Monday 27 June 2011

Hisao Saitoh's 1/48th A6M2 & D3A1 + Italian Mistel Combo

It is a delight to once more have the opportunity to showcase the superb models of master craftsman Hisao Saitoh here.


The A6M2 is Hasegawa's 1/48th scale kit with dry decal markings made by Saitoh-san himself. It represents the 'Houkoku-490' aircraft from the Tainan Ku donated by Awa Paper Manufacturing Co (Awa-Seishi-Go ) in Saitoh-san's home town of Tokushima.


The Aichi D3A1 'Val' is built from another Hasegawa 1/48th scale kit but this time with all markings painted on using stencil masks made by Saitoh-san himself. It represents an aircraft from the carrier Junyu flown by NAP 1/c Yukio Ohishi who was killed in action over the Aleutian Islands in June 1942.  This pilot's birthplace is only 30 minutes from Saitoh-san's home by car.


The formal designation for this formidable dive-bombing aircraft was Type 99 Carrier Bomber - Kyu Kyu Shiki Kanjoh Bakugeki-ki (九九式艦上爆撃機) often abbreviated to the short form Kyu Kyu Kanbaku (九九艦爆).


The MC 202 and Rombaldo AR Mistel combines Planet and Hasegawa kits. OT for this blog but admirably demonstrating Saitoh-san's range of skill and interests.

Thank you to Saitoh-san for contributing these images and to Ken Glass for facilitating their display here.

Image Credits: All models © 2011 Hisao Saitoh via Ken Glass.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Nick,

The images are not displaying. I am using Firefox 3.6.17. I don't think it's the browser as the rest of your posts have the images with them, as well as the advertisements.

Windswords

Anonymous said...

Hello Nick
Thank you for placing my work.
"houkoku-190" calls the present airplane to the navy HOUKOKU not Aikoku.
I call the nickname of this airplane "Awa-Seishi-Go" in Japanese. The second step Japanese is it.
Hisao Saitoh

Straggler 脱走兵 said...

Hi Hisao

Thank you! I have corrected it now.

Regards
Nick

japones said...

Hi Hisao.

One question about DII-204.... Zenji Abe states in his biography that DII-204 crew were PO1c Yukio Oishi (pilot) and WO Hiroshi Yamamoto (gunner/radioman) and this second crew member was a shotai-cho... of the 22nd unit.

So, this plane need a horizontal yellow stripe!

Can you confirm this info?

Sidne, from Brazil.

Ken Glass said...

Hello Hisao,

Great work, as always. Thank you for letting us see your latest work.

Regards,
Ken Glass

Anonymous said...

Hello Sidne
Your advice is splendid.
I compared a drawing with a record once again and examined it.
radioman/WO.YAMAMOTO is surely the second shoh-tai leader.
By your advice, I intend to write a yellow line to the tail assembly of the model.
There is the line based on a number.
DII-204 , a photograph does not exist, but a record includes it.
The book of the Captain Abe is famous.
I referred to "ku-bo Kanbaku tai" of Shinsaku Yamakawa.
Thank you Mr.Sidne.

Hisao Saitoh from Japan

japones said...

Hi Hisao.

I have one photo of Junyo's D3A1, a shotaicho plane. You can use this to do the yeloww stripe.

Look at my album at:

http://japaneseaircraft.multiply.com/photos/album/86/ALEUTIAN_ATTACK

Sidnei, from Brazil.

Straggler 脱走兵 said...

Hi Sidnei

Please get in touch. I lost your email address!

Thanks & regards
Nick