Nichimo Co.Ltd. 1951 to 2013 ~ A Retrospective

The news that Nichimo - or Nichimoco as they branded themselves recently - is leaving the plastic model kit business after 62 years is rather sad. There must be the possibility that some of their moulds, unique despite their age, will be bought and released by another manufacturer. Let's  hope so. Nichimo's  classic 1/48th scale Ki-43-I Hayabusa 'Oscar' is arguably a better model if not a better kit than the more recent Hasegawa version and has graced many a competition table since it first appeared in the 1970s with that strange brown Shoki-like scheme on the box art.

Their Mitsubishi Ki-51 'Sonia' remains unique in 1/48th scale and is another ever popular kit in its much debated blue colour scheme. The box art (as with most other Nichimo aircraft kits) was by Mr. R Nakanishi (b.1934). There is a fine advanced build article of the Ki-51 by Tetsuya Inoue here, honouring his grandfather who was a test pilot on the type for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. 

The floatplane Aichi E13A1-B 'Jake' is another unique 1/48th kit and it was recently the subject of an improved aftermarket resin interior set from Lone Star Models (sadly no longer available). 

Then there is the Tachikawa Ki-9 'Spruce' (Army Type 95-1 Medium Grade Trainer), another so far unduplicated model of the Army training biplane in 1/48th scale not to be confused with Otaki's 'Willow'. The Ki-9 is a lovely, delicately moulded kit, definitely worth re-issue, which includes an impressive interior, brass wire for rigging, nicely moulded standing and seated crewmen and decals for four flying schools - Kumagaya, Army Air Academy, Tachiarai and the seldom represented Mito. Let's hope we can see this one available again.

The Nichimo Nakajima B5N2 'Kate' and Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu 'Nick' although also long standing as unique and popular show table entries have now both been eclipsed by more modern Hasegawa reproductions.

Seldom seen these days is Nichimo's 1/48th Mitsubishi A6M5, long rendered obsolete by better and more modern versions.

Nichimo's 1/70th scale Ki-61-II Hien from the 1960s has been covered previously here and here and deservedly praised in the context of its time and technology. Their A6M2 Zero and A6M5 to the same scale were available until quite recently in attractive boxes to lure the unwary. The A6M2 is probably better in many respects than some other Zero kits of the same era, certainly besting the very strange looking Aoshima and rather poor Fujimi examples. Although the  evocative A6M2 box art depicts a Hiryu carrier fighter cruising with the canopy open and the pilot watching contrails the decal sheet curiously offers markings only for the well-known Saburo Sakai  machine V-103 of the Tainan Ku. 

The 1/70th scale Mitsubishi JM2 Raiden with classic K Hashimoto box art was a similarly workmanlike but unappreciated kit, perhaps overshadowed by the 1964 Tamiya example and later by the greatly improved Hasegawa issue. The two unusual markings options in this kit (the other being Yo-J2-34) remain, as far as I know, unique.

For many years until Fujimi embarked on a new family series of 'Claude' the Nichimo A5M4 was the only game in town for this nimble IJN fighter and has appeared over the years in various boxes, deservedly earning the title of 'classic'. It is last but not least here. 

Farewell Nichimo and thank you for your valuable contributions to the genre of Japanese aviation models, maybe gone now but certainly not to be forgotten. 

Image credits: All box art from author's collection © Nichimo Co. Ltd., various dates. 

Jake - A Tale of Two Scales ~ Part 2

Responding to Aviation of Japan's Nichimo retrospective in October 2013, tempestfan got in touch regarding the origin of the Nichimo Jake kit. He was asking for confirmation that the Nichimo 1/48 scale kit was in fact a re-pop of the Marusan 1/50 kit. Unfortunately I don't have an example of the Marusan kit to confirm it absolutely but as tempestfan pointed out the first UPC issue of the Nichimo kit used the same Marusan artwork on the box. A review of Japanese auction sites strongly suggests that it is the same plastic or a very close copy. Burns notes that several Nichmo kits "were copied from other companies" and that the Jake, released in the late 1960s as S-4803, was originally issued as kit # 428 by Marusan.

