Hobby Master – Page 3 – The Motor Pool

Beyond the Observable

Ever since man took up arms against his fellow man, humankind has sought out ways to gain the upper hand in battle. In the case of cloaked or stealth aircraft, a number of nations have attempted to develop ways to detect that which is supposedly “un-seeable”, or at least get a better understanding of what they are confronting in the modern battlespace so that measures can be brought to bear to unravel their advantages.

One of the latest developments arising from the so-called “stealth wars” is IRST. An infrared search and track (IRST) system (sometimes known as infrared sighting and tracking) is a method for detecting and tracking objects which give off infrared radiation, such as the infrared signatures of jet aircraft and helicopters.

IRST is a generalized case of forward looking infrared (FLIR), i.e. from forward-looking to all-round situation awareness. Such systems are passive (thermographic camera), meaning they do not give out any radiation of their own, unlike radar. This gives them the advantage that they are difficult to detect.

However, because the atmosphere attenuates infrared to some extent (although not as much as visible light) and because adverse weather can attenuate it also (again, not as badly as visible systems), their range compared to a radar is limited. Within range, an IRST’s angular resolution is better than radar due to the shorter wavelength.

To date, Hobby Master has done an admirable job of modeling some of the latest experimental aircraft still undergoing testing by the USAF, all in an effort to once again gain the upper hand in aerial warfare. Their “chrome” covered F-22s sold out almost the moment they became available and are now commanding prices well in excess of their introductory price. That said, the USAF is conducting field testing of other experimental aircraft, eventually choosing the best means of protecting their aircraft in combat for the foreseeable future. The so-called “symbiote” F-22 represents another step towards remaining stealthy in aerial combat.

Nicknamed “Disco” or Symbiote F-22, the new Raptor with a reflective coating has been one of the highlights for the photographers gathered outside Nellis Air Force Base for Red Flag 22-2.

A second F-22 with a mirror-like coating has been spotted flying out of Nellis AFB, Nevada. As already explained, the new coating on this second stealth aircraft appears to be much different than the one on the Raptor [IDed as airframe #04-4065] that made its first appearance in November 2021: it features smaller, mirror-like tiles applied on the nose section, weapons bay doors, fuselage and also inner and outer face of the twin tails.

Hobby Master is already hard at work developing a model based upon the symbiote scheme. While pre-production photos are still a couple of months off, the manufacturer did release a four-sided illustration that ably demonstrates the look of their newest F-22. It is our belief that HA2828, as it is currently known, will instantly become a hit when it is released in 2024, and become hard to get in the after market. That said, there’s still time to pre-purchase this model before it flies off for the great blue yonder.

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Product Spotlight: Ganymede’s Ascent

**Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale US Navy North American RA-5C Vigilante Strike Bomber – 150834/604, RVAH-13 “Bats”, USS Kitty Hawk (CVN-63), 1966 [Experimental SEA Camouflage Scheme]**

In Greek mythology, Ganymede is a divine hero whose homeland was Troy. Homer describes Ganymede as the most beautiful of mortals and tells the story of how he was abducted by the gods to serve as Zeus’s cup bearer in Olympus.

Like Ganymede, the North American RA-5C Vigilante strike bomber was one of the most beautiful aircraft to ever serve in the US Navy’s arsenal, swept up from its original purpose to serve in a completely different role.

Despite being designated by the US Navy as a “heavy”, the A-5 was surprisingly agile for such a large aircraft. Without the drag of bombs or missiles, even escorting fighters found that the clean airframe and powerful engines made the Vigilante very fast at high and low altitudes. However, its high approach speed and high angle of attack in the landing configuration made returning to the aircraft carrier a challenge for inexperienced or unwary pilots.

Given its original design as a carrier-based, supersonic, nuclear heavy attack aircraft, the Vigilante’s main armament was carried in a novel “linear bomb bay” between the engines in the rear fuselage, which provided for positive separation of the bomb from the aircraft at supersonic speeds. The single nuclear weapon, commonly the Mk 28 bomb, was attached to two disposable fuel tanks in the cylindrical bay in an assembly known as the “stores train”. A set of extendable fins was attached to the aft end of the most rearward fuel tank. These fuel tanks were to be emptied during the flight to the target and then jettisoned with the bomb by an explosive drogue gun. The stores train was propelled rearward at about 50 feet per second (30 knots) relative to the aircraft. It thereafter followed a typical ballistic path.

