Jake's Dimensions

Continuing the IJN floatplanes theme an interesting and thought provoking email was received from Griff Murphy in response to the blog on the Hasegawa E13A 'Jake' together with photos of his own splendid model made from the 1995 NP10 (51830) with catapult release of the kit and shared here with his kind permission. The model was painted with his own home brew of Testors 1/4 oz enamels and the decals are from Print Scale sheet 72026 to represent an aircraft from the heavy cruiser Chikuma piloted by Akira Ito whilst scouting Pearl Harbor prior to its attack.

Griff measured his model with a 1/72 scale ruler and calculated a length of 11.89 metres from the front of the pontoons to the rear end of the fuselage. He cited full-size aircraft measurements from William Green's 'Warplanes of WWII' Vol.6 of a length of 12.13 metres and from a series called 'Century of Flight' and various internet sources of a length of 12.17 metres.  That would put the discrepancy in overall length of the assembled Hasegawa kit between 0.24 and 0.28 metres or only 3.33 mm to 3.88 mm in 1/72 scale.    

Francillon* gives a length of 11.3 metres whilst the plans in the Maru Mechanic monograph (No.12 of Sept 1978 edition) give 11.265 metres, the same length given by the plans in Model 565 'Imperial Japanese Navy Seaplanes' of 2000. Against those dimensions Griff's model as measured would be around 8 mm too long in scale. Where does all this leave us? Perplexed! In the meantime Griff's model demonstrates that the kit can be enjoyed for its own sake and result in a good looking model, but a little bird tells me that a new tool kit of Jake is planned. . .    

Hasegawa NP10 (51830) 1995

With special thanks to Griff for the photos of his model.

* 'Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War' by René J Francillon (Putnam 1979)

Image Credit: All photos © 2021 J Griffin Murphy; Box art © 1995 Hasegawa Corp.