The Wind Rises I: IJN Mitsubishi A5M4 'Claude' 1/72 Nichimo

Jiro Horikoshi (Wikipedia)

The Wind Rises (Japanese: 風立ちぬ Hepburn: Kaze Tachinu) is a 2013 Japanese animated historical drama film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli. The Wind Rises is a fictionalized biopic of Jiro Horikoshi (1903–1982), designer of the Mitsubishi A5M fighter aircraft and its successor, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, used by the Empire of Japan during World War II. The film is adapted from Miyazaki's manga of the same name, which was in turn loosely based on the 1937 short story The Wind Has Risen by Tatsuo Hori. (Wikipedia).

This Nichimo vintage (Copyright 1964 Nihonmokei Co., Ltd) Claude model was built out-of-the-box with original decals, using just the box art as a reference because the 2nd hand kit had no instruction leaflet. I have serious doubts about the historical accuracy of my model but still like the results of this Japanese anime-inspired old-school project very much. There are Nichimo Raiden 'Jack' and Tamiya Zero 'Zeke' kits already in the stash for further planes designed by Jiro Horikoshi.

There's a nice Nichimo 1/72 Claude in Harrow Modelling Society's Japanese Gallery by Jonathan Burns, which I think is more like museum-quality and periodically correct.