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During the initial flight testing of what would become the Ki-15 Reconnaissance/light bomber, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun obtained permission to purchase the second prototype. The aircraft was given the designation Karigane (Wild Goose), flying on 19 March 1937, being named Kamikaze and registered as J-BAAI. It was the first Japanese-built airplane to fly to Europe and caused a sensation in 1937 by making the flight between Tokyo and London, for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, between 6 April 1937 and 9 April 1937 in a flight time of 51 hours, 17 minutes and 23 seconds, a world record at the time. Fine Molds has reproduced this aircraft in 1/48 scale: And they did a pretty good job on it. Lovely details, nice plastic. Let's find out if I can set a record as well and get it done in a month!

What were you doing in 1985? The Polish were making delightful kits. Among them the one that concerns us today, a ZTS Plastyk rendition of the RWD-5 (and RWD-5 bis). I love these old but sound kits, that with a little care can be turned into very nice models. I have built a number of ZTS kits, and all brought satisfaction and good entertainment, being very appealing subjects out of the beaten-to-exhaustion-path, nicely engineered and very affordable. All that said, modelers can still improve quite a bit through some simple actions (otherwise called real modeling). The kit provides an interior that is convincing, including the additional fuel tank for the Atlantic crossing (RWD-5bis) in the rear position. My plan is to build the machine that crossed the Atlantic (SP-AJU) and eventually reached Buenos Aires (the city where I was born). It's not particularly colorful, but with a few touches (open door, some refinements) it should be a nice little model. My boxing is quite old, but the company is still alive and well: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=http://www.modelarstwo.net.pl/&prev=search So let's see what we got: Very nice instructions in two colors and a sort of vintage box (old release, now they have pretty boxes): Contents: Very nice transparencies: Overdone fabric effect: This is too much and is better toned down: The wheels come integral with the pants, a blast from the past that won't do for me: The nose front, part of the fuselage sides, won't do for me either: Nice detail is present, but again has to be subdued a bit: Refreshing to see something that is not made in china: Sanding the "fabric" a bit (leaving detail, but not too prominent). The nose (metal in the original) is masked to protect it: The elevators are separated: Now the surface is much more credible: The nose tips are cut off and the exhaust (rendered as pips in the kit) are drilled: Those naive wheels won't do: The wheels are removed and cavities carved: Small parts removed to be cleaned, there is some minor flash: Wing central lower part glued: A view of the parts (door has been cut open): The tie down holes are drilled (only marked in the kit): The decal sheet is well printed, and I got a double sheet. The carrier seems thin, but the color of the registrations could be wrong, as it seems that has been established that they were red: The separated nose tips are glued together and the air intake, vent hole and prop location drilled as per photos:

As requested, another seaplane, this time a model scratchbuilt 3 years ago: A Japanese pilot, in a British flying boat, starting a record flight attempt from the United States. Strange as it may sound, pilot Yoshihara and mechanic Oishi were the main characters in this story. Yoshihara was already a pilot of certain renown, and he commissioned a Cutty Sark from the assembly line with the specification that the machine would have a single engine, instead of the customary two; the flight Yoshihara wanted to attempt required that, in order to save fuel for the long haul to Japan from San Francisco. The year: 1932. I have many times contemplated the graceful lines of the SARO (Saunders & Roe) Cloud, Cutty Sark and Windhover, and wondered about them as possible models. I must confess that of the three, the Windhover attracted me the most, with its three engines and the auxiliary wing on top of them. A vision only the British could spawn. But that sounded like a very ambitious project, so when I saw a photo of the crashed Yoshihara plane with its atypical single engine, I decided I'd give it a go. This machine was British-registered G-ABVF, even when flying in the US, and it was legally considered an export to Japan (and thus potentially saving a lot of bureaucratic headaches with the local aeronautic and customs authorities). The engine was an Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVc. The design is simple enough to attempt to scracthbuild it, and so I started to collect what I could on this specific plane and the general type. The converted plane did away as said with one engine, the additional two passenger seats, the amphibian landing gear, and installed large additional fuel tanks. Photos show the legend "HOCHI NIPPON", very small flags at the bow of the above-mentioned three countries, and the regs on fuselage sides and wing. The plane is aluminum color, only the prototype of the series was painted light blue according to publications. "Hochi" was for Hochi Shimbun, the newspaper that sponsored the flight. As far as I can understand, hochi means to "broadcast", "inform". Nippon of course is for Japan.

Following now with yet more Mitsubishi Ki-15 (this time the I variant, externally differentiated by its Townend ring instead of the full cowl of the II). Still to be determined is if I will go for the mostly seen variant of J-BAAI, or the twin J-BAAL. Or may be both? In any case, in the previous post I used for the II variant the LS/ARII kit. Now I will be using the Mania release later on re-issued by Hasegawa. There is one difference between the Mania and Hasegawa kits. in the Mania sprues the fuselage side windows are flashed over, whilst in the Hasegawa release three windows are opened and the fourth is flashed over. The instructions and decal sets are different too. Both instruction sheets are much better than many contemporary examples. Comparing this kit with the ARII one: I like very much both kits, and again, they are both much better than a bunch of currently released kits. The panel lines are gorgeous, neither trenches nor faint suggestions. The detail on the interior of the Mania/Hasegawa kit is quite better, but alas, the wheel is one piece with the pant, which I find childish and more difficult to paint, whilst on the ARII kit the wheels are separated from the pant. The recent reissue of ARII has two canopies, which is good, since the masking is laborious and can lead to mistakes. And while we are on the subject, I find strange that no aftermarket vendor has come up with masks for these two kits. which are good, have a fair price and are easily obtainable. Mysteries of the kit industry. Somewhat vintage Mania kit: Decals and instructions: Nice canopy: A nice interior: Good surface detail: Fused wheel/pant, a bit of a let down: Again nice surface detail: A prop that will have its spinner: A somewhat credible engine with its exhaust plumbing: The fuselage inside: Bulkhead detail: The more modern Hasegawa issue of the same molds: Same mold, windows flashed over (Mania) and not (Hasegawa): Very nice Yahu Models aftermarket inst. panel: Parts separation a breeze, thanks to sprue gates that don't have the size of a finger: Fine locating pins and holes, a delicate touch: Started interior assembly: Decisions, decisions...to separate those elevators? to get rid of those childish pants-cum-wheel parts?