Frank and George.

[davidchoate]

I recently discovered two new planes I never heard of. Japanese fighters that gave the P-51's a run for their money. I thought I knew every Japanese plane, and can't believe there were a couple I never heard of. I want to know if anyone else knows if plans , or kits are available. Thanx

[42swing]

The next generation of Japanese fighters after the Zero and Oscar were pretty formidable. The Tony, Frank, George, And Tojo were on a par with the Mustang and Corsair, but they didn't have pilots or the manufacturing capability to really make a difference. The George was actually a development of a floatplane fighter called the Rex. Then there were the really advanced designs like the Kikka jet and Kyushu canard fighter. There are plastic kits of all, but not sure of balsa/flying.

[Mitch]

I don't know about Frank and George, but Tony is made by "Golden Age Reproductions" I bought a kit on ebay recently and found they have a website and still make kits.



The kit is 24" ws and I scaled up to 1/16 scale. My plans now have a ws of 28" like the Zero. The kit is for advanced builders with all contest wood. I broke a piece just looking at the contents of the kit.

Here is a link I found to some interesting info:
http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft ... rcraft.asp

Okay, I just did a search and remembered about Diels Engineering, here is the link:
http://dielsengineeringinc.com/

It looks like he has about 5 Japanse Aircraft and they are of the 24" ws like my Golden Age Kit.

Mitch

[Chris A.]

One of the nice features of the late WWII Japanese fighters is the generous wing area and straight taper to the leading and trailing edges. However the "JACK" Raiden is an exception to this with stubby wings. The Diels kits are high quality of both the "FRANK" and "JACK". For the very last Mitsubishi WWII fighter, source the Koko-Fan three view for the "SAM" Reppu A7M2. Very little data available, but again it has good wing area like the Zero. I've never seen a 1/24th scale wood kit of either the "GEORGE" Shiden mid wing or the "GEORGEII" Shiden-Kai, the later low wing simplified version. Thinking to design and scratch build my own 1/24th wood "GEROGEII" I blew up the Koko-Fan 1/48th 3-view to 1/24th and bought the Bandai 1/24th plastic "GEORGEII" for the decal set and plan. Should be an interesting build for which there is a great deal of historical data as the NASM and the Naval Aviation Museum both have restored versions. If anyone has ever built one of either, I'd like to see a picture.