In practice, the system was not reliable and no live weapons were ever carried in the linear bomb bay. In the RA-5C configuration, the bay was used solely for fuel. On three occasions, the shock of the catapult launch caused the fuel cans to eject onto the deck resulting in one aircraft loss.

Hobby Master’s first set of Vigilantes has been out-of-stock for some time, neglected, some say, in favor of other more popular aircraft. Nevertheless, December marks the return of the Vigilante and a fitting tribute to any aviation enthusiast’s pantheon of diecast warplanes.

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Hobby Master: As a Reminder…

**Hobby Master’s 1:48 scale German Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 “Gustav” Fighter – “Christl”, Gerhard Barkhorn, II./Jagdgeschwader 52, Ukraine, September 1943**

Per Hobby Master’s MAP guidelines, we will be removing any price restrictions on all of the April 2023 Hobby Master arrivals. The price for each item has been reduced to their regular selling price and you may now apply any discounts we offer towards the purchase of these items. This process will recur on the first of every month in compliance with their updated MAP pricing program. You can tell if an item is no longer MAP protected if the blue MAP seal that appears alongside its image and just below its price has been removed. In effect, a retailer is no longer bound by the 6-month introductory MAP restriction policy and can sell the item for whatever price they deem appropriate.

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Product Spotlight: By Fire and Storm

“In the fight of his life, Royce Williams had accomplished what no other American fighter pilot would ever accomplish: shoot down four MiG-15s in one fight.”
– Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, author of Holding the Line

**Hobby Master’s 1:48 scale US Navy Grumman F9F-5 Panther Fighter – Captain Royce Williams, “Actions Speak Louder than Medals”, VF-781 “Pacemaker”, USS Oriskany (CV-34), November 1952**

In 1952, then-Lieutenant Williams was serving with VF-781 aboard the USS Oriskany (CV-34) as part of Task Force 77. On November 18th, 1952, on his second mission of the day, while on combat air patrol near Hoeryong, North Korea, his group of four pilots spotted seven MiG-15s overhead. The other three pilots had to return to the carrier and the MiGs began to fire on Williams, putting him into a one-man dogfight with seven MiG-15s that lasted 35 minutes. It is believed to be the longest dogfight in U.S. Naval history. Commanders on his carrier ordered him away, but Williams had to tell them that he was already fighting for his life. He shot down four of the MiGs and likely hit two others. By the end of the 35-minute engagement, only one of the MiGs was still in the air with him, and he managed to escape back to his carrier, out of ammunition and having lost his hydraulics. He was uninjured, but 263 holes were counted in his Panther jet. He never saw the plane again; reportedly, it was pushed into the sea.

The US Navy’s record of the November 1952 incident said only that Williams had shot down one enemy (not listed as “Soviet”) plane and damaged another, for which he was awarded the Silver Star in 1953. However, the dogfight was recorded in Soviet archives which were released after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The Soviet records confirmed that of the seven MiGs, only one returned to its base. A 2014 Russian book, Red Devils over the Yalu: A Chronicle of Soviet Aerial Operations in the Korean War 1950-53, reported the battle and named Williams. The four MiGs were flown by Soviet Naval Aviation pilots, with Captains Belyakov and Vandalov, and Lieutenants Pakhomkin and Tarshinov being shot down. In his book Holding the Line about Task Force 77, Thomas McKelvey Cleaver described the fight, saying “On November 18th, 1952, Royce Williams became the top-scoring carrier-based naval aviator and the top-scoring naval aviator in a Navy jet of the ‘forgotten war’.” He added, “In the fight of his life, Royce Williams had accomplished what no other American fighter pilot would ever accomplish: shoot down four MiG-15s in one fight.”

Williams’ battle with the Soviet-piloted MiGs led to him being debriefed at the time by admirals, the Secretary of Defense, and a few weeks later by newly inaugurated President Dwight D. Eisenhower. These authorities made a decision to cover up the specifics of the battle, because at that time the Soviet Union was not officially a combatant in the Korean War and it was feared that publicity about the air battle would draw the Soviets further into the conflict. The dogfight was scrubbed from U.S. Navy and National Security Agency records, and Williams was sworn to secrecy about the incident – so much so that he never told anyone about it, not even his wife nor his pilot brother, until the Korean War records were declassified in 2002.

