Flying Boat & Seaplane Base - video

Yet, another NARA video, in five parts, spotted in the "Showakan Digital Archive" by "Shu".

This first part starts with a "Mavis" having one of its engines started. 

More about this particular aircraft in another instalment.

Then we are treated to some amazing stills of a Kawanishi Type 2 Transport Flying Boat or H8K2-L "Seiku"(Clear Skies). Only 36 of this huge transport type, which could carry from 29 to as many as 64 passengers, were built until the end of the war, and "Seiku" images are rather rare. 

Unfortunately, no tail marking is visible so it's difficult to know which unit this particular flying boat belonged to. 

Note on the nose the fittings for H-6 radar antennae. Perhaps this one was a "normal" H8K that was modified to a passenger?

The second part starts with a most interesting "Mavis".

Half white with green surrender crosses. We first discussed this particular aircraft, VERY briefly, here.

Be patient. We have uncovered A LOT, much more interesting information which we will present in the last instalment.

After the "Mavis", it's time for one of the rarest IJNAF flying boats; a Yokosuka H5Y "Cherry" (corrected).

Here's the third part.

Starting with a beautiful Yokosuka/Kawanishi K5Y2 "Getabaki Akatonbo" (Willow) floatplane in pristine condition.

The tail marking is quite obscure.

Followed by an Aichi E13A1b "Jake". Note the fittings for "Jikitanshiki" (air-to-surface radar) on the fuselage side.

Unfortunately, the unit marking has been removed and the overcast conditions don't help. 

The fourth part starts with close-ups of the "Emily" and "Mavis" beaching systems.

The image below is a collage of different stills for the "Emily" system.

The stills below are for the "Mavis". 

In between we can see the slipway with a "Seiku" missing a portion of its port wing.  

And then the cameraman turns his attention to one of the green-cross "Mavis" getting serviced and having its engines started.

The name of the flying boat is "Makigumo" (Cirrus Cloud).

The last part of the video is dedicated to the flying boat base.

It's really incredible that the installations survived the war in such good condition.

And now it's time for the whole story.

A month after the surrender of the Empire of Japan, the government worried about the general situation in Taiwan, especially a collapse of the economy that could lead to further social unrest. In order to allay these fears, the Japanese government ordered the central bank to urgently gather and/or print currency and send it to Taiwan as soon as possible.

The mission that received the approval of the GHQ and General MacArthur, fell on the civilian "Dai Nippon Airways" and an experienced crew as well as a thoroughly inspected and maintained flying boat was chosen. Departure was to be from Yokohama, where two seaplane/flying boat bases existed at the time; one military in Tomioka used exclusively by the Yokohama Kokutai and another civilian in Negishi that was used by "Dai Nippon Airways".

On September 9,1945, boxes full of hundreds of millions of yen, weighing more than 2 tones, were loaded on a Kawanishi H5K "Mavis" named, "Kozu" (probably from Tokyo's Kozu Island, J-BPOA) and the crew of seven, including pilots Commander Ohori and pilot Koshida, took their positions and got ready for take-off. 

The first attempt, at 07:30, was not successful. The flying boat was overloaded. But it seems the engines used up enough fuel the first time, so the "Mavis" got lighter and was able to take off the second time.

The crew had received stern orders not to fly, under any circumstances, over Atsugi base, occupied at the time by US forces, and Okinawa Island, and they were to draw a flight path that had to be strictly observed; any deviation of the flight path or passes over no-fly zones would place them at risk to be shot down. Nevertheless, a little while after takeoff a crew member said: "There are some new and amazing aircraft at Atsugi where MacArthur landed! How about we fly over and take a look?" Right after they deviated from their course, they were quickly surrounded by three "Grumman" fighters, that were probably warned by radar. It was only after the elderly flight engineer Takemiya stuck his bold head with a few white hairs out the window and gestured apologies that they were allowed to continue their originally designated course. 

The crew had again the brilliant idea to attempt to fly over Okinawa to see the devastating results of the fierce battle, only to be intercepted by two reconnaissance aircraft.

"Kozu" and crew finally reached the mouth of Tamsui River in Taiwan at 15:50, where they were greeted by a lavish banquet. They returned to Japan on September 13, full of gifts and several dignitaries.

A most interesting article, in Japanese, about the whole experience can be found HERE.

  

The money transfer mission to Taiwan was repeated on September 15, and this is what is featured in the photo and video. That time the "Mavis" was "Makigumo" (J-BGOE) we saw above.       

As can be seen in the photo above and the video, there were two "Mavis" available, "Makigumo" is in front and another is in the rear. It can be either "Asahi" ("Rising Sun" J-BFOX) or more probably "Sazanami" ("Ripple Waves" J-BFOY).

The photo below features "Makigumo" (J-BGOE) having just alighted in the mouth of River Tamsui, Taiwan, on September 15-16.

Quiz #6

Can you identify the type of this seaplane with the most unusual tail?

Nakajima Ki-43 II 24th Hiko-Sentai - by Jean Barby

Here are the pics of my latest Japanese goodie. The excellent book from Michael Claringbould, Volume One of Pacific Profiles helped me to realize a Blue Ki-43II based at But in February 43. The remaining starboard tailplane with the blue colour still showing and the 1st Chutai white lightning were an inspiration. All markings are made with masks made on the Silhouette. I have used the Fine Molds model, better to me than the Hasegawa. 1/48th scale!

