PJ, nice gizmology on that gun.

------------------

Thanks Cliff.   No thoughts of catapulting the Claude, but certainly the odd muttering here and there.

regards,

Jack

I worked over the Nichimo rendition of a Type 92, or what it's supossed to look like!

I'm really surprised that a Japanese company would be so far off but I decided not to toss it but to try to improve it.

Here ie the Nichimo Type 92 MG straight from the box:

and after my modifications, still needs paint:

I used thin plastic sheet to fashion the grip, brass sheet for the trigger guard, trigger, drum handle and rear grip assembly, stretched plastic sprue for the rear vertical grip, and pe AA sight. The bore was drilled with a #80 drill bit. Should have lengthened the receiver just a tad but it will be partially buried into the rear pit once mounted in place.

Doug: Really good kit of an attractive aircraft. 

That's one of the reasons I too like Japanese aircraft since like the British they have a certain attractive elegent look to them. 

Jack: Wow that is rough! Always impressed how guys as good as you are adapt and overcome the problems. I swear if I were building that kit it'd end up back in the box (or smashed into the wall on the other side of the room). 

Rigidrider

 

 

Hunter

Doug,

That is a very unusual kit...the two years that I have been hanging around here I have not seen one. I really look forward to your build.

 

 

 

 

Hunter... Thats the one! My wife brought it back from her last trip to Japan. I personally have never seen one befor, but then I'm not huge into Japanese aircraft. Thanks for the interest and as with all of Cliff's Japanese GBs we will have fun and learn something! 

Doug

 

So continuing on from part VI, here is AVI model's 1/72 Claude A5M1.  It is a short run plastic kit, and though it was just released late last year, the quality of the casting is below standard. 

Added to that, three details have been omitted from the design.  Instrument panel has no details, nor is there a decal option for this.  There is no exhaust stubs provided, and  instructions suggest scratchbuilding a pitot tube for the wing.

I was able to find a graphic of the dials,  printed that out on photo paper and glued in place.  Seat belts are just masking tape painted red brown (leather?) per instructions.  Metal bits is just chopped up PE sprue.

Decided to add the auxiliary fuel tank.   It is in two halves, but the side facing the belly of the aircraft is hollow.  Have filled that in with putty and added a metal rod to act as a fuel line - not sure of accuracy.

Test fitting reveals a lot of gaps, so where possible have glued sheet plastic before final assembly.  Tail unit was also problematic, designed as the usual tab fitting into it's allotted slot - well no, neither side fit.  There is also some weird assymetry happening with the fairing shapes around the tail - as pointed out with white arrows.

regards,

Jack

Hunter

Doug,

That is a very unusual kit...the two years that I have been hanging around here I have not seen one. I really look forward to your build.

 

Hunter... Thats the one! My wife brought it back from her last trip to Japan. I personally have never seen one befor, but then I'm not huge into Japanese aircraft. Thanks for the interest and as with all of Cliff's Japanese GBs we will have fun and learn something! 

Doug

Steve & PJ,

I have to echo your comments on the Kate...I am a huge fan of them, and all the Japanese aircrafts of WWII. I have built 3 Zeke's and starting my first Kate for this GB. I have 15 WWII aircrafts in the stash, and 9 of them are Japanese subjects. 

Like the German aircrafts, I have always been attracted to the color scheme of the Japanese. Both are very interesting in color choice and application.

Looking forward to seeing both of your builds.

Gamera

Thanks for the link. I think I ran into that one and lost it but found again. The Japanese colors are very interesting indeed.

Steve

Yea the Kate is a very good looking lady, even sexy LOL. That blotched green over the lighter color looks so cool!

PJ, have I said that the Kate is one of the coolist planes before? I probably have...several times LOL.

I'm not sure you can go wrong with whatever you decide to paint it. In my research there were several paint schemes.

Hey Bsyamato and PJ, thanks guys for getting us off to a great start! 

PJ: I see what you mean about not being quite as good as the Hasegawa kit but it still looks pretty good to me. 

Not sure about the right colour scheme but that makes sense to me. Spraying green camo over the ame-iro seems like the simplest thing so it's probably right. Over on J-Aircraft they ran an article claiming ame-iro was actually hai-ryokushoku or light ash green. 

