THE JAPANESE LINDBERGHS

akira kita
The latest "AIR & SPACE Smithsonian" has been published the article about "THE JAPANESE LINDBERGHS".
Two crews of KAMIKAZE( this plane was the transporter of the press) made speed record from Tokyo to London in 1932. They were Masaaki Iinuma and Kenji Tukagoshi.

akira kita
If you come to JAPAN someday maybe after COVID19, please visit AZUMINO in NAGANO. 🙂
AZUMINO is the birth place of pilot Masaaki IINUMA and has his Memorial Hall.
Also　AZUMINO has a beautiful scenery full of nature at the foot of the JAPAN Alps.
And furthermore it has been known as the place that there are many swans over winter.

Boris B
Hello Akira, Very nice pictures and model.
About picture 5, I was always wondering about the wet and grassy airfield, wondering if it could be Tokyo Haneda. Now that I see your picture 3, I believe, it's actually in Osaka : the ground looks the same. And maybe picture 3 was taken by the man visible in the back of picture 5 : a journalist on a platform ?

Daniel Klink
Very nice information and Background Akira, Thank you...
And yes Nagano and the surrounding area is beautiful and full of atmosphere.
But somehow i fell in love with the Northern Territories like Akita and mostly the Northern Island of Hokkaido.. Shikotsu-Toya, Shiretoko (bear-watching by Boat), Daisetsuzan and so on.

akira kita
Hello Boris, thank you for your opinion.
On the other hand, according to the records at that time. it was raining in Tokyo and Kamikaze made a good landing with a lot of water smoke. And in #3 an exhaust dirt of this Kamikaze seems to be more dirty than #5 because of flight distance.
By the way, Kamikaze belonged to newspaper company and their schedule was detailed and preannounced, and many journalists wee waiting everywhere.
So there is a basis for Postal Museum Japan's caption I think.

akira kita
Hello Daniel, ya me too. When I visited Hokkaido I watched bears family by boat and trekked through the wonderful nature of Shiretoko five lakes. And also Onsen(hot spring) and food of Hokkaido are super, so I'll never forget ラーメン(ramen) , buttered potato and all-you-can-eat fresh crab in Sapporo.＼( 'ω')／
In addition, for Japanese people, it's a unique experience that straight roads continue for a long time only in Hokkaido.(^o^)

Boris B
Hello again Akira, You are probably right, and the source of the publication is probably reliable. I would have just expected the airplane to park on the concrete runway at Haneda...
Picture 8 was taken at Le Bourget (Paris) on the last stop before London of the inbound flight. The crew was offered champagne (of course!) but Tsugagochi apparently stayed with the airplane, preparing the last flight.
I like your build of the kit, and I would like to see more pictures. (By the way, you should reference it in the project manager, otherwise the album is hard to find on ScaleMates). I would also like to do the open canopy. Was it difficult to cut it apart ?
Also, a technical question : do you know whether the small bulb on top (middle) of the canopy was the top navigation light ?

akira kita
Thank you Boris, in my case I cut front canopy with an etching saw, then I made a notch in the center of it and bent it carefully.
The small bulb on top of canopy was a navigation light, with a red lamp covered by clear water-drop cover. I didn't it, but I think it's a good idea to carve a dent on the back of the light position with pin-vise and color an inside of it with red enamel.
Further I make an additional heat shield curtain from thin plastic sheet and attached it to inside of the canopy. Iinuma wrote in his book that he kept sitting through the flight from Tokyo and had a pain in his hips, so he bought a cushion at a department store in London. I made that cushion by epoxy putty but Iinuma didn't write what color was the cushion, so we can made it any color we like.(^o^)
By the way, Kamikaze made a goodwill flight to Belgium April 16. They departed London with a message to the Belgian people and arrived at Brussels Airfield with a large number of welcomes at 9:54 am. After attending the welcome ceremony, they visited the palace, gave an audience to His Majesty King Leopold Ⅲ, then attached a wreath to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, attended a newspaper association invitation, and at 0:05 pm, they left Brussels and headed to Berlin.

Bernhard Schrock
Chapeau: very clean build.