Marusan Shoten Ltd  was a pioneering plastic kit company, the first in Japan, operating from the early 1950s until 1969, its kits were issued in an eclectic diversity of scales and are now highly collectable. Their Jake was released in 1964 with the box art shown above and UPC re-issued it in 1968 as # 6071 with the box art presented as shown below. 

In his '20th Century Airplane Plastic Model Encyclopedia' ('20世紀 飛行機 プラモデル 大全' Bunshun Nesco Ltd 2004), Katsumi Hirano shows a variant presentation of the Marusan box (below), but without details of the date of issue. The art on this box is closer in presentation to the UPC box art.

There are at least two other box arts associated with the Marusan kit. The monochrome cutaway art by K Hashimoto, shown above, is unusual because the interior details provided in the kit are sparse. Was this the same or a different set of plastic? Another box art style for the Marusan kit is shown below, with the logo 'Plamodel Marusan', again with no further details known.

The more familiar UPC Jake box art is that by Andrew Scott Eidson (b.1908), shown above. As far as I know the box art for the Nichimo kit by Mr. R Nakanishi (b.1934) was never altered and like the Hasegawa kit it has been the only game in town in its scale. I'm not aware of any vacform or resin examples in either scale. Following Part 1 of this article Aviation of Japan's Texas correspondent Mark Smith kindly sent me this link to a splendid build of the Nichimo kit by Matt Swan. The Nichimo kit seems to have had more aftermarket for it than the Hasegawa kit, of which more anon, and Mark recounts that Mike West of Lone Star Models has told him that Jake items have been some of his best selling stuff. With the Hasegawa release of Pete and Dave surely Jake must be on the cards for re-visiting state of the art at some point? 

Further details or memories about any of these kits will be very welcome, thanks.

Image credits:- Nichimo box art author collection; second Marusan box art variant © 2004 Katsumi Hirano & Bunshun Nesco Ltd; all others various via web.   

Michael Thurow's 1/48 Ki-45 Toryu

When I first saw Michael Thurow's excellent 1/48th Ki-45 Kai Tei Toryu model in 53rd Hiko Sentai air-to-air ramming guise I assumed from the figures on display with it that it must have been made from the Hasegawa kit. In fact Michael made the model from the venerable Nichimo kit with various improvements. Now Michael has very kindly contributed his build report to share here. And really the details he has provided will be of interest and use to anyone building the Toryu in any scale.

My affair with the Toryu

by Michael Thurow

To build a Ki-45 in quarter inch scale had been my dream since the 1970s when I fell in love with the Nichimo kit. The plane had a dramatic looks and the model an unprecedented quality for the time. Unfortunately I did not buy the kit then. Later, when the Toryu was definitely missing in my collection of Japanese aircraft of the Pacific War, it was no longer available. I remembered that a close friend who had given up modeling owned an untouched box and I tried hard to persuade him to sell it - with no luck (see later). Finally in the mid 1990s I found a forgotten example of the kit at a hobby shop. It was my quickest purchase ever!

Ten more years passed before I found the right moment to start. Meanwhile, although Hasegawa's excellent Toryu variants had been released I stayed faithful to the Nichimo kit. Firstly, because I owned one after a long quest that had connected me with the model and secondly, because I still consider Nichimo's surface representation much superior - thousands of sunk rivets make it look very realistic.

