Mitsubishi B1M

A line-up of Navy Type 13 Carrier Attack-Bomber or Mitsubishi B1M of the Tateyama Ku, marking is "タ-" (TA-). It's one of the oldest IJNAF units organised on June 1, 1930 in Tateyama city, Chiba prefecture to ease off the congested Yokosuka Ku and to protect the Tokyo bay area. It could operate land-based aircraft and seaplanes and when established it had in its strength carrier fighters, carrier attackers, reconnaissance seaplanes and flying boats; eight of each. It was nicknamed "Tateku".

On December 15, 1944 merged with the newly organised 903 Ku. 

 

Mitsubishi A5M4 "Claude" by Chen Su

Chen Su from Beijing-China sent us photos of his brilliant Mitsubishi A5M4 "Claude". He explained that it's a Fujimi kit in 1/72 (!!!) and the decals from  Rising Decals. The particular aircraft served with aircraft carrier Hosho in 1942.

Thank you very much Chen Su for your contribution to our blog.

 

 

Yokosuka/Kawanishi K5Y1 "Akatonbo" (Willow)

From November 3, 1942 a three day meeting was held in Tokyo with men of letters from Japan, Manchukuo, Mengjiang and the Reorganised National Government of China. After the meeting participants visited Kasumigaura Kokutai where they had the opportunity to see in person the young student pilots of the IJNAF and their aircraft, Type 93 Intermediate Trainers or Yokosuka K5Y1s,  as can be seen in this photo from a vintage publication of the time.

Mitsubishi B2M Carrier Attack Bomber

A cool view of the rear gunner of a Navy Type 89 Carrier Attack-bomber or Mitsubishi B2M handling a Type 92 7.7mm machine gun, a licenced copy of the Lewis light machine gun, with vane sights.  

Japanese P-40 by Igor Kabic

After a long break from modelling I decided to return and this P-40E was one of my first projects.
I usually decide to go for something un-expected, this P-40E was no exception. Instead of the usual Flying Tigers/RAF shark mouth motif I went with an un-known subject for some modelers. The Japanese used P-40s for combat and testing purposes during the war, the example I chose was "White 3" assigned to the Koku Gijutsu Kenkyujo (Air Technical Research Laboratory).

There are several photos to use as reference material, but I decided to make this P-40  in derelict condition, some chipping to hinomaru and paint in general. I used the book Nihongun Hokakuki Hiroku ordered from Arawasi, very beautiful and a must have if attempting any of the aircraft that Japan captured and used.
The kit itself is mostly all original, I used a small mixture of KMC aftermarket P-40 cockpit parts and some scratch building. The engine was from the kit itself (Otaki 1/48 P-40), but I did a lot of work on her with connecting wires and editing the exhausts and adding some additional touches to make it appear worn and in a distressed condition.

Here are the final results:

Upper view

 

Side

Other side

 

Rear view

Once completed the aircraft was entered in CAPCON 2011 and she was able to achieve a
2nd place finish :) in its division.

I really enjoyed completing the model and researching the history behind it.
Since then, more planning has been undertaken and by the end of this year I'm hoping to complete some more Japanese aircraft models to add to my collection.
Igor Kabic - Ottawa, Canada

 

Thank you very much Igor for sharing photos of your splendid model with us. We hope to feature more of your Japanese aircraft models on our blog.

The book Nihongun Hokakuki Hiroku is available from our on-line store HERE.

Scale Aviation March 2014 issue

 

After admittedly many years I found a "Scale Aviation" issue enough to my liking to purchase when I saw it at the bookshop. Apart from the excruciatingly borrrrring non-Japanese aviation subjects festering the magazine's pages that turned me away from this quite interesting magazine when originally released, I never succumbed to the rather cheap way of keeping nerdy readers interested by featuring scantily clad female models and naming them "Nose Art Queens". 

Their March 2014 issue though is dedicated to the "Inperial (sic) Japanese Navy Air Units" with some highly inspirational and brilliantly built models, including an amazing A6M2 Model 21 and Model 52 duet in 1/32 by Koji Ito, a splendid B5N1 "Kate" in 1/48 by Matsumoto Syu-hei, a colourful "Kyofu" racer by Sumiya Junichi for those who think Japanese planes are boring, a marvellous diorama with an A6M2 in 1/48 by Masato, a fantastic "Shiden-kai" in 1/32 by Yabuki Takayuki and three pages full of "Hayabusa" side profiles excellently executed by Nishikawa Yukinobu under the auspices of Lifelike decals "sacho" Yoshimura Hitoshi.     

Perhaps their next "ScAvi" issue will be a special on the IJAAF but I'm not holding my breath.

Recommended wherever you can find it.

 

 

 

 

Nakajima J1N1-F "Gekko"

A still from a film featuring a vary rare type of Nakajima J1N "Gekko" found after the end of the war. In FAOW#57 it is identified as J1N1-F but in others it is simply called a variant of J1N1-R. It is based on the early reconnaissance version of the "Gekko" with additional defencive armament for long range missions.

Planning for this type started from 1943 and the first prototype was completed between the summer and autumn of the same year.

The observer's middle seat was removed and in its place was a turret with two German 13mm MG 131. Various turret and armament combinations were tested included a turret with a 20mm Type 99 2Go cannon like the one installed on the Kawanishi H8K "Emily", which was based on a French type .

The design had serious buffeting problems and although at least a dozen wre built it was not placed into mass production. 

The aircraft in the still belongs to the Oppama Ku as indicated by the "オヒ" (OHI), the only visible part of the tail marking. For more on the unit, check here. 

A photo of the same aircraft from a different angle is in "Broken Wings of the Samurai" p. 58.

Kyushu J7W1 "Shinden" by Argyris Giannetakis Take #1

Between 2005 and 2007 our friend Argyris Giannetakis, from Greece, with very little information, built his very first "Shinden" and shared with us some excellent photos.

More information, photos and the unfortunate end of this beautiful model are in the video below.

Nevertheless Argyris didn't give up and is currently working on his second "Shinden" which we will start presenting in a future posting. Prepare yourselves to say a big: WOW!!!  

Kyushu J7W1 "Shinden" #2 - bibliography

Unfortunately the bibliography of the "Shinden", apart from mentions in numerous X-plane publications and articles, is very limited. The only publication specifically dedicated to the plane was originally released in October 1978 by Bunrindo in their "blue FAOW" series as #102 and then reprinted in January 1982 and January 1986 in their "white FAOW" series as #129 and #153 respectively.

All the publications are identical with only minor differences, are long out-of-print and presently VERY hard to find. They have not been updated/reprinted by Bunrindo. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For modellers the best immediately available option is the "Concept Note" by Zoukei Mura which is in English too.

 

Visit also THIS page of Zoukei Mura to download the building instructions of their marvellous kit and more.

Kyushu J7W1 "Shinden" #1

Photos, from a vintage publication, of one of the Kyushu J7W1 "Shinden" prototypes when it was delivered to the US forces at the end of the War.