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Reviewed by Adam Rehorn
Kit:
1/72 M6A1K Seiran-Kai/Nanzan
Maker:
Tamiya
Kit #:
1/72 Scale War Bird Collection No. 38
Type:
Injection moulded styrene
Aftermarket:
None
Cost:
$5 (although the box originally said $20)
Above: The prettiest bomber that never
was! This shows the completed Nanzan kit with full operational combat equipment, including bomb and gunsight. While
this particular configuration never flew, it certainly looks every inch a potent attacker.
Among the annals of history, the
attack on Pearl Harbour surely stands out as one of the most daring raids ever undertaken. However, there was another,
even more bizarre, improbable and unexpected raid that was planned by the Japanese Navy High Command: an attack on the Panama
Canal!
It was figured, and most likely
rightly so, that destroying the locks on the canal would, at least temporarily, cut off the US and British Pacific Fleets
from the Atlantic Fleets (as well as any ships made in Atlantic coast shipyards). This would reduce the Allied fighting
power in the Pacific, making it easier for Japan to defend her empire and perhaps force a favourable conclusion to the war
in the Pacific.
To do this, a new type of weapon
was needed. This was the Aichi M6A1 Seiran floatplane bomber. The planes were to be carried in I-400 class submarines,
which at the time were the largest subs ever built. The Seiran itself was a marvel of engineering, being able to fold,
almost origami-like, to fit in the subs’ round hangars.
The Seiran is also one of the most
beautiful Japanese planes of the war, as far as I’m concerned. With its (rare for a Japanese plane) inline engine,
sleek greenhouse and overall fighter-like lines, the Seiran exudes speed and power. Unfortunately, this is marred by
a pair of huge, ungainly and, to my eyes, ugly, floats. The land-based version of the Seiran, called the Nanzan, takes
care of this by replacing the floats with conventional retractable undercarriage. Needless to say, when I saw the kit
of this beauty, I was more than happy to pick it up!
The Kit:
My first impression of the Nanzan
kit is that it is a wonderfully moulded, designed and produced piece of sprue. Upon opening the box, one gets the impression
that there isn’t much in there. The box really is a bit big for its contents, most likely because the same size
box is used for the Seiran kit, with its monstrous floats. Still, there are several sprues of light beige-grey plastic
and one of clear plastic. The smaller of the beige sprue contains the parts unique to the Nanzan version, and includes
the landing gear, wheels and doors, as well as the tail wheel.
The detailing on this kit is exemplary,
and easily equals the Academy Stuka and Revell of Germany Flitzer, two other nice kits I have built. There is a lot of panel line detail everywhere on the aircraft, and there are ribs
in the landing gear bays as well. The inner walls of the cockpit are detailed with ribs and ‘black boxes’,
and the seats, instrument panels and defensive machine gun are all delicately detailed. Even the oil cooler radiator
screen is finely detailed!
Above: This shows some of the Nanzan Kai’s interior. You can see some of the sidewall detail,
as well as the well-moulded pilot’s seat and loop antenna.
There is one sheet of decals that
accompanies the kit, that being for the Nanzan shown on the box. Due to the fact that only two Nanzans were made, there
isn’t a lot to choose from as far as markings are concerned.
My initial impression was that
this kit would truly live up to the Tamiya reputation for being largely shake and bake kits, meaning that very little in the
way of surgery would be required. There was no reason to see otherwise, and a dry fit of the fuselage halves revealed
no sign of any warping. As I was to see, however, these things can be deceiving…
The “Nanzan-kai”
Concept:
The real Nanzan was a land-based
trainer that was designed to familiarize the aircrew selected for the Seiran with the plane’s characteristics. The
real name for the Nanzan is the M6A1-K Seiran Kai. In Japanese, “kai” means modified. Clearly, the
Nanzan is quite different from a conventional Seiran. Mind you, “conventional” is something of a misnomer
given the idea behind the Seiran!
Upon inspecting the Nanzan kit,
I noticed that all the Seiran’s combat equipment was included in this kit. The rear defensive machine gun, the
bomb and its shackles, even the tube-like sight and its appropriately modified front windscreen were all there! Then
I got to thinking about the energy that went into developing the Seiran and Nanzan aircraft, and the desperate need of Japanese
forces for high performance attack planes near the end of the war.
