Paints: Gunze Silver, Vallejo Model Color, Iwata Com.Art
This was done for a 1945 Group Build on Finescale. What Japanese subject would fit better than a Kamikaze? At the planning stage I checked out a lot of photos and found a number like the two WWII era pics above – very heavily chipped Zeros with a lot of A6M2s in the mix. This fit into long term plans nicely. I have a lot of Pacific War kits unbilt and depending upon time or place they could be heavily weathered indeed. Some of the US planes flying out of places like Munda Point with coral strips were operating off sandpaper and showed it. There are a lot of ways to do chipping and I used my medical experiment kits to try things out. Finally decided that a variation on the “hairspray technique” often used by armor fans would work the best. But I wasn't sure how to put on heavy weather and also remain coherent. So, let her rip says I.
There's history here too. The pic with the Zeros loaded with the very distinctive bombs was a group of A6M2s attacking Leyte in 1944. (I found a list of IJN Special Attack Missions and there were a large number of A6M2s used. They or planes like them intervened at the tail end of the Samar battle and sunk St. Lo – a better job than Yamato and company.) Nakajima built them until 1944 because the IJNAF could use anything produced.) I also got a copy of a really neat movie called “Eternal Zero.” This flick was a mega hit in Japan and I broke down a bought a DVD from a Japanese movie site. (Only $18 and in “International” format which played on my player very nicely – sellers on eBay are asking $50.) The movie was a bit sentimental – not unusual for the Japanese – but it brims with excellent history, splendid ground sets with replica aircraft and jaw-dropping CGI. I know a bit about the Pacific War, and some of my friends know even more and everyone I know has been impressed with the technical accuracy. The longer the war goes on, the more heavily weathered appear the planes. A quirk of the plot has the hero intentionally using an A6M2 for his final flight and it's a mess. But I froze a number of shots that gave me a really good guide on how to duplicate the mega-chipping used in the movie. I can't prove that's what they looked like in real life, but I'd put more credit to the techno wizards than my own ability to throw something together based on black/white photos.
A short word on the kit. This is an oldie, and lacks the detail Tamiya's new “Zeke” releases. (I have the new A6M5 and it look terrific.) But the kit is perfectly adequate for detail, has more recessed lines than many of Tamiya's early fighters, and went together very nicely. That's a $10 model – what's not to like – particularly if you're planning on tearing it apart.
Once I got the hang of it, the chipping was pretty direct. After priming, I painted the plane Gunze Shine Silver – Gunze makes fine metallics and this one went down nicely. I put on some future to toughen the surface and let it dry for a day. Then I put on AK “Worn Effects” which emulates the “hairspray technique” used by armor fans. This is one specialized product that's a real improvement over something cheap from a drug store. I gave it an adequate coat, and then painted most of the plane a combination of Vallejo MC Bronze Green and German External Dark Green – the effect was a very black green. (I took all coloring advice from Nick Millman the kind and immensely knowledgeable head of the Japan Aircraft site. Colors are Nick's specialty.) It's not so apparent because I did some serious fading with a Tamiya Weathering Set that had a “fading green” pigment that was just perfect in hue. In future I'm going to be thinking about using pigments for fading on aircraft – I liked the effect a lot. I used Iwata Com.Art for panel lines and pin washes – it's a light effect but leaves a little grime on the surface which is what I wanted. Underneath I used MC Stone Grey and weathered it with a Flory wash – it's been a long time since I used one of those but it worked nicely.
One of the nice things about Worn Effects is that you can wet it again two days later and it will still come off, if a bit more slowly. This was good I think. There was major chipping across the surface, especially below the cockpit on both sides. But the CGI shots showed that the overall effect was made by many micro chips along panel lines which I applied with air-brush cleaning tool and a hobby knife. Smaller the better was usually the case although blotches existed throughout. AK has a more aggressive chipping fluid (so does Vallejo) and they both make chipping easier, but it would easy to get too many big botches off. Anyway, it took a while. So did the blinking resin bomb. The IJN 250 KG bomb had a very unique look to it so I could just throw on an American version. A company called KMC made a resin version now sold by Squadron. I've used resin, but this one was no picnic. There was only one slot to help fit six different parts and it was not designed for a particular kit. That meant I had to do a lot of stuff combining CA and the eyeball. And unless my photos are wrong, the configuration of the bomb frame/bomb is a little off. They said paint it silver, so I did. The pics from the movie showed gray I think.
But in for a penny.... The overall effected required chips on the national markings. So they had to be masked and painted on. Fortunately the usual white stripe around the hinomarus was often painted over by hand with black on the sides and upper wings – which I did. The numbers are decals with light chipping done with silver paint. Should point out that every stage of painting with Worn Effects on had to be done separately and given a good dry to prevent masking tape from bringing up unwanted streaks.
It was hard not to do this subject without thinking about the “Special Attack” forces. We know a lot about them now. The first class were volunteers to a man and represented the best educated Japanese youth. After Okinawa – and I think the Tokyo government knew this – morale was beginning to yield but public display was impossible so great was the psychological and physical control held by the Japanese military. There's no doubt that a large number of the late pilots (at least 3,000 were trained and had planes on VJ Day) had been the victims of massive psychological pressure. Kamikazes were a nasty weapon off Leyte and Okinawa. The only thing that limited their effectiveness was the inability to fuze their bombs to penetrate decks. Ideally one wanted a bigger bomb than 250 kg, but if something that size penetrated, it could do ugly damage to any vessel this side of the Iowa. (The soul victim of the Cherry Blossum was a US picket escort that sunk in minutes because it was a flying fuzed bomb.) Most planes hit by a conventional Kamikaze would suffer damage on deck where the bomb went off and often severe loss of life. But the number of ships sunk, particularly anything larger than a DE, was low considering the extraordinary size of the USN and healthy number of aircraft expended – around 2,500.
Attacking US troops ships and landing ships from bases in Kyushu might have been a different story. It would have been extremely difficult for USN combat air patrol to protect the landings with attackers coming in low and maybe 20 minutes from their field. And the Japanese were going to pursue soft targets like LST and troop transports. The USN knew this all too well, and were getting cold feet on Olympic before Hiroshima made the question moot. That didn't mean the USN was getting cold feet on the war – the close blockade planned in the winter of 45-46 would have been designed to starve Japan. There were even plans to spray pesticides on cropland. Both nations were close to a war of annihilation. But this tragedy was no case of moral equivalence. It was the willingness of the Japanese soldier (or airman) to sacrifice his life for the honor of Japan that had convinced American soldiers and their leaders in Washington that Japan was – can't think of another word – crazy. And if you're dealing with crazy people, normal power politics don't work well. I look at all of this has a product of a generation of all-out indoctrination on the part of the Japanese military which controlled “social studies” in the Japanese school system from the time of Meiji and were running everything by the 1930s. The result was the spread of a kind of ersatz bushido designed to wed citizen and emperor. It worked all too well. Japanese fighting men often encouraged each other by saying “we shall meet at the Yasakuni Shrine.” This reflected an incredible physical courage. It also almost brought utter ruin to a great nation. Sobering.
More pics below.
Eric
