Mitsubishi L3M1 Nippon (derivative of G3M) Arii (ex LS) 1/72

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I like this old kit. I'll try to explain why.
The "Nippon" (Japan) was one in a series of conversions for civil use stemming from the Mitsubishi G3M line.
Several planes, not always identical, were converted or modified for a number of civil duties: passenger and cargo flying and "good will", record, or propaganda flights.
The details are complex and extensive, so we'll untangle them later on.
Here is a list, taken from the Golden Years registers, of all the Mitsubishi transports I could find there:

J-BAAS Mitsubishi L3Y1 Asahi Shimbun        

J-BACI Mitsubishi G3M2 Osaka Mainichi Shimbun and Tokyo Nichinichi        00.08.39        

J-BADY Mitsubishi L3Y2

J-BEOA Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Soyokaze'

J-BEOC Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) Dai Nihon KKK 'Yamato' (Conversion of 96/G3M2)

J-BEOD Mitsubishi twin engined transport DNKKK 00.10.39 (Conversion of 96/G3M1)

J-BEOE Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) Dai Nihon KKK 'Tatsukaze' (Conversion of 96/G3M2)

J-BEOF Mitsubishi twin engined transport DNKKK 00.04.40 (Conversion of 96/G3M1)

J-BEOG Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) Dai Nihon KKK 'Matukaze' (Conversion of 96/G3M2)

J-BFOE Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Amatsukaze'       00.03.40         

J-BFOF Mitsubishi twin engined transport DNKKK 00.03.40 Forcelanded in sea and sunk off Haneda

J-BJOD Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Isokaze' 00.01.41                      

J-BJOE Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Hamakaze' 00.11.40                  

J-BJOF Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Okikaze' 00.01.41                     

J-BJOG Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Namikaze' 00.01.41                  

J-BJOH Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Hokaze' 00.01.41                      

J-BJOI Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Yakaze'    00.02.41                    

(DNKKK: Dai Nippon Kōkū Kabushiki Kaisha, Imperial Japanese Airways 大日本航空株式会社)

 

J-BACI, one of the two subjects that can be modeled with this kit, made an around-the-world flight, 

http://airhistory-nippon.la.coocan.jp/nipponflight.html
visiting many countries and attracting a great deal of attention (no doubt the goal of such endeavor). Among those countries was Argentina, with the plane landing in Buenos Aires.

Many of the flights performed by the civil variants of the plane where as said in the category of "good will" flights. However, considering the events immediately after (like Pearl Harbor), one perhaps should be a tad skeptical assessing the real nature of them. 

Regarding the different registrations/machines, it's not just a matter of slapping them on, since there were many differences among machines, some quite evident. As always, base your model and detail on photographic evidence, and pay little heed to captions and written descriptions, many times inaccurate.

 

For the moment, and regarding the kit, it must be said that this tool -with modifications and additions- was released a large number of times covering a variety of subject through many years.
This last incarnation in civil guise by Arii, is still, in spite of of its vintage, a nice package at a very convenient price.
So what do we get? We get a bag where everything but the instructions is packed: transparencies, decals, sprues. Not the best packaging, as we know. But there is a piece of rigid cardboard to support the load. The transparencies contain many parts not to be used, as they belong to the bang-boing-paf versions, for which I care much less than little. The decals cover two civil versions, J-BACI and J-BEOC. The parts are modified to cover this civil versions, but still some things will need to be added.
The surface is interesting, consisting -again, old mold- of myriads of engraved rivets and panel lines. Of course a bit exaggerated. Nothing that an invigorating exercising sanding session -or many- won't take care of. A blast from the past: the place for the hinomarus is also engraved on the wings -now that is vintage for you-.
The interior detail I strongly suspect belongs more to the other versions than to the civil ones . No cabin detail whatsoever, but some cockpit detail. The landing gear legs can rotate upwards!! -this always reminds me of the 60's and the Beatles:-)
The rest has a rational break-down and again interesting surfaces and detail, we will see this as we advance on the build.
I think this old kit in its new guise can be turned into a decent model -and you can see many good ones on the Net, some exceptionally built.
Let's see what we got:

Out of the cellophane bag:

 

The transparencies are not bad at all:

 

 Although the surface is slightly pebbled and looks faintly milky. Future bath in its future, no doubt:

 

The hinomaru placement mark (I know...), the hail dimples or golf ball rivets, but quite restrained panel lines. My idea is to sand the surfaces quite a bit to reduce those golf ball dimples to their minimum expressions, and refresh the panel lines if needed:

 

A view of the second sprue:

 

The engines are molded integrally with the cowl. If not awfully wrong or offending, I nevertheless just ordered after-market ones and will remove them, which also facilitates painting -however, the cowl was black on the original plane, so you may get away painting everything black and picking the engine up with a dry-brush of silver-:

 

The main sprue. The Japanese figures look a bit circumspect or pensive:

 

Some of the parts, a bit of flash, some ejector pin marks, the usual:

 

 Instrument panel, not bad if you want just a quick build:

 

The props, not really accurate but passable, again, if you just want a quick build:

 

 

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

More flashy-flash:

 

Nice detail on tail parts:

 

The fuselage sides adapted to the civil release:

 

The kit lacks the round hatch/window on the back of the fuselage aft the canopy, and the little window on the door, both only marked in the kit:

 

 

The loop for the finder is a bit overscale and will benefit from a wire replacement:

 

The aileron linkages are better replaced too, and perhaps the interior of the wheel wells will look nicer with some added structural detail.

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I had acquired long ago two nice engines to replace the kit's fused-to-the-cowl ones:

 

I am sure I bought masks too, but can't find them. Oh bummer.

 

[Courageous]

Looks very promising although those golf ball sized rivets would get under my skin.

 

Stuart

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

9 hours ago, Courageous said:

Looks very promising although those golf ball sized rivets would get under my skin.

 

Stuart

But ...but they are so mesmerizing!

Nothing that a good sanding can't subdue.

That, crunching to retrieve the parts from under the desk, and typing this is how I get my exercise, by the way.

 

[sroubos]

I built the bomber version a few years back, completely out of the box. Great kit, goes together very smoothly. The surface detail looks perfectly fine under a coat of paint so don't worry about it too much.

 

Last year I got hold of the civil version of the kit as well, looking forward to seeing how you get along with it.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 hours ago, sroubos said:

I built the bomber version a few years back, completely out of the box. Great kit, goes together very smoothly. The surface detail looks perfectly fine under a coat of paint so don't worry about it too much.

 

Last year I got hold of the civil version of the kit as well, looking forward to seeing how you get along with it.

Good to know! Thanks for the advice!

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Some of the parts are separated for familiarization and clean up:

 

Apparently there are only two sets of masks (but only for Hasegawa's G3M), one by Montex and the other by Eduard.
Does anyone know how similar the canopies are? will it more or less fit on this one?

 

Hasegawa's G3M is a different mold

 

 

[sroubos]

I dislike masking canopies but this one went very well as the framing is quite heavy. I used the 'tamiya tape, cocktail stick, new X-acto knife' method on this and it worked very well and went quite quickly.

 

I just realized I didn't quite build it out of the box, as you stated the mass balances, actuators and some of the antennae are pretty crude and I replaced some of these with Albion Alloys tubing. Makes a difference.

 

One other thing to be aware of are the various engine cooling scoops that come with the kit. Doublecheck which one you need before you stick them on, I made a boo-boo and had to apply some unnecessary effort to get it right.

Edited August 15, 2019 by sroubos

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

6 hours ago, sroubos said:

I dislike masking canopies but this one went very well as the framing is quite heavy. I used the 'tamiya tape, cocktail stick, new X-acto knife' method on this and it worked very well and went quite quickly.

 

I just realized I didn't quite build it out of the box, as you stated the mass balances, actuators and some of the antennae are pretty crude and I replaced some of these with Albion Alloys tubing. Makes a difference.

 

One other thing to be aware of are the various engine cooling scoops that come with the kit. Doublecheck which one you need before you stick them on, I made a boo-boo and had to apply some unnecessary effort to get it right.

Thanks for the comments and advise, Sroubos

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

A modicum of sanding is preformed:

 

The plane I intend to model had glazing in this circular area:

 

So it is carved:

 

There was a window on that door:

 

So it is opened. If I get reliable information on the special interior for this particular plane I will open that door, if not, it will remain shut:

 

 All the parts are now cleaned up, a long and tedious job that insumed a whole morning, given the extensive presence of flash and many ejector pin marks and burrs:

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

10 hours ago, sroubos said:

One other thing to be aware of are the various engine cooling scoops that come with the kit. Doublecheck which one you need before you stick them on, I made a boo-boo and had to apply some unnecessary effort to get it right.

I just checked with my files and for my intended plane all are right.

Thanks though for the heads-up.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Modifications may start early, as photos show six people in the cockpit, that look like being seated two, two and two, but a museum replica shows three seats and one foldable canvas seat attached to the wall positioned facing the walkway.

The full crew of J-BACI was seven (some sources state that additional passengers were carried in some legs of the trip), so it is a sure thing that there was some additional seating on the passenger cabin. The mid section was most likely occupied by cargo and luggage/additional fuel tanks, the latter to be confirmed.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

There is a bit of a mysterious step in the instructions, that apparently points to the need of removing a flashed-over area in order to clear the way for the landing gear doors to be later positioned, if the model is to be depicted with the gear down.

