In model making, some of the best model companies are located in Japan: Tamiya, Hasegawa, Aoshima, Fine Molds, Pit-Road, Bandai, etc. lt is not strange that Japanese vehicles occupy a part of their catalogue, to satisfy the demand of their local market. In the rest of the world, there is a growing interest in Japanese vehicle models, mainly in Europe and the United States.

The Japanese theme in figures, aircraft, cars, ships and military vehicles is present in any model store worldwide. The Japanese identified their vehicles with a “Type” number, coinciding with the year it was put into service according to the Japanese calendar, for example, 2595 (1935 according to the Western calendar). Following the “Type” number, they were assigned a name, consisting of the tank’s category designation followed by the correlative letter of the Japanese alphabet.

There were many vehicles, and in this publication, we will see some of the more interesting ones from the modelling viewpoint and some very useful techniques to make the models.

Models

• Type 95 Ha-Go
• Type 97 Shinhoto Chi-Ha
• Type 97 Te-Ke
• Type 89 Chi-Ro
• Type 2 Ka-Mi
• Type 4 Ka-Tsu
• Type 4 Ho-Ro
• Type 98 Shi-Ke
• Type 1 Ho-Ni