Lion Roar

1/700 WWII IJN Carrier-Based Aircraft (Late Pacific War) III For Late WWII IJN Carriers

Stock Number: L70003

Reviewed By  Luke R. Bucci, IPMS# 33549

MSRP: $13.95 Review sample from Dragon Models USA - Website: www.dragonusaonline.com Thanks to Dragon Models USA for supplying the kit. Bottom Line: Complete 1/700 late war IJN carrier aircraft with payloads, photoetch details REVIEW: Lion Roar is venturing beyond supplying metal photoetch sets into providing injection-molded plastic parts with photoetch details and decals. Set III is a companion kit to set II - early war IJN carrier aircraft. This set has 18 total aircraft - six Judy Yokosuka D4Y1 Suisei (Comet) dive bombers, six Jill Nakajima B6N2 Tenzan (Heavenly Mountain) torpedo bombers, three Zero/Zeke Mitsubishi A6M5 Type 52 fighters and three Myrt Nakajima C6N1 Saiun (Painted Cloud) recon aircraft with an instruction sheet, photoetch fret and decal sheet. The molds appear to be new - they are not recycled from other companies (panel lines are different). Unlike other 1/700 scale aircraft sets, these aircraft come in two major pieces - wings and fuselage. Plastic color is greenish grey. Other plastic parts for each type of aircraft include a propeller spinner and ordnance (torpedo, gas tanks, bombs). One mistake: the Myrt pictured on the box shows a four-bladed prop when in reality and in the kit it was three-bladed. Note: Judys had an internal bomb bay, so do not attach the large bomb to the underside - instead, use the large bombs for Jills or dioramas. Judys did carry two 60 kg bombs externally, one under each wing, in addition to the internal 250 kg bomb, all of which are included in this kit. The photoetch fret is thick brass on an adhesive backing and has embossed detail for tires and landing gear. Each aircraft has a propeller, landing gear (needs to be folded to fit into recesses in the wing), and tires. Decal sheet has roundels for each aircraft, but none have white edges. There are very fine double and single lines in white, yellow, blue and red to be used for squadron markings. Alas, there are no indications on how to use them in the instructions. You will have to consult references or larger scale plastic kits to determine location of stripes. The books by Cea and Francillon (see below) show squadron markings for each carrier. For late war IJN carrier aircraft, the fuselage lines (stripes) were not used - these are only for pre-1943 markings.