In truth I have no friggin' clue if they're right or not. NM seemed to be more a late war thing so that's a time period issue if it's a point or not. Between ame-iro and hai-ryokushoku you'll have to make up your own mind- it all confuses the  out of my tiny little brain...  

http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/amerio/out_of_ameiro.htm

LOL TJ just took down ours and just before it started raining so all my Christmas decorations are dry and ready to go into the attic. Looks like we may even get a VERY light snow dusting on Wedsnesday.

bsy

Your Jake is off to a good start!

Here is my entry for the GB:

The kit is ok for its age and has good exterior details. The interior needs a lot of work and is not as accurate as the Hasegawa Kate which is reported to have an excellent and accurate cockpit.

This Nichimo pit is partially there but lacking several details that need to be scratched out to make it look close.

I assembled the cowling and used the UMM saw to trim the vents so they could be partially open. I also sanded them from the inside to thin them and drilled out the exhaust pipes. I was gonna use some aluminum tubing instead but these plastic pipes are really well done.

Cowl vents thinned, trimmed and partially opened:

This is the scheme I plan to model from the Shokaku but with a torpedo

My thanks to Gary (Devil Dawg) for having his daughter in law translate the Japanese writing on the Nichimo sheet for me.

This is another can of worms because the Kate schemes, specially this one I found as built models with the lighter color being NMF, light grey or a pale green. I read somewhere that all Kates where painted at the Nakajima factory in a color called Nakajima Amber Grey or Ameiro or Ame-Iro or caramel color? The Kates were then painted by the individual units in the field. I have been looking for this info and unfortunately did not bookmark it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the lighter color is in fact the Ame-Iro (light caramel color) over sprayed with the darker Nakajima green. Unfortunately, out of over 1,200 Kates built, none survived intact so who knows what's what with the colors. I also saw a picture of a Kate salvaged wreck with what appeared to be red oxide primer on the wing sheet metal. 

I ordered the Nakajima colors by WEM so they are in the mail. Again, I saw a kate painted this way and failed to bookmark it too. WEM is reported to have a close match to these colors.

Not the same unit I will be doing but the Ame Iro color is mentioned and used.

http://www.hyperscale.com/features/2001/kateir_1.htm

Lol, I'm ready to move to Florida too! 

I had joked with my boss about taking all four weeks of vacation/holiday at once and spending Feb. somewhere in the Carribean... 

Bsyamato: Great! Just put her down. It wouldn't be the same without you. 

Happy New Years guys, tear off the cellophane and get cracking!!! 

I'm working today and everyone else is off so I brought my figures in. Maybe I can get a little done. It's a charming 18F / -8C outside. I have to run out to take samples and read meters but hoping I can stay in the office as much as possible today.  

LOL , have them and started, waiting to pick up the other box too 

I'm in with the previous hasegawa Jake for now 

plasticjunkie

 

 

Hunter

Cliff and Jack,

Looking forward to such a different subject. 

Cliff,

When you get a moment could you please add the kit below...Had it in the stash so I thought I would build two kits for this GB. Thank you. It is 1/48th scale

 

 

 

 

Hunter, I also will be doing a Kate but an ancient Nichimo 1/48 kit. I have been looking it over and almost decided to toss it and get a Hasegawa but I like a good challenge and will require a lot of scratch building to bring it close to Hasegawas quality.

I picked it up a couple of years back at a hobby show for $8 so it's doable, just a little more effort needed.

 

 

Thank you very much for the information...Now I definitely look forward to this build. It's time I get away from just building Tamiya and AirFix kits LOL.

Doug,

That is a very unusual kit...the two years that I have been hanging around here I have not seen one. I really look forward to your build.

modelcrazy

Another killer badge Gam. Thanks Jack and RB!

 

Thanks but Jack and Rock did all the work, I just brought them together- like peanut butter and chocolate... 

And thanks again Jeaton for covering for my butt last year! Wish I'd actually completed something so I could claim one of the beautiful badges you did for JGB VI... 

Hunter

 

plasticjunkie

 

 

Hunter

Cliff and Jack,

Looking forward to such a different subject. 

