Tuesday 27 April 2021

Jake's Dimensions

Continuing the IJN floatplanes theme an interesting and thought provoking email was received from Griff Murphy in response to the blog on the Hasegawa E13A 'Jake' together with photos of his own splendid model made from the 1995 NP10 (51830) with catapult release of the kit and shared here with his kind permission. The model was painted with his own home brew of Testors 1/4 oz enamels and the decals are from Print Scale sheet 72026 to represent an aircraft from the heavy cruiser Chikuma piloted by Akira Ito whilst scouting Pearl Harbor prior to its attack.

Griff measured his model with a 1/72 scale ruler and calculated a length of 11.89 metres from the front of the pontoons to the rear end of the fuselage. He cited full-size aircraft measurements from William Green's 'Warplanes of WWII' Vol.6 of a length of 12.13 metres and from a series called 'Century of Flight' and various internet sources of a length of 12.17 metres.  That would put the discrepancy in overall length of the assembled Hasegawa kit between 0.24 and 0.28 metres or only 3.33 mm to 3.88 mm in 1/72 scale.    

Francillon* gives a length of 11.3 metres whilst the plans in the Maru Mechanic monograph (No.12 of Sept 1978 edition) give 11.265 metres, the same length given by the plans in Model 565 'Imperial Japanese Navy Seaplanes' of 2000. Against those dimensions Griff's model as measured would be around 8 mm too long in scale. Where does all this leave us? Perplexed! In the meantime Griff's model demonstrates that the kit can be enjoyed for its own sake and result in a good looking model, but a little bird tells me that a new tool kit of Jake is planned. . .    

Hasegawa NP10 (51830) 1995

With special thanks to Griff for the photos of his model.

* 'Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War' by René J Francillon (Putnam 1979)

Image Credit: All photos © 2021 J Griffin Murphy; Box art © 1995 Hasegawa Corp. 

10 comments:

Ken Glass said...

Nice work Griff, & thanks for sharing the results of your dimensional study of the build. Thanks for posting this at the blog Nick, & for a hint of a future release.

Dan Salamone said...

Great looking model, nice seeing it in it's "element" with the catapult too.

Please let the new kit be 1/48.....

Dan

Straggler 脱走兵 said...

Hi Dan

I should have added 'in 1/72 scale' - sorry!

Regards
Nick

Jim Anderson said...

A nice addition of the attractive ship-borne float plane this one from Chikuma. Agreed the catapult adds another level of interest. Nicely done. Thanks Nick!

Dan Salamone said...

Hi Nick, thanks for this. Sigh, but then again I have more than enough to keep myself busy in my preferred scale as is. :)

Dan

WD said...

What a beautiful build, and that's great news on the new tool kit.

Warren

Baronvonrob said...

Fantastic work Griff !

Yes, I fondly recall from my childhood the "Warplanes of WWII" series from William Green and all the well-worn pages of black and white photos :)

That little bird has me excited about the prospects for a new 1/72 Jake!

Thanks again to Griff and Nick

Michael Thurow said...

This is an outstanding model Griff! The catapult is a perfect addition. Some time ago I planned to do something similar with the 1/48 catapult offered by Lone Star Models but it's just too expensive and space-consuming. My old Nichimo 'Jake' desperately looks for restoration but I'm confused now with all these different measurements. Somebody seems to have lost (or added) 1 meter to the dimensions, and as usual this mistake was copied umpteen times. I wished my model would look so good as yours. Thanks Nick for sharing.

Kevin Bade said...

Why am I betting this little bird is named Sword?

Ronnie Olsthoorn said...

Cool display, I need to see if there is a 1/48 equivalent.