AIR: People Sure Don't Go Nuts For Japanese Airplane Kits...

Had a sale end last night on E-bay and was amazed at how little interest there seems to be in WWII Japanese aircraft. Fighters, bombers, floatplanes - it didn't seem to matter.

When I reviewed the tape my friend sent of last summer's IPMS meet in Atlanta I think the only Japanese planes I saw on the tables were Zeroes.

Is this commonplace at all contests?

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Now, I know I'm going to be the odd man out here but I've never built an Axis fighter - ever - aside from one 1/72nd Me109 for a club build. The mystique of the FW-190, the 109, the Zero - completely lost on me. Now, give me a P-51B, a Thunderbolt or a later-version Spit and we're talking. The Axis stuff? Bah...

Though having seen the Veltro.... ;-)

Frank Kranick

We see them in Seattle, but not in the numbers that we see German stuff etc. I suspect that there is a difference if it's IJN or IJA; if it's IJA there are some really COOL color schemes to use. With IJN, you're a lot more limited. That's my personal bias, in any case.

On the other hand, for both IJN and IJA, you can really weather the hell out of them, including going nuts with a silver quilting pencil since they had such problems with their paint.

Another possibility is that there are relatively few Japanese pilots who are know to us Westerners, whereas there are a bunch of German, British, and American pilots whose names we'd recognize easily. Similar to the Japanese question, are we seeing the same issue with Italian and Soviet stuff? Because they also don't have a lot of "big name" pilots. Maybe some people get inspired by personalities too?

I don't know; I'm just speculating.

--Stephen

Fujimi Aichi B7A2 Ryusei, L-S Mitsubishi Ki.46 & Hasegawa J2M1 Raiden, Fujimi Nakajima B6N1 Tenzan, Hasegawa Aichi E13A1 and Hasegawa Nakajima Ki.44 & Ki.84

The ones listed in pairs were offered that way. This week I have the Hasegawa Ki.61 and T-4 jet trainer and some older Microscale Japanese decals(72-67, -68 and -69). I'm hoping that offering two Kawasakis from different times together might stir some interest.

I also have more types that haven't been listed yet.

Previously I offered a Revell(Takara)Frances a couple of times and got minimal interest. I did manage to sell an Irving last year but that took several tries.

Irving wasn't but several of the kits had their interiors painted. Back when I actually worked on kits at night, if the paint was out and flowing nicely, I just painted all the kits that would eventually need it. I had a small flock of German aircraft that were painted 02 Grau inside. I really was going to build them all so I didn't worry about stuff like that.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Well......we don't see many models of aircraft or tanks, etc. painted up in Iraq colors either. Is it the perception of enemy both current and in the past?

that's the way i feel about american stuff. p51, yawn, p47-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, but gimmie a bv141 or a me321 and i will build all night.

Don't know about that, but I do know that IJN/IJAAF modelers are served by the two finest model companies in the world. All the weepy violins on earth won't make me cry when I look at that Tamiya 1/32 Zero. But it could be that there isn't a great deal of variety in markings. Jerry Campbell, asked what he'd model if he could model only one airplane, cited the insane variety of markings for the Me 109. With the Japanese, it's green, brown or blotches on metal, with meatballs.

Mad-Modeller wrote:

I tend to kinda agree but then how does one account for the relative popularity of RAF aircraft types? There, it's basically the same camo pattern endlessly repeated in brown and green or grey and green, mostly sans any nose art or squadron insignia, and with only the squadron and aircraft letter codes to distinguish one aircraft from another.

Cheers,

I hadn't thought of that before. I have several Japanese subjects in the to-do pile, but only one in the display case and that's a captured Brewster Buffalo.

The point about lack of interesting markings is somewhat true. The Japanese were not keen on garish markings, but there are scores of exceptions. Kill markings, oversized markings, orange trainers and prototypes are some of the exceptions. ...and then there is the lavender Rufe :-)

Tom

Bill Shatzer wrote:

The RAF is a study in juxtaposition - some of the most beautiful aircraft to ever fly, and some of the most butt-ugly.

A car-door Typhoon parked next to a Spit, anyone?

E.P.

Most if not almost all are butt ugly.......

It isn't so much nationalities that determine my interest but the rareness and unusualness. I've built 3 out of those 4 but the P-51s and P-47s usually got some exotic scheme. I can't get worked up about F-16s but I had small flocks of Canberras, Lightnings, Drakens, F-104s, PZLs and 109s.

I'm Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr. and I approve of this message.

But, they have great personalities....:)

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

well, wild bill, i pretty much agree to a point. modern jets make me snooze, not interest or excitement there. most of the u.s ww2 aircraft aren't very exciting to me. exceptions are the heavys and flying boats. even the pby's are cool. but put roundels, a swastika, some fasces or even that red star, and i'll build it. not the 109-190's, but almost everything else. i can't really explain it, some of the ac i built as a kid were one shots i've never repeated. i haven't gone back to p40;s, p-38's, the above mentioned and even the pretty cool p61. don't even have kits for some. i'll still build a b17-26-24-29, now that there's 1/48th kits. don't know why, but that's the way it is this 8th of november, 2006.

(remember, say no to high school reunions!)

they're good to thier mothers and cheap dates. you can almost always get one off.