Two versions of Williams’ F9F-5 Panther fighter are scheduled to take to the skies in November.

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Product Spotlight: Moon Rise – Birth of the Wild Weasel

**Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale USAF McDonnell F-4G Wild Weasel Fighter-Bomber – 69-7582, 52nd Tactical Fighter Wing, Spangdahlem AB, Germany, 1988**

Wild Weasel is a code name given by the United States Air Force (USAF) to an aircraft of any type equipped with anti-radiation missiles and tasked with the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD): destroying the radar and surface-air-to-missile (SAM) installations of enemy air defense systems. The task of a Wild Weasel aircraft is to bait enemy anti-aircraft defenses into targeting it with their radars, whereupon the radar waves are traced back to their source, allowing the Weasel or its teammates to precisely target it for destruction.

The Wild Weasel concept was developed by the USAF in 1965 during the Vietnam War after the introduction of Soviet SAMs and their downing of American strike aircraft participating in Operation Rolling Thunder in the skies over North Vietnam. The program was headed by General Kenneth Dempster. “The first Wild Weasel success came soon after the first Wild Weasel mission 20 December 1965 when Captains Al Lamb and Jack Donovan took out a site during a Rolling Thunder strike on the railyard at Yen Bai, some 75 mi (120 km) northwest of Hanoi.” Wild Weasel tactics and techniques were later adapted by other nations in subsequent conflicts, as well as being integrated into the suppression of enemy air defenses, a plan used by U.S. air forces to establish immediate air supremacy prior to possible full-scale conflict.

Initially known by the operational code “Iron Hand” when first authorized on August 12th, 1965, the term “Wild Weasel” derives from Project Wild Weasel, the USAF development program for a dedicated SAM-detection and suppression aircraft. The technique was also called an “Iron Hand” mission, though technically this term referred only to the suppression attack before the main strike. Originally named “Project Ferret”, denoting a predatory animal that goes into its prey’s den to kill it (hence: “to ferret out”), the name was changed to differentiate it from the code-name “Ferret” that had been used during World War II for radar countermeasures bombers.

Hobby Master’s latest F-4G Wild Weasel is currently on track for an October fly-in, provided it can evade enemy radar.

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Product Spotlight: Some Gave All

**Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale US Navy Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet Strike Fighter – 165536, “Top Gun”, NAS Fallon, Nevada, 2020**

The United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI program), more popularly known as TOPGUN, teaches fighter and strike tactics and techniques to selected naval aviators and naval flight officers, who return to their operating units as surrogate instructors. It began as the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, established on March 3rd, 1969, at the former Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California. In 1996, the school was merged into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada.

In 1968, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Thomas Hinman Moorer ordered Captain Frank Ault to research the failings of the U.S. air-to-air missiles used in combat in the skies over North Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder, which lasted from March 2nd, 1965, to November 1st, 1968, ultimately saw almost 1,000 U.S. aircraft losses in about one million sorties. Rolling Thunder became the Rorschach test for the Navy and Air Force, which drew nearly opposite conclusions

The United States Navy Fighter Weapons School was established on March 3rd, 1969, at Naval Air Station Miramar, California. Placed under the control of the VF-121 “Pacemakers,” an F-4 Phantom-equipped Replacement Air Group (RAG) unit, the new school received relatively scant funding and resources. Its staff consisted of eight F-4 Phantom II instructors from VF-121 and one intelligence officer hand-picked by the school’s first officer-in-charge, Lieutenant Commander Dan Pedersen, USN. Together, F-4 aviators Darrell Gary, Mel Holmes, Jim Laing, John Nash, Jim Ruliffson, Jerry Sawatzky, J. C. Smith, Steve Smith, as well as Wayne Hildebrand, a naval intelligence officer, built the Naval Fighter Weapons School syllabus from scratch. To support their operations, they borrowed aircraft from its parent unit and other Miramar-based units, such as composite squadron VC-7 and Fighter Squadron VF-126. The school’s first headquarters at Miramar was in a stolen modular trailer.

According to the 1973 command history of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, the unit’s purpose was to “train fighter air crews at the graduate level in all aspects of fighter weapons systems including tactics, techniques, procedures and doctrine. It serves to build a nucleus of eminently knowledgeable fighter crews to construct, guide, and enhance weapons training cycles and subsequent aircrew performance. This select group acts as the F-4 community’s most operationally orientated weapons specialists. TOPGUN’s efforts are dedicated to the Navy’s professional fighter crews, past, present and future.”

