Sengoku Daimyo

I found these two blisters in a pile of unboxed gashapon at the hobby shop over the weekend. The people at the counter seemed to think they were manufactured by Furuta, but I haven't been able to verify that this is accurate. Furuta did release various samurai in 1/35 scale, but I have never heard of a line in 1/72.

メーカーは誰ですか?
The set on the left consists of Uesugi Kenshin and his mount, while the set on the right consists of Takeda Shingen and a retainer. I'm assuming it is Takeda since the screens bear the Takeda mon.

The figures are made of a soft vinyl, and come pre-painted. Details are soft and toy-like.

Kenshin has his sword arm bent back at the elbow at an uncomfortable angle (though you can't really see it in this picture). The figure was not designed to sit on his mount very well either (Kenshin's cape and the high cantle of the saddle make him tilt forward). The horse has a peg under one hoof so it can be plugged into the diorama base that comes with the set.

General Takeda (right) is wide. Really wide. I'm guessing it's Takeda, but he is not wearing his famous red armor with wigged helmet. In fact, his helmet is more reminiscent of Shimazu Yoshihiro's than any representation of Takeda's helmets that I am aware of. The accompanying samurai (left) has a peg in his foot to allow him to be plugged into the diorama base that comes with the set. I thought he was a mounted figure at first because he was so bow-legged.

The honjin (本陣) consist of a single two panel screen, and two single panel screens for the sides. The screens are made in hard plastic with the mon of each daimyo printed on the center of each panel. The screens come with pegs that allow them the be plugged into the diorama base.

Uesugi clan mon

Takeda clan mon
If anyone has any information on these figure sets, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Hasegawa M3 Stuart

I had a day off, so I decided to work on a project that I have been thinking about for a long time. It has been noted that the Hasegawa M3 Stuart is 1/70 scale (maybe larger), but when I compared it with a Mirage M3, I was thinking that it might not be impossible to fix it so that it would come close to 1/72.

A comparison of the Hasegawa and Mirage hulls can be seen at On The Way! I'd say that the Hasegawa hull is almost 2mm wider, and 5mm longer than the Mirage hull, which is ostensibly 1/72 scale.

What really concerned me however, was the turret. It seemed gigantic when I first compared it with the Mirage turret. I was actually thinking about trying to find an appropriate 20mm turret as a replacement, but when I actually measured them, it was actually the same length, although almost 2mm wider and 1mm taller.

I decided I could live with the difference in width, though the difference in size between the hatch on the commander's cupola for the Hasegawa and Mirage kits is quite dramatic.

Here is what I did to adjust the dimensions of the Hasegawa kit:

1. Shorten the rear deck by 0.5mm
2. Shorten front glacis
3. Shorten fenders
4. Glue bar in new position
5. Sand down the sides of the hull (reduction of 1mm+)

I think that overall, the converted Hasegawa hull on the left matches the Mirage hull on the right very closely.

The left fender is missing in the picture because it fell to the carpet while I was trying to glue it in place. I looked for it everywhere, and then started to check if it somehow got stuck in my clothes. As I was shaking out my jacket, it reminded me of a scene from Ganota no Onna... I didn't quite get to the stage Utsuki did before giving up though.

Next, the walls and bottom of the lower hull were cut and assembled to match the length of the upper hull.

Some more assembly, and some putty work. I even found the missing fender and attached it.

Disaster! I had already figured that I would need to shorten the tracks, but I forgot to account for the size of the wheels when moving the bogies closer. Actually the fit is really tight even where I didn't adjust the spacing. The rear road wheel can barely fit because it is pressed right up against the rear idler assembly.

I walked away in disgust at that point, but now that I've had some time to think things over, I'll have to see what diameter the wheels need to be in order to not be jammed up. Maybe some 1/76 wheels might work out...

絶望した！ハセガワ に絶望した！

ヤマネ Ho Dolls

HO/OO scale train accessories have been an integral part of small scale modeling since the days of Airfix, with HO being equivalent to 1/87 scale, and OO being equivalent to 1/76 scale. I've used a fair bit of HO scale accessories from European and North American manufacturers, but for the most part I've found that HO figures are too small to be usable alongside 1/72 scale figures.

I recently stumbled across some figures from the Ho Doll line produced by Yamane that made me look into Japanese HO scale, which I was not familiar with. Japanese HO scale is equivalent to 1/80 scale, but can be referred to by a number of names depending upon the type of track being used for the trains.

Name	Track Gauge	Scale
H0n2½	9 mm	1/80
#12 (HOj)	12 mm	1/87
#13	13 mm	1/80
#16	16.5 mm	1/80

I had reservations about whether to order the figures without any scale reference because there are a number of Japanese manufacturers who seem to make their 1/72 figures underscale (I'm talking about you Bandai and Pit Road!), but I decided to take a chance because of the subject matter, which will probably never be made by any company outside of Japan.

The first figure is a Japanese maid in black uniform with white apron (ME-001). Next to the maid is a female high school student (KK-001). She wears a modern school uniform, rather than the stereotypical "sailor uniform" that people envision when they think of Japanese high school girls. The final figures is an apprentice geisha, or maiko (MA-002). She is in a pink kimono with her obi tied in the darari style, typical of geisha from Kyoto.

The figures are small and slender, ranging from roughly 21 mm to just over 22 mm in height. The maiko is a bit short at 21 mm (scales out to 5' tall), but I'd say the other two (at 5' 3" tall) work out perfectly for 1/72 scale. The paint job is fairly typical of model train pre-paints, a little touch-up will be required here and there, in particular around the faces.

Yamane figures are pricey, so I doubt I'll be getting too many more of these, but on the other hand, I do have a use for these figures in gaming, so I'll have to look into seeing if cheaper unpainted versions can be obtained.