Gilding the Lily Part Two ~ JAAF Air-to-Air Semaphore Signalling

An interesting detail on the airframe of the early Ki-48 (and also Ki-21) were the rubber-sleeved slots in the fuselage top for the "semaphore" signalling indicators. In the representational sketch above they are shown in the raised position. Maru Mechanic records the colours of the indicators as yellow, red and white, although an intelligence document describing these fittings on the Ki-21 records them as red, blue and yellow. The indicators were hinged like "trafficators" on an old style car and could be raised using a throttle-like control quadrant situated on the starboard side of the cockpit opposite the pilot's seat. Please note that the plan drawing in the Maru Mechanic on the Ki-48 shows the slots to the starboard side of the centreline, which is wrong. Photographs clearly reveal that they were situated to the port side of the centreline as shown in the sketch. The photograph below shows the indicators on a Ki-21.

According to the 1944 SEAC intelligence document reproduced below the indicators were illuminated at night and it appears that different units used them for different types of signals. The co-ordination from bombardier to pilot and between aircraft must have been carefully practiced but there is very little reference to them and they are seldom seen in photographs.

A study of photographs also reveals several different configurations and colours for the wooden radio aerial mast on the Ki-48 with an early variety depicted here finished in the red-brown primer, and with a pair of stabilising wires running forward to anchor the mast. Two wires run down from the main aerial to fittings on the starboard fuselage side from where they connect to radio equipment inside the fuselage. A later style had wires running down to attachments on the inner face of the engine fairings. Careful study of photographs will reveal the various configurations and it is apparent that some aircraft had the mast painted in the main airframe colour.

It is possible that including these details on the AZ Models 1/48th Ki-48 model may draw attention away from the supposedly incorrect nose shape - but I cannot guarantee it.

Aichi E13 "Jake" Interior Colour

The original IJN finishing specifications for the floatplane Aichi E13 "Jake" called for the interior to be painted with an undercoat of brown enamel and a top coat of light grey green enamel. The latter is presumed to be one of the "hairyokushoku" (ash green) colours in the 'M' series of that name in the IJN provisional paint colour standard known as Kariki 117. The closest Munsell value for this paint colour is 7.5 GY 5/2 with the closest FS 595b value being 24226 @ 2.35 (but which is a little too grey and not quite yellow/green enough). This interior colour also compares exactly to the Thorpe identified colour N4 'light grey green'.

Now some further confirmation of this interior colour has been provided by the appearance of the paint surface extant on Aichi "Jake" wreckage studied by Australian researcher Owen Veal (of the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre in Darwin) and shown here via the kind courtesy of Bob Alford (author of 'Darwin's Air War'). The graded scale presented with the images below shows proportional mixes of the Humbrol paint colours 86 'light olive' and 78 'cockpit green' (the latter paint is usually cited for the WWII RAF interior grey-green colour).

With thanks to Bob Alford for the account of the examination and images.

After I posted this blog Mark Smith kindly reminded me about Ichiro Hasegawa's notes on Aichi interior colours included in the Koku Fan magazine. In May, 1984 Hasegawa-san had reported that "One day a 3-seater Type Zero seaplane was salvaged from the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Kisarazu.  Through a friend of mine I have obtained a piece of metal skin from the salvaged seaplane to which anti-corrosive treatment was given to sustain the color scheme. ... Interior was covered in transparent blue with exception to the cockpit that were painted in yellowish-green."  

In May 1982 Hasegawa-san had referred to the interior of Aichi D3A1 AII-231 which he had illustrated in profile as follows:- "Inside of fuselage had been painted by anti-corrosion paint in bluish color... Inside the cockpit was covered in yellowish green."


There is a faint yellowish tone apparent in the 'M' series colours shown above but we cannot be sure that what Hasegawa-san saw was this paint or perhaps one of the other Thorpe identified interior colours N5 'light olive green' (similar to FS 34151) or N6 'buff green' (similar to FS 14255). 

Image credits: Heading painting ©2010 Shigeo Koike; Rendered colour chips ©2010 Straggler; Kariki 117 chips Summer via Fuku BBS; Aichi "Jake" Photographs ©2010 Owen Veal via Bob Alford.

Tamiya 1/48th A6M5 - An Appraisal

From correspondent Dan Salamone comes this informative "warts and all" appraisal of the much lauded Tamiya 1/48th Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero, kit # 61103:-

"When first released in the summer of 2008, the Tamiya A6M5 kit was hailed as the ultimate Model 52 kit in this scale. I would like to weigh the pros and cons of this kit as someone who has actually built it, and by comparison to the kit of the same variant from Hasegawa (originally kit # Jt 70).

