Category: Japanese aircraft
-
Kawanishi George – Part One – A Fin
It was the modelling club AGM and a notice had gone out telling people to bring models for sell or swap. Like a fool I did not remember this and rocked up for the AGM barbeque with hardly any money in my pocket. These virus days we pay for most things with credit or debit…
-
Prop Washing
Well, you don’t want a dirty propeller, now do you. Sign of a badly-maintained aircraft, that. All greasy around the spinner, like… Actually, I got to wondering at who decides what colour the propeller on an aircraft should be, and why. Some reasons seem evident, but some are obscure. a. American aircraft prior to WW2…
-
Mitsubishi A6M – Part Three – Langley Bird
The Revell Mitsubishi Zero has been completed. It is one of those models that can be built to the standard of the kit but no further. If you look at inconvenient portions of it you can see right through it. But if you look at it from a distance, all is well. The Langley reference…
-
Mitsubishi A6M – Part Two – I’m In Trouble With IPMS
Apparently if you paint parts on the sprue trees you are a bad boy. This was the experience of Phil Flory a while ago when he was seen to be doing this – he was taken to task by some enthusiasts in IPMS for not taking the hobby seriously. Seriously. The instruction leaflets, modelling books,…
-
Mitsubishi A6M – Part One – Baggie
Look at the yellow price tag on the Revell baggie kit. 50¢. A very important number when you were 13 years old as it was the amount of your weekly allowance. A salary-by-another-name paid by your parents in exchange for making your own bed and doing the dishes. As a valid salary there were no…
-
Mitsubishi Ann – Part Six – Smooth, Grey, And Vulnerable
Well, this little Pavla kit was fun to do. it has everything fastened now – PE dashboard, pilot, PE machine gun, and pitot tube, and the nicest pair of spats you’ll see outside of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. And I’ll bet they fell like autumn leaves, too. Sleek, smooth, underpowered, and dead meat in front…
-
Mitsubishi Ann – Part Five – Fillet Of Mitsubishi
With soy sauce and a few fish eggs… Actually the Ann took more filler than I expected to get a smooth fuselage/wing interface. I didn’t mind – I’d done the hard yards with those pins so the filler was worth it, Note that the Ann’s undercart is one of the chief charms of the design…
-
Mitsubishi Ann – Part Four – I Know Trouble…
I know trouble when I see it. I know it even better when I wallow in it. That’s fun, but not as much fun as steering around it. As I have done with the Mitsubishi Ann. The sterling quality of the fuselage, wing, and tailplane castings were evident when I dry fitted them. But they…
-
Mitsubishi Ann – Part Three – Together With A Creak
That’s creak as in a small sound – not creek as in a small brook, or Creek as in a large Native American tribesman. The small sound started occurring when I dry-fitted the fuselage halves. This is one of the least favourite parts of a kit – at least when the kit comes from middle…
-
Mitsubishi Ann – Part Two – A Simple Story
If you have a good story to tell, tell it simply. No need for magic tricks, special effects, or complex plot lines. If your story has any merit to it, the simple approach is fine. People will be interested. They will also be grateful. Likewise a model airplane kit. If you have a simple plane…
The Little World 