Vintage Magazine Cover

"Asahi Graph", August 26, 1942

The photo caption reads: "Navy Eagles are taking off at night to look for the enemy".

The 1/72 Collection of Mr. Peter Havel

Today we feature the collection of Mr. Peter Havel, the former chairman of IPMS Austria. A very active member and one of the best modellers of the group. Beside cars he has a soft spot for Japanese aircraft. The models are:

Nakajima Ki-27 - Hasegawa, Mitsubishi Ki-67 "Hiryu" - LS, Mitsubishi A6M2 - Hasegawa, Mitsubishi J2M3 "Raiden" - Tamiya, Yokosuka R2Y "Keiun" - Fine Molds. Kawasaki Ki-61 "Hien" - Hasegawa

All models are in scale 1:72.

 

 

Nedinsco type handheld 25cm aerial camera

 

The cover of the April 29, 1942 issue of "Asahi Graph" features a "navy eagle" taking photos with his hand held aerial camera commonly known in the IJNAF as "Nedinsco".

 

From HERE we read:

The first aerial camera used by the Japanese air forces in some quantity was the Nedinsco FK I. (Nedinsco was a Dutch branch of Carl Zeiss, and "FK" perhaps means Fliegerkamera.) It was adopted by the Japanese Army as the 25cm Aerial Camera (二十五糎航空写真機), named after its 25cm focal length. It was also used by the Navy as the Handheld Aerial Camera 25cm (手持式航空写真機二五糎).

The Nedinsco camera was later produced in Japan by Rokuoh-sha, perhaps after an official license was bought or as an unauthorized copy. Cameras made in the 1930s have a Hexar Ser.1 25cm f/4.5 lens. They were mostly retired from use when the Pacific War broke out.
The camera takes 13×18cm film plates. The rigid body is made of wood, with a characteristic octagonal front section, covered by a cap. There is a built-in grip on the left and a separate wooden handle on the right.
The focal-plane shutter is a separate unit, which can be slid out of the body for maintenance or repair. It has vertically travelling curtains, and the range of speeds is 1/90, 1/180, 1/375 and 1/750.

The aperture is set by an index at the top of the camera, in front of the identification plate, with f/4.5, f/6.3 and f/9 positions. There is an articulated mechanism placed around the lens, holding two filters controlled by external knobs on either side of the body.

We can add to the above that the rigid body was made of mahogany, the interior was covered by a black wool cloth while outside was covered with linen with waterproof paint applied. All this was done to protect the camera and the lenses.
A yellow glass filter was used to cut the blue and purple colour of the highly sensitive film. The camera could store six glass plates and as can be seen from the photos featured below remained in use but for training purposes.

 

The glass plates were made by Fuji.

Below is a Fuji ad of that era. Note the Nedinsco camera.

The captions reads:
"Fuji photography equipment
Dedicated to mass production
Doing our best to win
Film, dry plates, photographic paper
Fuji Photo Film Co."

Here's a photo of the real thing (from here)

Nipponki '46: Fugaku-kai G10N1a by Tanaka Shori

The "Fugaku" was a 1943 plan by Nakajima to bomb the USA with an aircraft that could be a combined IJNAF & IJAAF effort. But the US built first the B-29 and bombed Japan cancelling the plan.

The "Fugaku" project advanced until the engine construction stage a sample of which survives in Narita Museum.

Below is a model in 1/144 of a rather advanced what-if version by Tanaka Shori-san. Note the radar dome and the small jet engines, helpful during take-off. 

 

 

  

DATACrew: 6~8
Length: 46.0m
Span: 63.0m
Height: 10.90m
Weight: 42,000kg
Fully Equipped: 122,000kg
Engine: Six Nakajima HA-50, 2500HP plus small-size jet engines to assist during take-off
Max speed: 780km/h
Range: 18,800km
Service ceiling: 15,000m
Armament: 20mm cannonsX10
Bomb load: 15~20 ton

 

Tanaka Shori was born in Tsukushino city, Fukuoka prefecture. Near the end of the War ended he was elementary student sixth grade and he saw many tokotai planes taking off from nearby airfields. He was an eyewitness to 4th Sentai’s unit leader of the “Kaiten-tai” 2nd Lt Yamamoto when he rammed his Ki-45 "Toryu" on a B-29. He will never forget Yamamoto’s name written in hiragana on the crashed tail remains of the plane.

Building models of aircraft he saw as a child always bring back bitter memories.

After the War his father worked in a nearby US base which he visited very often and listened to jazz songs on the jukebox. Growing up he became a quite famous jazz singer and had the chance to meet and talk to many famous veteran pilots. His other hobby is photography and Tanaka-san has an incredible collection of vintage cameras.

He has released a small book with photos of his models and information about each aircraft.

 

2014

2014, the year of the horse.

We are confident and optimistic it will be better than 2013, the year of the snake, and Arawasi would like to wish you all a truly happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

Rest assured we will continue our efforts with our blog. We hope you found at least some of the 200+ posts to your liking and stay tuned for our forthcoming publications we have scheduled for this year.

 

As always we would like to thank all our friends who visited this blog, left comments and contributed with useful information, photos of their models, artwork and other material. A big THANK YOU goes to:

Harold K, Alcides,George Bryant, fugaku, Ruy Vieira, Peter Dasso, Calin Ungureanu, Fluffy, Peter Monoton, Pat D, J Godwin, Mark H, Jim Nicoletti, pauli, Windswords, Edcraft, Graham Boak, Francisco, Ryan B, Ajay, Peter, g, Sidnei, Emilio, Rene de Koning, Meatloaf109 who left comments. Unfortunately our friend Luca Ruffato is no longer with us. He will be sorely missed.

We would particularly like to extend our appreciation to:

Panagiotis Koubetsos, Devlin Chouinard, Zygmunt Szeremeta, Jacob Terlouw, Ryszard Holak, Ed DeKiep, Yokokawa Yuichi, Jean Barby, zegeye, “Avion Road”, Bob Alford, Luigi Scarano, Cameron Lohman, “Fluffysmodels”, Thilo-Arndt Möller, Håkan Gustavsson, Kiriakos, Steve Diederich, Otsuki Hajime, Chas Bunch, Mark Smith, Fabrice Fanton, Bernhard Tomaschitz, Frau Verena Wirnig, Mr Paul Bors and everybody in IPMS Austria (see you in March) for their contributions and support.

 

2014年が皆様の健康と幸せな年でありますように！

ALL THE BEST FOR 2014!

ΕΥΤΥΧΙΣΜΕΝΟ ΤΟ 2014! 

Vintage Magazine Cover

"Asahi Graph", July 22, 1942 issue

Nakajima built A6M2

  Two photos from a vintage “Domei Graph”, March 1943 issue featuring a Zero transported somewhere in the Pacific. Photos of the same ship and aircraft are featured in many publications.

  In FAOW#5 (1987), p.26 the caption says: Summer 1942, a photo of a Nakajima Model 21 transported by ship from the mainland. Photo taken in Rabaul. The white surround of the fuselage hinomaru indicates that this is a Nakajima produced aircraft. Mitsubishi stopped producing the Model 21 and started producing Model 32 from May 1942. Production of the Model 21 was taken over by Nakajima which begun the mass production of the type from November 1942. .

  On the other hand, in the later published FAOW#55 (1995) p.58, the caption says that the photo taken around the end of 1942 and that the Zero Model 21 was transported by ship to Truk island.

  The ship and the exact location remain unknown.

 

IJNAF Pilots

"Asahi Graph" January 25, 1939

The vintage captions reads:

"Navy Wild Eagles wearing pilot uniforms on stand-by to bomb the enemy positions, spend a few idle moments playing with a small bird. Upon hearing the brun brun sound of the propellers, they will say goodbye to their friend, put it back into its cage an will run to their planes. The airplane flying in the blue sky towards the enemy base looks like a small bird.
Photo taken at an airfield somewhere in Southern China."

Mitsubishi A7M "Reppu" by Fabrice Fanton

These are some photos of my Mitsubishi A7M-1 "Reppu" in 1/48th scale from Fine Molds, finished in 2011. I have used Fine Molds phototched and brass parts to enhance the kit. Figures come from Model Kasten for pilots, and kit for the mechanic.
-Fabrice Fanton-

 

Vintage magazine cover

"Asahi Graph", February 25, 1942