The quality of the moldings is without question spectacular. At first blush in the box, the kit looks superb, and is indeed superior to the older Hasegawa kit in the amount of detail found in the cockpit. This is where the superiority to the Hasegawa kit ends.

This kit suffers from a Jekyll & Hyde syndrome. Some aspects of the engineering and fit are amazing, others leave much to be desired. For instance, the tolerance of the finished cockpit mating to the fuselage is so minute that you will need to scrape paint off of the edges of the cockpit to allow it to fit into the tabs inside the fuselage. Likewise, the main gear doors literally fall into place on the finished and installed main landing gear legs.

However, these instances of great engineering are balanced by the very poor fitting vertical fin to the rear fuselage, made even more difficult by the insert (part B5) that seats beneath the fin on the left side. The cowl panels (parts C3, D7/D8) need an excessive amount of dry fitting, trimming, and finally careful application of liquid cement to avoid very obvious gaps. Nearly every copy of the kit I have seen built online suffers from gaps in this area. Additionally, the wing leading edge inserts for the guns (parts E 15/16 and B3/4) do not fit well at all.

Then there are the “cute” aspects of the engineering that defy common sense. The placement of the cowl guns prior to assembly means the need to paint them after they are nested in their channels. Tamiya chose to mold the lowermost cowl flaps integral to the oil cooler fairing (part D5) - meaning extra masking and painting. But even worse, the need to add this assembly after painting and after the cowl proper has been installed…..made the very poor fit an exercise in frustration. I needed to shave off some of the exhaust parts (part D10) to even achieve a mediocre fit.

Tamiya also chose to include detail one will never see once the fuselage has been closed up- such as the oil tank near the firewall. Yet, they omitted easily seen detail, such as on the main landing gear wheel hubs. Even more puzzling, Tamiya included this wheel hub detail on their original 1/48 Model 21 kit, back in the late 1960’s!

I also feel that the kit prop has an odd shape about it….not the pitch of the blades in reference to the “hub”, but rather there is a twist to the blades that draws one’s eyes to it.

The laundry list goes on….the windshield has a poor fit to the fuselage which again is a major nuisance in that these parts will have already been painted by the time you discover the fact. Would you believe that the sliding portion of the canopy does not fully fit over the rear portion without cajoling? Needing to install the auxiliary gear doors (part A14) before the main gear legs risks breakage. Every good idea or feature has been countered by two poor ones.

One major improvement in Tamiya kits are the kit supplied decals. I applied the kit hinomarus using the Gunze system of decal liquids and they performed wonderfully. This is countered by Tamiya’s insistence on calling for their own line of paints which ignore differences found on Mitsubishi and Nakajima built aircraft….which have been well documented on this very website.

If this had been a kit that was not so highly touted on its release, I would not view it so harshly. When the 1/48 Tamiya P-47 family was released, it was at the time the pinnacle of plastic airplane model engineering and fit. My subjective view of this Zero kit is as follows . . . people have been blinded by the quality of the molding and the level of detail found in the box. I have studied pictures of various examples of this model both online, and in a recent Model Art volume, and now that I know what to look for, nearly every single example reveals that it suffers from poor fit in the areas mentioned above. Yet, I have never seen any review of this kit that was anything short of glowing.

You may be wondering where the pictures are of my finished Tamiya A6M5. To be honest, I reached such a level of frustration after having spent so much time wrestling the kit that when I discovered my (painted) clear parts fitted so poorly that I would need to perform surgery, I gently tossed it into my garbage can and called it a day. The only other kit I have ever done that with as an adult was the 1/48 Hasegawa Ki-43-I . . . which is another story.

I recommend that if you would like to build an accurate, well engineered model of an early to mid A6M5 in 1/48, you buy one of the many decal variants of the Hasegawa kit. The fit may not be perfect, but it is less expensive and common sense was used in the engineering aspect of kit design.

Dan Salamone"

So many superlatives were promised by this kit when it was first announced that I bought one, even though I model almost exclusively in 1/72nd scale! The last 1/48th Zero model I actually built was Monogram's veteran when it was first released and new!

Looks like Dan's appraisal is going to kick off a short season of all things Zero as we get to grips with a number of recently released books and kits. It remains a popular subject across the modelling and research community, even with modellers whose collections are not limited to Japanese subjects.

Image credits: © 2008 Tamiya Inc

Large Scale Japanese Army Pup

Wingnut Wings have rapidly acquired a well-deserved reputation for very high quality large scale models of charismatic Great War subjects and for excellent customer service. Commenting on one of the built up aircraft models a friend of mine observed that you could almost climb into the cockpit and fly it away! They are indeed, to use the vernacular, awesome.

