Operation Vengeance Tamiya P-38 ”Miss Virgina, G4M-1 ”Yamamoto” Betty, and A6M-3 Zero in 1/48 scale

Started by Louis Gardner · 102 ≡ · ↻ 4 years ago
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    David A. Thomas said 5 years ago:

    Well said, @michel-verschuere!

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    Greg Kittinger said 5 years ago:

    Man - I don't know how you can spend so much time researching, then dropping it all in here for us, then STILL keep the Iron Works producing! Amazing!

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    Robert Royes said 5 years ago:

    Catching up with in progress posts, The subject of paint color can be a might confusing, but very informative, Maybe there's a photo of that P-38 landing on a flat bed that my mother said she witnessed during WW II. Keep it coming Louis.

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    Josh Patterson said 5 years ago:

    When EAA first flew its B-25 "Berlin Express" in March for the first time in 20+ years the new paint scheme threw me. My cousin had called me to Wittman Field and I didn't know what was out and about. The new paint scheme is very deceptive in the right light, with the right background. I from the side I didn't see both tails, only one and the markings at that distance made it look less like a rectangle and more like a triangle. That coupled with the distance and lighting had me thinking for a few heartbeats that I was seeing a Betty in the air! Then common sense came over me and I realized if a Betty was being restored to flight we all would have heard about it. Good to see EAA's Mitchell in the air again though. I know it doesn't have much to do with your build Louis except I thought I saw a Betty and now I have a bit of an understanding of how friendly fire can occur!

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    James B Robinson said 5 years ago:

    Louis @lgardner, just on a whim I was researching the shooting down of Yamamoto and Operation Vengeance during my lunch break. You may have seen this article, but I thought I'd share the link here. Really interesting information here about the aftermath.

    https://www.historynet.com/have-you-heard-yamamoto.htm

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    Chuck A. Villanueva said 5 years ago:

    Thanks James for that article. Shows the term "assassinate" was not used in the operation. Though the official after action reports from the USAAF list it as an "assassination" as written by the staff and turned into the various agencies. The US Navy report simply list the death of Yamamoto, KIA. (killed in action). Historians who study and write about the operation are probably just simply reciting what the Army Air Force calls it. Though it is incorrect to use that term, as assassinations are of heads of state. Officers, generals, colonels admirals, senior field officers are soldiers, and are subject to die in action and are fair game if targeted or flagged as an opportunity to eliminate. Just as our own people are fair game in a declared war.

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    David A. Thomas said 5 years ago:

    The remarkable thing, James, is that the breaking of the Japanese code by the Americans in the Pacific was a corollary to the Brits cracking the German Enigma Machine at the outset of the ETO War. This, because the Germans were so confident in Enigma that they shared it with the Japanese. A deciphered Enigma message was called an "Ultra," whilst a deciphered Japanese version of the same was called a "Magic." The Brits kept their cracking of that code top secret until the early 1970s, but even then it shocked the Germans that they had been decoded, in great part even before the war began (Jonathan Cave Brown's Bodyguard of Lies really lays this out well).

    My guess is that, for all the specifics of this article--and very good details at that--that hubris was shared by the Japanese. They missed the cues because, a priori it was simply inconceivable to them that they might be cracked. Surely the originators of the code, their German allies, would let them know if anything had been compromised. But since all seemed well there, they dismissed the matter out of hand; it simply didn't enter into their thinking.

    My thoughts...

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    James B Robinson said 5 years ago:

    David @davidathomas, I agree with you and think your thoughts are valid.

    Chuck @uscusn, I wasn't going to point that fact out, but since you are one of the "Bad Boys" here, I guess it is worth noting. Unfortunately, I feel this late shot across the bow will go unnoticed and mostly disregarded. Nice shot though. 🙂

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    Chuck A. Villanueva said 5 years ago:

    David, you know that is one point in that article that grabbed me but my blindness of the moment totally blocked the real meat of the matter. The Japanese really felt mentally superior to their American counterparts. Time and time again you here of their arrogance of that fact, you see it in the movies, portraying the arrogance of Japanese officers and NCO's over their captors. Watching "Unbroken" the Louie Zamperini movie in how he in his own way stood toe to toe to the "Birdman" though as hard he tried not to provoke him, but that man did his best to break him. He didn't. But Yamamoto knew this arrogance and way of thinking about Americans was wrong and in the movie Tora Tora Tora, they made that point at the end of the movie. And he knew Japan could not sustain and keep up with America in a pro long fight. The knock out punch at Pearl was a kick in the groin, but lucky for us they didn't invade after the attack as we were far from ready.

