The Little World

These days I try to get some thread connecting me to the models and scenes that I build for my Little World.

I didn’t always do this – as a kid I was just hungry for any and all models – I’d build what was given to me or what I could save up for and afford to buy. Now that I’m older – considerably older – I have more bits of history that attach themselves to me – more stories from my own and my family’s history that can be drawn upon. That is why I bought the Airfix model of the Nakajima B5N2 ” Kate ” bomber. One member of my family met with them a long time ago.

Dec. 7, 1941, to be precise. Hawaii, and my uncle Jack was asleep aboard the USS NEW ORLEANS in Pearl Harbour. The cruiser was in dock under dockside power with no boilers lit. At a quarter to 8 in the morning the first wave of planes arrived to attack the ships in harbour. As the Japanese were tasked with destroying at least four of the battleships, they concentrated their attack there and passed astern of the New Orleans to do so. I don’t think they targeted the cruiser – any damage done to it was from shell fragments and near miss concussion.

Uncle Jack was a gun captain on a mount that had no power and no shells past those in the ready use locker. Apparently when these were done the crew went over to serve the 1.1″ machine gun that was still able to shoot – at least for a while. Eventually the water cooling failed on the mount and the blocks seized – and at that point Jack and his mates went below deck to get out of the fragments.

But while they were firing they got to track and to hit Japanese planes going for the battleships. Jack told us that they could see hits on the fuselage of one of the planes but with no effect on it – the Japanese aviators looking out over their wing as this happened and seemingly unconcerned. Then the mount traversed enough so that the stream of fire passed through a dockyard crane – and cut off the jib…I can only wonder if the 1.1 hits on the plane were passing through the thin structure without resistance and not exploding or expending any energy.

Well, whatever…Jack went on to other battles with the NEW ORLEANS and lived to tell the tale in the 1960’s. And I’m going to try to make a diorama picture of him doing it. First step is the ‘ Kate ‘ and I’m delighted to be back in Airfix territory to do it.

The kit has both bomb and torpedo variant and decals for a ship from the IJNS SHOKAKU so all it needs is for me to do a decent job. This time I am going attempt three new things:

a. Trying the Tamiya acrylic paints with their lacquer thinner as diluent to see if it is a better spray than the X-20A alcohol thinner. I’ve watched a British chap give a YouTube demonstration of the two techniques and he seems to have success. I know what the X-20A does already.

b. I’ll also get a chance to try the smallest nozzle size on the airbrush to do the upper surface camouflage as a freehand job. This will be a totally new experience – but then that’s the fun of Little World explorations – you can try anything right there at your own bench.

c. And finally, as there are three very good aviator figures, I will attempt to crew the ship with the rear canopy open. Thankfully, Airfix have made a detailed interior without resorting to urethane resin or photo etch parts. I really want nothing more to do with these materials.