Nakajima J1N1-S - Aloha Airlines - *DONE*

TheChronicOne · October 25, 2021, 12:23:19 AM

EDIT: This was copied from my blog so the wording might be a little strange. I edited it as best I could to make it better.

The latest in my series of 1/144 military planes with civilian airliner themes, an Aloha taxi/route nav./etc. trainer. Backstory could be interesting! Perhaps some weird instance of it being captured and winding up in HI and being found later blah blah blah... who knows!

I have two of these little kits and I love them because they come with a free lil 1/144 scale cargo truck!

When I got the kits, they came with a bundle of 1/72 stuff and I didn't really care about them at all - they were just extras in a scale I don't do military in. Since I started doing civvie 1/144 stuff though, including put airliner liveries on military planes, I gained a new appreciation so gave them a second look....

For 1/144 it is small for trying to put airliner things on so it's a good thing that I have smaller scale 1/200 transfers for it. They are very old and these always like to fall apart but I will put decal film on them and try anyway.

The kit itself:

I hope it works..... before I get started I will make sure the transfers will actually fit. Even being smaller scale they still might not fit on the limited real estate the Irving provides. I have tricks up my sleeve, however.... it may not be possible to run the cheatline and the "Aloha" banner both on the fuselage but I might be able to split the cheatline with the "Aloha" in the middle or even do away with most of the cheatline. We'll see.

PR19_Kit · October 25, 2021, 03:10:10 AM

I'm somewhat vainly trying to get my head around an Aloha Gekko.

However it ends up it's going to look SPECTACULAR!

Tophe · October 25, 2021, 11:24:15 AM

This will interest me also, as there is not many twin-engine warbirds at 1/144 scale, thanks for the info, and I will see how it is in your hands

TheChronicOne · October 25, 2021, 12:25:34 PM

Thanks, fellers. I plan on knocking this one out swiftly if I can so hopefully we'll be able to lay eyes on it soon. I'm not going to focus too heavily on making it "plausible" but It'll half way make sense... I mean... it's not like it's going to be Jet Blue or something based out of JFK flying to Miami or something... it'll be halfway plausible. It's not outside of the realm of possibility that one of these could wind up on HI even if the Japanese never sent one there... I haven't gotten all the way into my research yet but the time period, region and all that match up well enough... Aviation is chock full of outlandish stories (just look at the formation of the Israeli Air Force.... if it didn't actually happen, one might say, "Nah, that's bullshit!") so this shouldn't turn too many heads. In fact, of all my little "fighter liners" this one might actually be the most plausible, the Air France Eurofighter being the least plausible......

Pause for reference photo. A few of these were saved at the end of the war and shipped East, four I think. At this point there is one remaining intact on Earth.

Millard H. Sharp (Author's note: appears that the blue background was edited in, obviously, but this is a pretty great photo of this aircraft!)

AHEM... I'm blabbing. I've actually made pretty decent progress on this so far. I've glued the fuselage, wings, and gear together. Cowlings and gear are painted.....measuring for the transfers is done. They'll fit but I'm going to have to get creative with the cheatline somehow. Worried about the those... every time I use some they like to shatter, even with decal fix. I'm keeping this in mind, however, and if things go South I'll be able to take the model and put something else on it even though it's already painted.

Today I plan to paint the canopy framing. Oh boy.... tiny... I have to dig out my "high dollar" fine brushes and I'll have to not have too much coffee this morning. Also going to get the props painted. Hopefully the glue on the other stuff is dry enough to sand smooth... if so, I'll paint the plane itself, too, I suppose.

This whole thing is tiny... once completed it'll be another that fits snuggly in the palm of your hand. Hey, does anyone know that that thing is that comes out of the bottom of the nose area?

Is it like.... a weird lil periscope for driving on the ground or what?!

Pitot tube? The thing itself on the model makes it look like the former, but the box artwork makes it look thinner like a pitot tube. Regardless, I have no clue what it is so out of curiosity it would be nice if someone else did.

The Bonus Feature:

I suppose I could build this lil truck, too. Why not? I'll paint it up pretty generic so I can use it with all of my 1/144 stuff.

Rick Lowe · October 26, 2021, 12:48:50 AM

You could leave the tray off the truck and add some sort of towing attachment, for moving aircraft around?
Not a 5th wheel, but some sort of drawbar arrangement.

