The Nanzan was Aichi's landplane
training version of it's submarine launched floatplane known as the Seiran.
The Nanzan looks very similar to it's floatplane brother...having the floats
removed and replaced with conventional landing gear and it's vertical tail
clipped to equalize the weight distribution of the aircraft and keep it's CG
where it belonged.
There were reportedly only two
Nanzans built during the war...initially being finished in overall training
orange and later in a two-tone finish with dark green being added to the upper
surfaces as a the threat of being shot down by US aircraft became real.
Thanks to Tamiya's kitting of the
Seiran we were also blessed with a kit of this interesting aircraft. The
interior is well detailed needing very little to look the part quite
well. The fit of the model is excellent with only a little attention being
needed on the belly to get a good wing to fuselage joint. The canopy is very
thin and must be handled carefully...my kit had a crack in the side of it's
canopy so I had to get a replacement. I built my Nanzan out-of-box adding only
seat belts and the radio wire. I used ModelArt's superb book on JNAF aircraft
to find the a color guide for the orange. The book provides a series of color
chips including the Trainer Orange applied to the Nanzan. There is a color
photograph I found on the web showing this color applied to a Seiran's lower
surfaces and it is quite orange indeed. I found that Floquil's
"International Orange" was a near perfect match for the color chip I
had. The prop is Aeromaster's primer brown. The exhausts were painted with
Testors "Burnt Iron" metalizer paint and then weathered.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The weathering was achieved with a
mechanical pencil, Prismacolor pastel pencils, chalk pastels and airbrushing.
A coat of Future was used prior to decaling and then Modelmaster Flat clear
thinned about 60/40 was applied to finish the look. (The canopy was masked
with Tamiya tape...people often ask).
This is a great kit of a rather
unimportant but interesting plane of World War 2. It's a great out-of-box
project that won't take months to complete yet looks quite good when
done.
Joe
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