The Road to Singapore: Malaya 1941-42

[TIM FORSTER]

Hi Richard.

Yes! Absolutely! The backdrop of trees and vegetation is going to be at least as important to this dio as the tank, gun and figures.

So what species of trees are those felled across the road? Are they rubber trees like these?

[rtfoe]

Hi Richard.

Yes! Absolutely! The backdrop of trees and vegetation is going to be at least as important to this dio as the tank, gun and figures.

So what species of trees are those felled across the road? Are they rubber trees like these?

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Yes Tim, exactly. Those are rubber trees alright. Sphagnum moss can look like the ferns on the embankment. I used that to line beneath the billboard in my dio.

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Cheers,
Richard

[TIM FORSTER]

Thanks Richard - very useful pics. Have you posted this dio somewhere on the site?

[rtfoe]

Come to think of it I haven't posted the WIP of it except maybe a finished shot in my overall list of finished builds at the beginning when I joined. It was however in the past forum which is now gone forever. I still have the WIP images and will post on a thread of its own. Anyway it's on the 3rd and 4th batch of images on this thread.

Cheers,
Richard

[TIM FORSTER]

As I said above, the Fine Molds Ha-Go comes with almost nothing in the way of interior detail - unlike the Dragon kit. But with the turret hatches open there's actually quite a lot to see. This was a small tank and hence rather cramped - even for the one-man turret.

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So I have been doing some research. I get the impression that if I had started this build even 5 years ago, there would have been very little to find on line. Fortunately, the last few years have seen at least two major Ha-Go restoration projects, including one that is now a runner and appeared at the 2019 Bovington Tanfest.

The main armament was the Type 94 37 mm tank gun. This had a shoulder mount very much like that in the British Matilda, which meant that elevation - and some limited traverse - could all be controlled by the commander resting the gun (suitably weighted and sprung) on his shoulder.

Sadly noone makes any sort of aftermarket kit for the gun, so using images that I found on the internet (including some of the Dragon sprues) I cobbled together an approximation from anything I could lay my hands on.

This is not 100% accurate - in fact it may not be even 75% accurate - but I am counting on the fact that most people looking inside my turret won't know that!

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In fact, I have to admit that I rather enjoyed all of this - even if it has been quite time consuming. It's satisfying to start with a more or less empty space and fill it with detail from the spares box, metal rod and all sorts of odds and ends and create something which - at least to my eyes - looks like a gun!

Aside from the traverse handwheel and gears, the other most prominent features of the turret are the ammo racks and 3/4 rear MG mount.

The latter is still work in progress, but for the racks I started by acquiring some 37mm brass rounds for a German flak gun. These are actually a little too long compared with the Japanese, but they do fit.

There are three ready racks around the turret sides and these were made with a combination of thin plasticard, some brass rests from a German grenade box and home-made clips made from wrapping thin brass strip around the rounds themselves. The idea is to allow me to leave the shells out until after I have finished painting the interior.

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[Question: what is the correct paint shade for IJA tank interiors? From what I have seen on preserved examples, it seems to be some sort of metallic finish...]

Here they are installed. As you can see gthe interior is certainly starting to look busy!

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More to come soon...

[Mini Me]

Nice bit of "scratch" there Tim. It certainly adds interest to a rather empty space.

[scottie3158]

Tim,
Lovely work on the turret.

[tr1ckey66]

Hi Tim.
Love the work on the type 95 and the diorama sounds really, really interesting as this is a chapter of the war seldom modelled.
I look forward to seeing the tank amongst the vegetation and in the Malayan setting.
Cracking stuff
Paul

[BigGreg]

it's going to be epic as it was in Italy... :-)

[Mini Me]

Oh...don't mention Italy Greg, I get to thinking about "Miss Boobs" on the balcony and then Matron has to dose me up to calm me down!:tongue-out3: Rick H.

[adt70hk]

Tim

That's some outstanding work there. Well done.
Andrew

[rtfoe]

Brilliantly done Tim. :thumb2: If it looks anything near enough should be fine and once painted and closed up, no expert is going to have a measuring tape small enough to try to be funny as long if wrong alignment and glue marks are kept to the minimum. :smiling2: If an argument arises...ask them if they peerd into a knocked out Ha-Go before in their lifetime... obviously there will be distortions from heat and amunition igniting. I'll be proud of that scratchwork and I know the feeling when done from nothing.
This is going to be a good one just like the one in the Italian campaign.

Cheers,
Richard

[TIM FORSTER]

Thankyou all - although Rick, you need to get her out of your head... no bella donnas on this one!

The next part of the turret interior I had to tackle was the ball mounted MG.

During its service life the Ha-Go was equipped with two types of machine gun: the 6.5 mm and the 7.7 mm Model 97. The FineMolds kit gives you both options - but all you get are the ball mounts and the external armoured shrouds. Once again, I regretted not starting with the Dragon kit, which provides two beautifully moulded complete guns - even though the one in the hull cannot be seen.

I looked online for even the infantry equivalent in 1/35 and drew a blank. I was about to start trying to modify a Bren, but then I discovered that the Japanese Model 97 was actually a near copy of the Czech ZB 26 (which was, itself, the forerunner of the Bren). The most obvious differences between ther ZB and the Bren are the cooling ribs on the barrel and the square magazine on the former.

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Even finding a ZB in 1/35 wasn't easy, which surprised me - it was a popular gun amongst the Germans in WW2. After all, they acquired a bunch of them when they annexed Czechoslovakia (along with all those 35 and 38(t) tanks). Eventually Tank came to the rescue (although I suspect these are OOP).

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There was still quite a bit of work required to convert the ZB to the tank variant of the Model 97: in particular the addition of the folding stock and the sight. The former is one aspect of the MG that Dragon get wrong, because the whole point of having a folding stock was to allow it to be hinged out of the way when being used from within the vehicle (the Russian tank MGs had a very similar system). I also added some (rough) detail to the ball mount to replicate the internal cradle.

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It's not perfect, but I think it will do. As you can see from the overhead shots, the MG adds to an already crowded interior. There's no way I could have left those large cupola hatches open without the machine gun on display. I am also going to have the side hatch open to better show off all my hard work!

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[minitnkr]

Excellent scratchery. PaulE

[Mini Me]

I suppose you are right Tim, but she was such a "honey". Speaking of honeies, that MG turned out really nice! I suspect that to be a Jap tanker one would have to be an accomplished contortionist! :smiling2: Rick H.