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IPMS USA Nats Display ~ Part Five
The fifth and final instalment of Ken Glass' photographic trawl of Japanese aircraft subjects from the IPMS USA Nats. A Ki-100 in 244th Hiko Sentai guise built from the recent Aoshima kit by Joe...
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In Memoriam ~ Don Thorpe
Donald W Thorpe1928-2016It is with sadness to record that Donald W Thorpe, best known to most of this community as a pioneer researcher and author of two seminal books on the subject of Japanese...
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Dan Salamone's Very Fine Fine Molds Ohka Trainer
Dan Salamone very kindly shared these photos of his stunning model of the Yokosuka Ohka K1 Trainer in "orange blossom" guise built from the Fine Molds 1/48 kit. A total of 43 of these "heavy" gliders...
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Apuntes de Modelismo Modelling Magazine
Correspondent Emilio has kindly made me aware of a new Spanish modelling magazine, available both in digital and printed format as Apuntes de Modelismo. The new magazine has been launched by expert...
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Richard Tool's Starter Truck Conversion in 1/48 Scale
Richard Tool has kindly shared these images of his 1/48 scale JAAF Hucks-type airfield starter truck. The model was built with extensive conversion work from the Hasegawa Isuzu TX 40 fuel and cargo...
View ArticleMAP/RAF Colours PDF
For those who have already purchased this PDF please note the following qualifying additions to the FS 595 colour values cited by Geoff Thomas (marked in the PDF with an asterisk) and update your...
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RAPWI Ki-54 Nose Over
A hat tip to Jacob Terlouw for very kindly sharing this link to a fascinating if brief clip of film footage showing the aftermath of a nose over accident involving a RAPWI (Recovery of Allied Prisoners...
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Sean's 1/72 Manchukuo Hayabusa
Following on from his 1/72 Hayate, modeller Sean has kindly shared these images of his Ki-43-II made out of the box from the classic Hasegawa 1/72 kit from 1982 and finished in Manchukuo (Manchuria)...
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Airscale Japanese Instrument Decals in 3 Scales
Here's a good idea, with thanks to Aviation of Japan's Texas correspondent Mark Smith for the heads up. Japanese instrument decal sheets in three scales from airscale - 1/48, 1/32 @ £7.25 each and 1/24...
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IJN Greens
This 36 page analysis report is now available in PDF and contains more than 20 rendered colour chips with 7 comparison tables and schematics. A total of 17 hobby paints are measured, compared and...
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Dan Salamone's 1/48 Mitsubishi A5M1 'Claude'
A5M kits have been flying in from different directions and in different scales recently, from Sweet's tiny masterpiece to the new Fine Molds and Wingsy 1/48th scale releases. Dan Salamone has very...
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Miscellaneous Updates
Courtesy of Guillermo I have now been able to include a photo of Japanese aviation modelling pioneer, the late Horatio Hernández (above) to the feature onFriendship Scale Models, in his memory.In...
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New Tamiya 1/48 Hien Tei
All things Hien must be flavour of the month in Japan. Following on from the Aoshima foray into the Kawasaki Hien family in 1/72 (of which more anon), the Kawasaki unveiling of the restored Ki-61-II...
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Clipped Wing Claude
A short piece of interesting contemporary animation showing how 24 year old PO3c Kan-ichi Kashimura lost half the port wing of his 13th Ku A5M1 in a dogfight with Chinese fighters on 9 December 1937...
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Jake - A Tale of Two Scales ~ Part 1
In 1/72 scale the Hasegawa kit of the Type 0 Reconnaissance Seaplane E13A 'Jake' (Rei Shiki Suijoh Teisatsu-ki 零式水上偵察機, commonly abbreviated as Rei-Sui零水), now long in the tooth at nearly 50 years...
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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...
View ArticleUpdate - Jake - A Tale of Two Scales
Updated Part 1 with images and information from the 1978 Hasegawa catalogue, Japanese edition. This has a complete listing of A and B kit numbers with their corresponding JS designations.
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Aviation of Japan Blog
Aviation of Japan is honoured but surprised to have been ranked 27th in Feedspot's Top 50 Aviation Blogs with no Twitter or Facebook followers! The blog has now been going strong and sometimes less...
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Richard Tool's 1/48 Mitsubishi Ka-14
Following on neatly from recent A5M Claude features Richard Tool has kindly shared these images of its Dad, the Mitsubishi Ka-14 prototype, in the form of his build of the 1/48 scale Fine Molds kit....
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Seasonal Wishes
With very best wishes for the Christmas season and New Year to all friends and readers of Aviation of Japan.Image credit: Mount Fuji After Snow (1932) Shing-hanga print by Kawase Hasui (1883-1957)
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