Scale Model Reproduction Must Start with Your Gut Feeling! Is What I’ve Really Come to Believe.

Good afternoon. This is Shigeta of Zoukei-mura.

The heat of summer continues day after day, and I wonder how all of you Ta152 fans are getting along?
Right now, before my very eyes, are sprues for the SWS Ta152 Test Shot #6, freshly delivered from the factory. Mwahahahaha~! My face automatically splits open with such a huge grin~~~.

T-6 has finally been delivered! Furthermore, the first glimpse of the packaging! The wings of the Ta152 as they slice through the atmosphere are so unbelievably cool!

Just look at it, this beaming smile. ♪ At this point, I'm still smiling, but … once the checks begin, a demonic visage appears….

We abbreviate the name of these prototype sprues to T-6. The meaning is “Test Shot #6,” and development has finally progressed to this stage.

In order to confirm that improvements on the aspects that concerned Zoukei-mura on the previous T-5 were carried out according to our instructions, members of the Zoukei-mura Scale Model Team went all the way to China to bring T-6 from our Chinese collaborating company to the Zoukei-mura headquarters.

We have enough T-6 sprues to build several planes, and most of these have already been taken apart and are in the midst of dry assembly by the Scale Model Team, in order to both confirm the proper manufacturing of the metal molds and test-assemble the actual kit itself.

The final Test Shot, T-6, deserves nothing but the most thorough assembly check! Check! Che~~~eck! Both N and T are building single-mindedly!

Having come this far, the fit and molding on the parts are as excellent as can be expected! But the true heart of SWS lies elsewhere!

The parts are lined up on top of the large table in the middle of the Planning Department, and we all go over them one by one. This constitutes quite a monumental task.

We love doing this work. In the end, that's really all that needs to be said, but really, once we get as far as Test Shot #6, on first glance the differences are miniscule. The differences that are actually present are so small and subtle that it's often difficult for a viewer to actually say whether they like or dislike those differences.

So once we reach this point, once we get as far as this particular task, it becomes something of a mental struggle that wears away at your nerves to the point of breakdown.

Of course, I only participate to the point where I'm not being an imposition; I want to be useful to everyone, so I persevere.
I do my best to the point where it's necessary to persevere. And while I'm at it, I take the opportunity to say a word (or two, or three…).

It's so much fun. It's so delightful. Because it's so worth doing.

The Commander-in-Chief of Development, scrupulously carrying out the final checks while struggling to keep from grinning. Comparisons are made between the Ta152 in his hands and the one in his mind.

Hm~m, it's nearly picture-perfect as a whole, but the propeller really could use a little more improvement … and so he continues to be very particular on this or that.

Even so, to tell the sad truth, when it comes to comments such as mine, which ignore the standard operating procedures of sculpting and metal mold-making, no matter what I say at this point, most of it cannot be used as anything other than simple criticism.

After all, having come this far, the subject is nearly on the level of a finished product, and to be honest, there's really nothing left for me to complain about. And that's because, well, I persevered to an unusual degree, with my comments becoming more and more complicated.
Forgive me! Brothers-in-arms! Saying that all the while, I would annoy everyone around me by suddenly bursting out with irrelevant things like, “Doesn't this part go like this?” However, it was really quite enjoyable. My bewildered comrades really have quite a difficult time of it, dealing with my comments which provoke them to show expressions of shyness, of condescension towards their senpai (senior), of being bothered yet again, of happiness, of anger and sadness and, “At any rate, having gotten to this point, there's nothing that can be done about that!”

Forgive me~e, brothers-in-arms! *grin*

And like that, I brought home those T-6 sprues. In my usual Gunroom, I'll enjoy myself while carefully looking them over~. The situation being what it is, am I not really in the ideal situation, Senpai? It really is just the best!!

By the by, this work known as SWS. The further and further we progress, the more I've really come to believe lately that where scale model reproduction is concerned, the size, the strength, and above all the sharpness of the “gut feelings” of the developers involved become the deciding factors.

The truth about SWS. It's often the case that right from the planning stages, both I and the team responsible already have clear images of both the completed, actual aircraft, and the final form of the kit, in mind.

I'm sure that all of the scattered photographs and diagrams that we have seen hold an influence. I'm also sure we all each have our own individual emotional attachments, likes and dislikes, which complicatedly intertwine to form each person's own image of the actual plane, to the point where the thing known as an aerial plastic model kit can already be fully formed within their mind.

Yes, the truth is, this is the real villain. And it's a very formidable one.

Thoughts inspired by pictures, blueprints, the actual aircraft, military histories, document records, and the many previously released scale models; personal convictions formed as a result of all of the above; and finally, the critical assessments of others; all of these come together, little by little, to create this image. Depending on the person, it can occur that this preconceived idea is envisioned truly strongly, practically on the level of a work of art. Furthermore, it can be even more difficult when this image has already been further idealized by passing through the long span of time described as several decades!!

In addition to the image itself, when there are strong experiences linked to that image, even if some few new facts emerge, it's normal that the image itself does not waver. Rather, that is something to take pride in!

Eh? Can it be that…? That's right, I myself am one such person. I am also rather stubborn.

Even during the current SWS developmental process, my own image of the Ta152 that I have doggedly envisioned ever since I was young continued to authoritatively present itself within my mind. And extremely stylishly, at that!

Therefore, where the development of the SWS Ta152 was concerned, it was necessary to begin by first taking those dogged images, mine and those of the individual developers, and all at once shatter them to pieces.

And truthfully, this was unexpectedly difficult, to the point where even now I feel freshly surprised, although of course at the very beginning we did not understand even this much. After all, my cry of, “I just want the Ta152!” became something like a driving force as to whether SWS would move forward or not.

This being the case, it began very simply with all of the Scale Model Team members gathering day after day in the planning office, endlessly telling random tales of the Ta152 over and over, and it was in this way that planning got off the ground.

Surrounded by the few existing pictures and military history books, the discussions covered the historical setting, strategy, the battlefields, the war situation, the front lines, battles, tactics, purpose, features, structure, the engine, fuel, requisition ability, manufacturing, production, transportation, deployment, training, licensing, military gains, losses, damages, supply, repair, competency, experience, pilots, ground service technicians, organization, hierarchy, cooperation, collaboration, deployment, environment, etc., etc.