1/72 Aichi M6A1-K Nanzan

by Joe Youngerman

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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.

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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
 

Photos and text © by Joe Youngerman