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Hasegawa D3A1

sharkman

Master at Arms
Here's my choice for the assignment!



At any time, can the "dog ate my model" excuse be used????

:rotf
 
Cool.

Nice to see someone else in the class, I was starting to think I had the wrong room. ;)
 
Ok, time to start a little...

The aircraft I want to do for this project is an Aichi D3A1 Type 91 Model 11 that was part of the attack on Pearl Harbour from the carrier Shokaku

It was flown by a Hikotaicho, a top Naval flying officer (I gather equivalent to Lt. Commander) as indicated by the three red hikotaicho horizontal stripes on the tail. (Japanese Military Ranking System by David Aiken, J.Aircraft)

http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/milrank.htm




The pilot was Lt. Cmdr Kakuichi Takahashi and the radioman/gunner was Lt. Seizo Kotzumi.

I find this paint scheme different and attractive and I guess from what I've read, several Vals were painted up for rallying purposes. I believe there is evidence for this paint scheme found by Pearl Harbour historian David Aiken and others on J.Aircraft but I have yet to find it. Still working on that!

What I did find out was some details concerning ordinance. The bombs the Vals carried from Shokaku were 250 kg Land bombs (type 98 # 25). they were overall grey in colour with a green tip and struts and a blue band behind the suspension lugs. As well, the Vals did not carry the smaller wing racks or bombs on the Pearl Harbour strike. (Color and Markings of the Japanese Explosive Ordnance at Pearl Harbor, A Summary by Bill Sanborn)

http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/bill_sanborn/phmod21.pdf

That's it for now...I plan to try and get a Maru Mechanic for reference on general assembly, there's another good book by Peter Smith on the Val too. Not sure yet what to do about AM yet or if I'm going to go there..
 
Some good munitions info here Warren :good:

Interesting paint scheme . Never spotted that one before :woohoo:

Cheers, Christian B)
 
Ok, finally got a free moment to update some of my research!

I have been checking out J.Aircraft.com to confirm the orange colour of this aircraft. Jim Lansdale from there has since wrote me back and sent me a link to David Aiken's website,

http://japanese-aviation.forumeiros.com/t39-23-pearl-harbor-raid-shokaku-s-dive-bombers

Which again shows Takahashi's plane in the orange colouring. I have yet to write David to see where he sourced his information from.

Jim also sent along two images of EI-238 (below)






in which it looks like the aircraft appears to be in the overall grey-olive scheme. He also mentioned that he did not know of any documented cases that any Japanese Navy combat aircraft was ever decorated in any flamboyant color/s. Tail stripes yes!

It will be interesting to see what David Aiken has to say.

I also picked up this book by Osamu Tagaya which has EI-238 illustrated on the cover during the morning attack on Pearl, again in the overall grey-olive scheme



In the book are several colour plates with rather lengthy descriptions of the aircraft. For EI-238, it basically says one reference, Takashi Nakagawa, a junior dive bomber buntaicho aboard Hiryu at the time of the attack, stated Takahashi's plane was painted bright orange and nicknamed " dora neko" or "alley cat". The author also states that through independent research, he spoke directly to Hachiro Miyashita, who served as crew chief for Takahashi's aircraft aboard Shokaku. Miyashita emphatially stated that Takahashi's aircraft never wore anything but the standard finish.

There are however several independent and consistent eye witnesses that state that Lt. Cdr Takashige Egusa aboard Soryu did have a colourful red pattern on his plane nicknamed "jaja-uma".



Incidentally, Egusa's plane is also featured on the Box art, BI-231

So, at the moment I have a couple references saying this plane was painted with an orange fuselage for the attack and one that states it was not. Plus, I have some evidence other planes were painted brightly for rallying purposes. What's a person to do when you get to this point???

I think regardless, I will do this aircraft in the orange scheme as it is attractive and my current reference check is 2:1 orange to standard.

I also have a Maru Mechanic on the way for building it.

As for add ons, I am thinking of ordering the Wolfpack folded wings kit to add a bit of flare.

There are plenty of decal markings included in the kit that I won't have to order anything additional



And I did use the CMK interior kit for my Jake before. Honestly, the Hasegawa interior looks pretty good! Might spice it up with the photoetch set.

 
Well, here's some food for thought . :hmmm

During the early war years some aircraft supposedly had a coat of varnish applied over the paint which supposedly made them appear to be tea colored .
Not sure what to make on the other designs . Who know :idonno ? It does seem that throughout the war , the Navy was very restrictive ( unlike the Army ) as to how their airplanes were marked.

On the other hand, I have seen more than a couple types of tail markings for the supposed leader of the attack .

The only thing that they agreed on was red and yellow :fencing

I'm sure it will be interesting no matter how you paint it. :good:

Cheers, Christian B)
 
Well, here's some food for thought . :hmmm

During the early war years some aircraft supposedly had a coat of varnish applied over the paint which supposedly made them appear to be tea colored .
Not sure what to make on the other designs . Who know :idonno ? It does seem that throughout the war , the Navy was very restrictive ( unlike the Army ) as to how their airplanes were marked.

On the other hand, I have seen more than a couple types of tail markings for the supposed leader of the attack .

The only thing that they agreed on was red and yellow :fencing

I'm sure it will be interesting no matter how you paint it. :good:

Cheers, Christian B)

yes, I read about the varnish as well but I thought that was just applied to Claudes?

I know the Navy was restrictive, from what I read so far, it looks like these elaborate paint jobs, if they existed, were only on a few planes for rallying purposes during the attack because there were so many aircraft in the air. I think after the battle they would have gone back to their standard paint jobs...
 
Thanks folks!

I can see how one can really get caught up in the research side of things.


Yep B) problem is , without artifacts it's only conjecture .

There's one going around ( and I have seen pictures ) of early Zeros ( possibly tea color ) .
Anyhow, they appear to change color aft of the canopy . Possibly due to tarps being used for canopy protection .

Since I am not that much of a rivet counter, I say just have fun . The arm chair quarter backs sure are :rotf

We sure used assembly ships for bomber raids.

Cheers, Christian B)
 
Thanks folks!

I can see how one can really get caught up in the research side of things.


Yep B) problem is , without artifacts it's only conjecture .

There's one going around ( and I have seen pictures ) of early Zeros ( possibly tea color ) .
Anyhow, they appear to change color aft of the canopy . Possibly due to tarps being used for canopy protection .

Since I am not that much of a rivet counter, I say just have fun . The arm chair quarter backs sure are :rotf

We sure used assembly ships for bomber raids.

Cheers, Christian B)

Interesting about the Zeros!

Yeah, like I said in a previous post, I found 2 sources that said the orange scheme did happen and 1 that didn't so I'm going with the orange! Just have to wash the plastic and I can get started! Maybe tomorrow night!
 
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