Cliff,

When you get a moment could you please add the kit below...Had it in the stash so I thought I would build two kits for this GB. Thank you. It is 1/48th scale

 

 

 

 

Hunter, I also will be doing a Kate but an ancient Nichimo 1/48 kit. I have been looking it over and almost decided to toss it and get a Hasegawa but I like a good challenge and will require a lot of scratch building to bring it close to Hasegawas quality.

I picked it up a couple of years back at a hobby show for $8 so it's doable, just a little more effort needed.

 

 

 

 

 

PJ,

 

I look forward to seeing you put it together. I have no doubt you will do an amazing job. This will be my first Hasegawa build.

 

Thanks Hunter for your kind words. All the reviews I have been reading say that Hasegawa tries to do it right specially with these  Japanese WWII subjects.

They even went as far as using the ONLY surviving Myrt kept at the Air and Space Museaum as a guide for their 1/48 release which I have coming from Japan. The reviews say that the Kate pit is very accurate so I have no doubt it will be an exceptional build.

plasticjunkie

 

 

Hunter

Cliff and Jack,

Looking forward to such a different subject. 

Cliff,

When you get a moment could you please add the kit below...Had it in the stash so I thought I would build two kits for this GB. Thank you. It is 1/48th scale

 

 

 

 

Hunter, I also will be doing a Kate but an ancient Nichimo 1/48 kit. I have been looking it over and almost decided to toss it and get a Hasegawa but I like a good challenge and will require a lot of scratch building to bring it close to Hasegawas quality.

I picked it up a couple of years back at a hobby show for $8 so it's doable, just a little more effort needed.

 

 

I look forward to seeing you put it together. I have no doubt you will do an amazing job. This will be my first Hasegawa build.

Another killer badge Gam. Thanks Jack and RB!

BTW: The badge is done! Big thanks to Jack/Jgeratic and Rock Baker for their hard work! 

AA: Sure I'll go put you down now. 

Steve: Is the Nichimo kit really bad? I've got their old Ki-45 and I've seen good reviews of it. 

I'll jump in on this one.  I've just got a new Tamiya 1/48 kit of the A6M5 Zero "Zeke."

Hunter

Cliff and Jack,

Looking forward to such a different subject. 

Cliff,

When you get a moment could you please add the kit below...Had it in the stash so I thought I would build two kits for this GB. Thank you. It is 1/48th scale

 

Hunter, I also will be doing a Kate but an ancient Nichimo 1/48 kit. I have been looking it over and almost decided to toss it and get a Hasegawa but I like a good challenge and will require a lot of scratch building to bring it close to Hasegawas quality.

I picked it up a couple of years back at a hobby show for $8 so it's doable, just a little more effort needed.

Hunter,  great choice. The Kate is my favorite torpedo bomber. 

Thanks Jack, I may have to check around for another first of the year.

Huleelee does seem a little odd there, only been an Ebay seller for about a month and with one rating. So far I've never had any issues with Ebay though. I did end up with that one recast kaiju figure from Thailand but it was a decent enough copy. Not a big fan of people ripping off others work so I haven't ordered anything else from him since though. 

Edit: Looked a few other items listed on Huleelee's page. Some of them are figures from Aurora models Japan. Aurora makes them in white metal. Huleelee has them listed as resin and Aurora's name isn't anywhere. So it does look like he's recasting some stuff. Good judgement call there.  

Cliff, yeah after my post, did another ebay search and found those lower priced ones, and pulled the trigger on a $33 plus free world wide shipping - probably means the slow boat from China. 

It was a different vendor than the one still listed, but was his last one.  Chose him because he had a few more ratings than just the single one for the seller huleelee.

regards,

Jack

Oh wow that's cool Jack, I'm tempted to pick up one of those for myself. Don't think I'd pay $99.00 but at the $34.00 and $43.00 listed I'm thinking about it.

Never heard of either of the sites. I did end up with one recast for a kaiju figure I ordered off Ebay. It was from Thailand though and I've seen dozens of recasts from him, seems recasting stuff is his business. I have no idea about these guys. If you order one let me know, I'd like to know how the figure looks. The plexiglass base looks cool but I think I'd mount her on a chunk of driftwood though.

Hunter: Nice choice, just put you down!

Cliff and Jack,

Looking forward to such a different subject. 

Cliff,

When you get a moment could you please add the kit below...Had it in the stash so I thought I would build two kits for this GB. Thank you. It is 1/48th scale