Mitsubishi A5M3a Navy Type 96 Carrier Fighter “Claude”

[NARSES2]

A Mitsubishi A5M3a Navy Type 96 Carrier Fighter "Claude"

In 1938 Mitsubishi imported a small number of 610 hp Hispano-Suiza twelve-cylinder vee liquid-cooled engines from France. Two A5M3a prototypes were built to test the novel engine and its 20mm cannon firing through the propeller hub. In reality and even though the A5M3a was slightly faster than other variants of the type, no production order was placed as the Navy did not want to rely on imported engines.

So that's the reality, but what if the Imperial Japanese Navy had decided to import a small number of the Hispano-Suiza engines ? So in my world the IJN imported 30  of the engines in late 1938. 25 were to be used for a small production run of A5M3a's, whilst the remaining 5 were to be shared amongst the Japanese engine manufacturers in order to facilitate the design and production of some domestic variants.

The small production run seem quite plausible in my view as prior to the outbreak of the conflict in China most Japanese production runs had been relatively low, particularly with regard to war time production runs. Indeed production runs worldwide in the 20/30's were low when compared to the war time years.

Upon receipt of the production aircraft the Imperial Japanese Navy issued them in small parcels amongst front line navy units in China. Here they were found to be  particularly useful in combating the Chinese Air Force's SB-2 bombers which were proving tough opponents for the standard armament of most Japanese fighter types.

Earlier this year the new producer, to me at least, AVIModels produced an injection moulded kit of this interesting variant. In a way this is a perfect example of how we What If modeller's in particular "have never had it so good". In the past we might have seen a resin conversion set or at best a very limited run full resin kit of this aircraft, but mainstream injection ? No chance. So what's it like ? There's a more detailed account of the build phase in my blog pages but put simply it builds very well and augers well for their future output. I thought I was going to have a problem with the 5 piece wing and my initial dry fit left me head scratching. However once the pieces smelt the glue they went together perfectly, so I've no idea what happened there ? The overall fit of the kit was indeed very good and the level of detail is very nice and fine. The small number of parts means it goes together very quickly and indeed I'd hesitate to call it limited run as it's as good as many mainstream kits out there. AVIModel have just brought out a boxing of the A5M1 which I ordered yesterday.

Here's a couple of "build" pics

[NARSES2]

So here we have an A5M3a of the 12th Kokutai , Imperial Japanese Navy, China 1939. Paints are in the main Colourcoats enamels with various acrylics for the detail parts. Transfers are from the box, they provide markings for the prototype and 3 What If in service examples, with the exception of the single kill marking which is from an aftermarket "kill markings" sheet. A thoroughly enjoyable build.

[PR19_Kit]

That looks REMARKBLY like a Spitfire in plan view, especially in the camo scheme on the box.

Very clean looking build there Chris, I like it. 

[NARSES2]

That looks REMARKBLY like a Spitfire in plan view, especially in the camo scheme on the box.

Indeed Kit and after I realised that I dug out an old Airfix Spitfire I/II which will be converted into something very similar but Supermarine post SMW. Thinking of it being Supermarine's late 1930's fighter for the export market.

[Tophe]

Elegant!

[Dizzyfugu]

It's such an elegant aircraft! 

I have a radial Claude in the stash (the Hobby Boss kit) and seriously considered grafting a French engine to its nose. This post here confirms my inner urge!

[Mossie]

That makes a very different looking Claude, I never knew about this variant so I was scratching my head about what it was.   Nice build Chris.

[TomZ]

Looks very slick.
Nice one!

TomZ

[loupgarou]

A very pretty plane and nice build. Could indeed be used for an early Supermarine fighter.

[PR19_Kit]

Just paint it in Dark Earth and Green, with Black and White undersides and 'QV' codes on the side and it's Duxford in 1934. 

[Glenn Gilbertson]

Great build of a beautiful subject!

[zenrat]

Cool.

[Thorvic]

Nice build of an interesting type Chris

That would look interesting with a Hurricane style canopy and retractable undercarriage 

[NARSES2]

Cheers gents

That would look interesting with a Hurricane style canopy and retractable undercarriage 

Ummmmmm, would, wouldn't it 

[PR19_Kit]

Cheers gents

That would look interesting with a Hurricane style canopy and retractable undercarriage 

Ummmmmm, would, wouldn't it 

Or even an outward retracting undercarriage and a Spitfire like canopy.

Then you could hide it amongst Lee's collection and see if anyone noticed.