Area 88 – 1/100 scale projects

To be honest, 1/100 scale modelling is not really my scale of choice.  That’s hardly unsurprising as it’s probably the least popular (overall) of any of the “main” airplane modelling scales (1/144, 1/100, 1/72, 1/48, 1/32, 1/24).  So why do I have a project section devoted to it?

It’s all because of figures actually.

In 1982, right at the height of the popularity of the Area 88 manga, a Japanese company named Takara began releasing a series of 1/100 scale airplane models based on the hit series.  This release was special for two reasons: first, many of the kits were ‘new tools’ (meaning they were new products, not just re-boxings of older moulds), the second was that 8 out of 10 of the kits included 1/24 scales figures of the characters that fly the planes.

So, even though originally I wasn’t particularly attracted to the scale, the inclusion of figures really did it for me.  But where would this scale fit between my 1/72 and 1/44 scale projects? I didn’t just want to duplicate the same things, just in a different scale.  What I hit on was “in-flight” rather than “in-action”.  Whereas my 1/72 projects are as detailed depictions as I can reasonably create of the planes on the tarmac, and the 1/44 projects are mini-dioramas of action scenes from the manga. I decided to depict these builds as being elegantly in-flight alongside their figures where applicable (or manageable).

Besides the ten Takara kits, I also have plans to include some kits selected from the 1/100 Tamiya range.  Currently my project lis is as follows:

Box Art	Airplane	Pilot
	F-20 (F-5G) Tigershark	Shin Kazama
	F-100D Super Saber	Mickey Simon
	F-8E Crusader	Shin Kazama
	Kfir-C2	Saki Vashtahl
	F-14A Tomcat	Mickey Simon
	AV-8A Harrier	Kim Aba
	A-4M Skyhawk	Campbell
	Yak-38 Forger	A.G.F. pilot
	MiG-27 Flogger-D	Col. Kilvic
	A-10A Thunderbolt II	Greg Gates
	Fiat G.91	Mario
	B.A.C. Lightning	Escape Killers
	MiG-21 Fishbed	Gary “Mac” MacBurn
	F-4E Phantom II	“Phoenix” Charlie
	MiG-19 Farmer	A.G.F. pilot
	F-104G Starfighter	Sera “Siren” Barnack
	HS Buccaneer Mk.2	Col. Roundell
	J35F Draken	Shin Kazama
	F-105D Thunderchief	Nyugen Van Cho