Ben M
Very, very beautiful build of a great subject. I like the history too.

akira kita
Danke Arigatou Bernhard.

akira kita
Thank you Ben, Kamikaze crew could have only tourist map not aeronautical chart in southern Asia airspace.＼( 'ω')／

Boris B
Yes, Akira, I knew about the Belgium (quick) trip (a few hours only). They then had to make an unplanned stop at the Detmold (military) airfield as the weather on the way to Berlin was particularly bad. There are/were a few sets of these Detmold pictures floating about eBay, all by private individuals since it was not an officila stop.
I don't have many images of the Berlin stop for the moment, except for those posted on a Japanes site of a Japanese family posted at the Berlin embassy in 1937. Have you seen these ?
Thanks for the tip on the canopy opening. I will definitely try it. And the navigation light in the canopy (I was not sure that's what it was, since it seems to be a place that would be bothersome for the crew.)

Boris B
Can you tell me more about the 'heat-shield curtain' you made for the inside of the canopy ? Do you have an illustration of the part ?
Also, what do you know about the drain-tube visible on the side of the canopy frame whan the airplane is at rest ?
Do you have the ModelArt issue about the Karigane, by the way ?

akira kita
Well Boris, I have read in a publication that the landing on a German base not on a map was an emergency landing due to bad weather.
And also I have seen family photos taken by a Japanese family with a photo of Kamikaze arriving at Tempelhof airport and their visiting an embassy of Japan. I don't know if it's the photo you're talking about・・
Wheather the small bulge is light or not, I judged from photographs(#20,21,22 new loaded and others)
and the wooden models of Kamikaze at that time stored in the Iinuma Memorial Hall and Asahi newspaper company. In the models it's reproduced in clear red.

akira kita
I reproduced a heat-shield curtain based on the photographs, and therefore, the details of a curtain rail section and other are unknown, but it was judged that there was no problem from scale.
About drain-tube, I think other possibility may exist. Here are a few more photos(#20,21,23,24) and others for research, and these pictures appear to be a little different from a liquid flowing through the drain.
Pilot Iinuma is also seen trying to get out of the cockpit and reaching for that part.(#24) That seems to indicate the possibility of a hand belt or something for getting on and off from the plane.
In addition, Photo #25 shows the contrast between the color of the German Air Force uniform and the blue color of Kamikaze, which was a good reference for the paint color of the kit.
I have the Kamikaze special edition of ModelArt but, I'd like to find it a little longer. Do you have any question about it?

akira kita
In the previous comment, I'd like to correct that photo no. #24 is #23 and #25 is #24. ?

akira kita
Added a few more reference images.

Boris B
Thank you Akira ! Image 27 does explain the odd tube that is actually a hand hold ! I had never noticed the two lower steps (n. 1 and 2), but I just checked my pictures and they were already on the Kamikaze.
Which book has these diagrams, the ModelArt ? And are there more ?
I have some diagrams from the Ki-5II, which is quite similar, of course, but none are very useful for fuselage/cockpit details.

Boris B
And by the way, I have confirmed from those diagrams that the instruments panel is wrongly placed (too forward) in the KineMolds kit. It should be much closer to the fuselage opening... More details in my build album : Mitsubishi Ki-15 Kamikaze build | Album by bobolex (1:48)

Alec K
Very interesting story and wonderful build. Thanks for sharing 👍

Neuling
Super clean build and interesting story!👍

akira kita
Hi Boris
The Modelart book went on sale around July 2019, but I wrote a review article at the end of 2018, shortly after the kit went on sale.
That's why I got the Modelart book, but it was stored in the storage room without reading it well. The #25,#26,#27 images are from the Modelart book I found.
I wasn't aware of hand rods when I made my Kamikaze work. Boris, you think it would be interesting to express that too.
#2 image of your album is also published in the Modelart book as Kamikaze's cockpit.
But many diagrams in Modelart book are of the ki-15-Ⅱ"Babs".
About Modelart book, it has 128pages and the overall structure is as follows. 14pages : Kamikaze's record flight story, 2pages : photos in Paris and London,
7pages : sample modeling article and kit review, 1page : about Kamikaze blue (but conclusion is ambiguous.), 4pages : introducing about memory goods.
The other contents are about type 97 & 98 recon. planes.

