Author Topic: Japanese A9He1-N "Wade" Floatplane Build Thread  (Read 7920 times)

Offline Logan Hartke

  • High priest in the black arts of profiling...
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Japanese A9He1-N "Wade" Floatplane Build Thread
« on: May 14, 2013, 11:06:29 AM »
I'll get it in by the deadline.  I may need to claim local time for the profile (hint, hint)...but it will get done.



Sorry it's so late and I've not been able to do nearly as much as I originally wanted, but I bought a house over the past month and have been spending much of my time over there painting, moving, etc.

Cheers,

Logan
« Last Edit: May 17, 2013, 10:18:54 AM by Logan Hartke »

Offline Cliffy B

  • Ship Whiffer Extraordinaire...master of Beyond Visual Range Modelling
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Re: Placeholder for coming entry
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2013, 11:16:48 AM »
The deadline IS your local time; May 15, 2399 hours.  Good luck!
"Radials growl, inlines purr, jets blow!"  -Anonymous

"Helos don't fly.  They vibrate so violently that the ground rejects them."  -Tom Clancy

"If all else fails, call in an air strike."  -Anonymous

Offline Logan Hartke

  • High priest in the black arts of profiling...
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Re: Placeholder for coming entry
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2013, 11:22:21 AM »
No, no, I mean the subject of the profile's location--as opposed to my own.   ;)


Cheers,

Logan

Offline Logan Hartke

  • High priest in the black arts of profiling...
  • Rivet-counting whiffer
Re: Placeholder for coming entry
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2013, 03:23:20 PM »
Made real good progress tonight.  I don't see any reason I can't get this finished for tomorrow, though I may need to edit in the full backstory later!

Cheers,

Logan

Offline Logan Hartke

  • High priest in the black arts of profiling...
  • Rivet-counting whiffer
Re: Japanese A9He1-N "Wade" Floatplane Build Thread
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2013, 01:25:18 PM »
Alright, I finally got the profile finished--as you can see--and just in time, too! In case anyone was wondering, the photo in the first post was Kiska, a hint as to what was coming. I'll put the In Progress shots in this post below.



This is how the initial line art came to me. It wasn't yet broken down into layers and not everything was done. It mainly showed me how much more I had to change the canvas size, for example.



Here I drop in the A9He1 as a single layer, since bringing in all the individual ones would have resulted in the final file being prohibitively large. It ended up being bad enough as it was.



Changed the lighting overall here on the A9He1 while waiting for the layers from Talos. What changed? A lot, but primarily the tail lighting. It looked too fat and balloonish before. It went on a diet for this profile.



Got started on the lighting and shading. Most of the major outrigger float lighting stayed pretty much how it was here.



Got the shading done on the main float.



Started lighting the rudder and the main strut.



Pretty paint and I finally got the major layers from Talos. You can see the whole thing coming together now.



Got the tail extension from Talos. Revised a lot of the float shading and some lighting.



What changed? Well, it's hard to see at this resolution, but I started all the rivet dimple lighting and shading. This is what starts really bringing the float to the next level.



Got the float markings, metal texturing, finished rivet lighting and shading, and basically called the float done. What else is there to do?



A lot left to do, unfortunately. I had to integrate compressed versions of the two Photoshop files (A9He1: 327 MB + Floats: 165 MB), discarding unused layers. After putting the combined file on a diet, I got it down to a svelte 257 MB. Seriously, this nonsense took all day and the file's still huge.



Started on the actual aircraft paint scheme. It went from J-3 Hai-iro to I-2 Tsuchi-iro. Talos gets the manufacturer's data stencil to me. Short version? Talos and I are BIG avgeeks and we take it up to avgeek level 10 for this bit. I've got tons of books and he's fluent in Japanese. The partnership works well.



Final paint, final markings. Finally done! Full backstory and full resolution file should be done tomorrow.

Cheers,

Logan

Offline Talos

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Re: Japanese A9He1-N "Wade" Floatplane Build Thread
« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2013, 10:10:09 PM »
I'm glad we got this done. Talk about 11th hour....

It came out well though, I'm very pleased with it.

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Japanese A9He1-N "Wade" Floatplane Build Thread
« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2013, 03:38:40 AM »
 :)  I really like it when profile 'builds' are posted as it highlights that doing a detailed profile can be just as involved as building a great model.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2013, 05:50:52 AM by GTX_Admin »
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Japanese A9He1-N "Wade" Floatplane Build Thread
« Reply #7 on: May 18, 2013, 05:49:37 AM »
Your talent is completely off the charts, Logan!

Well done!