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    David A. Thomas said 5 years ago:

    That's true, Chuck, and the reality is that racism ran deep on both sides--racism that blinded both combatants at key junctures throughout the conflict. The stereotype of the bucktooth, Coke-glasses wearing nearsighted Asian was clearly all wrong; we did not understand Bushido, we could not comprehend loyalty to an emperor, and in other ways we simply underestimated the aggressiveness of our foe--at least early on. But they viewed us as soft, cowardly, and incapable of sustaining a long war of attrition. Again, I think they fed off of German tropes and the Germans fed off of them--each had their own "master race" ideals. (Göring responded to Rommels complaints about the Brits dropping American-made ordnance by saying Americans could only make razor blades and refrigerators; Rommel retorted that he wished he had access to such razor blades.)

    But on the Enigma and consequent Ultras and Magics, that arrogance went to a whole new level. It was so arrogant they didn't even see it as arrogance--they felt they had discovered something that was beyond human ability to unlock. The harsh reality was that Polish codebreakers had done serious work before the war even began, passed their findings to the French when Germany overran their country, and the French to the Brits when the same happened to them. The technology improved during the war, of course, but it was not only not impossible to break, it was there from the outset. Shucks, Monty was reading Rommel's orders for El Alamein before Rommel was!

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years ago:

    Gentlemen,
    I want to thank each and every one of you for these amazing responses ! I have learned so much from you, and it sounds like we are all on the same page...

    One thing I am still struggling with however is the type of A6M-3 Zero that was flown on the Admiral's last mission... I found a photo of the last surviving Zero pilot. This picture was taken from Wikipedia.


    It was cropped from this original photo.

    His name was Kenji Yanagiya. He was the only "escort" Zero pilot to survive the War. Follow this link and it will tell you more about his wartime service.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Yanagiya

    His log book shows the type he flew that day is listed simply as an A6M-3. It gives us the tail number of T2-169, and the article lists the other escorting Zero pilots by name.

    Now I have to determine what sub type of Zero he flew... Was it a type 33 with the square wing tips, or was it the newer type 22 with the typical round wing tips we are used to seeing on a Zero ?

    There are some thoughts the plane would have been a Type 22 since this version had the longer range especially when compared to the Type 33.

    However I have found three pictures of A6M-3's that are from the 204th Kokutai, and they appear to have the square wing tips.

    Here's a picture of T2-197


    T2-1129 and T2-112, also from the 204th Kokutai.

    This last plane is T2-190, and it was allegedly flown by a pilot who also flew escort in a Zero on the "last mission". His name was Shoichi Sugita. He flew as a wingman with the 1st Shotai on the last flight. This flight consisted of 3 Zero's, as did the 2nd Shotai. This is leading me to believe that the plane I wanted to model may have indeed had square wingtips...

    I could simply switch gears and build the Tamiya kit as T2-190 as flown by Shoichi Sugita. I am fairly certain this plane could have actually been one of the escorting Zeros, and we are fortunate enough to have a picture of it. The original source for the picture has it listed with the pilot's name "Sugita". The inconsistency is that I can't tell if Sugita was flying this same plane on the same day as the last flight. It is accepted that Sugita flew this very plane... but we are not sure if he was in this actual plane on the day the Admiral was shot down.


    The possibility does exist that this plane could have been a replacement for the unit, and it simply "adopted" the number from the plane it was replacing...

    Having found these 3 pictures, the scale is tipping towards building the square wingtip version, and this will be an all Tamiya show.

    As always,
    Comments are encouraged.

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years ago:

    OK things are starting to happen now... I cut my first plastic parts and commenced gluing together some parts. I chose to start with the Betty and I'll start cranking out the Zero parts too. More on that in a few.

    This time I decided to glue everything together before I painted it. I wanted the glue joints to be nice and strong. I normally experience problems if I paint parts before they have been glued. I will scrape away the offending paint, but for some reason my parts don't like to stick together as good as they do when it's not been painted yet.

    Then I also end up having to go back and do some touch up after the glue has squished out of the joints so I have been assembling first and painting second lately... We will see how this works this time.

    Here's the cockpit of the Betty shortly after the assembly work began.


    In about an hour, I had this much work built on the interior. This is going together very fast, and the fit of the parts is spectacular so far. As they say, it's typical Tamiya.

    If you are wondering why I placed a steel ruler in the pictures, here's why. This next photo shows the horizontal stabilizer assembly for the Betty after I glued the parts together... This thing is HUGE !

    I'll bet the Bf-109 had a similar wing area when compared to the stabilizers of the Betty. What a plane.

    I wanted to be able to paint all of the interior at one time. So I assembled the tail gunner's position and added the stabilizer main spar. This is a nice touch and it should help with alignment when that time comes.


    Here's a picture that shows the fuselage halves. I placed a steel ruler next to them, and you can see it's well over 12 inches in length. The interior details look good enough for me. I've read some complaints from others who have built up one of these as it being a little sparse. I'm going to roll with it as is, right from the box.

    I'm sure that someone could have a great time adding some scratch built items here. This is a very nice kit so far.

