Special Hobby A5M2b "Claude" by Nicolas Renoult

Hi, 

This is the last build I've finished. It is the Special Hobby A5M2b in 1/32, built OOB, with one of the 2 schemes from the box as well. It is a pretty good kit, with nice details, but not always easy to deal with. Indeed, there is a few traps and the instructions are not always clear. But with a bit of work you can get something nice. 

I've added a bit of details (especially wires) in the cockpit, and had to redo all the internal structure with styrene strips because the parts from the kit were unusable with the resin parts (it did not fit at all). The dials on the instruments panel are from MDC. I drilled the back bulkhead to make it hollow, and drilled some areas in the floor as well.

For the engine, I used the kit sparking wire, supplied as a PE part, but it look good. I've laid a few coats of Mr Surfacer with a brush on the wires to make them looking more tri-dimensional. I replaced the pushrods with 0.45mm nickel silver rods from Albion Alloy, which have been blackened with the Uschi burnishing solution (and it works, even if it is not brass). The cowling struts are made with 0.33 nickel silver rods, and I had to flatten one end in order to glue them on a tiny bracket glued on the engine crankcase. It is very fragile, but no choice.

As an early A5M based in China, I wanted to get this kind of golden color, and my own interpretation of it is that it is actually a tinted varnish (or a clear varnish that became yellow when weathered), certainly the same kind than the Ame-iro seen on the A6M's. The best way to get the same aspect was to get the same way. So I've started with a coat of alclad, and then a coat of custom made tinted varnish. The recipe is approximately 70-80% satin clear, 5-7% clear yellow, 5-7% clear orange and 10-15% smoke, and you should get something that is clear brownish. Just before spraying the varnish, I've used some AK chipping product, to make a few scratches and chips on the wing roots and cockpit sides.

Then I've used custom made masks for the hinomaru, and painted the tail with the same red (a mix of gunze flat red, vine red and a bit of insignia red). And then it was the drama.... Some paint (varnish + alcad) came off with the masks..... Usually, this kind of issue is not a big deal to repair, only a few touch-ups and everything is ok. But in this case, I have this varnish and it is impossible to make an invisible touch up, as the varnish is clear and any touch up would build it up and make it stronger and stronger around the peeled off area. So after a few days of thinking, I decided to mask all around the damaged area, to sand it clean and to repaint those area from scratch. The repair is not invisible, but I can live with it !

The decals from the kit are very good, and especially thin. That can even become a problem as they have a tendency to fold on themselves, and they become very sticky on the surface pretty fast, and then it is very difficult to make them move. I think micro set on the model before placing the decals must be avoided, but micro sol on placed decals is ok, and the decals react well.

Then the weathering was done with a wash of Flory model dark dirt to highlight the panel lines, and then some enamel AK washes, followed by a coat of satin varnish.

The exhausts have been painted with shades of rust colors with a coat of AK chipping product to make a kind of rust crust.

WIP: HERE, More photos: HERE
Nicolas Renoult - FRANCE

Vintage Japan-esque collection #2 Gliders

Very tired today after spending five hours at the National Diet Library of Tokyo, battered by very strong winds and quite cold weather. So a rather short posting today mainly with photos and whatever information we could gather. We promise to keep on searching for more.

 

First up is a set of excellent photos of a Kirigamine/Nippon "Taka" (Hawk) 1 soarer glider registered J-BADL. The marking behind the pilot is that of the Imperial Aeronautical Association but the very interesting tail marking eludes us for the moment. Markings of glider schools in Japan is field not researched by anyone AFAIK therefore it is very difficult to pinpoint which marking belonged to which school.

The writing on the tent is not very visible but it mentions that it belongs to a high-school. The sign in front says that this is a VIP area for Asahi Shimbun. 

 

A different photo in the collection is of a glider belonging to Asahi Shimbun.

 

There is no list of the gliders belonging to the newspaper (if in fact there were more than one) but the one known is called "Asahi Type soarer Model 1" shown below. It was completed and test flown for the first time on May 25, 1935 in Haneda airport. The test pilot was Kawauchi Kazuhiko and in my eyes bears a resemblance to the pilot in the above photo. Clearly there is a difference in the shape and size of the nose, not of the two pilots but of the two gliders but the rest of the visible details, cockpit shape etc, are very similar. Perhaps a Type 2 or a modification after an accident?

Under New Management by Derek Cooper

Derek Cooper from England shared his "Under New Management" collection of Kawasaki Ki-61 "Hien" and explained:

 

Ki-61-I Tei discovered by US forces at Kadena Airfield Okinawa, repainted and used by VMH 322 as a "flying toy". Hasegawa 1/72 scale kit with decals by Max Models (their reprint of Rising Decals' Dying Sun sheet). The decal set is available from Arawasi, check HERE.