Highly qualified instructors were an essential element of TOPGUN’s success. Mediocre instructors are unable to hold the attention of talented students. TOPGUN instructors were knowledgeable fighter tacticians assigned to one or more specific fields of expertise, such as a particular weapon, threat, or tactic. Every instructor was required to become an expert in effective training techniques. All lectures were given without notes after being screened by a notorious “murder board” of evaluators who would point out ambiguities or flawed concepts in the draft presentation. The curriculum was in a constant state of flux based upon class critiques and integration of developing tactics to use new systems to combat emerging threats. Instructors often spent their first year on the staff learning to be an effective part of the training environment.

The scheme shown here was afforded a prominent role in the recently released feature film Top Gun Maverick. You can nab the latest Top Gun Hornet later this month as part of Hobby Master’s October cache of military aircraft replicas.

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Hobby Master Ups the Ante for June

Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale USAF Lockheed-Martin F-22A Raptor Air Dominance Fighter – 04-4070, 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, 53d Test and Evaluation Group, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, March 2022 [Symbiote Reflective Coating]

With other modelmakers continuing to struggle to pump out new product, Hobby Master proved why they have become the dominant manufacturer of diecast military aircraft. Their latest leaflet shows a dozen new warbirds are being added to the mix, all supposedly slated for a June 2024 release. Interestingly, most of these new introductions are based upon US-built aircraft, most notably their second look at the experimental F-22 Raptor currently undergoing testing at Nellis AFB in Nevada.

Unlike the first “Chrome” scheme that appeared on a previous F-22, this so-called “symbiote” scheme is far less reflective yet intended to attain the same effects – i.e. reduce the radar cross section of the F-22, which, as many experts claim, is already the size of a small bird on most radar apparatus. According to the Aviationist, “it features smaller, mirror-like tiles applied on the nose section, weapons bay doors, fuselage and also inner and outer face of the twin tails.” Apparently, these new schemes are also being tested on the US Navy’s F-35C Joint Strike Fighter as well as the USAF F-117A stealth fighter, meaning these aircraft will likely be around for far longer than was originally intended, even as the upcoming Next Generation Air Dominance fighter (NGAD) approaches its initial production run date. Moreover, its a good bet Hobby Master will eventually get around to releasing “chrome” versions of these aircraft types.

A “Chrome”-plated F-35C Joint Strike Fighter

Feel free to visit our October 2023 introductions to review all of the other new replicas due out alongside their newest F-22. Incidentally, the accompanying video does an excellent job of explaining the current thinking behind the F-22’s new super-secretive stealthy cladding and its potential implications for both air combat as well as the forthcoming NGAD program, which is rapidly reaching the selection process in 2024.

In other news, we’ve received word that Hobby Master will be including a pair of interchangeable air intakes with each F-15 Eagle multi-role fighter – one version is canted at a downward angle while the other is angled horizontally. The air intakes on an F-15 jet are pointed slightly downward to prevent the ingestion of foreign object debris (FOD) while the aircraft is on the ground. This is known as a “ground bump” and is designed to keep debris out of the engine while the aircraft is taxiing or parked. Additionally, the angle of the air intake also helps to reduce drag and improve the aircraft’s overall aerodynamic performance.

Also scheduled for inclusion will be interchangeable speed brakes. This updated packaging will begin with the upcoming HA4536 and continue with each version of the F-15 (A through EX). No word if this modification will affect the price of each unit.

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Product Spotlight: “The Star of Africa”

“As a fighter pilot he was absolutely supreme. Above all, he possessed lightning reflexes and could make a quicker judgement in a bigger orbit than anyone else… Marseille was unique.”
Eduard Neumann, commander of Jagdgeschwader 27 ‘Afrika’ during the North African Campaign from 1941 to 1943

**Hobby Master’s 1:48 scale German Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 “Friedrich” Fighter – “Yellow 14”, Hans-Joachim Marseille, 3./Jagdgeschwader 27 “Afrika”, Libya, February 1942**

Regarded by many of his contemporaries as the most naturally gifted fighter pilot ever to take to the air, Hans-Joachim Marseille would make the clear blue skies of North Africa his hunting ground and the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter ‘Yellow 14’ his feared mount. Claiming 158 victories from 382 sorties flown, 151 of these were scored over the deserts of North Africa, making him the top scoring Luftwaffe ace in the Mediterranean theatre, gaining more victories against Western Allied airmen than any other pilot. Tragically, as was the case with so many of the young men who fought during WWII, the ‘Star of Africa’ would not survive the conflict and indeed would not live to see his 23rd birthday.