In many other aspects, however, the kit is no longer state-of-the art, and so I obtained and used every available after-market item:

• Eduard 49415 etched detail set   
• CMK 4206 resin interior set
• Engine & Things 48136 resin Ha-102 engines (but now Vector seems an even better choice, see my comment below)
• Falcon No.34 vacform canopy set  
• True Details 48081 wheel set
• Fine Molds AC48 pitot tube set

Finally, strange as it may seem, I did purchase a Hasegawa Ki-45 KAI Otsu, mainly because I wanted the Isuzu fuel truck and considered it a benefit to use some of the redundant Hasegawa parts on my Toryu without compromising that kit, such as:-

• the front cockpit hood in open position, 
• the individual exhaust pipes; and 
• the clear position lights

  
Building the model

Not to bore expert modelers with describing every step of assembly I will focus on the most relevant details, difficulties and changes.

As usual I started with the extra engines which I fixed to the existing bulkheads. They fit nicely into the nacelles - so no problems there. The first real challenge came soon: no parts available anywhere that could be used as ring oil coolers for the later Toryu versions. Many ideas came and passed until I found a brass pipe at a local hobby shop, from which I sawed off two open rings, cut and pressed them to the correct diameter. After adding a little detail they look strikingly realistic! Sadly, the narrow nacelle opening, the oil cooler and the spinner obliterate nearly all sight of the fine engines - alright, at least I know that I didn't avoid the effort...

Next came the wheel wells. The Nichimo kit detail is really not good. So I embellished the interior with pieces from the Eduard set and with narrow strips of cardboard and other scratch-built items. The result is fair enough as rarely anybody ever looks into the openings from below. Be aware that none of the kits represents the upper wheel strut construction correctly. Both Nichimo and Hasegawa chose an easy and safe approach to fixing the struts to the wing base - creating more work for a pedantic like me.

 

I went on finishing gears, motors and wings. Here are a few ideas that I implemented:

• Removed the moulded exhaust pipes and replaced them with the individual stacks from the Hasegawa kit which look much livelier
• Removed the solid position lights and substituted transparencies (Hasegawa)
• Removed the solid landing light in the wing root, imitated a lamp and covered it with transparent foil
• Drilled oval air vents into the outer sides of the nacelles, which are missing in the Nichimo kit.
• Fabricated completely new air intakes for beneath engines - the parts provided in the kit are too narrow
• Scraped the bulges into the landing gear doors until they were thin and covered them with a small piece of paper from the inside (in reality hollow bulges were riveted to the outside of the doors to smooth the air flow behind the intakes)

Fuselage

With the wings completed and painted (!) I set about improving the fuselage. The CMK forward and rear cockpit set is great and with some adjustment the parts fitted well inside the fuselage except for the Eduard instrument panel. It took me an hour of scraping to thin down the cockpit walls to provide enough room plus cutting off as much material from the instrument panel as possible before I could squeeze it in - risky work as the walls ended up as thin as paper! The only detail to add was some electric wiring which was quite profuse.

I was almost ready to merge the fuselage halves when tragedy struck, a real modeler's nightmare which - hopefully - happens only once in a lifetime.. I had left my magnifying lens in such an unfortunate position that the summer sun shone right through it onto the port fuselage and damaged it badly - all warped and twisted with no chance to repair it. My mind raced for a solution. Hours of search on the internet but no Nichimo kit could be found. Use the Hasegawa fuselage (and start over again) or use part of it and struggle to rectify with the mismatch? Not good! Then, close to despair, a flash of inspiration - the kit in my friend's treasure vault! A call, a real friend - "I don't want you to throw yourself under a train" and a 400 mile round trip to pick it up. Oooff...

After all I was lucky because the damage began right behind my finished cockpit so that I could cut the tail section off and replace it. A careful operation, but successful!

Some more improvements that I made on my way to completing the fuselage:

• None of the canopy sets is completely satisfactory, so I used a wild combination of the available transparencies from Nichimo, Hasegawa and Falcon
• Drilled a hole in the nose
• Added stubs and pipes (for bombs and external tanks) to the mid wing section

No. 98 of the 53rd Hiko Sentai

Now it was time to decide which specific aircraft I wanted my Toryu to represent. After some deliberation I decided in favour of # 98 of the 53rd Hiko Sentai because it was configured for air-to-air ramming attacks and therefore unarmed (less work for me!) and - with the karimata arrow - a fitting example of this dramatic aircraft.

