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Another Hasegawa Zero Release


RBrown

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Nope they sure don't look the same; not if you're willing to invest a little time to see the multitudes of differences between them.  This one I don't believe I'll acquire since it is the same version that the Tamiya kit represents.  Iwamoto's aircraft get a meh from me although it is a Mitsubishi built airframe (judging by the painting on the box art alone).  I do like the box art though.  I find it very interesting how the Japanese found solutions to their engineering problems, many worked (and some remarkably well) while many others didn't (or marginally worked). 

 

Now give me a Ki-61-1Tei with the Katabami markings of Chuichi Ichikawa and I'll be all over that like a hobo on a bologna sandwich.  First, Hasegawa has to elongate the nose of their existing Ki-61 molds to accomodate the Ho-5 cannon in the nose of the -1 Tei...  That'll be the hardest part.  I have the decal design already done for his aircraft in Illustrator, all I need is my ALP's printer hooked up for that.  Come to think of it, I also have a set of masks for his aircraft I had custom made.  I planned on using the Wolfpack -1Tei conversion but I screwed it up and threw it, and the kit in the bin (after a couple years on the shelf of doom).

 

Jennings, if you have access to the old, but informative Thorpe books, you can easily discover the IJNAF and IJAAF unit structures (a lot of the other information has been superseded in the time between published dates and now but some of the information is still valid).  From what I remember of the IJNAF structure, The Kokutai is the equivalent of a fighter group.  The Sentai is the equivalent of a fighter squadron.  Having said that, I may be slightly mistaken as 1, I don't have my references handy and 2, I suffer from an acute case of old timers CRS (and I'm not that old!).  There are other sources for that information, I just happened to remember the Thorpe texts.  In my humble opinion, the language barrier has been a great deal of the problem in the past with respect to published sources but as time progresses, that barrier is shrinking, albeit not fast enough to satisfy us modelers but it is shrinking.  

Edited by Juggernut
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That's a stunning box-art, it is screaming on me something along the lines,,,,like....Yeah! Im gonna blow myself up so 70 years later martin won't be able to find any reference pictures related to my bushido pinup nose-art.. Yeah!   

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I'm with Ernie. Japanese fighters are very similar looking, to me anyway. When I get around to building a zeke, it will likely be the last Japanese fighter I ever do. Just not enough variation to hold my interest. I built the old K5Y Willow years ago, and loved it, but it was a pretty ordinary looking prewar biplane.

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FYI: Lucky Hobby has the previous -5c on sale for a short time for $33! 

Thats almost worth it for the pilot alone - OOB the seated pilot is very good quality in terms of detail particular face (you get 3 heads) and the pose...

 

After just spending an eternity - and a fortune - finding seated pilots for my 1/32 aircraft and 1/35 helos, when a manufacturer gets it right its a blessing...

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I'll buy one, if for no other reason than Hasegawa kits are a joy to build.

 

But to me, with the exception of the Ki-61, to me all Japanese subjects DO look the same: single radial engined, green low winged metal monoplane.

The same applies to USN stuff of the same vintage, but I agree, we don't know Japanese stuff like we know US, Russian, German, and a Brit planes.

 

And I give a month of Sundays to learn how to do stressed skin... That looks awesome, and is THE reason my 111H project is stalled.

 

Fortunately a lot of Japanese aircraft weren't just painted green.

 

(Note that I make no claims about the accuracy of these profiles - just trying to show that there is a variety of options out there for Japanese aircraft other than plain green)

 

13-Nakajima-Ki-43-Hayabusa_Page_31-960.j

 

cb849810fd6d594574e44361a55bd04a.jpgthryt67u67u6.jpg

 

48-013A.jpg

 

lifelike72027photo1.jpg

 

25%20Nakajima%20Ki_44%20Shoki_Page_30-96

 

25%20Nakajima%20Ki_44%20Shoki_Page_31-96

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