    I will continue with the building portion on the Betty, and the Zero will get started too. I'm going to be spraying both interiors using a color that will look very close to "R.A.F. Interior Green". Both of these planes were built by Mitsubishi, so Mitsubishi interior green it is.

    The Tamiya P-38 will not get the cockpit painted in this color.

    I can guarantee you that.

    Speaking of the Tamiya P-38, it will get started very soon. I'll jump on it just as soon as I get the cockpit built for the Zero... So hang in there, It's right around the corner.

    As always, comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for stopping by.

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    James B Robinson said 5 years ago:

    Louis, you can go left or you can go right but you have to make the call and any call you make is right with me. I was looking at the dates of manufacture and delivery based on Wikipedia and I was not able to run that to ground. Not sure we will ever know. That being said, you pick one and few will know and those that THINK they know will squawk. Who cares?

    Onward through the fog!

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years ago:

    Hey James.

    I am going to be using the Tamiya Clipped Wing Zero. I also made a mistake in my last post. I’m going to be painting the interior of both the Betty and the Zero using a color that is very close to the typical Interior Green that we see in American aircraft and not the RAF interior green like I stated previously.

    Nick Millman has a fantastic website that is strictly for Japanese aircraft. He has done a lot of great research on the colors and this is what he says.


    Use a color that is a little more yellow than FS 34151 and it’s good to go.

    Also another thing that I discovered is that all of the A6M-3’s were made by Mitsubishi. This goes for the Square / clipped wing tip type 32 and the standard wing type 22. Here’s a chart that shows the total number produced and both types are cited as being manufactured by Mitsubishi.
    This chart below is for the square or clipped wing version. This is the Type 32


    This next chart is for the standard wingtip version. This is the Type 22. Even though it has a lower number listed for the Type, it actually entered service afterwards. It just happened to be on the drawing board first. Things happened that kept it from being delivered first. This is one of those situations where the numbers didn’t match what you would expect.

    So it’s looking as if all of these A6M-3 Zeros were built only by Mitsubishi and none were produced by Nakajima.

    Thanks for the compliments and words of wisdom. I’ll take your advice and run with it.

    The clipped wings Tamiya kit it is.

    Thanks my friend.

    As always comments are encouraged.

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years ago:

    Greetings everyone !
    I just received a wonderful message from Andrew H @pb_legend

    It seems that he has been doing some research on the Zero's, and has uncovered some fantastic information that was posted many years ago over at Jaircraft.com

    Here's a abbreviated version.

    There were both types of A6M-3's flown by the 204th Kokutai on the Admirals last mission. The Model 22 and the Model 32... Yanagiya's plane is shown as an A6M3 Model 32 T2 169, and Sugita's plane is shown as T2 165 A6M3 Model 22.

    Plus another interesting item was found. The 204th Kokutai had a unit identifier on the tail that was painted on as "T-2". It was painted over sometime and only the aircraft number remained. So it's entirely possible the planes were only wearing the 3 digit identifier and didn't have the additional T-2 markings.

    Here's another good bit of information. However this source lists all 6 Zeros as A6M-3 Model 32's.

    No.705 Kaigun Kokutai, Mitsubishi G4M1 Betty, s/n 2656, call [323], flown by KOTANI, Takeo, was based at Vunakanau, but had been flown into Rabaul East A/F (Lakunai) for use as a transport by Admiral YAMAMOTO and his staff.
    2) "Also his escort of 6 Zero's where were they based?"
    The six Mitsubishi A6M3 model 32 Hamps were attached to No.204 Kaigun Kokutai based at Lakunai (Rabaul East)
    3) "Can you confirm the.. pilots as the escort"?
    CPO HIDAKA, Yoshima (KIA 6/7/43)
    Lt. MORIZAKI, Takeshi (KIA 6/16/43)
    PO2 OKAZAKI, Yasuji (KIA 6/7/43)
    FPO SUGITA, Shoichi (KIA 4/15/45)
    FPO TSUJINOUE, Toyomitsu (KIA 7/1/43)
    FPO YANAGIYA, Kenji (survived the war)

    So I just may build one of the Hasegawa A6M-3 kits as Sugita's plane to go along with the Betty. Why not build an example of each ? I could even build both Zeros using the Hasegawa kits, since now I have both models of the A6M-3 in Hasegawa form. They’re a nicer rendition of the Zero and have more details. But we have to keep in mind that the older Tamiya Zero was designed in the 1970’s, so it should not be faulted. It still looks good and builds up nicely.

    If you are serious about doing research on anything that is Japanese aircraft related, I highly recommend you head over to Jaircraft.com and Aviation of Japan. These are some great places and they have some very knowledgeable people here.

    Thanks very much Andrew... It's amazing what we can accomplish when we work together.

    As always comments are encouraged.

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