Be careful removing the Judys from the tree - they have a tendency to bend in front of the cockpit. Also, the choice of the sprue attachment under the cockpit makes for an awkward sanding job on a curve. Care must be taken so that the wing fits flush with the fuselage. I used either cyanoacrylate or Tamiya Thin Cement to bond the wings to fuselages - fit was good. Unfortunately, the propeller spinners are too thick to fit into the hole in the propellers, so you will have to cut off the shaft. Spinners are very small and difficult to handle and prep. The photoetch landing gear fit nicely into the depressions on wing undersides, and are sturdier than other photoetch landing gear. Assembly of aircraft is easy and has no problems. Painting Box art shows the simple paint scheme used for all late-war IJN carrier aircraft, and can be followed with confidence of accuracy. I used Polly Scale acrylic IJN Green 505278 for fuselage and upper surfaces, Polly Scale acrylic IJN gray 505280 or Model Master enamel IJN Sky Gray 2117 for undersides of aircraft. The acrylic paint would not cooperate with airbrushing, but the enamel paint did well. The enamel paint is a darker shade than the acrylic, and is glossy. I used Polly Scale acrylic IJN Yellow 505282 for wing leading edges and Model Master enamel Japanese Int. Med. Blue 2119 for wheel wells (although any light blue-gray would suffice in this scale). I used Floquil enamel Weathered Black for engine cowlings and other black items, Model Master enamel Italian Dark Brown 2111 for props and spinners, and Tamiya Chrome Silver X-11 for glass. With aircraft this small, I prefer hand painting, although I did airbrush IJN Sky Gray enamel to undersides of most aircraft. Either way, one will need to touch up each color once or twice. Decals The decals are opaque and appear to be the correct red shade for roundels. They were thick and did not settle well with Solvaset - you will need to use two applications to get them to adhere. In fact, these decals were better than other decal sheets I had on hand (too dark and translucent). A coat of clear flat enamel was added to each aircraft, which helped to seal the decals. Since tail markings are incredibly small in this scale and illegible at normal viewing distances, I used a white art pencil to lightly add some white figures to the tails to simulate identification markings found on late-war IJN carrier aircraft (whether land or carrier-based). Comparisons Waterline Series companies (Aoshima, Fujimi, Hasegawa, Skywave, Tamiya and Tsukuda) traded selling early and late war IJN carrier aircraft sets, and they represent virtually the only other 1/700 IJN carrier aircraft available today. Pitroad put out George, Grace, Myrt and Sam aircraft a while ago, but I have not seen these lately. One of the Skywave IJN Weapons sets has a Rufe (Zero floatplane fighter). White Ensign Models makes the Zero in 1/700 scale, but I did not have this set. These other aircraft are molded in a single piece with peg-leg landing gear and rather deep panel lines and thick wings. I painted these aircraft Floquil enamel Pullman Green instead of the slightly darker Polly Scale IJN Green (in order to distinguish which sets the planes came from). Several photoetch sets are available to update these aircraft - I happened to have a Gold Medal Models Aircraft Parts set handy, and used the pieces devoted to each aircraft type to update the Waterline Series planes for comparison. I also added scratch built tires to thinned peg legs on some aircraft. I used other decal sheets for roundels, which did not look as good as the Lion Roar decals. I prefer to hand-paint IJN roundels with red paint. They look close to Lion Roar planes, but lack some of the accuracy of the Lion Roar planes. For example, the canopy on Jills and Myrts had three separate widths in the Lion Roar planes, but only a single width in the other companies' versions. Unlike other IJN carrier aircraft sets, the Lion Roar set has everything needed, including decals (except paint), to make completed models of late-war IJN carrier aircraft with unmatched accuracy, and so represents a better deal than mixing and matching photoetch sets or scratch-built pieces with peg-leg aircraft. Summary Compared to the other limited options for 1/700 scale late-war IJN carrier aircraft, Lion Roar provides a complete package (planes, payloads, photoetch and decals) to make accurate Zeros, Judys, Jills and Myrts. Nothing is better, and the convenience and value of this Lion Roar set make it the preferred choice for late-war IJN carrier aircraft. Each plane is less than a dollar at SRP. Highly recommended for fitting out IJN carriers from 1943 and later. A minor drawback of this set is the lack of Aichi B7A Ryusei (Grace) attack planes, but few of these (if any) ever operated off IJN carriers. References: Angelucci E, Matricardi P. Complete Book of World War II Combat Aircraft. Military Press, New York, NY, 1988. ISBN 0-517-66475-5 Cea E. Japanese Military Aircraft. The Air Force of the Japanese Imperial navy. Carrier-based Aircraft, 1922-1945 (I). Air Collection No. 2. Alcaniz Fresno's Editores, Valoldalid, Spain, 2008. ISBN 978-84-96035-04-4 Francillon RJ. Japanese Air Groups 1941-45. Osprey Airwar 21, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2002. ISBN 0 85045 295 3 Green W. War Planes of the Second World War. Fighters. Vol. 3, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, NY, USA, 1961. Mechanism of Military Aircraft 11. Suisei Type 99 Carrier Dive Bomber. S. Bon Group, Japan, 2000. ISBN 4-7698-0920-4 Mechanism of World Aircraft 14. Nakajima Type 97 Carrier Torpedo Bomber B5n. Nakajima Carrier Torpedo Bomber "TENZAN" B6N. S. Bon Group, Japan, 1995. ISBN 4-7698-0684-1 Mechanism of Japanese Aircraft Carriers. S. Bon Group, Japan, 1999. ISBN 4-7698-0896-8 Model Art Modeling Magazine No. 760. Model Art Co. Ltd. Tokyo, Japan, November 2008. Tanaka S, Akimoto M. Kodansha Sophia Books, Japan, 1999. ISBN 4-06-269058-6