John Haas, whose excellent Ki-45 Kai Tei model can be admired in the May 2015 blog entry, seems to have come to the same conclusion earlier. The history of the 53rd Hiko Sentai is well described in that article. I would like to add some information which derives from my own research and analysis of this particular aircraft. 

Camouflage

For the light grey-green base coat I mixed my own colour until I liked the tone, but I could not have replicated the process - luckily the colour lasted until I had finished... The dark green mottle was accentuated with an occasional black green blotch to imitate the irregular intensity of spraying and give the surface more depth. I tried to stay as close as possible to the original picture when I mottled the left rear fuselage. # 98 would probably not have flown much before her ultimately fatal mission, so you may want to apply only a minimum of chipping and a little weathering from exposure.

Markings 

Here are my thoughts. None of the unit insignia of a stylized '53' from various decal sources have the correct shape as seen on this specific aircraft. Consequently I created my own one from bits and pieces. Note that the white border to the emblem is not painted on the rudder part. The tips of the arrow might be red like the rest of the marking rather than yellow. The three bars in the bulb are lighter - perhaps yellow which would match the colour code for the 3rd Hikotai. The somewhat darker shadow ring around the Hinomaru probably came from masking the insignia with tape before applying the white fuselage band.

  

Construction Specifics

This is a shinten seikutai aircraft modified for ramming attacks, therefore no guns were installed (and no gun sight!). Remember to cover/close the openings. Equally the observer's gun, gun mount and seat would have been removed. The antenna mast was shortened to prevent the pilot from hitting it when he jumped from the plane - if he had a chance to jump... And finally the rear cockpit opening was faired over. Photos suggest that there may have been two type of fairings: A canvas cover, and later a piece of fabricated sheet metal. I opted for the former solution. To create the irregular surface of canvas with folds etc. I took a piece of very thin paper (like the air mail paper of old) and soaked it in water before fitting it over the respective area, waiting until it was dry and then coating it with layers of plastic glue. When it had hardened the piece was easy to cut into form. As to the colour I'm strongly in favour of a natural canvas brown or khaki. Pictures of sister planes, however, clearly show camouflage blotches. I think it all depends on where and when the cover was installed - at the front line unit or at an arsenal, before or after mottling - and whether anybody cared for a neat job in view of the short-lived operational life of the aircraft.

Here my modeling journey with the Toryu comes to an end. It would be nice to know what happened to # 98. Was it used in combat? Did it bring down a B-29? Who flew it? A beautiful plane for a desperate mission ... it has a place of honour in my collection.

A Postscript on the Isuzu TX40 Fuel Truck

I built the model from the box. Just the folding-roof supports needed some attention since I didn't use the door windows from the kit. This feature and the colouring were inspired by the photo below. To my knowledge no colour photos exist showing the truck in the IJAAF khaki colour. And, to be honest, I didn't like the idea of having my model appear in this rather dull paint all over.

The dark grey body with the tank (and wheels!) painted in greenish primer seemed more attractive. I'm not a Japanese vehicle specialist and would be interested to know where this 'camouflage' was used - did the bowser serve with the Army or was it a IJNAF blue vehicle with an unpainted tank or a requisitioned civil truck with a tank installed? Whatsoever, it is a nice companion for the Toryu. 

References

The Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu, Profile No.105, René J. Francillon, (Leatherhead 1966)

Japanese Army Air Force Camouflage and Markings WWII, Donald W. Thorpe, (Fallbrook 1968) Slayer of Dragons - The Story of the Toryu, Air Enthusiast Vol.5, (London 1973)

Army Type 2 Two-Seat Fighter “Toryu“, Famous Airplanes of the World No.21, (Tokyo 1990) Kawasaki Army Type 2 "Toryu" Two-Seat Fighter, Mechanic of the World Aircraft 6, (Japan 1993) B-29 Hunters of the JAAF, Osprey Aviation Elite Units 5, Koji Takai & Henry Sakaida, (Botley 2001)

With special thanks to Michael for sharing these photos of his model and details of the build.