With the high-nose stance of tail-draggers, you wouldn't need something low like they use today.

Scotaidh · October 26, 2021, 01:53:10 AM

Quote from: Rick Lowe on October 26, 2021, 12:48:50 AM
You could leave the tray off the truck and add some sort of towing attachment, for moving aircraft around?
Not a 5th wheel, but some sort of drawbar arrangement.

With the high-nose stance of tail-draggers, you wouldn't need something low like they use today.

Um - tail-draggers are towed by the tail-wheel ...

TheChronicOne · October 26, 2021, 02:03:27 AM

That's..... a really cool idea. I have two of these so I could build one like you suggest (and it would now be a what-if!!) and have another to build as some other thing or as-is. It would be perfect for these little airplanes like this and would add to the "airliner" feel. Indeed, it would look pretty cool to have one pulling this J1 around by the tail gear!

More work done... I'm not through painting the props but the spinners will definitely be red. The fuselage halves are together and I've sanded the seems together... I still have to clean up where the wings attach, though. I just did that earlier so the glue still needs to dry a little bit. Still undecided whether or not to put the stabs on now, or later... part of this is due to not having settled on a definite plan for the paint colors.

zenrat · October 26, 2021, 03:24:30 AM

It's so small.

Tophe · October 26, 2021, 04:21:41 AM

Very interesting...

While, uh, the way wing/engine parts are organized would make difficult my own project: push-pull on starboard, no engine on port side... $:-\$

TheChronicOne · October 26, 2021, 12:47:37 PM

Hey fellers!!!

Work continues.... gluing things on... the stabs and the little engine pieces with the intake things. The kit actually comes with two different versions.... along with two different version of gear struts, as well. Word of caution, though, the number labeling for those intake pieces is wrong and it would be easy to accidentally put two different pieces on the model. One set is slightly smaller than the other but the way they are labeled has you putting on one of each which is obviously wrong.

Thank god for quality brushes! Also, the canopy framing on this thing is glorious.... parts of it, for the scale, are quite wide so they're easier to paint and another thing is that there are raised lines that facilitate capillary action so painting this little thing by hand was actually pretty easy although a steady hand is a must. I still need to sharpen a toothpick and do a little clean up but this thing is pretty much finished.

Old Wombat · October 26, 2021, 06:09:30 PM

Rick Lowe · October 27, 2021, 12:18:08 AM

Quote from: Scotaidh on October 26, 2021, 01:53:10 AM
Quote from: Rick Lowe on October 26, 2021, 12:48:50 AM
You could leave the tray off the truck and add some sort of towing attachment, for moving aircraft around?
Not a 5th wheel, but some sort of drawbar arrangement.

With the high-nose stance of tail-draggers, you wouldn't need something low like they use today.

Um - tail-draggers are towed by the tail-wheel ...

Yes, usually - but ISTR a shot of an Hs129 being towed forward, which is what I was thinking of when I wrote.
Or maybe it was an Me262 (which is definitely *not* a tail dragger...) Dunno now.

Still, it would be different... and the idea would still work for a tail-dragger, as well.

Quote from: zenrat on October 26, 2021, 03:24:30 AM
It's so small.

But perfectly formed...

Nice work there, Brad - keep on!

TheChronicOne · October 27, 2021, 02:22:39 AM

Thanks! I'm trying to get as much done as quickly as I can while the motivation exists. So far, so good. Not only is this a pretty fun build so far but I'm thinking it will help facilitate my re-entry to hobby time and I can start knocking out some more.

For now.. I've done a little more painting and cleaned up the lines on the canopy framing. Horizontal stabs are now on as well and I've softened the join areas on those and the main wings with glorious TeT which serves as more than just a simple glue. Tomorrow I should have the plane painted and while it dries get the gear doors painted and apply decal fix to the old transfers. I'm going to try to fancy this thing up a lil by using some Molotow chrome pen for what little we can see of the engine in the cowlings. Not a whole lot left to do to this thing, really... something tells me that putting on decals is going to be the most troubling part of the project.

TheChronicOne · October 30, 2021, 11:24:08 AM

Just a quick mock up.

I've since painted it. I kind of messed up the paint a little by putting on a couple extra coats to help soften the seams at the wing roots (probably won't be doing this again at this scale... it works on larger things but this lil guy is too small). It still looks alright, though!

Tophe · October 30, 2021, 11:51:35 PM

Good!