This step is made more obscure because the instructions are only in Japanese, and it has been overlooked by a number of modelers:

 

Therefore the area is removed:

 

Thus enabling the door to be locked in place later on:

 

The fit, if you would like top position the LG retracted, is not the best:

 

The kit has a provision for installing a rotating gear, a throw-back to more naive times in modeling history. Beware that the locking part is sided:

 

Posing the gear down created the problem of a very bare bay. References should be consulted to come up with some detail (and if no luck, some sort of credible arrangement put in place):

 

Addenda: My younger son, who is learning Japanese, provided a translation for that part of the instructions cited above that reads, more or less: "remove the shaded area with a modeling knife", so we are safe.

 

 

 

[Jackman]

2 hours ago, Moa said:

Posing the gear down created the problem of a very bare bay. References should be consulted to come up with some detail (and if no luck, some sort of credible arrangement put in place):

 

You could consult the Hasegawa G3M Nell instructions or kit parts and copy it.

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10410621

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

17 minutes ago, Jackman said:

You could consult the Hasegawa G3M Nell instructions or kit parts and copy it.

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10410621

Thanks for the tip, Jackman.

Your advise is sound, but I would prefer a better reference, the plan is vague, and don't have a Hasegawa kit (nor I want to buy one).

I am sure I will be able to catch some drawing or schematics somewhere.

Again, I do appreciate the tip nevertheless!

Cheers

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Plan B:

A resemblance of structural elements is put in place.

 

 The surrounding interior will be painted black and the structure aotake sprayed with a mist of a darker tone to make it less conspicuous:

 

[Thom216]

Love those scratched wheel bays! It's almost a shame to see the wing go together.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

31 minutes ago, Thom216 said:

Love those scratched wheel bays! It's almost a shame to see the wing go together.

Well, a somewhat credible slapped-together concoction in the style of the Impressionist School of Modeling.

Glad it produces the effect desired, thanks for your kind words.

Cheers

 

[Thom216]

1 hour ago, Moa said:

Well, a somewhat credible slapped-together concoction in the style of the Impressionist School of Modeling.

Glad it produces the effect desired, thanks for your kind words.

Cheers

 

Having never seen inside the wheel bays of this plane, it looks great!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

18 minutes ago, Thom216 said:

Having never seen inside the wheel bays of this plane, it looks great!

(No one here did, shhhhh  😄😋)

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The interior, a bit crude, is provided with the additional seating seen in photos:

 

The loop antenna, also crude, is replaced with a home-made item:

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Paint is applied to some sub/assemblies and parts:

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Is there such thing as modeling philosophy?

An anthropology, or sociology, or psychology of scale modeling?

I believe there is. We reflect (I hope you do too, fellow modeler?) upon why we model, what we model, how we model.

There is something that develops between the modeler and the kit (or scratch project), a relationship, a whole that is more than the sum of the parts.

In our eternal pursue of satisfaction trough accuracy, harmony, completion, aesthetic pleasure, manual dexterity, engineering acumen, and why not, poetry, we learn only to discovered how much is still to be learned in every aspect of the hobby: history, technology, manual skill and so on.

It's because of the pursuit of harmony that sometimes changes in course have to be made, to keep factors in balance. We have all been there: why dedicate several weeks to an interior, when the exterior of the kit is poorly rendered? why struggle to make a wingtip more akin to reality, when the complete general shape of plane was wrongly captured by the manufacturer? And yet we want to build them, for whatever reason, and do it fairly, which is a good thing.

As I advance with this build and face more closely the good an bad in this kit, I start to take decisions based on the above-mentioned harmony factor, trying to give the appearance of the model an even treatment. For example: I got those nice engines to replace the kit's, molded fused with the cowl. But I realized that they are best kept for future projects, since they will not add much to the build, really, and would only raise the bar whilst all those golf balls populate the surfaces, or the landing gear is not quite like the original, or the props could be better (the counterbalances and front axle are, like the rest of the kit, a bit crude). }

Yet I still strive to improve this or that, adding a detail here and there, but not losing the general picture, the overall "soul" or spirit of the model, it's demeanor, its personality, in order not to get lost in starting to replace in a chain reaction everything that is improvable, which in many cases is 90% of the kit. Because enjoying the build is paramount for me, thus I keep building, and building, and building some more. I try to balance challenge with fun, tension (intensity) with relaxation.

Modeling is NOT and art (take my work for it, I am an artist)

But keeping all the factors balanced in a build could well be called so.

As Master Po would have said:

"-Little Grasshopper: When the cranes fly over the blue lake, it's because of aerodynamics. When the model parts fly everywhere, it's because you are not yet ready."

 

Cheers!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

A bit of structure is added to the fuselage sides on the cockpit area. Some detailing is done on the cockpit pan and engines: