Decided to make a new thread for just the aircraft from the movie: Tora! Tora Tora!
Ever since the first time I saw the movie:
Tora! Tora! Tora! I became fascinated by it. Especially being captivated by the aerial sequences. In 1996/97 there were two airshows held at the Sikorsky Memorial Airport that hosted the CAF Tora team, and I was able to see these replica aircraft in action, up close and personal! Especially the Friday before the show, when four Zeros in a diamond formation flew at tree top level, right down our street, PAST OUR HOUSE! It was an amazing surreal experience my father and I will never forget.
I started with a F-Toys T-6. I replaced the engine with a leftover 1/144 cowling (cant remember what it was from). I hogged out the filled cavity for a spare Boeing 314 engine and made a scoop underneath. I added larger wingtips, fuselage farings, wing fairings, tail, forward windscreen, and raised cockpit side walls with styrene plastic. I used putty to smooth out the new features of the model, and sanded it smooth.
The original magicians who made the Tora aircraft back in 68 went so far as to build new A6M2 canopies that were the same size and shape as the originals. This made replicating the canopy that much easier, as I ended up using a spare (open) canopy from a Bandai Zero kit. I also used a spare reserve fuel tank from a 21st Century Zero, and landing gear covers / doors from another. The wheels are the F-Toys T-6 landing gear in the "up" position. I took those landing gear, trimmed down the T-6 doors, added a rod on the inside to act as the gear strut, and glued the Zero gear doors on the outside. The tail wheel was scratch built. The prop was sourced from the spare parts box, and is probably from another kit of a Japanese plane. I custom made the "AI-101" decal on the computer and printed it out. The other Japanese roundels came from the F-Toys T-6 decal sheet. I still need to clear coat it to seal it all in, but don't want to have to rewove the canopy at this point and I'm afraid to ruin the canopy. Thoughts?
The replica Val was the first of the three completed. Using a 3D printed BT-13, I added new wingtips, fuselage fairings, tail fairing, and replaced the landing gear with wheel pants from a 1/144 Arii "Val". I decided not to extend the fuselage the 12 inches or so since I figured it was such a small length to show up in 1/144th scale, that it'd be more trouble then its worth. I scratchbuilt the dive breaks, and aiming tube in front of the cockpit. I designed some custom decals in the markings of the replica Val that can be seen at airshows throughout the North East here. A favorite of mine! Its not perfect, but its good enough for now. I do hope that we eventually get a plastic injection kit OR better yet, F-Toys does a Tora! movie Gasphon set. THAT would blow my mind...
And last but not least, I finally started to dive in and do some big cutting and grafting onto this F-Toys T-6 to turn it into a "Kate" Torpedo bomber. I already sense that I will be able to use a Bandai spare Kate canopy and torpedo for this one.
I added thin styrene on top of the canopy rails, since the same was done to the replicas to make them look more accurate. shaved down and shaped the wingtips, and figured out what to do about the rear fuselage / tail. I first added some curved and bent styrene stock to the firewall, and rear fuselage. These were shaved down to eventually accept the "donated" parts. Since the Arii 1/144 "Val" kit was already so very helpful, I decided to make use of it some more! chopped the rear fuselage off and grafted it onto the T-6 forward section. I used plastic stock for the tail and horizontal stabilizers. I added wing / fuselage fairings, and an intake underneath the engine cowling (which also was liberated from the Arii Val kit. I also ended up applying putty filler to even out the two fuselages to make them seem more coherent and as one. Now she's ready for primer!
Will post some updates soon!
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I am still holding out against hope that I will find it! After that, its just a matter of adding a pitot tube, guns, maybe a tail hook, and of course, a torpedo! Digging through my spares I haven't been successful in locating the spare Kate torpedo yet, but I know I have one somewhere not in use! Enjoy the pics.