 

Ki-61 Ko/Otsu operated by the Chinese Nationalists after the end of the Pacific War. Dragon 1/72 scale kit (decals included). I have used some artistic licence here because the upper surfaces of the wings may have been plain NMF, but I couldn't resist camouflaging them!

Thanks a lot Derek. Hope to see more soon!

Vintage Japan-esque collection #1

An anonymous fan of our blog left a comment on a previous glider posting sharing with us some of the original photos in his collection asking for further information.

So we are starting this series of postings with as much as possible details.

First up are the three aircraft types seen in some of the photos.

 

The aircraft in the above photos is a Klem L.25 the sole example of which was brought to Japan in September 1935 when the renowned German glider pilot Wolf Hirth visited the country. He gave lectures and performed glider demonstrations in many places around Japan. Japanese sources mention that he arrived with a tow pilot and a mechanic. Their names were Karl Bower an Hans Stolz respectively (not sure about the spelling). In the lower photo a non-Japanese individual is seen looking in the cockpit of the Klem. He is probably Karl Bower.

Hirth left the plane in Japan, it was evaluated by the IJAAF and was then given to the "Nihon Hosho Hiko Renmei" (Japan Glider Association Society) of the Osaka-Mainichi newspaper becoming the 30th aircraft in their fleet. It received the registration J-BACB.

Wolf Hirth is giving a lecture at the Aviation Centre of the Imperial Aeronautic Association on October 7, 1935. The subject as seen on the board is "climbing speed".

Hirth is shaking hands with the Minister of Communication at the time Mochizuki Keisuke (served 12/9/1935 ~ 9/3/1936).

 

From Baron #1: "On 4th December Wolf Hilth flying in his Göppingen 1, towed by the Klem, took off from Tokyo Haneda airfield for Nagoya and later landed at Nagoya. The next day he arrived at Tatetsu airfield in Osaka. This was the first long distance flight for glider using aero-towing in Japan a total of 420km." The photo above is taken right after his arrival in Osaka where tens of thousands of people were waiting for him. 

 

The second aircraft is a British-Klemm Eagle.

 

On May 12, 1935 Japanese pilot Ano Katsutaro took off from London's Heston Aerodrome and after numerous accidents and emergency landings arrived in Haneda on August 18 of the same year. He covered a distance of 16473km in 99 days. The aircraft was named "SEIKAI" (Blue Sea) and was original registered G-ADFB but the photo confirms that it was eventually registered in Japan as J-BOOB. In May 1936 it crashed during a sight-seeing flight over Nagoya seriously the pilot Ano and killing the passenger.

This means that the photos above were taken between August 1935 and May 1936 around the time when Hilth was in Japan.

The photos below are from the 1935 flight.

 

The final aircraft is a very rare photo of the second prototype of the Army Type 95-3 Trainer or  Ishikawajima Ki-17 as indicated by the number "1502" on the fuselage side. The main difference with the production type was that it had ailerons on both the upper and lower wings and therefore had one more extra strut between each wing. It was often used as glider tow.

Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" by Alexandros Angelopoulos

A brilliant Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" belonging to the 10th Sentai, 1st Chutai, New Guinea 1944 by Alexandros Angelopoulos from Greece. Hasegawa 1/72.

Nakajima J1N "Gekko"

We start this year with a photo of an unfortunate "Gekko". According to FAOW#57 it belonged to a small night-fighter unit attached to the headquarters of the 51 Koku Sentai. The accident happened in the summer of 1944 near Atsugi base when the early production Model 11 "Gekko" piloted by Flight Petty Officer Murozumi accompanied by reconnaissance Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Ikeda experienced engine troubles. Both survived the crash-landing uninjured. The "741" on the tail is the marking of the night fighter unit of the 51 Koku Sentai.   

 

According to "Nihon Kaigun Yakan Gekigekisen" (A History of JN's Night-Fighter Units)* by Watanabe Yoji which is the ultimate book on the IJNAF night fighters, the accident occurred in June 1944 and the crew members were Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Murozumi Kenichi and Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Ikeda Hidekazu. 

 

 

*Limited number of copies are available. Email us for details if interested.

Athens - Rome

Hey guys!

After a quite lengthy 3-week vacation we are back to our base in Japan. We spent the holidays with family and friends having a great time, good weather (mostly) and lots of traditional Greek food in Athens and a few wonderful days in Rome thanks to our friend Danilo Renzulli; grazie mille di tutto!

 

Apparently there are not many model shops in Rome left but on the first day we visited the excellent CM Modellismo.