Their most recent 1/32nd scale Sopwith Pup kit (# 32013 - RFC version) will be of interest to Aviation of Japan readers as it contains a markings option for a Japanese Army version, shown here with Wingnut Wings kind permission. The kit consists of high quality Cartograf decals for 5 different aircraft; 110 high quality injection moulded plastic parts, optional side cowls, fixed or adjustable tailplane, engine cowls and 2 propellers; a highly detailed LeRhone 9c 80hp engine; 6 photo-etched metal detail parts; fine in scale rib tape detail and full rigging diagrams.

The superb model shown here, built by Richard Alexander of Wingnut Wings from the kit, represents a Whitehead built Sopwith Pup D4165, as flown by Lt Kawaida in May 1921. Models of early Japanese Army aeroplanes are rare but the opportunity to build one from a kit of this quality is very welcome indeed and Wingnut Wings are to be saluted for including this option. Outstanding.

The kit is only available direct from Wingnut Wings. Other views of the model and more details about this kit, including the other markings options, kit parts and instructions may be seen at their website.

Image credits: ©2010 Wingnut Wings & Ronny Bar; reproduced here with the kind permission of Wingnut Wings

Recent Risings

Rising Decals continue to issue sheets of interesting Japanese subjects, and long may they continue. They have proven to be innovative and frequently fill gaps in the availability of alternative Japanese markings for the many new kits that have been released over the last decade. Another aspect I like about them is the colour chosen for the Hinomaru; personal taste I know but I much prefer their deep, saturated reds to the more orange - or even pinkish - roundels from some manufacturers (the images of the sheets shown here are lighter than the actual colour). The colour instructions are always clear and well presented and I admire the way that the paint colour information is offered with a qualified caveat rather than dogma. Another very positive aspect is the posting of correction colour scheme information on their web page.

'Japanese Carrier Bombers', RD48008, is a 1/48th scale sheet with markings for two early China-based B5N1 of the 12th Kokutai, a B6N2 and a D3A1. The two B5N1 represent the pre war silver and red scheme for a Hokokou ('Patriotism') adorned bomber and a field camouflaged scheme of green and brown which retains the red tail feathers. Interestingly, both aircraft have the same tail code. Was the Hokokou presentation marking overpainted? Dunno! The 551st Ku B6N2 51-301 has large white characters either side of the Hinomaru and a yellow striped tail - an impressive scheme for an aircraft not known for its colourful options, so very welcome. The D3A1 ia another Hokokou adorned aircraft, AII-256, from the carrier Kaga in the early "grey" scheme. The Hasegawa kit, also released by Revell, probably takes the biscuit but for those worried by rising prices (no pun intended) the earlier and cheaper Fujimi offering still seems to be readily available and is a good kit. A D3A1 model lends itself to imaginative presentation, always appearing more impressive posed as in flight, diving with dive brakes open, pilot bent forward peering through the optical sight and bomb cradle swinging down. Standing, tail down, with those mighty pants, always seems to diminish this charismatic beast. The D3A1 also offers the opportunity to experiment with many and varied interpretations of the early "grey". This sheet includes all the markings necessary for three aircraft, including the Hinomaru.

The next sheet is, for me, the most welcome. 'Japanese Aircraft of Training Units', RD 72026, continues Rising's tradition of exploring the many and varied training schemes with a colourful selection of 1/72nd scale decals for IJN trainers, including the K5Y1 "Willow" in land and float configurations, and two A6M2 aircraft. A bonus provides additional markings for the A6M2-K two-seater Zero trainer and K3M3 crew trainer, recently released by AZ Models. The two A6M2 aircraft from the Oita and Tsukuba Ku, with yellow undersurfaces and one with a stripped tail cone, are particularly welcome. Both have large underwing codes and the Tsukuba example has an undulating fuselage paint demarcation that should prove a challenge. The "Willow" has a plethora of schemes that could be applied to the recent Valom kit or the older LS example still available from Arii. Silver with red tail feathers, yellow with red and three different examples of field camouflaged dark green over yellow schemes, including an interesting "snake weave" pattern I have not seen before. The only aspect of doubt about this sheet - and it has nothing to do with Rising - is the availability of a good 1/72nd A6M2-K kit! There is the AML example, a challenging build if you can find one so I'm told, the rare as hen's teeth Gartex resin, a CMK resin conversion for the Hasegawa Zero (which Rising recommend) or the do-it-yourself kit bash. It remains something of a mystery why, when they released their new generation Zero series (how long ago now?), Hasegawa did not take the opportunity to mold an alternative A6M2/5-K fuselage frame and canopy.

