1/700 Minicraft IJN I-6 Submarine

[shagohad]

I am in the process of building one of my older submarine kits the Minicraft 1/700 IJN I-6 submarine. The only problem is I have little to no references other than the box art. Can anyone post some pix (black & white or color) of the sub or direct me to a site with good material? I don't want to start without at least having some knowledge of the hull color, whether it had wood planking for the deck, markings and so on.

Once I get enough material I'll start posting progress pix as well as images of the kit.

Thanks in advance!

[shagohad]

I managed to find one build of the same model and same scale on another ship building site and it appears that the modeler did his sub with a light ghost grey hull and wood decking. I think I'll stick with the box art and do mine with a Charcoal/lightened Black scheme. I will add the wood planking though. I have a technique for simulating deck wood I've been itching to try out I learned from a Japanese modeler on The Plamo Tsukuro series a Japanese modeling program (why can't we have those here stateside :crying2:/> ).

I'll display my model on a small vignette with water while it's chained to a buoy.

Here's the kit:

The parts on sprue:

The decals are awful degraded with age :hangingsmiley:/> . I'll probably just freehand paint the markings on the conning tower and scan a Japanese flag and print it out on white decal film.

Some aftermarket goodies:

Next I'll begin assembly of the hull and sub-assemblies

Thanks for watching and comments suggestions are always welcome! :thumbsup2:/>

[shagohad]

I've begun assembly of the hull and sub-assemblies mainly the conning tower and it's attachment points.

It goes together rather well and quickly. I only have a few more parts to add on the hull then I will stop to primer it and simulate the wooden deck before I finish assembly.

[shagohad]

After looking at the instruction set and box art I noticed a discrepancy. The instructions state that the armament for the I-6 had (1) 5-inch gun and (1) 13mm gun but in the history and on the box art, there was only the 5-inch gun. I would like to know where the 13mm, if any, were mounted as I want to as accurately as possible, display this model. Does anyone have a clue where the 13mm gun would be placed? I am assuming aft of the ship but once again I think it may be an obstruction for the float plane.

[parche]

Gosh, wish I had seen this earlier. I wrote my master's on the IJN submarine force in WWII. I'll look through my references and see what I can find for you.

Cheers,

Dave

[parche]

Ok, just a quick look shows me that I-6 was the sole J2 Type scouting submarine built by the IJN. She does have 2 guns, a 5 inch gun on a pedestal forward of the conning tower and a 13mm machine gun aft of the conning tower, but just forward of the aircraft hangers. The machine gun sits on the centerline. So, the machine gun is actually somewhat obstructed by the hangars. I haven't found a picture in a quick search, but I do have a line drawing in Polmar and Carpenter's Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1904-1945.

Hope this helps,

dave

[shagohad]

Thanks Dave that's exactly what I was thinking and judging from the box art, you really can't tell whether it was there or not (hence it being obstructed). I did manage to find an image of another Japanese sub the Yokosho with a similar set up but it is clearly not the sub I am modeling. You can see the 13mm just aft of the sail, however, and this is how I planned to model mine. Thanks again for the confirmation and if you can post any pix of the sub or the I-1 it would really make my journey a lot easier! :salute:/>

[shagohad]

Small update: I haven't had much time to work on the I-6 due to a new job and the fact that I'm working on 4 other projects at the same time (I just recently started the 1/25 Dark Knight BatPod for a sci-fi entry in the september SCMA contest). I don't have many references/pix of this watercraft so I've been using the box art as a guide. But here is where I am so far.

Added the anchors (once agian not sure if there was one on the real sub but I see it on the box art).

Replaced the plastic masts? :unsure:/>/>/> telescopes and radio antennae with 1/32 brass rods.

Added detail to the catapult. I used a piece of PE from the ladders and rails set for the railing on the catapult.

Most of the parts are only dry fitted right now to see how things look together as a whole and for scale relation to the brass rods. The yellow stuff is Yellow Tack a staple in my dry fitting/modeling repetiore. Thanks for looking! Until next time!! :thumbsup:/>/>/>

[parche]

Looking good, I might go for something even thinner for the radio aerials (your forwardmost and aftmost brass rods). These actually folded down into the deck when not used. You might want to go with smaller/narrower for your periscopes and other antennas on the superstructure. I-6 most certainly had anchors. I haven't been able to find any pictures yet, just line drawings. I actually think that your image with the floatplane is actually I-6. The only sub that looked anything like her was I-5 which was the sole J1M Type (like I-6 was the sole J2 Type) and your pic looks like it should be I-6.

I'll see what I can dig up about I-1.

Cheers,

Dave