Tale of 2 Bettys in 1/100 scale

[CMDRTED]

Back again to the aerodrome construction facility. This project is not a Bruno vs Nobi gig. It is more or less building the same G6M1 Betty from both designers. The Nobi betty was just released but is in 1/72 scale so it had to be reduced in size. The kit comes with about 8 sheets in pdf form 4 sheets hold the actual parts and are in letter sized format. The other 4 are the cover sheet and instructions. the aircraft is flown by pilot Lt Haruki Iki. I trust somewhere don has some info on this aircraft, I jumped in this project without looking that up. The other is the same G6M1 by Bruno and comes in 1/100 scale already. This came in pdf fprm on 2 sheets in A4 format. You wouldn't think much of the A4 vs Letter formats until you print them out and find slight size discrepancies. Not much but to an OCD nut like me I had to tweak them to come out in the same sizes. Here are the prelim parts both arranged to fit 2 sheets.

[Don Boose]

What a great project! You can imagine how much this interests me. I always enjoy watching you exert your skills, talent, and experience, and I am particularly interested in these models.

Nobi identifies his model as tail number K 310 of the Kanoya Kōkutai [Naval Air Group] flown by Lieutenant Iki Haruki. All I can add is that the Kanoya Ku was one of two Land Attack (Rikko) groups that attacked and sank the Royal Navy battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse on 8 December 1941 (the other unit was the Genzan Kōkutai, flying G3M2 Type 96 Land Attack aircraft, aka “Nells”). Lieutenant Iki was the commander (Chutaichō) of the 3rd Squadron (Chutai) of the Kanoya Ku. Both units were based in Taiwan at the time.

Based on the tail number (V-901), the Bruno model is one of three Type 1 Land-based Transport versions (G6M1-L) assigned to the Tainan Kōkutai based at Rabaul in 1942. The Tainan Ku was a fighter group and the G6Ms served as transports and utility aircraft.

All this is based on Osamu Tagaya, Mitsubishi Type 1 Rikko “Betty” Units of World War 2 (Oxford, UK: Osprey Publications, 2001.

I look forward to watching this build.

Ganbatte!

Don

[CMDRTED]

Arigato Don-sama.
the first test is the simple wing and tail surfaces. Both kits get these parts assembled in the same manner so it is just a matter of redundant building. The parts are very close in size, so far so good....
pic 1 is forming the Bruno kits wing and shows burnishing the tip for a smoother wing tip appearance. 2nd pic is more forming illustrations. 3rd shows the parts complete, and the last are both kits flying surfaces complete, Bruno's kit top Nobi's bottom.

[Don Boose]

Valuable illustrations for anyone who wants to build these models.

You make it look so easy!

Don

[CMDRTED]

Thanks again Don.
next up is an engine pod. the bruno engine has a few parts seen laid out in pic 1. 2nd pic is formed and set up to assemble. They fit great any fit discrepancies are builder error not designer. The rest of the pics show the assembly sequence. The prop hub is dry fit to the engine pod. the bottom aft is left off to be fitted when it is placed on the wing. I'll place it on the wing just before I place the wing to the fuselage. In all the engine pod is tedious but the parts go together well and the opposite pod should go a bit faster, (when i get to it!)... Now on to the Nobi engine

[Draco]

Originally Posted by CMDRTED

You wouldn't think much of the A4 vs Letter formats until you print them out and find slight size discrepancies. Not much but to an OCD nut like me I had to tweak them to come out in the same sizes. Here are the prelim parts both arranged to fit 2 sheets.

You can tell to your printer to use letter for both (or A4 for both) and yes, the difference drives me nuts too. I always place a 10 cm ruler in my designs just for this reason

[CMDRTED]

Nobi's engine pod has quite a few more parts and when finished show very subtle curves and details. At 1/100 scale they are hard to discern. I imagine they would be more striking at the original 1/72 scale. The one engine did take a couple hours to assemble...

[Siwi]

Ohayou. A couple of observations:
Both designers divide the fuselage into 11 sections, but with the joins in different places in the middle. NOBI's has internal joining strips and all parts are seperate pieces, wheras Bruno combines the smaller end sections.


Both engines look about the same degree of roundness. NOBI's does have more detail but the cleaner lack of join lines on Bruno's is convincing too.

[CMDRTED]

siwi great observations. With Bruno's kits I separate the join strips and use them as internal strips. Most of the time I don't use them to join the individual segments together but use them to join each the finished segments. this allows fuselage parts and the like to make a stronger whole.

[Siwi]

Originally Posted by CMDRTED

siwi great observations. With Bruno's kits I separate the join strips and use them as internal strips. Most of the time I don't use them to join the individual segments together but use them to join each the finished segments. this allows fuselage parts and the like to make a stronger whole.

I do the same, not just because it looks neater overall but having seen Bruno's design process I know there isn't any extra diameter allowance for glue tab overlap, so it would cause fit issues if several sections are joined in sequence.