Above: This shot shows everything that sold me on the Nanzan-Kai concept: The bomb, shackles, gunsight
and lower gear doors serve to make the sleek, but impotent, Nanzan into a world-class fighting machine! Thank goodness
it was cheaper for Tamiya to leave it all the Seiran kibble in the Nanzan’s box.
It seemed odd that the Nanzan wasn’t
developed into a fully combat-capable airplane in its own right, since 90% of the work was done already. Thus, my first
“IJN ‘46” creation, which I dub the M6A2 Nanzan-Kai was born! This model thus represents the extension
of the Seiran philosophy to the Nanzan airframe. It is a land-based high-performance bomber, with full combat equipment
as befits a front-line type.
They say the devil is in the details,
and in this case it’s true. The one little thing that really sold me on this idea was the inclusion with this
kit of the lower landing gear covers. I’ve never seen a photo of the Nanzan with them, they aren’t included
in the instructions anywhere, and I have no idea if they were even there in the first place on the real plane! However,
they really make the plane look less spindly, and add that finishing touch to the finished kit.
Above: This is another one of those small
details that makes the Nanzan-Kai so believeable: the rear defensive machine gun. This piece is very delicate and is
nicely cast and detailed. This shows the rear position with the seat facing forward towards the radios and ‘map
table.’
Building the Nanzan-Kai
There’s nothing particularly
difficult about the actual construction of the Nanzan. It is a standard 1/72 airplane kit, which means interior goes
in first, body halves go around that, then you add your wings, stabilizers and assundry other kibbly bits.
The interior of the Nanzan is painted
in a custom-mixed greenish colour, which is the standard I use on all my WWII aircraft. Instrument panels are painted
black and the entire cockpit is black washed for highlighting. The individual instruments are picked out using dry-brushed
silver, and this is also used to scuff up the interior of the plane. The rudder pedals were done in aluminum.
The seat belts were originally given as decals, but I cut some masking tape instead, since it looks much more realistic.
A major problem with the Nanzan
kit is the under chin radiator. This is a very nicely done piece, but must be completed and installed BEFORE putting
on the cowling that goes around it. Thus, it must also be protected from overspray during painting. In 1/48, this
might be easy, but in 1/72, the openings are so small that only paint will easily get in there! Eventually, I found
that a little bit of foam at the front and some Fun-tack at the back did the job. Still, getting the Fun-tack out at
the end of it all was a real pain.
Above: This shows the chin radiator installed
before the surrounding cowling is emplaced. The fine detail really shows up well when drybrushed with silver, but protecting
this treatment from overspray is very difficult. You can also see some of the grey Tamiya putty I needed to get this
plane to fit together: the nose wasn’t as bad as the wing/body underpan junction.
Above: This shot of the completed kit shows the small openings on the rear of the radiator cowling.
These had to be plugged so that the cowl flaps could be painted inside without obscuring the detail on the radiator itself.
It’s a tight space, and I did break off the smaller of the two flaps trying to use a dental pick to extract the Fun-tack
masking.
As far as fit goes, the Nanzan
was less than inspiring. Whoever says that these kits fit together with little effort has never built this one!
There was some putty needed on the fuselage, which is acceptable, but the wing/fuselage underbody junction was HORRIBLE!
It was on the same level as some FROG kits I’ve built, and almost as bad as the TA-152H in particular. A lot of putty, CA and sanding were required to smoothly blend in the wings and body. This also
meant a lot of surface detail had to be re-etched, so I broke out my straight pin and went to work.
The rest of the plane was alright,
fit wise, although the radiator cowling wasn’t stellar either. The long canopy fit on the aircraft very well,
which was a nice surprise. However, I ran into major problems when it came time to mask the frames. The detail
on the canopy was incredibly soft; so much so that you couldn’t use it to cut masking tape on. Thus, I had to
re-etch the ENTIRE greenhouse. Needless to say, this was a long, nerve-wracking and dangerous undertaking. Unfortunately,
I did cause a small crack in the glass, but this is fairly minor. After doing this mammoth chore, I came to appreciate
just how intricate the canopy really is. I also came to wish I had a time machine so I could go back to WWII Japan and
show them how to blow a 1-piece bubble canopy! It would have been easier than re-etching everything!
