FULL-BUILD: WORLD WAR TWO AXIS AVIATION
WINGSY KITS 1:48 MITSUBISHI A5M4 CLAUDE ● KIT NO.D5-0254 September 2019 TMMI 287
NO SCRATCHBUILDING
REQUIRED
Albert Grzywa liked Wingsy Kits' 1:48 ‘Claude‘
fighter so much, he bought another one!
J
apanese aviation from
the WWII period is
one of my favourite
modelling themes.
Beautiful constructions and
courageous pilots from the
Land of the Rising Sun have
always been an inspiration
for me. Therefore, when
the Wingsy Kits company
released the Mitsubishi
A5M4 Claude on the market,
I knew immediately that I
would be its owner.
The kit offered by the
manufacturer is a really
interesting proposition for
lovers of Japanese aviation.
The box-art itself makes itimpossible to walk away
from this model without
a note of curiosity from
what we find inside and the
contents of the box definitely
support a positive first
impression. Well-moulded
plastic parts with interesting
detail plus a photo-etched
badge make this a complete
package for the construction
of the A5M4.
Assembly went really
well, the parts fitting each
other without much need for
adjustment. Thanks to this,
the cockpit came together in
a very short time. The green
colour of the interior wasslightly lightened by me,
so that its surface gained
a little more light in dark
cockpit. I applied a black
colour-wash over the parts to
emphasise the depth of the
detail. It gave the interior
coherence and 'shadow
effect', which makes it more
realistic when we look at the
finished model.ONTO THE ENGINE
The assembly of the fuselage
and wings was problem-free
and needed the minimum of
putty, so I could quickly go
to the next stage; the engine.
Everything went wellhere as well. Sharp detail
plus a good fit of the parts
allowed for quick assembly
of the various elements
into the whole. In a short
space of time, I could see
the beautiful outline of the
machine taking shape.
Thanks to the excellent
rivet detail on the surface
of the airframe, the
build-time of the Claude
was considerably shortened.
Thus, I quickly reached my
favourite stage, painting.
Unfortunately, here occurred
the biggest problem during
the entire project. Namely, I
had a major dilemma about