face with Airscale and MDC instrument faces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hasegawa simplified the main gear wells, so I did some correction work there too. Again, I used Eduard and scratchbuilt bits; the rivets are from Archer. The plumbing is done with solder, while the control cable runs are stainless wire. The kit comes with the oil cooler exit between the gear wells molded fully closed; I wanted mine open, so I opened up the belly and built the well for the cooler, along with a simple cooler. The exit door itself came from the Eduard set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kit also comes with the cowl flaps in the closed position. I used the cowl flaps in the Eduard set to open mine, but Eduard forgot the lowest flap on both sides, so I built those out of thin brass. I wired and plumbed the engine, but I didn't realize until after I took the photos of the completed build that I didn't take any photos of the engine before the cowl went on (DOH!).

Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai (George) by RON CLINE pt.2

And here's the finished build. The aircraft represents the one flown by Warrant Officer Ohara Hiroshi of the 343rd Kokutai, 407th Hikotai, the "Tenchugumi" (Heavenly Punishment Unit) out of Omura Airbase, Japan, in April 1945. All of the markings except for the Japanese stenciling (from the kit decals) are painted on, using masks from Makatar. The green was a home brewed mix of Model Master Euro One Green and Insignia Blue. I didn't document the ratio of green to blue, but I'd ballpark it as roughly 2:1 ~ 3:1. I do have some of Mr. Color's Kawanishi Green, but I wasn't sure I had enough, so I mixed mine to a close match to it. I broke up the monochromatic tone with indivual panels painted with the original green mixture altered by adding some MM Marker Yellow or MM RLM 78 Hellblau. The undersides are Tamiya AS12 Bare Metal Silver with darker panels done with Alclad Duraluminum. Smaller panels were done with various silvers.

 The yellow leading edges and the tail codes are Tamiya Camel Yellow, the fuselage band is Tamiya Fine White Primer, and the Hinomarus are Mr. Color.
 I based my weathering on the profile art of this aircraft in Kagero's 'Fighters over Japan Part 2'; their rendering of it might not be 100% accurate, but I liked it and went with it. The silver chipping was done with Vallejo's Metal Color Aluminum, the green chipping was the overall green mixture, and the scratches were done with watercolor pencils. The exhaust and gun blast stains are MIG pigments, and the oil streaking was done with watercolors.
 The cannon barrels are from Master, and the antenna wire is Uschi's fine elastic rigging thread. The fresh air scoop at the base of the windscreen was done with soda can aluminum.
 I'll start with late-to-the-party engine pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AIREVIEW - Matsuba Minoru - Design With Precision

Matsuba Minoru was a Japanese designer born in 1929 in Osaka. In 1942 joined the "Osaka Furitsu Koku Kogyo Gakko" (Aviation Industry School of Osaka) to become an aircraft designer. After the end of the war he worked with Sanyo until 1989 when he retired. He passed away some years ago and his incredible scale designs of many Japanese and foreign aircraft types are left as his legacy.

Initially his work was featured in monthly issues of the magazine Aireview and then collected in the ten volumes of the series "Seimitsu Zumen O Yomu" or "Design With Precision". All the DWP volumes are out-of-print and highly sought after.

 

 

And finally some of the designs of Matsuba-san were reprinted with the same title but different cover in a four volume series. Unfortunately they include far less subjects than the original DWP series.

 

 

 

So, instead of hunting down and paying crazy money for the DWP volumes, another option is to locate the old individual Aireview issues. Some had been available through our on-line store but we offer now limited numbers at $US6 each (postage not included).

Each fold-out includes super detailed multi-view designs of a particular aircraft type. Since the majority of these magazines are fairly old, sometimes there is some wear on the cover but apart from this they are in excellent condition.

The designs are particularly useful for large scale scratch-building and RC models.
Below is a sample:

Here's a list of the available issues and the aircraft types featured in the fold-outs:

AIREVIEW #305, Sept. 1972 - Nakajima Ki-84Ko "Hayate" scale 1/32
AIREVIEW #343, Mar. 1975 - Nakajima C6N1 "Saiun" scale 1/32
AIREVIEW #348, Aug. 1975 - Nakajima B6N2 "Tenzan" scale 1/32
AIREVIEW #352, Dec. 1975 -  Mitsubishi Type 0 Seaplane F1M2 (Pete) scale 1/32
AIREVIEW #356, Mar. 1976 - Nakajima Ki-27 "Nate" scale 1/32
AIREVIEW #449, Jan. 1983 - Mitsubishi J8M "Shusui" scale 1/32
AIREVIEW #552, Dec. 1990 - Kawasaki Ki-64 scale 1/48
AIREVIEW #562, Aug. 1991 - Nakajima Ki-87 scale 1/48
AIREVIEW #570, Mar. 1992 - Mitsubishi Ki-83 scale 1/48
AIREVIEW #575, Aug. 1992 - Kawasaki Ki-5 scale 1/48
AIREVIEW #580, Jan. 1993 - Manpi Ki-98 scale 1/48
AIREVIEW #595, Mar. 1994 - Aichi E16A1 "Zuiun" scale 1/48
AIREVIEW #603, Oct. 1994 - Kawanishi J6K1 "Jinpu" scale 1/48
AIREVIEW #612, May 1995 - Mitsubishi J4M1 "Senden" scale 1/48

 Email us if interested at:

arawasiorder@arawasi.jp