Brian da Basher

Offline Logan Hartke

  • High priest in the black arts of profiling...
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Re: Japanese A9He1-N "Wade" Floatplane Build Thread
« Reply #8 on: May 18, 2013, 03:14:57 PM »
Thanks for the kind words, everyone!  As always, click on the image below to see the picture at 100% or view it at my DeviantArt page.  I've also submitted this to the Asiarama GB over at the What If Forums.



Full backstory below:

Quote
Realizing an immediate need for a fighter plane that could operate in remote areas of the Pacific where the construction of airfields was impractical, in late 1940, pending production of the fighter floatplane N1K1 Kyofu (code named “Rex”), the Navy issued 15-Shi specifications to Nakajima Kikoki K. K. to develop a floatplane fighter version of the A9He1. Work began on the project, which was known as the AS-1, in February of the following year. Eliminating the undercarriage and retraction mechanism, which was faired over, a unique triangular main strut and two secondary struts were used to mount the single main float; the outrigger floats were mounted on single slender struts. This float system ensured the least amount of drag, yet was sturdy enough for practical seaplane use. The tail wheel was removed and faired over, and to increase lateral stability, a long narrow fin was added to the bottom of the fuselage below the tail assembly and the rudder was extended downward.

The 15-Shi floatplane flew for the first time on 8 December 1941, the same day Operation Hawaii (the attack on Pearl Harbor) was carried out. Production began in April 1942, and under the designation A9He1-N Type 2 Floatplane Fighter, the Navy accepted the new float fighter in July 1942. The type was first encountered at Guadalcanal, later being assigned to the Fifth Air Fleet during the Aleutians campaign, being based on Kiska and Attu, serving as a defensive fighter and reconnaissance fighter.

On the 5th of August 1942 the Dai 5 Kaigun Kokutai (Fifth Air Fleet) was formed with fighter and reconnaissance seaplanes originating from the Tokoh Kaigun Kokutai. Of the twelve fighter seaplanes with which the Kokutai was to be equipped, only six were in working order, those were coming from the Tokoh Kaigun Kokutai. On the 8th of August, during an attack carried out by United States destroyers and cruisers on the seaplane base of Kiska, the fighter seaplane forces were reduced to eight, following the destruction of four of those that were anchored at the aforementioned precarious naval base. The US Navy seaplanes that had been catapulted from the US cruisers also participated in this attack. Ship’s Lieutenant Yamada and the 3rd class naval pilot claimed the destruction of one of these. At this time, the Allies had in the zone a squadron of heavy bombers, two squadrons of medium bombers, four squadrons of fighters, including a Curtiss Kittyhawk squadron belonging to the RCAF (all under USAAF command), a squadron of Grumman F4Fs and another of flying boats, both belonging to the US Navy. During the rest of the month of August, Dai 5 Kaigun Kokutai was involved in the interception of bombers and the US seaplanes, which attacked the Japanese military establishments at Attu and Kiska, failing to obtain any positive results. On the 7th of September, however, the Japanese pilots claimed to have inflicted damage on an enemy seaplane and three bombers. According to the United States’ sources, one seaplane was lost during these actions.

Nakajima’s Koizuma plant built total of 327 A9He1-Ns were produced through September of 1943 when production was terminated. The Allied code name for the A9He1-N was “Wade”. Despite the weight and drag of the floats, these fighters were fast and powerful. They served their mission very well initially, but in a short time they were unable to effectively counter Allied land-based fighters.


This was one of those profiles that just made sense, as far-fetched as it may seem on the surface. When you think “Japanese license-produced He 100 floatplane variant”, it seems like a bit of a logical pretzel to get there, but it was a very natural progression. The IJN wanted to license-produce the He 100 and initially assigned it to Hitachi. Nakajima was eventually contracted to license-build the A6M Zero because they needed enough to equip the land-based squadrons as well as the carrier squadrons. I figure that the IJN would really get excited about the He 100 once they got a good chance to evaluate it and got the production jigs from Heinkel, and would decide to have Nakajima license produce it instead of the A6M since Hitachi was new to the game. So, why would the He 100 become the floatplane fighter instead of the Zero? Because that’s what Nakajima would have been producing at the time, the main reason it was the Zero in the first place.

Sorry it took so long to get this all together.  I hope you all like it!

Cheers,

Logan
« Last Edit: May 18, 2013, 03:20:52 PM by Logan Hartke »

Offline father ennis

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Re: Japanese A9He1-N "Wade" Floatplane Build Thread
« Reply #9 on: May 18, 2013, 04:55:22 PM »
Excellent job !!!  Beautiful airplane ... !!!
I may be old but I'm not dead ... yet anyway ... !!!    And NO I did not know Richard III !!!!!!