Well then, the pieces have now moved into place in the development of SWS, at last bringing us to a new stage where we challenge ourselves with the third release.

And the third release!? Yes, yes, that one. That super-famous tough guy. It's a big, huge opponent, appropriate for the SWS Development Team to challenge with all their might for the third release.
The setting in which it appeared, the superiority of its design ideology, and most of all, the way it crowded the battlegrounds as the first active reciprocating engine craft; it was all that with which it fully made the value of its existence known throughout the aviation world.

It is an opponent that not only I myself but all of the Zoukei-mura team unanimously wanted to do no matter what.

And so now, we are all of us in a mental state of excitement in which we are all but trembling all over; well, you can probably imagine for yourselves the sort of state we're all in.

Particularly if you are perhaps of the same generation as me, someone in their 60s, you're probably thinking just the same thing as I am.

It was roughly 45 years prior to now. I was still in my twenties. Every night, every night, putting them together with all my heart and soul. There are craft that can still paint those fond memories vividly in my mind.

"The only thing it can't do is fly in the sky." There was a famous kit acclaimed in the advertisements just like that. The scale itself was 1/40, which if you consider it now is a mid-way size, but it was a famous kit released by American company Revell.

With a strong physique fitting for its reputation as a tough guy, surely for an enemy there would be nothing more frightening, and for an ally nothing more reassuring.

Even now a famous kit and well-known item. This image is of the Revell one built by the commander-in-chief forty years ago.

The finished craft that I put together had all the movable pieces fixed, and painted the white of a ship-borne aircraft. Around that time it was even picked up for the 'Reader Submission Model Corner' in an issue of 'Aviation Fan Magazine' published in 1972, so there might even be someone out there who remembers it. In fact if there's anyone out there who happens to have an actual copy of that issue, I'd be most grateful if you'd contact me...

At any rate, at that time, 1/72 scale was said to be the standard for aircraft models, or was the commonplace size at any rate, so in those days even 1/48 scale was said to be a huge size. However when the full presence of this guy's 1/40 scale size came along...! It surely packed a punch, its might was unparalleled, and goodness, it oppressed the others, seeking to hold on to its reign with the name of the strongest scale model ever. And for those times surely its very existence had all the appearance of a king.

And not only that, but it was a US Navy warship aircraft. In addition to its size, in addition to its dynamic molding style, it had a loading capability and combat capability to rival even the large scale four gun bombers of the time. Yes, it drove its way straight into my young heart.
And the package art for that kit, magnificently capturing its gallant figure, poised to land on a warship! This, too, was ridiculously wonderful. It had such an intensity that just looking at it, it was as if I could truly hear the roar of the engines. I was madly, blindly in love.

Even now I can still clearly recall the package, magnificently adorning the window of the hobby shop I always went to, and how it was the only one amongst all that glittered and shone.

Yes, that's right. As is the case with me, I have that odd part of me where as usual that and that alone goes around and around in my head. From the moment that I decide "I'm buying it!" until the time I'm able to buy it, in that instant when at last I buy it, and then during the time when I carry it home, and then open the package, in the moments when I check each part one by one, when I separate the parts, do a trial assembly, and then take them apart again... goodness me, at those times I really am not myself at all.

It's because of that that if I even once begin assembly, then my every day will continue doing nothing but that alone.

From morning until night, that alone will continue to go around and around inside my head. Until it's completed, all that's inside my head will be forever soaring off to think about it.

While this is a usual thing, my thoughts were ruled by a model that was no longer a model, with the engine roar of the real thing, the sound of it cutting through the air, and the gallant figure it displayed.

And how about that, now I myself have become the owner of a plastic model maker, and am in this dream-like position where I can freely choose the craft I like and offer them for sale; there is no other expression I could ever find to describe this than 'happiness'.

It is truly as if my dream has been realized. Goodness me, how fortunate, how dreamy, and how lucky I am!

And now, yet another aircraft that is like a dream to me, is steadily progressing day by day as the third SWS release.

Next time I might even be able to announce a quiz for guessing the craft, along with some more details about the development of the kit itself.

What's that, you already know its name?!! Yes, that's right. That's right. If it's just the name itself, that's easy.
But you need to fill in all the blanks, and correctly complete the whole sentence, so I hope you'll give it your best shot from beginning to end.

And so, until that time.

Well then, from here I'm going to go just ahead of you, and thoroughly test the Ta152 kit to my heart's content. I hope you don't mind!

Hideyuki Shigeta
President
Zoukei-mura