 

On the second day we visited the Italian Air Force Museum on lake Bracciano. Although the early-aviation room was closed to the public, their collection of Italian aircraft is simply amazing. We had a really great time and it was the first time I took so many photos of non-Japanese aircraft. It is definitely worth the visit but dress very well because it is painfully cold inside the museum.   

In Athens we went to the model shop area on Ippokratous street, saw friends at Kalfakis model store and bought a Valom "Willow" at Fasma. Kit review coming soon.

Hope everybody had a good time during the holidays and again we wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Lest we forget: Je suis Charlie

2015

2015, the year of the sheep. 

 

The past year was fairly productive for Arawasi with our latest publication on the "Willow" coming out in May, more than 200 postings and a brand new quite surprising publication that we have almost finished but will come out early next year. Stay tuned!

 

We also travelled a lot, visited Athens, Vienna/Austria, Bali/Jakarta/Indonesia and met some good friends for the first time in person: Zygmunt, Bernhard and Verena. 

We would like to thank one more time the guys of IPMS Austria, Sinang Aribowo and Iwan Winarta from Indonesia for all their hospitality.

 

As always we would also like to thank everybody who left a comment: Alcides, Jean Barby, Peter Dasso, Harold K, Oleg Pegushin, Fluffy, Sosezi, Seawings, Bernhard, Scott, George Bryant, Devlin, David Brizzard, Jacob, Lish, Chuang Shyue Chou, Kalle Kindel, Andrey Temnyy, maxwgreen, Bob D., Jon Yuengling, Iskender, Ryan B, F_IV, fugaku, Hakan, GeeBee, Thomas Hall, Junchan and Panagiotis.

 

A special "thank you" should go to everybody who contributed to our blog: our good friends Devlin Chouinard and Zygmunt  Szeremeta, Panagiotis Koubetsos-Greece for his exquisite models, Bernhard Tomaschitz-Austria for his excellent Zoukei Mura "Raiden" presentation but also Samo Štempihar-Slovenija, Mark Jahsan-USA, Oleg Pegushin-Russia, István Tekler-Hungary, Kalle Kindel-Estonia, Vance Gilbert-USA, Andrey Temnyy-Kazakhstan, Jean Barby-France, Stefan Müller-Germany, Jacob Terlouw-Holland, Argyris Giannetakis-Greece, Vangelis Vassilopoulos-Greece, Chen Su-China, Igor Kabic-Canada, Andrei Kazinets-Belarus, Cameron Lohmann-USA and Fabrice Fanton - France. Aslo Dharshana Jayawardena from Sri Lanka,Vladimir Martinicky from Slovakia, Samuel Hui from Taiwan, Igor Lish and finaly Tanaka and Kojima-san from Japan.

 

We are off to another, rather long vacation to Greece and Rome/Italy and we will be back in January. Unfortunately no postings until then but you can reach us in our: arawasi_g2@hotmail.com address. 

 

 

 

2015年が皆様の健康と幸せな年でありますように！

 

ALL THE BEST FOR 2015!

 

SELAMAT TAHUN BARU

 

GLÜCKLICHES NEUES JAHR

 

ΕΥΤΥΧΙΣΜΕΝΟ ΤΟ 2015!

Model Commentary #4a - Choosing your next J. a/c model

Many years ago Japanese airplanes became my passion. One of the main reasons was that nobody in my home country, Greece, knew anything about them. British, German, Italian aircraft yes but not Japanese.
For many years we all Japanese plane modelers waited for a decent A6M2-K kit to finally come out. You can imagine my utter disappointment when I read a posting saying: “I got this new Hase A6M2-K kit but I’m thinking of turning it into a Pearl Harbor A6M2. Any suggestions?”
How about another posting I recently read: “I got this A6M2 kit and I’m going to make it into a seaplane with two floats.” Reply: “Are you sure?”, “Yes, yes I saw on the net that there was a twin-float version of the Zero”.
There are some well-known researchers out there who share the same passion and have spent a great amount of their time (and money) researching in depth the colours of J. planes. Imagine how they feel when they read this kind of exchange.
A: “I got a Zero kit and I want to build it as accurate as possible. Any suggestions about colours and paints?”
B: “Colours were such and such and the closest is a mix of this and that paints.”
A: “Hmmm I don’t want to do any mixes. How about the closest straight-from-the-bottle paint?”
B: “Ok. Mr Color XXX”
A: “You know, I don’t really want to buy any paints just for J. planes. What are the closest Luft paints to these colours. Humbrol if possible.”
It’s like sending an email to NASA with a request:
“Hi, I’m not particularly interested in astronomy but I have this school project about black holes I have to deliver. I found some photos on the net but would it possible to send me two pages with as much as possible information about black holes?”

