Japanese trainers in 1/72 scale |
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On behalf of the Japan Air Self Defence Force after World War 2, several aircraft were developed for training purposes. In 1/72 scale, some of these Hasegawa kits are:
Fuji T-1 The 1/72 Hasegawa kit No. JS-58 is one of the older Hasegawa kits from the 1960s. It is a simple model with about 40 parts. Assembly can be done straight forward,
but improvements can be made as follows:
- add some detailling
within in the canopy: with a glas panel in the middle between the two pilot
tubs and some hooks and mirrors
- the clear canopy
parts were damaged with some bumps and internal scratches. I simply dipped
the parts in Johnson Future
, carefully let excess Future drip off and the looks were much better ;
- drill open the holes in the lower airbrake #15 - add a small air intake scoop slightly below the left windscreen - add the small right wing leading edge pitot tube Do not forget to cramp in enough nose weight, otherwise your model will not stand on its nose gear ! Used were some coats of varying grey on the interior and the droptanks can be seen with each a inner darkgreen antiglare panel and overall a metal look. .. The most challenging
bit of the model is the paint scheme. The old kit version I had had only
markings for a very simple white T-1 of the 13 TW of the JASDF. Looking
at pictures and references, many T-1's were flown in very nice red-orange
markings. I decided to go for it and make such a colourfull scheme with
some painting, spraying and red decals.
..
Leave of the pylons and underwing tanks until you finished adding these markings on the lower wings. [
I had bought kit quite a long time ago... later on I discovered Hasegawa
that they later on issued the same kit with new decals for various orange
schemes... scrunch... ]
The scheme is
for a basic white plane with red markings and dayglow and orange panels
here and there. Difficult was adding the "dayglow orange". I tried
to airbrush / spray it, but it did not work right. It clogged the airbrush
and was not an even finish. Later on, it was discovered that I should have
simply painted the small panels with a paint brush.
Paints used were
Humbrol
white, Humbrol #18 and #209 oranges.
The provided Hasegawa
decals were very old and would hardly come of their paper backing sheet.
Some of them broke! I tried to replace the decals as much as possible,
for example the Red national marking.
These markings also have on many planes a very distinctive white border,
for which I used cut out white disks from decals (two layers being needed!).
The walkways have
a particular shape, I painted in a dark grey finish.
Lettering came
from the spare decal box and same goes for the red disks.
Next, assembly of landing gear was not a problem. And here the model is....
Kawasaki T-4 jet trainer The T-4 was developed a a successor the the Lockheed T-33 and the Fuji T-1. It first flew in 1985 and was entirely developed in Japan. The plane has layout characteristics typically of other trainers like the European Alphajet.
The 1/72 Hasegawa
kit no. 1006 from 1989 has about 60 parts in the usual Hasegawa
style.
After basic assembly and filling,
add a white base coat. Start with a matt coat, than airbrush on a gloss
coat.
I did not add any underwing stores, prefering a clean plane. If you want, fit them only after you finished the paint scheme. Unfortunately the decals tend to break
up in water as they are very thin and weak. I recommend putting on a coat
of Microscale Liquid Decalfilm before
you start decalling.
Walkway stripes were a bit of a headache
as still they tend to break up.
However, at the wing edges, you still
need to paint as the decals do not 100% match the shapes. I tried to match
the decal colour as much as possible by mixing different paints of orange. Cockpit: seat straps were made from tape in various colours
It takes quite some work , but the
end result is a very colourfull model in the collection.
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Fuji T-3 / KM-2 The next Japanese post war prop trainer aircraft shown here was derived from the Beech Mentor. It was made by Fuji as the T-3. (later it was adapted to become the KM-2) It was a primary trainer with a prop. The kit is from Hasegawa and is very old, from the 1970s. The model was made almost straight out of the box, with some extra detailling in the cockpit.
The colour scheme was made from spare
decals and by masking and spraying. The colours are as usual very bright.
(note: this kit was also issued with different decals by Hasegawa; my kit
used a very old release).
A nice little neat model of this T-3
primary trainer
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References - T-1: BUNRIN DO , Famous aircraft of the world series # 49 ( May 5-1974) - T-4: Air International , Volume 30, page 102 - Wings Mook, 50 aniversary of JASDF, ISBN 4-87149-627-9
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Created this page January 26, 2006 |