On September 30th, 1942, Marseille was leading his Squadron on a mission to support a flight of Stukas when his new Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 fighter developed engine problems. With the cockpit filling with noxious fumes and unable to see out of the canopy, he relied on his wingman to guide him over friendly lines, before he could attempt to bale out. Once over German held territory, with the effects of smoke inhalation now causing disorientation, he turned the fighter on its back and rolled out of the cockpit. With the aircraft now adopting a nose down attitude, Marseille struck the tail of the Messerschmitt, probably killing him instantly and sending his lifeless body tumbling to the desert floor – the ‘Star of Africa’ had fallen.

A significant turning point in the career of Hans Joachim Marseille occurred in early 1941 when he was posted to North Africa, well away from distractions which had previously brought him so much trouble, now coming under the guidance of Commander Eduard Neumann. Neumann saw something special in Marseille and encouraged him to train himself to be a better fighter pilot and realize his combat potential – his style of man management seemed to suit Marseille, who began a regime of physical exercise and careful diet, strengthening his legs and abdominal muscles to better withstand the forces impost on a pilot during dogfighting. Unlike many of the other pilots of Jagdgeschwader 27, Marseille would never wear sunglasses during sorties, as he wanted his eyes to become accustomed to the harsh lighting in the desert. Significantly, he began to take a keen interest in his aircraft, preferring to spend much of his free time with his crew chief, or studying the art of deflection shooting, ensuring that he was better prepared for his next meeting with the enemy. With ever increasing regularity, these meetings would result in Marseille recording more victories and displaying exceptional flying ability and split second tactical awareness in the process – the ‘Star of Africa’ was beginning to shine.

The death of Hans Joachim Marseille was a terrible blow for the pilots of Jagdgeschwader 27 and indeed the entire German nation, who had started to think that the charismatic Marseille was invincible in the air. Facing increasingly superior numbers of Allied fighters in North Africa and with Rommel and his Afrika Korps now very much on the retreat, the Luftwaffe would never regain superiority of these desert skies again and it would not be long before the fighters of Jagdgeschwader 27 were redeployed to Northern France.

Eduard Neumann said of Marseille “As a fighter pilot he was absolutely supreme. Above all, he possessed lightning reflexes and could make a quicker judgement in a bigger orbit than anyone else… Marseille was unique.”

**The distinctive yellow, black and brown crest of Jagdgeschwader 27 “Afrika”, signifying, in rather colorful fashion, its role in the aerial campaign over North Africa**

Adolf Galland, himself one of the most celebrated Luftwaffe fighter aces of WWII, described Marseille as “An unrivaled virtuoso among the fighter pilots of World War II. His achievements had previously been regarded as impossible and they were never excelled by anyone after his death.”

Marseilles’ formidable 1:48 scale Bf-109F, Hobby Master’s first “Friedrich” version of the stalwart Messerschmitt Bf-109, is currently on track for an October release.

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Hobby Master: As a Reminder…

**Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale Israeli Defense Force General Dynamics F-16I Sufa Fighter – “470”, 253 “Negev” Squadron, Ramon Airbase, Israel, 2022**

Per Hobby Master’s MAP guidelines, we will be removing any price restrictions on all of the March 2023 Hobby Master arrivals. The price for each item has been reduced to their regular selling price and you may now apply any discounts we offer towards the purchase of these items. This process will recur on the first of every month in compliance with their updated MAP pricing program. You can tell if an item is no longer MAP protected if the blue MAP seal that appears alongside its image and just below its price has been removed. In effect, a retailer is no longer bound by the 6-month introductory MAP restriction policy and can sell the item for whatever price they deem appropriate.

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Product Spotlight: “Higashi no kaze ame” (East Wind Rain)

**Hobby Master’s 1:48 scale Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M2 “Zero” Type 21 Fighter – PO Testsuzo Iwamoto, IJN Aircraft Carrier Zuikaku, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 1941**

The “Winds Code“ is a confused military intelligence episode relating to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, especially the advance knowledge debate claiming that the attack was expected.

