Skyline Paper Models Mitsubishi A5M4 Claude (Beta)

[shrike]

Chitose Kokutai out of Kwajalein. Later became 210.Kokutai

The previous version of this kit is in the pale grey

[Willja67]

My own take on the beauty of an aircraft is in part due to it's adherance to natural laws. Anything that flys has to obey the laws of physics to some extent of it wouldn't fly. The more of the laws it is in harmony with the better it looks and the better it flys. No wonder then that combat aircraft have an unmistakable beauty since they must have very high performance. This principle applies in other areas as well I think. And it must look like a Corsair.

[shrike]

A little more.
Chitose Kokutai was renamed 4th Kokutai in early 1942. It was part of the 24th Koku Sentai

[zachy]

Thank you Shrike, I'll do a search now since I have more info.

[zachy]

The gentleman I spoke with was sure the plane he fought with was a Claude. My son had post cards in his hands and he was holding it and telling his story. He pointed out the wheel pants and machine guns in the cowl. I've been looking for the Video tape of that air show. Papa Boyington was there also. I'll find it in the garage then I'll have more to work with.

[GreMir]

Zachy,
I don't want to ruin your diorama but there couldn't be any A5M4 over Wake...
A5M4 had a range of 1,200km and the distance from Roi in the Marshalls (Chitose Air Group was based there for the operation) to Wake Island is 1,100km in the straight line, not accounting for the curvature of the Earth.
My info is based on HyperWar: A Magnificent Fight: Marines in the Battle for Wake Island

[GreMir]

Ok, enough talk, time to show some progress
Fuselage is designed to utilize one former, but no connecting strips.
I didn't trust my ability to basically edge glue everything so I will be doubling the formers to get more contact surface.
So far everything fits like a glove, except former W3 which is to small.
I added connecting strip (visible in the photo) to make-up the difference and it fits perfectly. It almost looks like it was designed to use one, but Sumato forgot to include it in the kit :D
This connecting strip will have one more benefit...
Segment F9 (with the cockpit) is designed to be held in place by the forward and rear wall of the cockpit tub glued to the formers. Connection of the fuselage skin however is basically edge to edge. This most assuredly will work except that knowing myself, down the road I WILL grab the fuselage right at the connection and ruin everything...
With the strip the risk is minimized and on the rear end I came up with a double former modification but I have to actually try it before I give you details.

[Don Boose]

Useful info, since I have this kit and hope to build it some day.

Don

[GreMir]

Cockpit and segment F9.....
I checked with cmdrted and according to him fit was tight, but buildable.
Myself, I run into a problem - tried twice with the same result - I couldn't insert the cockpit tub without pushing the skin at connection with F10 apart.
I checked the back wall of the cockpit tub against former W4 and it looks like corners of the tub are sticking out just a tiny little bit out beyond the former's edge so everything might be in how you cut and fold...
I admit that I took an easy way out and printed cockpit at 97%, added connecting strip between segments F9 and F10, slid the completed cockpit into the F9. I glued the top part of the tub, part CP1A to the inside of the skin to make sure that it matches perfectly with the opening in F9.
From this point on rest of the fuselage was a breeze. Last segment requires special attention due to its pointedness.
Super Revealing Flash Macro Mode (SRFMM) shows white sticking out but this is not visible in normal conditions.
Inside of the pointy end was filled with Scenic Cement (very thick white glue) to give it more rigidity.

[Don Boose]

Beautiful so far, Mike!

Don