- Jean Barby -

IJAAF trainer "orange" & "orange/yellows" in general - pt.4

And here are the results of the final tests.
This time, I first applied pink surfacer on the wings of an old Hasegawa Zero, then painted the port wing in MrColor58 "orange yellow" and the starboard in Tamiya X-6 "orange".
You can clearly see the difference. 

The next image shows the port wing with heavily thinned Tamiya X-26 "clear orange" applied from a distance over MrColor58.

The starboard wing has averagely thinned MrColor58 airbrushed from a distance over Tamiya X-6.

As you can see in the result, the paints got closer. The only difference is that the X-26 gives more tonal variation and makes the overall surface more interesting.
I guess the same can be achieved with the 58-over-X-6 combination with some practice. It's important to apply the top coats from a distance otherwise you'll get too yellow or too orange spots.
Finally, I airbrushed, straight from the bottle (no thinner),  the "recently" released "orange" Shader by Mig-AMMO over MrColor58 (over pink surfacer).
Excellent results, similar to the Tamiya X-26 over MrColor58 combination. 

The Shader series is highly recommended. Every time I used the paints, I got great results with very little effort.

IJAAF trainer "orange" & "orange/yellows" in general - pt.3

In this third set of tests, I first tried Tamiya X-26 "clear orange" over MrColor 58 on a pink surfacer.

The results were fantastic! The clear orange darkens the yellow and by giving sufficient depth, makes it interestingly vibrant.
Very lightly thinned X-26 gives more orange results but very heavily thinned X-26 makes the yellow more subtly orange while offering better control.

In the photo, the spoon on the left is 58 over pink surfacer, the middle is the same 58 with heavily thinned X-26, and on the right is again the same 58 with lightly thinned X-26.  
A most satisfactory test.

The next test came naturally. MrColor 58 over Tamiya X-6 applied on a pink surfacer.

Absolutely amazing! 58 was not heavily thinned but light passes were enough to brighten the orange and result in a pleasant orange/yellow (not a yellow/orange).
These two tests yielded the best results so far without paint mixes!
In the next post, I will try a couple more things and will test the paints on actual model kits.

IJAAF trainer "orange" & "orange/yellows" in general - pt.2

In this second test, I tried to very roughly replicate the painting process of Japanese trainers and most IJNAF prototypes.
First, I airbrushed Tamiya XF-16 "flat aluminum" over two gray primed spoons to make their surfaces look like "metal".
XF-16 looked great over the gray primer after just one pass.
Then, I applied a coat of Tamiya XF-64 "red brown" to replicate the red/brown primer.

Finally, I airbrushed multiple coats of MrColor 58 and Tamiya X-6, unfortunately with exactly the same results with the "mahogany" primer.

The brown makes everything too dark and it shows through.
Only after many passes MrColor 58 started to look like yellow.
So, all in all, the "yellow/orange over dark bases" tests were all fails.

IJAAF trainer "orange" & "orange/yellows" in general - pt.1

As you maybe remember I started last year a rather big project of no less than four Tachikawa Ki-9 "Akatonbo" (Spruce) trainers. In the meantime, I'm about to finish a couple of experimental projects, so I thought it would be a good time to experiment with various yellows and oranges. 

For the overall "trainer yellow/orange", I have written a small piece here. Pretty much the same applies to the IJAAF. 

There has been a suggestion that circulates a lot recently, that the IJAAF trainer color was the same with the IFF stripes. In my opinion, it was not.

IFF stripes were yellow/orange (yellow predominant), the IJAAF trainer color was orange/yellow (orange predominant).

In my quest to find appropriate finishes, I tested a few out-of-the-bottle "yellow" and "orange" paints to see how they look on various primers.

Below are the results of the first out-of-the-bottle test.

The Tamiya X-6 "orange" on the white MrHobby Surfacer needed a couple layers to look as it looks in the photo. 

On the pink Surfacer, it looked amazing after just one pass.

As you can see, on the gray, mahogany and black surfacers it looks horrible after more than three passes. Four passes on the black and it still looks like this.

In my opinion, it is too "orangy" for IJAAF trainer yellow. It's closer to IJNAF trainer orange and good for Japanese prototype aircraft.

MrColor 58 "orange yellow" & MrColor 109 "character yellow". Exactly the same results with the Tamiya paint. They look very good after a couple passes on a white surfacer, fantastic on a pink surfacer after just one pass and terrible on all other surfacers after multiple passes.

In my opinion, this is a spot-on color for IFF stripes but otherwise, too yellow and bright for IJAAF trainers.

In any case, if you're not crazy about "exact" colors (whatever that's supposed to mean), MrColor 58 and Tamiya X-6, as they are i.e. without any mixes, could pass for IJAAF trainer colors. 

After waiting 24 hours, I tried more passes on the dark failed surfacers. Perhaps there could be some difference. 

Unfortunately, after multiple passes, there is no real improvement in the gray, mahogany and black surfacers. They still come through the yellow and orange paint and the result looks either too dark or too deep an orange.

In other words, if you want to deepen the top yellow color using a dark primer, you'll get into trouble.