Jake - A Tale of Two Scales ~ Part 3

Continuing the season of IJN floatplanes with a follow up to Part 1 (way back in 2016) which promised a more detailed appraisal of the near 50 year old Hasegawa 1/72 scale kit of the Aichi E13A1 'Jake', also taking the opportunity to note two further releases since then, both in combo form with other kits. In 2018 the Jake was released in combo with the A6M2-N 'Rufe' to represent aircraft of the Kamikawa Maru (shown above), the kit offering optional decals for Z1-23 and ZI-26 based in Indo-China during December 1941, both in overall grey finish. A second  combo kit (shown below) was released in 2020 featuring 'Jake' with less well known markings options for 'Omi-4' (オミ-4) or 'Omi-5' and Kawanishi E7K1 Type 94 Model 1 'Alf' with markings options for 'Omi-3' and 'Omi-6' from the Ominato Ku. Ominato Ku established in 1933 and was based near the city of that name in Japan located in northern Honshu. The IJN's Ōminato Guard District (大湊警備府, Ōminato Keibifu) monitored the Tsugaru Strait between Honshu and Hokkaidō and patrolled the Hokkaidō, Karafuto and Kurile Islands coastlines.  It operated various aircraft types deployed for crew training, reconnaissance, escort duties and air defence . In December 1944 it was disbanded and incorporated into 90 Ku.

In both cases the box art presented a rather more agreeable profile of the aircraft than the assembled kit manages to achieve. At the time of writing it remains the only game in town in this scale, somewhat maligned and one of those kits much said to be in need of a better replacement. However from a cursory glance at eBay it seems to more than hold its own in terms of value on the second hand market. It was a Navy workhorse, used from first to last in many diverse roles, including strategic bombing in its long ranged attacks on the Canton-Hankow railway. 

For such a venerable and singular kit of an arguably significant, ubiquitous as well as iconic type the lack of aftermarket improvements and accessories for this kit is mysterious. There is a replacement vacform canopy by Falcon (which corrects the rake of the windscreen and the depth of the canopy), a set of canopy masks for the kit part by Dead Design, and a trio of Rising Decals sets to provide a replacement cowling with individual exhaust stacks, radar antennae and a 20mm cannon, each with relevant decals. There is also a dedicated decal sheet for the type from Print Scale - 72-206 - which offers no less than 13 markings options in both overall grey and green over grey. But there appears to be nothing to improve or replace the kit's sparse interior, not even a basic Airwaves etched sheet. A pity too that a beaching trolley was not included in the kit. At present therefore the modeller of Jake must resort to the time honoured use of plastic card and other improvised methods to enhance the model. 

Without comparing the kit to plans an impression is immediately given of a too short rear fuselage and a too tall canopy which starts the resultant model on an unfortunate journey towards a Nob caricature, detracting from the more svelte appearance of the original. The overall length of the original aircraft is variously given as 11.265 to 11.3 metres, measuring from the front of the floats to the rear of the tail cone, although the Shuppan-Kyodo Encyclopedia gives a curiously variable measurement of 11.49 to 11.30 metres. The only available 1/72 plans for this appraisal were those in Aviation News Vol.21 No.2 of June 1992 but examination revealed those are also slightly underscale, the length calculating to just 11.1 metres. The kit rear fuselage is the problem appearing too short from the rear of the canopy to the tailfin even when offered up to those plans and calculates as short by 6.25 mm in 1/72 scale to the original fuselage length. It should be feasible to cut the rear fuselage (at the rearmost panel line) and either to insert a laminated plastic card plug or 'girders' and filling to correct the length. The canopy is marginally too tall in profile, which emphasises the fuselage length issue, and the windscreen is not quite raked enough. The appearance can be improved either by judicious reduction of the canopy's lower edges or by replacement with the Falcon vacform canopy. 