Image credits: All via Michael Thurow, model photographs © 2016 Michael Thurow

Nichimo 1/48 Ki-43-I Hayabusa by Dan Salamone

The Nichimo kit of the Nakajima Ki-43-1 Hayabusa 'Oscar', Japanese Army Type 1 fighter, in 1/48 scale built by Dan Salamone and expertly finished in a simple but very attractive scheme which shows the fine lines of the aircraft to advantage.  Built stock except for the addition of seat belts.

In Dan's own words:-

"1/48 Nichimo Ki-43-I, an original molding from 1977 which I bought at a long ago closed hobby shop for $3 back in 1995. It fit like a glove, and was a lot of fun to build. I used all Vallejo colors, including the metal colors. They perform well, but need at least 24 hours to cure between the primer coat, paint, other colors, and the varnish coats. There are a few good videos on You Tube that explain the process well. Lightly weathered as I wanted to highlight the simple and elegant look of the Hayabusa airframe. Markings cobbled together from various aftermarket sheets, Akeno flight school circa 1942. Proof that some of these older kits are still gems."

A gem indeed and its absence lamented. The mould does not appear to have made it to another manufacturer for re-release - yet. A pity, and it is to be hoped that a criticism of its shape and dimensions by a well-known and feted plans and micrometer pedant has not contributed to discouraging its continued sales potential. The Hasegawa Ki-43-I is certainly flawed in appearance and Nichimo's gem is infinitely better looking. In the absence of the Nichimo kit this most iconic of Oscar variants is not well served in 1/48 scale, or for that matter in 1/72 and 1/32 scale either. Nichimo's box art 'brown' scheme was much debated in Japan and ultimately refuted by some 'who were there', although it was commented that the dark green paint sometimes became more 'reddish' with exposure, a characteristic of chrome green applied in lieu of chromium oxide green where the chrome yellow pigment gradually decomposes the Prussian blue pigment over time, a phenomenon seen even with the dark green of some RAF jets into the 1980s. With special thanks to Dan for sharing these images of his superb model and for his patience for them to appear here.

Image credits: All model photos © 2023 Dan Salamone; Box art © 1977 Nichimo Co., Ltd.

The Nichimo E13A 'Jake' revisited by Michael Thurow ‒ Part 1

It is a delight to host this first part of an article on re-building and improving a Nichimo Aichi E13A 'Jake' floatplane model by Michael Thurow. It is still a matter of some puzzlement that a 60 year old 1/50 scale kit of such a significant aircraft widely operated throughout the Pacific War has not been superseded by a more recent mainstream or state of the art 1/48 scale kit. And the same goes for the Hasegawa 1/72 scale kit from 1971. There have been kits galore of far more obscure and even projected but never produced Japanese aircraft designs but sadly the IJN workhorse 'Jake' has been ignored, even it seems in vacform or resin media.  And even the Nichimo kit may now be gone forever! Over to Michael then:

The Nichimo E13A 'Jake' revisited ‒ Part 1

Michael Thurow

When I started my floatplane project earlier this year [1] I retrieved an aged Aichi E13A that I built in November 1991 for my 1/48 Japanese series. As more information about kits and models became available with the rise of internet it dawned on me that this was not the 1/48 scale claimed by Nichimo but Marusan's prehistoric 1/50 kit of 1963.

Now I wondered how I was to include this oddity in my new collection. One option would be to keep the model as built out of the box 'in the context of its own art form rather than a scale representation of the original aircraft' (Nick in his May post on the Ginga). But wouldn't it be worthy of a refurbishment? After all, there is no proper 'Jake' in this scale range.

Regrettably I missed the opportunity to take a picture of my original creation before I reached for the chain saw, and therefore can only offer a first view of the model in its dismembered state (with some modifications already in place). You can easily perceive why after a very few hours I wished I had never begun this experiment!

