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I've made some simple research and find that reconstruction like that: or that, most modern: are based on wrong information. The main source of them was this photograph: but it gives no ideas how the tail part of aircraft was looked like. Nevertheless, it seems some ideas were taken out of it - I mean out of images of two other airplanes on this photo, seen under the wing of Hagiri's aircraft: Both of them have wide black stripes aft of Hinomaru, and at least that on the right also has slanted stripe on the tail. So, those markings are specific to some squadron. The problem is that this Hagiri's plane is known as part of IJNS Soryu air group, but no Japanese carrier air group is known to have such markings. Soryu's aircraft in particular in the late part of 1930s were marked by ether red or white (with red borders) single thin band - or they had no bands at all. At the same time markings of this Hagiri's plane closely resemble this: This is aircraft from Yokosuka kokutai, possibly from famous Genda's Circus (was this the reason of such flamboyant paint job?). Matsuo Hagiri spent most of his flying career with Yokosuka kokutai, Genda's Circus included, so it is almost certain that on photo in question he depicted on one of Yokosuka kokutai machines he flew after returning from China and before he was given new Zero. As of aircraft Hagiri flew off Soryu there is series of photos of Japanese naval pilots posing before different A5M4s onboard Soryu. After close examination of them I've found this: The rightmost fragment is part of the photo with Hagiri above, other three - from those taken onboard Soryu. There is no doubts that the man on all four is Matsuo "Mustashio" Hagiri, and on one of those photos, here he (in the middle) is seen sitting in front of A5M4 W-102, which was his mount during this cruise and had usual Soryu's air group markings of the time. So, well-known and widely published (decals included) reconstruction of Hagiri's aircraft seems to be the mix of Yokosuka and Soryu kokutais markings and is incorrect. I would advice those who seeks at least a bit of historical accuracy when building Fujimi or new Wingsy kits A5M4 to choose other variants of markings. A bit more on my research is here: http://snorska.livejournal.com/212238.html (in Russian, but with English abstract). Any comments are highly welcome. Thank you.

Hello Gentlemen, this is my next build on Britmodeller. FineMolds 1/48th scale Mitsubishi A5M4 "CLAUDE" Imperial Japanese Navy. The Mitsubishi A5M Japanese Navy Type 96 Carrier-based Fighter was the worlds first monoplane shipboard fighter to enter service and the direct ancestor of the Zero fighter. It was designed by Jiro Horikoshi who is the subject of the The Wind Rises which is an animated historical drama film. The model comes on three main sprues. Spure A contains the wing sections, B contains the engine & cockpit details with sprue D the fuselage halves. F is the transparency and P contains 2 poly caps , only one of which is required. The decal sheet has 3 colour schemes. No 1, 14th Naval Air Group, China, 1940, No 2, Aircraft carrier Kaga Naval Air Group, Japan, 1939, & No 3 Naval Third Carrier Division, 1942. There are 68 parts in total (2 of which are not used) 1 transparency & 2 poly caps. The box art. Construction stages 1 to 9 Construction stages 10 to 15 & paint chart. The three colour scheme options. Sprue A. The wing & undercarriage parts. If you look at the surface of the upper wing, you will notice the different shades of plastic. You can see it more with the naked eye. It shows the different panels very well. It will be interesting to see how they look on the finished model after the paint has been applied. Sprue B, The fuselage, engine & cockpit detail with the decal sheet. The transparency is in the decal bag along with the poly caps. I hope to start the kit in the next week or so. I will first remove all the major parts from the sprues and tape them together to get some idea of the fit. Thanks for looking, Joe.

Hello, I'm presenting my Special Hobby's A5M4 Claude in 1:32 scale - model represents the machine from Soryu carrier, pilot PO1/c Matsuo Hagiri, summer 1939. The kit contains numerous resin and PE parts, so I did not use any other aftermarkets. Painting was done using Mr. Hobby Super Metallic metalizers and acrylics. Hope you enjoy!

This is Fujimi's 1/72 scale A5M4 Claude in the kit's provided markings of a Soryu based aircraft, Dec. 1940. Clear orange was mixed into aluminum and steel metalizers, and sprayed on to simulate the possible protective amber varnish. A final satin clear was applied overall. Masks for the Hinomarus were cut from masking tape using a circle compass cutter. regards, Jack