Jumping into what is one of the largest GB around and already with several models completed, I ended up deciding to drop my initial idea for a model, Hasegawa A6M2, and opt to go ahead with one of the last Japanese designs in WW2, the Aichi Seiran, a plane that bores several singularities on its own.

The Seiran was designed to be launched from submarines and having floats meant that they could perform their mission and be reloaded and stored back inside the huge hangars the I-400 class submarines displayed. In fact these subs were the biggest submarines carriers of WW2.

To fit inside the big tubular hangars of the I-400 the Seiran had detachable wings, folding mechanism for the top of tail section and removable floaters. The ground crew could assemble the entire airframe in just 4 minutes apparently.

Their first mission was originally to bomb the western coast of the USA, but the strategic bombing of the Panama Canal was in fact the mission destination. In the end, considering Japan’s dire situation in the final months of the war, the submarine flotilla was diverted to yet another target, the Ulithi Atoll, where the allied invasion fleet was gathering. Armistice came before the submarines arrived there, so the Seiran never got its battle debut.

I have this kit since it came to the market, back in 1997 according to Scalemates, and somewhere in the last 23 years I painted the insides with Aeromaster Mitsubishi green

and assembled the floats and wing structure.

Besides doing a better job hiding those big holes inside the the cockpit walls

, all the improvement I plan to do is adding seat belts and some scratch refinements. I also started adding some riveting , using solely the box illustration for it. The idea is not to do a perfect replica of the riveting, merely a suggestion of them as a feature. Here are a couple of photos of its cockpit too bad the kit only offers a fully closed canopy .

Thank you for the welcome word Louis! I’m still waiting for the masks to arrive (no idea how long that will take given current situation) and also some new paint. Still a lot can be done in the meantime.

Pedro, that is a fantastic start! You are off to a great build and I cannot wait to see it going on. I've got the same to build, so I will follow with anticipation. I love your detailed presentation.
all the best!

Finished my first step in the build, the riveting.

As I said before, it’s not accurate or pretend to be as such, still I find it pleasing and should payoff at the weathering phase. Applied some gouache black paint in some areas just to see how it looks... seen better but also seen worse 🙂

Going into the cockpit now and some details on the fuselage that need to be made before gluing the whole thing.

Another thing that would improve the look of this kit would be to replace the wingtip signal lens.

I remember Eriks work on his seemingly endless string of 109 builds and they look fantastic, just not sure if I can match such finesse, or worse, ending up trashing the kit.

Looking at the kit I think it’s the most, or at least one of the most, beautiful Japanese WW2 planes.

A pure racer.

Thanks Spiros!

Anyway here goes another small update.
Still waiting for the mask sets ordered but luckily I remembered having a Maketar masks for the Japanese meatballs, so I went ahead and painted main national insignia and other small warning areas.

Also did some work on the cockpit (I’ll leave this for a later update) and started the dolly that will provides a nice bed for a water based plane outside its habitat 🙂

That looks really fast! - and what a treat with painted markings. A joy to follow this build!

This is some amazing work on display right here ! The effects of your pre-shading / marbling work is outstanding. I also like how you have decided to spray on the "meat balls". Well done my friend... Thanks for the updates.

@holzhamer - not just stopping by, but following with interest. 🙂

The marbling and chipping looks great - keep up the good work Pedro!