The advantage of working on a once finished model, however, lies in the easy perception of the kit's shortcomings. Step 1 of my project is focused on airframe shape and surface. Let's see what needs to be done.

Apart from many simplifications and inaccuracies there is a major issue with the actual scale (all measurements against a 1/50 scale drawing [2] in Maru Mechanic 12) -

Overall length: OK
Wing span: 5 mm too short
Wing chord: 5 mm too narrow
Tailplane: 10 mm too short and 5 mm too far forward (should be staggered)
Floats: 5 mm too long, a bit too wide and spaced 3 mm too wide (accurate for 1/48!)
Flaps: Wrong planform at the wing root and a broad gap at the bottom
Ailerons: too long into the wing tips

In retrospect, increasing the wing chord will remain the only flaw I feel unable to address. To avoid an untypical lathy wing aspect I'm planning to conceal it by folding the wings.

The bottom centre section demanded a number of detail improvements. Marusan's proposition was a little too artistic [3]. Note the tedious amount of inspection holes on the E13A.

At this stage I began debating with myself whether to try and move the horizontal tail back to its proper position. That would add at least another couple of days to an already complex project. Finally my loco ambition took over - what can be changed should be changed!

To round off this episode I scribed some more panel lines and refreshed the riveting. To be continued . . 

Annotations

[1] My first finished model, a Vought Kingfisher, can be viewed here.

[2] Maru Mechanic's dimensions and proportions were verified as accurate by taking ratios from two straight E13A profile photos as follows: Fuselage (from engine gills to vertical stabiliser) vs canopy length = 1.9; vs float length (less rudder) = 0.9; vs. overall height at rudder hinge = 3.5.

[3] An internal layout profile in Maru Mechanic (p.19) shows the bombsight stored on the port side of the observer's cockpit (photo evidence on p.29) and the recce camera on the starboard side. The larger floor window should then be to starboard as in the Model Art No.565 scale drawing.

With special thanks to Michael for sharing this interesting and useful article. A tour of the various Marusan and Nichimo Jake kit releases may be found here.

Image credit: Heading photo via Wiki; Box art © 1970 Nichimo & © 1963 Marusan via Michael Thurow; All other photos © 2023 Michael Thurow 

Hayabusa Decals, Nichimo Kits and Douglas DC-5

Berna Decals have just released a sheet of decals for the Ki-43-I in both 1/72nd and 1/48th scales. This sheet includes two named pilots of the 64th Sentai (Nakamura and Takeushi), two from the 50th Sentai (Anabuki and Sasaki), 11th Sentai commander Sugiara and a 47th Independent Chutai example with the star (useful). More on these in due course. Saburo Nakamura is the subject of a recent book by Umemoto Horishi which will also be reviewed in more detail here.

Fortuitously in respect of these decals a little bird tells me that Nichimo are re-releasing their venerable 1/48th scale Ki-43-I Hayabusa and Ki-51 kits soon. That is good news as Nichimo's "Oscar" is still the better option for an accurate early model Ki-43 and the "Sonia" remains unique in this scale. A good opportunity here then for an aftermarket Ki-51 cockpit update based on the excellent data in the new Arawasi Eagle Eye 1 book. Arawasi also produce an interesting sheet of decals for the Ki-51. There is quite a story behind the unusual Nichimo Hayabusa box art which will be explored here in more detail, together with some interesting colour photographs. 

Reviews of Nichimo's Ki-43-I may be found at the following links:-

Review 1

Review 2

Review 3

From Planet Models comes an expensive 1/72nd scale resin kit of the Douglas DC-5 which appears to include one of the captured Japanese aircraft as a markings option. It was an interesting aircraft and if you fancy one in your Japanese aircraft collection be prepared to fork out just over £60 for the privilege!

Image credits: All © Berna Decals; © Planet Models; © Nichimo