Kamikaze Cessna! (Area 88)

The finished model:

The scene:

Working as a part-time mechanic while putting himself through flight school, Shin Kazama meets a sixteen-year-old Ryoko Tsugumo for the first time.  After a slight case of mistaken identity, Ryoko convinces her father, Zenzo Tsugumo to have Shin accompany them on their trip to Oshima Island as co-pilot.  During the flight, Zenzo recounts the story of an earlier trip to Oshima Island – when he was the pilot of a Mitsubishi A6M Zero on a Kamikaze mission – when he discovered a will to live that he didn’t know he had.

Check out the original manga scene from Chapter 022 “Clinging to Life” here:

The story:

Although it’s a bit of a throwaway story element – mainly designed as a framework for the first meeting between Shin and a Ryoko – I always liked the juxtaposition of the two planes.  There’s that lovely “now and then” play off each other… the Mitsubishi Zero in its Kamikaze death dive and the the pleasant afternoon flight.  You can almost smell the difference between the leaking oil, fire and smoke, and the sweet scent of young budding romance.

And what could be more than a build that incorporates a A5M Zero and a 172 Cessna Skyhawk? That’s not something you can see everyday.

While there’s not a lot of scene to choose from, the Zero is pretty straightforwardly depicted as late war Kamikaze-fodder.  On the other hand, the Cessna is mainly just seen in tiny pseudo-silhouette.  That leaves lots of room for interpretation.  So while I didn’t think Zenzo Tsugumo would actually paint his private Skyhawk in Yamato Airlines livery, I decided to go with something a bit more symbolic.

The kits:

• Zero Fighter A6M2b 201 Flying Group by Sweet
• Cessna 172 Skyhawk by F-Toys

The build:

This one was a bit of a “find an excuse – any excuse” build.  I ran across the 1/144 Sweet Zero kit at the local hobby shop and I knew I wanted one.  It really is a quality little kit – one of the best I’ve seen in any scale, let alone 1/144.  I’d been mulling it over, when I suddenly remember the small scene, not more than a couple of panels, from the Area 88 manga that feature Zenzo Tsugumo in his younger days.  After that I was on the hunt for a 1/144 Cessna Skyhawk to make the build complete.

The Zero was a pretty straightforward build. The nice round cowling made it easy to slip the micro motor into the right spot, so no real problems.  I was able to give it an aluminum undercoat and use the hairspray chipping technique to good effect.

The Skyhawk was actually a bit more of a challenge than I thought.  First of all, I was glad to find one, but the 1/144 Cessna kit from F-Toys is really just made for the Japanese gashapon market.  Although the details are quite good, there are a few “snap-tite” elements, such as a thick canopy and prominent locating posts. The other main difference is the pieces come pre-painted under some pretty thick lacquer-based paint – which was a total pain to remove.

The biggest challenge with the overall build though, was getting the micro DC motor into the Cessna.  Unlike the Zero, with it’s nice round cowling, the Cessna has a very flat engine space.  The first attempt ended in disaster, mainly because I gouged out all the available space and then ended up getting CA glue all over the place while trying to get the engine placed in exactly the right spot.  Luckily I was able to get my hands on another kit and started over.  The second time I gave up trying to squeeze figures of Shin, Ryoko and her father into the cabin.  Instead I just used the space for the motor and extended the shaft using the metal tubing from a syringe.

After that, it was just a matter of careful masking, painting, more masking, a bit more painting… and some homemade decals. The YAL logo turned out just fine, but I was almost happier with the registration number. YA7986… Yamato Airlines 1979-86, the original publication run of the Area 88 manga.

i think, all in all, it turned out all right, but feel free to tell me how you feel.