Above: : Here you can see the very heavily
framed canopy greenhouse on the Nanzan. The white outline around every panel is the result of having to re-etch the
entire thing with a straight pin! GAAAAAHHHHHH! It turned out passably well, but it would have been a lot easier
if the frames had just been better defined in the first place. This kind of work gives me a new appreciation for USAAF
bubble hoods, I tell you…
All the rest of the construction
was fairly smooth, and the landing gear installed relatively painlessly. The one thing I don’t get, though, is
where the retraction strut coming off the gear is supposed to go! It goes into the wheel bay, but then just hangs there,
attached to nothing. There’s nothing in the instructions that clarifies this, and it means that the gear are attached
to the plane only at one point, making things a little bit more dainty than I’d like.
Above: From the front, you can’t tell
there’s anything wrong. However, the retraction strut coming off the gear leg doesn’t actually connect to
anything, which is somewhat disconcerting. This type of problem shouldn’t present itself on a kit of this supposed
quality.
Painting/Decalling the
Nanzan Kai:
Clearly, since the Nanzan Kai is
supposed to be a combat aircraft, the orange or orange/green training scheme is inappropriate. I chose to use a standard
green top, grey bottom, black nose scheme. The grey is Tamiya XF-12 JN Grey, straight from the bottle, the green is
Gunze Sangyo IJN Green and the black is just Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black. No custom colours on this bird, as it turns out!
Above: This rear three-quarters view highlights
both the “standard” IJN paint job on the Nanzan-Kai as well as the plane’s exceptionally clean and refined
lines. Many people mistakenly think that this plane is a “Judy,”
a mistake that can be easily forgiven, especially from this angle.
Once the painting was done and
touched up (which was somewhat frustrating this time around, although it was no fault of the kit), the panel line detail on
the grey parts was coloured in using a filed down HB pencil. The pencil does not show on the black or green, so it wasn’t
used there. With the pencil on, the entire plane was coated with Tamiya gloss coat, so that the decals wouldn’t
silver.
Applying the decals, however, proved
to be exceptionally trying. The decals provided are the THICKEST decals I have ever seen, and will contour to absolutely
nothing! Panel lines beneath them simply disappear, and you can forget about asking them to bend around corners.
Seeing as I have no decal setting solution or other softening agents, I was forced to come up with another way of getting
the decals to conform to the panel lines.
I did this by cutting the decal.
I was going to do this anyway once the decals were dry, but this kit left me no choice but to do it when the decals
were still wet! I got the decal more or less in place and patted it down. I then used a brand new blade to trace
the panel lines right through the decal. I then re-wetted the decals and separated the pieces so that the panel lines
could show through. While not perfect, this was surprisingly successful, and looks much better than just leaving the
decal on there. You can’t just leave the decals, because then it looks like someone has put a red drum skin on
your plane, and that’s just not the way it was…
Above: This close up view of one of the underwing Hinomarus shows the cutting and sliding that was necessary
to make the decals look half decent. My advice: either get some new decals or slather the things in decal solution.
They’re just too thick on their own!
Once the decals were separated
and set in their final positions, some Future was used to coat them and nail them down. Finally, some Microflat flat
coat was used to dull the paint down. This, however, didn’t dry as flat as it has on other kits I’ve used
it on. As it turns out, this is okay for this model, and Japanese planes don’t seem to have been as flat as some
others. However, I see a problem when I go back to Luft ’46...
Conclusions:
The Nanzan is, without a doubt,
one of the most beautiful designs to come from Imperial Japan. With its sleek, rakish lines, it looks like the love
child of a Spitfire and a Stuka. Why Japan didn’t press for a combat-type Nanzan is beyond me, but if they had,
it would have looked something like this, I imagine.
As for kits, this model is not
the shake-and-bake walk in the park that I was led to believe it would be. However, it is a largely nice kit, albeit
one with some major flaws. Fit is mediocre overall, and the decals suck, plain and simple. If you don’t
mind a bit of work, though, and you have some decal solution or aftermarket Hinomarus, then this kit will make a nice addition
to your collection.
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