So, what’s going on? Has the net made modelers lazy or is it that they don’t care about accuracy any more but are only interested in building fancy models, as some loudly declare? Personally I think it’s the luck of information. There are hundreds of extremely interesting and useful publications about J. planes, but they are all in Japanese. The past 15 years or so Arawasi has tried to help and create interest through our magazine and publications we continue to release. But unquestionably the net is a more direct medium to those modelers who just want a quick fix. We believe this blog is also creating interest and brings more people with the same passion together, while at the same time offers inspiration and useful advice.
The main problem starts with choosing a J. plane kit and this posting hopefully will help a bit.
Immediately after the war finally ended the Japanese military and the aviation companies thoroughly destroyed their archives burning the vast majority of their blueprints and detailed aircraft drawings. What has survived is mostly maintenance manuals. The occupying forces initially wanted to preserve a number of Japanese a/c types and bring to the US and UK the most interesting of them for evaluation. In the end only a small fraction survived over the years. So, contrary to other countries’ a/c where very detailed factory blueprints and surviving a/c are still available for anyone to examine, this is not the case with most Japanese types. And this means there are still great unknowns about for example the interiors of many of them. It also means that with the growing quality of models in recent years main companies like Hasegawa or Tamiya are reluctant to release a kit of a J. X-plane for example, when nothing is known about the cockpit of the plane. Some Eastern Europe model companies don’t mind that and prefer to release a kit with a very limited cockpit than not at all and then the modelers are left to search in vain for material if they want to add detail to their model. In the end they give up and build a Zero or a Me109 instead.
On top of that we all know how obsessive on certain subjects modelers from certain countries are. Modelers from the US mainly build Pearl Harbor, Midway and the occasional IJNAF Kamikaze plane. UK modelers focus on CBI, Australians on Papua/New Guinea…in general wherever the military forces of their countries fought at during the Pacific War. With such limited interest, understandable as it may be, it is rather unfair to claim that “Japanese a/c are boring. Green top, gray bottom. That’s all”.
And then occasionally there is the rather obnoxious modeler trying to press the subject “I want to build a PH Zero. Were there any that weren’t “gray”?
Again the problem starts with choosing a Japanese plane kit. I strongly believe that before purchasing a kit, the average modeler (not the more knowledgeable dedicated J. aviation fan) should first research and make up their mind about their subject and then go ahead and look for the best kit available. Not the other way around. You want to build a Zero? Fine. Do your research first, find which one you want to build and then go ahead and buy a good kit. Yes, occasionally you may find a cheap kit on special offer but consider this a quick, probably out-of-the-box built. Or a perhaps more interesting suggestion might be to get an after-market decal set and then build models based on the options they offer.
So let’s start this quick guide with the most popular subject, the Japanese Fighters of the Pacific War, excluding prototypes and X-planes. As with most IJNAF types flown during the Pacific War most of these planes sported typical green over gray paint job with few variations, consisting mostly of personal markings.
The IJNAF operated three single-engine land-based types. The “Zero”, the “Raiden” and the “Shiden/Shiden-kai”.

Mitsubishi A6M “Zero”

The most famous and the best documented of all Japanese a/c. Plenty of books (see 1, 2, 3, 4), a few surviving and restored a/c, plethora of on-line photos and material.

Most modeled subjects: Pearl Harbor and Nishizawa’s A6M3 (photo above).
More than enough high quality kits in every scale, decal options, after-market stuff around.
Check how beautiful this “boring” green over gray Zero by Master Modeler Nakata Hiroyuki is.

 

 

Mitsubishi J2M “Raiden” (Jack)

Only a handful of books are available (HERE) but they do cover the subject sufficiently enough for any modeler to create a really good model like those featured on this blog. Some really good kits around like the one from Zoukei Mura. We started covering the “Raiden” last year and we will continue with a lot more in 2015. Stay tuned!
As a modeling subject it offers limited paint options, prototype overall orange or gray and green over gray. Typical IJNAF markings with letters/numbers. Therefore the most modeled “Raiden” is the one flown by Lt.JG Aoki Yoshihiro

 

 

Kawanishi N1K “Shiden/Shiden-kai” (George)

The bibliography is even more sparse than that of the “Raiden” but again it is sufficient to build a decent model. There are some excellent immediately available models by Aoshima in 1/72 by Hasegawa and Tamiya in 1/48 and Hasegawa and Nichimo in 1/32. Although arguably the best single engine Navy fighter, it is the least modeled fighter of the three probably because the paint options are mostly green over gray.    

 

Hope this helped a little. And you know, if you leave a comment this posting can become even better! 

Next up: seaplane and night fighters

 

All photos from Wikipedia