By the way, Hobby Japan, which published my review article of Kamikaze(#29,30) also published some photos about modeling, but explanation article of the actual machine was written by another writer, so for copyright, I can't quote them here.
Though I'd like to post only #28 which was reported by AEROPLANE at that time when Kamikaze came to London. (#2 of your album was reported by FLIGHT at that time.) Many western readers might be curious about Kamikaze's equipment.

The instrument panel should be modified closer to the seat, as you mentioned.
I wrote so in my article.
it's been a little longer, so I'll write more about cockpit modeling or paint color later. (^o^)

akira kita
Thank you Alex. Thank you Neuling. ARIGATOU!
I'm glad to let you know their challenge and effort.

akira kita
The Fine Mold's kit clearly had too much space between the instrument panel and the seat, so I adjusted it. Please refer to the images after ＃31.

Before making the kit, I was reading the memoirs of Pilot Iinuma. It was purchased when I visited his memorial hall at Azumino Japan.
In his memoir, Iinuma wrote when he flew to London he put a leather bag on the lower right of the instrument panel and a cloth bag with writing utensils on the lower left and he hung a notebook for recording with a string.

He also wrote that a wooden box about 25 cm square and about 30 cm deep was attached to the lower left of the seat, and a jacket was thrown in.

Even though unfortunately, I didn't know about the compass at that time, but in my example works I enjoyed recreating the inside of the cockpit that everyone wouldn't know much about.

The Kamikaze is painted in silver and blue, but there is still no clear answer in Japan about the color tone of this blue. The same is true for Modelart books.
I have even seen works of the Kamikaze model made in Japan, painted in navy blue or very bright blue.

When I made an example work for Hobby Japan, Iinuma Director (a relative of Iinuma Masaaki ) of the Memorial Hall provided me with some materials.

#34 is a poster at that time by the newspaper company to which the Kamikaze belonged. There is also a wooden model(#35) with autographs of Iinuma and Tsukagoshi. Furthermore, there is an article produced at that time by a modeler who made a wooden model of the Kamikaze about 80 years ago.
In Japan, there are some unique words that express colors also blue of the same strain , but the expressions in that article were also helpful.
I think that the difference in color tone from the uniform of the Luftwaffe will be helpful for the image #24.

I would be happy if it could be of any use to Kamikaze modeling.

Boris B
Thank you Akira for all this wonderful information. It seems that the ModelArt book is a very good ressource, but it's hard to get in Europe.
I'm very glad to see the Aeroplane sketch. I had sen reference to it, but I always expected it to be the same (a reprint) of the Flight sketch. And of course, it's very good to have a confirmation about the placement of the instruments panel.
Is photo 31 your build ? It's very nicely detailed, so I'm glad to see a close up shot. What is your technique for the curtains in the canopy ? In my Bf-108 build, I used single ply tissue paper glued together (on one edge), but it's still over-scale.
And do you know whether there were back seatbelts for the crew. I only put lap belts on mine.
My build is a bit on hold while gathering more information before it's too late to add anything to the cockpit...
Regarding the exterior blue, I know I won't go with Navy blue (too dark), but mostly I want to find a color that I like. I'm not convinced about the FS15050 reference in the FineMolds instructions, but I will test a Revell deep blue with a touch of violet that I think is close and beautiful looking.

akira kita
Enjoy your modeling, Boris, so today I confirmed stocks of Modelart book('Modelart profile 14') on amazon.co.jp and Modelart website. Considering the cost performance of payment and shipping, I think you'd better to contact Modelart agent in Europe(UK, France, Germany). you can search for them as "Model Art Agencies in the world".
#31,32,33 are photos of my work and show the additional work on the instrument panel (leather bag, wooden box, utensil case and notebook).
About material of the curtain in the canopy, I used the TAMIYA PLA PAPER 0.1mm. Fold the small piece of PLA PAPER finely with tweezers and soak it in hot water several times while watching the situation. It's just one way so you can use thin lead foil or something instead of the PLA PAPER.
I also didn't put back belts. Basically, Japanese Army aircrafts, including Ki-15"Babs", so the Kamikaze too, were not equipped with shoulder belts.
As I wrote before, they don't know the exact answer for the Kamikaze blue in Japan, so I hope you enjoy it by painting the color you think it is. (^o^)

Boris B
Thank you Akira. I will definitely test the soaked PLA paper trick this time.