Hello

Enjoy the review of Lionroar''s 1/700 Plastic and PE WWII IJN Aircraft (Early) inbox review
Hope this helps on your WWII Carriers Campaign project

Rui

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Having churn through 5 boxes of these, my review:

There are 6 extra prop PE for the Zeros, neat as spare. Some of the props are slightly too wide.

Some of the spinner plug need some cleaning up or the PE propeller whole slightly enlarged or they won't fit well. Most propeller plugs need cleaning work and is fiddly. The prop hubs for the val are of the incorrect shape.

The legs of vals are very fragile, I have a suspicision that the mating surface doesn't quite fit.

The plastic is very soft and easy to work with should you wish to shave off the canopy and replace with PE mesh.

The Decal is a major let down -> the stripes are nice but the meatballs red is way off. Whilst it is nice that LR provided white backing on the meatballs meaning they won't fade to brown when applied on a IJN green upper surface, the colour unfortunately is a bright red, which is wrong.

Oh...and they are a bit on the expensive side on normal retail prices... $13 for 18 aircrafts. Whilst I picked up mine on a sale at luckymodels at $3.99 a piece, I now wished I had stashed many times that amount.

Hi Jim

Thank you for your input, especially because you have build them, instead of me, that just took a look at them.
If I am allowed, I'll comment on some of your own comments:
- Cleaning and dry fitting is a usual procedure, so there's not a real issue here;
- I agree that the Val propeller hub, should be cylindrical, not conical;
- I ask you (and all) to remember that the scale of this airplanes is 1/700, not 1/72..

As I started, your comments come from actually build the lot... can you please show us your results?
Thank you

Cheers,
Rui

Hi, I just found it hard to manage the small pieces, despite believing having reasonable experience with 1/700 scale ship PEs (I have about 7 kg of them) The small plastic parts are just about 'un-tweezerable' so any fit issues, once it's off the sprue, is not easily sanded. As for the Vals prop hub, I ended up just using brass wire instead as 1, it is easier and I don't lose them, 2, it's cylindrical. These 'super detail' accessories are to satisfy a specific demographic. If I can build a 1/700 as a 1/72, I would! Unfortunately right now the thought of hollow-out the cockpit area of 60 odd planes in order to have seats (yes I have them, eg from the LR IJN AA guns set, 2 for each mount in fact!) stops me short. It shows there's still a trace of sanity left. However, if LR decides to release these with hollow cockpits (which is actually possible given the 2 piece moud right now), or provide a specific tool for that purpose.......heheheheheheheeeeheeee

Here are my results.







And a small tip on making the zero's canopy from PE nets. I used flyhawk's 0.5mm and 0.3mm nets. For each zero, 2 different sets of PE parts are used in order to create the 'contour' of a zero's canopy.

Excellent material....now if I can only find a source for 1:350 Spitfires!

--Karl

Hi Jim

Thanks for the tips and photos
Insanity for 700th scale??? Nahhh

Again, Thank you for your input
Cheers,
Rui

Interesting technique you show for those canopies Jim. I'll try a few of these the next time I feel in need of a psychotic episode (lol). But, until then, this does bring to mind a question:

With all the extra detail thought of with these IJN aircraft , why doesn't Lion Roar (or anyone else for that matter) think to mold them in transparent plastic, like Trumpeter and Dragon does on their US planes ? To the best of my knowledge, there aren't any available for IJN in the market now. I would think that many of us would feel far more comfortable with the idea of masking a canopy rather than making one for an entire squadron or more.

There are a number of clear plastic aircrafts from kits:
Tamiya Shinano has 2 sprues of late war planes in clear, the latest Aoshima/Fujimi carrier releases have them also some in clear plastic(usually 1 sprue). If you are lucky, you can get old issue clear aircrafts from pit-road.

The issue is despite being clear, they are of the old moulding which renders inaccuracies and scale representation (thickness etc). Clear plastic is also harder and more brittle than normal plastic, many find them not the best material to work with. To paint clear canopy is almost impossible, masking is barely an option, decal is probably the best bet but then again the windows will not be as transparent under clear decal film. So at the end of the day, the difference is just the effort of shaving off the original canopy, but you get a more accurate plane to begin with!

Good points Jim, thanks.

Very interesting tip on canopy making. Thanks!