Japanese Type 95 Ha Go

[Darren Gawle]

Ok, so I finally finished that previous project I was working on and have been getting busy over the past couple of weeks with the Type 95. No pics just yet, but I'll have some soon.

Picked up the following book last week:



It's quite good, I think, but considering I have no other primary reference sources than Zaloga's old Tank Battles Of The Pacific you may wish to take that recommendation with a grain of salt. Taki's webpage [url](http://www3.plala.or.jp/takihome/)[/url] has a brief list of errata, and Taki himself (Akira Takizawa) collaborated on the book which to me is a vote of confidence.

Then I found this photo on Flickr, which blew my mind:



Now if only we could find a photo of German late-war armour which is this clear! Fantastic, even if we have to take into account the effects of time on the tones. I wasn't expecting to ever see the two greens, brown, and khaki on the same vehicle. It looks like khaki, anyway, rather than that peculiar "parched grass" colour. Also, the absence of the yellow disruptive lines points in the direction of this paintjob happening after the move to khaki, even though the tone is pretty light.

Hey Paul, sorry I missed your question before - they do look like smoke dischargers, but I don't know. Fine Molds does market a kit of the Type 95 with smoke dischargers, but I haven't seen the exact layout.

DG

[Markus Lack]

Very nice subjekt Darren!
I´ll be following this blog! Great picture!

[Darren Gawle]

More colour images for you tonight - I'll start off with one from the website Tarawa On The Web ()



I originally thought this might be a sprayed pattern, but as all the other shots I've seen of Tarawa Ha Gos are hardedged patterns this is probably a trick of the film quality (maybe it's a still from a movie, I don't know...)

I found these stills only today in a film about Peleliu on YouTube:






I think these are of two different tanks, as the lettering in the first three doesn't match the first letter in the last one. It's a nice look at the tone of that yellow distruptive stripe down the side of the hull, anyway.

DG

[Darren Gawle]

Tonight I finally took some photos of the current status of the model. I'd hazard a guess that the model itself is about 90% done - however, the Modelkasten tracks I ordered for it came today, and that process may take as long as the build up to this point.



I like the PE exhaust shroud which came with the kit; it's made of softer brass than you normally get with, say, Aber. Maybe FineMolds' brass has a higher copper content - anyway, it bent very easily and retained its shape well. As you can see in the next photo, there's a fair amount of rivetting and re-rivetting with this model. You get a few dozen shave-off rivets moulded onto each of the two running gear sprues, but even so I think I still don't have enough. As I also said earlier, there's a more comprehensive PE set available through FM, but I didn't feel I needed it. I did end up scratchbuilding the latches for the louvred engine hatch because I felt the kit parts lacked finesse.



Here in this bow shot I've re-done the tow coupling, and shaved off the brass IJA star - as far as I can tell, Type 95s with this kind of tow coupling didn't have the IJA star in the glacis, possibly the star was simply painted in white, but again due to the angle of many of the photos I can't tell. More rivets around the final drive covers were needed. You can also see the white styrene where I had to fill prominent gap between the fenders and the final drives:



Please forgive the mess around the upper and lower hull plate joins...



The casemate for the hull MG was also pretty annoying and needed a fair amount of shimming and filling. The weld bead around its base hides much of the ugliness pretty effectively.

I also elected to rebuild the exhaust and use styrene tubing instead of glueing the two part halves which come with the kit. Much of this will be invisible from more than 6 inches away anyhow:



And lastly for tonight, the package which came from RZM today:



DG

[Dan Reed]

Nice!
Dan

[Jamie Tainton]

Nice pictures and background informations. I know I for one will most likely be learning something from this blog.

[Darren Gawle]

Thanks, I know I'm learning a lot from this build as it is, too. I'm pretty sure a Type 97 Chi Ha will be in my future as well.

DG

[Darren Gawle]

Not much of an update today; I just wanted to point out the addition of these strange little mud flaps which hang underneath each of the front fenders. They rarely show up in any period photos (and were possibly removed by crews) - and certainly they don't seem to figure on any museum pieces I've seen photos of - but on p.93 of the aforementioned AJ Press book there's an excellent shot of a Ha Go captured on Makin which shows these in place.



So now there's some more tool stowage, the front fender supports, and a couple of other sundry details to deal with and it'll be ready from paint. This does not include an estimate on the tracks...

In other news...

Noticed this on DML's resident pseudo-Japanese fanboy's "blog":

If this ties in with their announcement of a new-tool half-track then it would point at a Type 1 Ho Ha; but then again it's been announced that it will include a gun of some description, and I don't see DML releasing a new-tool Japanese artillery piece to go with it. If on the other hand it ties in with their recent field trips to Peleliu ("Project Peleliu" they're calling it...) then my money's on a new-tool Ha Go, seeing as this was the only Japanese AFV which fought there. And after this build, I wouldn't complain about that one iota.

DG

[Jamie Tainton]

[Andrei Kazinets]

About! Project continuation. That's good!
It is not necessary to be afraid tracks Modelkasten, they gather easily and quickly. I have collected for 2 evenings both tapes.


Only if to be exact, it is necessary to repeat apertures in end faces, there where fingers track are inserted...