The kit is flawed, but arguably not fatally, and there are positives, especially making allowance for its vintage.  Before the invention of fatal flaws and trial by online forum Scale Models magazine (August 1973) described the kit as 'charming' - 'well moulded in pale grey and, as usual, the surface detail is confined to panel lines, not an oversized rivet in sight! The model is straightforward to construct and the usual precision of this manufacturer's tooling leaves only a minimum of filling to be necessary.'

The moulding is on the whole delicate, with fine raised panel lines (which to re-engrave would not be too onerous a task) and fabric covered control surfaces perhaps better represented than in more recent kits from this manufacturer. The engine is a separate six part assembly with optional open or closed cowling flaps with commendably fine edges which can be further thinned with judicious use of wet'n'dry. In the original kit four separate open cowling panels were provided in order to display the engine, with the modeller requested to provide supports from wire or heat stretched sprue. That option has been omitted in more recent releases. Alternative early and later form exhausts are provided as well as the option for radar antennae. Additional struts were included to provide for early and late float configurations.

Engraving defines the centre section bomb-bay doors with their distinctive blisters but there is no provision to model them open and no ordnance is included. Jake could carry two 60kg bombs inclined in the bomb bay (hence the blisters) and a further two 60kg bombs on external racks outboard of the centre section. Alternatively a single 250kg bomb could be carried externally under the centre section on a rack offset to port. All of this lethality can be added by the intrepid modeller and excellent 3D moulded IJN ordnance sets are now available from Ushi (blissfully without the need to bend and fiddle photo-etched fins onto resin bomb casings).

The under fuselage windows are included as transparencies. Maru Mechanic identifies the starboard window for bomb aiming and the port window for photo-reconnaissance. The central navigator/bomb-aimer was equipped with a tubular bombsight which was stored on the port cockpit wall and could be inserted into a gimbal in the bomb-aiming window when required. Cockpit detail in the kit consists of a crude floor tray with three seats and three identical crewmen. In the earlier kits a single instrument panel for the pilot was included but in later kits a second panel for the navigator/bomb-aimer has been added. Further detail is limited to the A-frame behind the pilot's head and an RDF loop, both to be added to the fuselage decking beneath the canopy. Although not much is to be seen there is plenty of scope for improving the cockpit by building on the kit floor, whilst the kit supplied seats are not bad and a definite improvement on the 'armchairs' in the Betty kit. For the more intrepid modeller a folded wing presentation is always possible. So far then, all is not lost and for adding more detail Maru Mechanic is your friend. As Bill Bailey might say:- "Not too bad - all things considered". 

Cockpit colour is a grey-green, similar to FS 24226, with a darker green for various components such as radio sets. For the overall grey versions a choice between the greenish grey of J3 (approx FS 16307) or the amber grey (approx FS 16350) of the Aichi D3A1 'Val' is a matter for the modeller. The Hasegawa combo box art chanels Maru Mechanic's unconvincing light grey white but the instructions suggest Mr Color 35 IJN Gray Mitsubishi which is a blueish grey as measured (H61 IJN Gray is closer to J3 and was suggested in some earlier releases).  For the upper surface dark green the slightly more greenish D2 (approx FS 14056) is probably a better bet. The wing walkway lines, often depicted as yellow, should be silver. The diagonal stripes often applied to the tailplanes, and sometimes the inboard wing leading edge, were not as often suggested guidance for the gunner but rather for the navigator to calculate wind drift with the use of smoke floats or dye markers. Some kit releases suggest Gunze H339 for the underside of floats on all grey examples without listing that in the paint colours table. It is Engine Gray FS 16081. 

Update: A listing of additional Hasegawa 'Jake' kits released since this blog article may be found here.

Image credit: Box art and catalogue image © 1978, 2018 & 2020 Hasegawa Corp.; Review kit photo © 1973 P Kirby via Scale Models magazine (Model & Allied Publications Ltd.); Kit part schematics © 2021 Aviation of Japan