Finally, also in 1/72nd scale, 'A5M4 Claude', RD 72027, is a small sheet offering three markings options for this Navy fighter. Two are very colourful aircraft from the carriers Soryu and Hosho, whilst the third is a plainer looking fighter, S-123 from the Chitose Ku at Rabaul early in the war. This latter scheme is interesting in offering a Pacific War Claude but I'm not sure about the colour information here. Natural metal is suggested but I believe the finish chronology for the A5M may have been natural metal only on the earliest examples, followed by aluminium - or silver - paint, followed by the "grey rat" coloured paints for light metals. The instructions offer a useful suggestion for the legendary "golden cast" finish on the A5M should the modeller wish to go that route, by first spraying silver (Mr Color # 8) followed by a mix of 95% clear dope (Mr Color # 155) and 5% yellow (Mr Color # 58). In the case of the Soryu aircraft decal bands are included to aid with painting the blue wheel spats and the FS value for the decals is included (*5190) to assist in obtaining/mixing the correct colour paint. Bearing in mind the white and blue borders on the spats and wing bands this is probably the best approach. A very colourful gem is sure to result. The various Fujimi kits of the A5M4 are excellent and generally available, whilst the older Nichimo A5M4 kit also has a certain chunky charisma and these decals would certainly dress it up.

An excellent and highly recommended selection of decals. Rising's next Japanese projects look set to continue this trend for unusual, colourful and much needed markings. Thanks to Mirik of Rising Decals for the review samples.

Images credit: © 2010 Rising Decals

Arawasi Extra 1

There is a lot of information on the internet - and much of it is free - but nothing beats being able to make a pot of tea, load up a plate with assorted biscuits and to sit in a comfortable armchair before a roaring, crackling fire (especially this winter!) with an honest to goodness magazine chock full of exotica and fascination. Very few magazines manage to maintain that delight cover to cover but Arawasi is one of them, and it stands out for its depth of coverage and colour. Unlike so much of the transient tidbits of fact and opinion on the internet it can be treasured as part of a library and constantly referred to, as I do.

Arawasi Extra 1 is a compilation of the first home-produced Arawasi magazines into a glossy, colourful and revised concentration of articles and features. Even if you have the earlier magazines this special issue is not to be missed because it contains so much new and interesting information as well as being full of wonderful colour illustrations and rare photographs.

The delight begins as soon as you open this special issue, with Takano Fumio's stunning Hayate artwork in beautiful colour. Then we are treated to an in-depth examination of Kawasaki's charismatic Ki-10 biplane fighter with photographs, colour profiles and interior schematics in colour. No modeller planning to build Fine Molds beauty should be without this. A fascinating feature on Kawasaki engines by the knowledgeable Mike Goodwin follows this up.

Now quickly past the article on the 10th Independent Flying Squadron in the attack on Hong Kong without comment - a conflict of interest as the authorship there and here is shared!

'Heinkels Over Japan, Part 1' by Peter Starkings delivers much and promises more, with beautiful illustrations by Zygmunt Szeremeta. The full story of German aircraft exports to Japan is overdue and I look forward to Peter's continuation of this theme.

Paul Thompson writes a piece on aikoku (patriotism) aircraft illustrated by photographs and charming period postcards in colour and this is followed by a feature on a quartet of unusual Hayabusa in particularly striking plumage, with colour profiles again illustrated by Zygmunt with photographs to enjoy as well, including those Burmese presentation aircraft. This is undoubtedly the most accurate rendering of the peacock tail insignia.

There is little out there on Chinese aviation history, an interest of this blog, and even less on the puppet regimes that supported the Japanese, so the fascinating article on the Nanking National Air Force (NNAF) with superbly clear photographs and more beautiful profiles by Zygmunt is a treasure of great value. This is followed by a revealing article about the Last Emperor of China, Pu Yi, by George Eleftheriou.

But even after this visual and intellectual feast (the biscuits have almost all gone) there is still more to come. The fascinating and humane exploration of a Kamikaze Group Photo by renowned author Henry Sakaida linking past to present, followed by an exhaustive examination of a much used Japanese airstrip complex at Wewak in New Guinea, the first part of a series by Richard Dunn with modern colour photographs by Justin Taylan.

And finally, another colour feature on the making of a superb 1/25th scale Ki-10 model in wood by Tanaka Shôichi and an "on location" piece about the remains of a Ki-21 "Sally" bomber in Thailand.

I cannot praise the achievement or impact of Arawasi too highly. In the early days of interest in Japanese aviation the availability of such a magazine, in English, could only be dreamed of. The internet may have the sound and fury but it is the silently powerful treasure chests like Arawasi Extra 1 which will endure and ultimately provide the most sustainable and valuable record for those interested in and enthused by this subject. Very highly recommended and exceptionally good value.

Image credit: ©2010 Arawasi