The Winds Code was an instruction from Tokyo to Japanese legations worldwide that diplomatic relations were in danger of being ruptured. While the code was set up, the problem is whether the code was ever transmitted or not. Amid all the other indicators of approaching conflict, it seems likely that the message was never sent, or at least never recorded at a high level in the US command structure.

In any case a code message in a news or weather programs was not needed, as ordinary commercial communication facilities were available to Japan right up to the December 7th attack. Pearl Harbor historians Gordon Prange and Roberta Wholstetter sidestep the issue by saying that the intercepted codes-destruct messages of December 2nd were a more accurate indication of war breaking out. Both Henry Clausen and John Costello see the Winds Code controversy as a red herring and coming close to disinformation (Clausen) or only as an alert to legations (Costello).

The code was set up, so that in case of an emergency leading to the interruption of regular communication channels, a coded message would be inserted into the daily Japanese international news broadcast. Concealed within the meteorological reports, and repeated twice, would be “East wind rain” (“Higashi no kaze ame“), “West wind clear” (“Nishi no kaze hare“) or “North wind cloudy” (“Kitano kaze kumori“), the first indicating an imminent major breach with the United States, the second a break with the British (including the invasion of Thailand); the third indicating a break with the Soviet Union. Presumably if sent both the first and second messages would have been sent, the third referring to the Soviet Union would not have been applicable in 1941.

The signal setting up the code was intercepted and broken by USN cryptographer Commander Laurance Safford at OP-20-G in Washington. Consequently, a close monitoring of the Japanese daily shortwave broadcasts was instituted for the codes, dubbed the Winds Code by the Americans.

USN Chief Warrant Officer Ralph T. Briggs, an operator at Station M, the Navy’s East Coast intercept installation at Cheltenham in Maryland, stated he logged “Higashi no kaze ame” (“East wind rain”) on the morning of December 4; this was transmitted to the Fleet Intelligence Office at Pearl through the secure TWX line. Briggs was subsequently given a four-day pass as a reward (and was away in Cleveland on the 7th). At the FIO, Commander Laurance Safford states he reported this message to his superiors in Washington. At this point there is no further record of the message. Some eight other Army and Navy officers testified that they, too, had seen a winds execute message. But two of the men completely reversed their original testimony and the others turned out to have only vague recollections.

None of the official inquiries took Safford’s statement as fact; the most generous reporting that he was “misled” and that his memory was faulty. His case was not helped by his uncertainty over the date, although Lt Alwin Kramer also agreed in 1944 that he had seen Safford’s yellow teletype sheet.

**Hobby Master’s 1:48 scale Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M2 “Zero” Type 21 Fighter – PO First Class Tsugio Matsuyama, IJN Aircraft Carrier Hiryu, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 1941**

It has been claimed that in the week after the attack there was significant document ‘loss’ at the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington. In 2008 historians from the National Security Agency went back and analyzed all American and foreign intelligence sources and decrypted cables. They came to the conclusion that “winds execute” message never reached Washington. If there was a message then the blame would fall on the military for not passing it on.

Following the end of the war, Japanese officials advised General MacArthur that no Winds signal was ever sent relating to the United States. This is supported by the testimony of Commander Joseph Rochefort (based in Naval HQ in Pearl Harbor). However an American intelligence team in Japan led by Colonel Abraham Sinkov of Central Bureau in September and October 1945 found they were told “half-truths or outright lies” by Japanese intelligence specialists, partly as there were rumors that the Americans would execute those involved in intelligence. The team was not allowed to reveal American intelligence successes. However some Japanese (Arisue and Nishimura) were more forthcoming when they saw that the Americans were interested in Japanese help against the Soviets.

The coded Winds message was reported from Hong Kong, late on Sunday, December 7th, local time. The signal was “higashi no kaze, ame; nishi no kaze, hare” (“Easterly wind, rain; Westerly wind, fine”); meaning that Japan was about to declare war on Britain and America (and attacked British Malaya before Hawaii). A skeleton staff had been left behind in Hong Kong when the British Far East Combined Bureau (FECB) moved to Singapore in August 1939.

Hobby Master’s 1:48 scale take on the illustrious Mitsubishi Zero is one of their best selling models to date, time and again selling out within weeks of their release. Two new Zeros are scheduled to take to the skies this October, and will no doubt sell out just as quickly as their predecessors. Make sure to pre-order one or both today!

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